Battle of the brand new coaches: Joe Brady and Jesse Minter are both first year head coaches
By Chuck Pollock, Senior Sports Writer
Well, we’ll find out Sunday afternoon whether the bye week worked some magic for the Bills’ struggling defense.
That’s when Buffalo (5-1) hosts the 4-3 Ravens at Highmark Stadium (1 o’clock CBS-TV, Bills Radio Network).
Baltimore, after 18 mostly-successful seasons (12 playoff appearances including a Super Bowl title), coach Jim Harbaugh was unceremoniously fired. He was out of work, maybe 11 seconds, when the Giants hired him and he’s now leading the NFC East with a 4-2-1 record and is an early candidate for NFL Coach of the Year.
Taking his place with the Ravens was a man who left most of the team’s fans muttering “Who?”
Jesse Minter had coached the Chargers’ defense for two seasons before being hired in Baltimore where he’s off to a 4-3 start — two of those losses one-possession games — and is in last place in the AFC North.
The Bills opened as 2 1/2-point favorites, but the odds are now 3 1/2 even though the Ravens got their elite quarterback, Lamar Jackson, back from an ankle injury after missing consecutive division losses to the Browns and Bengals.
MEANWHILE, first-year Bills head coach Joe Brady has admitted that despite Buffalo’s record, tied with Kansas City for the best mark in the AFC, he has concerns about a defense that has surrendered 30 points, or more, four times in six games.
Incredibly, the Bills have now won seven straight games in which they’ve given up at least 30 points, an NFL record.
“I would say, from a coverage standpoint, we need to be clean around communication,” defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard said before the bye week. “There’s too many times where we look confused when I don’t think there’s enough options for us to be that confused. So, we’ll clean that up.
“If 75% of the problem’s me, we’ll fix that,” Leonhard said. “But what’s the rest of it that we can clean up for these guys? How can I make the communication easier and cleaner, and let these guys play with more confidence in the big situations?
“The ultimate job that we have is keeping points off the board, and we’re not doing that right now, and that’s a big problem.”
He added, “How do I help the coverage play with more confidence, play faster, play more aggressive, allow them to get vision on the quarterback? How do we get our hands on the football more from the coverage aspect?”
That success, giving up 30 points or more so often and still winning, has quarterback Josh Allen’s name written all over it, but that’s a lot to expect from him.
“YOU’VE GOTTA focus on yourself right now and figure out what we have to do to get better,” Brady admitted. “I think if we just move on to the next opponent, one, you can get caught up in spending too much time on an opponent and then, secondly, you can gloss over all the little details that you can miss on a short bye.
“We don’t get another bye week, so this (was) really the only week that we have to dive into literally everything. The Buffalo Bills’ (performance) will be the priority.”
AND IT will need to be as Baltimore became the third team in NFL history – and the first in 76 years – to lose a game by 20-plus points after leading by 13-plus points at halftime against Cincinnati.. It was the 18th double-digit lead blown by the Ravens since 2019.
Looking ahead, Brady maintained, “There’s a lot of good on tape. What excites me is (we) can be very dangerous if (we) clean up and make improvements while keeping those strengths … what it can really look like. How do I continue to push our football team – myself, coaches, players – to see what we haven’t done yet? That’s what drives me.”
He added, “If you want to play meaningful games in December, you’ve got to win November (starting today). Right now, to me, I told the team we’re zero and zero. Nothing (else) matters. It’s a new season right now.”
INJURIES: Bills: Right tackle Spencer Brown (did not practice); cornerback Dee Alford (ankle); outside linebacker Bradley Chubb (chest/thumb); tight end Dalton Kincaid (chest); wide receiver D.J. Moore (shoulder); defensive tackle Ed Oliver (knee); outside linebacker T.J.Parker (knee); defensive lineman T.J. Sanders (shoulder); and wide receiver Tyrell Shavers (knee/PUP) all were limited in practice.
Ravens: Safety Kyle Hamilton (knee); safety Jasylinn Hawkins (knee); guard Oplaivavega Ioane (MCL sprain); linebacker Roquan Smith (knee) all missed practice. Nose tackle John Jenkins (knee); guard John Simpson (groin); tackle Ronnie Stanley (toe/ankle); cornerback T.J. Tampa Jr. (knee); defensive lineman Broderick Washington (ankle) were all limited in practice.
WEATHER: Temperatures in the low-to-mid 60s; chance of rain 10%; winds 5 mph.
POLLOCK’S PICK: Bills 35, Ravens 32Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
