NFL Week 1 SNF Recap: What Just Happened?!

We are in for one insane season, folks!

As I said before, NFL games will be separated into their own stories if need be. Even though the opening week's first Sunday Night game featured two high level AFC squads, I figured it would, at best, serve as the lead opener of the overall Week 1 recap. That was the case, until the wild chaos happened. Given that, and the high importance surrounding this, it has to be its own story.

First off, a fact I didn't know until minutes before kickoff. Highfield Stadium, the Orchard Park home of the Bills since 1973, was hosting its final home opener. The Bills will be off to a new stadium beginning next season, saying goodbye to the place that I remember when it was known as Ralph Wilson Stadium. We were also treated to an introduction from the iconic former Bills head coach, the one and only Marv Levy. Levy, of course, was at the helm during the Bills' strongest period in the 1990s, which saw them reach four straight Super Bowls--the only team to do so. Levy celebrated one more milestone: on August 3, Levy celebrated his 100th birthday.

Ravens won the toss and deferred; Bills got the ball first, and Josh Allen led an opening touchdown drive, with Dalton Kincaid getting the score. Ravens' first drive was a long one, but only resulted in a field goal by their new kicker, Tyler Loop. Bills led 7-3 after one, but in the 2nd quarter, Derrick Henry did his usual King Henry thing against the Bills. Last time, Henry ran for 199 in an early season game (which also landed on SNF). Henry ran one in for 30 yards to give Baltimore the lead, and Lamar Jackson added a running score of his ow later on. This was followed by dueling field goals; Matt Prater (in for the injured Tyler Bass) made a chip shot to cut their deficit to seven, but Loop would add another FG of his own. Prater ended the half with a field goal to make it 20-13, with Baltimore getting the ball to start the second half.

It took barely over two minutes for Baltimore to score; a 23 yard TD pass to Zay Flowers made it 27-13. Buffalo responded with a nine play drive that ended with a James Cook two yard score, but after the made extra point resulted saw a penalty on the Ravens, Buffalo opted to go for two at the one yard line. The conversion was good, but the player who caught the ball went out of bounds first. No good. 27-19 was the score, and it became 34-19 after Lamar's long bomb was caught by DeAndre Hopkins... with one hand!

Ravens led by 15 with only the fourth quarter, 15 minutes, left. Josh Allen ran one in, but the two pointer failed again. Nine point game, and after that, Derrick Henry did more King Henry things again. 46 yard TD run, but the extra point was missed. Even so, it was a 15 point game. As time went down, it was a foregone conclusion that the Ravens would take this one, especially when it went down to just four minutes left. Then the Bills' 10-play drive ended with a touchdown from Keon Coleman. Extra point made it 40-32, but they still needed a stop to have a remote chance.

And then, Ed Oliver happened.

The handoff to Henry ended with Oliver causing a fumble. Bills recover, with over three minutes left! They only needed 68 seconds to get in, and it was Josh Allen again. Two point conversion was mandatory now to tie it, but again, they come up short. Even so, with the time and timeouts they had (Buffalo had all three timeouts), they had enough time to try to get a stop and get a chance to win it. Baltimore took over, but the play calls were awful. A quick three and out. Ball was punted to the Bills' 20 yard line. They would need about 50 yards to get to field goal range. They nearly got the whole thing. Even so, they were deep in the red zone. They made it there, and in the final seconds, Prater nailed a 32 yarder to win it for the Bills.

The Bills defeated the Ravens, 41-40, in the first official Sunday Night game in NBC's 20th year of coverage. We all figured that with this game featuring a pair of AFC heavyweights, that it would be thrilling. We didn't expect this to be a high scoring classic, especially since both teams boast strong defenses. Josh Allen threw for 394 yards, two touchdowns, and ran for 30 yards and two scores. That's a fantasy score of 38.76 points! Some of you wonder why I'm so harsh when it comes to Allen. This is why. Look at what he does between September and the first Sunday of the New Year. But when he doesn't do that when it counts, people take the regular season stuff and act like his playoff failures don't matter. Yet Lamar never gets that same treatment. When it's Josh: "Look what he did all season! He's still an MVP candidate!" When it's Lamar: "He's a choke artist; blows it when it counts." The double standard is very real.

Speaking of Lamar, he threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 70 yards and a score. That's 29.36 fantasy points, another great score. And then there's Derrick Henry. Ran for 169 and two touchdowns, had a 13-yard reception, but lost a fumble. A grand total of 29.2 fantasy points. Great shows all around! This game as quite the classic! 81 total points scored, so many dramatic moments, and overall, a fantasy owner's dream game! If this classic is any indication, this season will be absolutely off the chain!

The Ravens and Bills each have divisional opponents next week. The Ravens will play their home opener against the Browns next Sunday, while the Bills will be off to New Jersey to face off against the Jets.