Stephen A. & Cam Newton’s VERDICT on collapse or comeback in Bills vs. Ravens 👀 | First Take

What a game we had last night. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the first take. Thank you for being with us, D Wood.

Yeah.

You sir, seated and booted.

First Monday, Stephen A, we got you in NYC. So we know things are official.

Do you approve?

Cam's back from Brazil.

You approve of the color?

Yeah, you're good.

I just had to make sure. I mean, with Molly, what I'm thinking I'm looking good and she'll say to me you out of season and all of that. That's I want to make sure I'm learning about color shades and

fabrics, but you know, really evolving before my eyes. I'm so proud of you. Like you said Dan O will be here Peter Schrager guys the thriller we had last night Sunday Night Football. Let's go a rematch of the divisional AFC game and Lamar Jackson and the Ravens faced off against Josh Allen and the Bills. Allen rallied the Bills for 16 points in the last four minutes

to stun the Ravens 41-40, a prime time thriller. Let's hear from the quarterbacks postgame.

No one on the sideline blinked. I mean, down 15 points, whatever we were, with five, six minutes left. Staying with it. Fans leaving, you know, the stadium. You know, you got to play this game for 60 minutes and that's a really good outfit that we just played.

And God willing, we take care of business how we're supposed to and how we think we will. It's probably a team we'll see again.

All I know is when we up in the fourth quarter, like I said, the game is not over till it's 0-0-0 on the clock. And everything not going to be perfect. You know, like I said, at the beginning of the season, we got a lot of season left.

All right, how about this nugget from our analytics? The Bills are the first team in NFL history to overcome a 15 point deficit in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter to win a season opener. I'm starting with our quarterback,. By the way, that ties built. It's official. Tell me this. Was this a bills comeback

or a Ravens collapse?

Ravens collapse. I mean, there's things that cannot happen. Derek Henry knows that that fumble cannot happen. Another thing to hey, Stephen a where was the Ravens defense when I'm looking at the stat line 251 passing yards in the fourth quarter alone. Josh Allen had over 400 yards by himself of offense alone. Jair Alexander, hey bro, where you at

doggy? Yo, there were so many people to call out and I'm not trying to deflect but I think the Baltimore Ravens showed the world what they're capable of. They did every single thing, but when the football game and that's a little disappointed. Yeah, listen for me is is definitely about it's definitely Baltimore.

And the reason I say that is Baltimore has a habit of these type of collapses. These type of not being able to finish out games. Okay, let's be frank about it. They dominated this game for three and a half quarters last night, they really did.

Buffalo's defense had no answer for Derrick Henry rushing the football and Lamar Jackson. They had absolutely no answer. And here's the thing that really bothered me about Baltimore yesterday. Baltimore's, their organization's traditionally, as far as their DNA, it Baltimore, about Baltimore yesterday. Baltimore is their organization's traditionally as far as their DNA.

It's always about the defense is always about the defense. When that game was on the line, they had a fourth down in two and John Harbaugh decided to punt the ball. Baltimore's defense showed no desire to stop Josh Allen. Why in the world would you want to punt the ball back to Josh Allen for Josh Allen to go and do what he did last night.

It'd be the same way if you know opponent is playing against Tom Brady. You put the ball to Tom Brady. Guess what? He's going to finish the deal. I always feel like with the Baltimore Ravens their best side

of football is their offense with Lamar Jackson and King Henry. Yes, we know Derrick Henry had the critical fumble, but in order to win that game last night, you got to put the ball in your best player's hand, which is Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.

So for me, this is definitely a collapse by Baltimore.

But listen, this is trifecta. We all agree on that, But let's crystallize it even more so for the viewers out there. We have a situation right now where you're the Baltimore Ravers and you're dominating Molly, Woody, Cam.

Do y'all know that no team in NFL history had ever scored 40 points and rushed for more than 235 yards

in a game and lost until last night.

And lost.

Until last night. That is the first time in NFL history that that has happened. Scoring 40 points and rushing for 235 yards and still lost the damn game. Now, when we talk about the collapse, at the end of the day,

there's a couple of things that we have to say. Number one, the Baltimore Ravens defense ain't what we or ain't what we expected them to be because I got news for you is dominant as the team was the team was dominant because of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry it wasn't dominant because you were neutralizing you know Josh Allen and his crew I'm sorry if I'm sitting if I'm John Harbaugh, I'm doing everything that I can to make

sure that man don't touch the ball because I don't have faith in this defense. You sit up there and Keon Coleman is going in for a touchdown, you got to know not to make that tackle. You got to let them score so the ball can get back to Lamar Jackson as opposed to tripping them up when you know they in field goal range and they're in position to win the game. But if you're going back to the Baltimore Ravens, here's what you really, really gotta bring up. Yes, the fumble by Derrick Henry, that is an aberration. That is not something that is normal. This man is a man amongst boys.

He was running roughshod all over them all night long. They had no answer for him whatsoever. Big plan that time. It happens. I feel sorry for them when they play him next He walked off the field. He knows it's on him. He doesn't fumble the ball. You're winning this game. You got a 40 to 32 lead with 310 left. You had a 15 point lead, five minutes left.

You're not losing this game if Derrick Henry doesn't fumble that football, OK? So that's a big loss. But we have to go to coach John Harbaugh. He's a Super Bowl champion. He's universally respected and recognized League. What are we what are we lamenting or what should we be lamenting? When we talk about John Harbaugh, do you know that there's no coach that's blown more

double-digit fourth quarter lead since the 90s? Nobody's done it. We don't talk about that enough. The fact of the matter is is that this man, his team in the

fourth quarter have been known to blow some fourth quarter lead. You have to talk about moving forward. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm just I'm just looking at it

from that. No, you're right because they're not finishing game. They're not finishing. They're not going to put that on. Is it coaching? Is it the psyche of the team? Because the team also has to your earlier point has to be deflated because this continuously keeps happening. Yeah. I mean,

listen, I always said, I don't care what the Baltimore Ravens doing a regular season because we know that they're you they're going to run rough shot.

games when you have critical mistakes during the game. to continually see this every time, especially in big games

involving some of the elite teams in the in the conference or even out of the conference. It just makes you think like, okay, when is this team going to finally get over the hump because you're not going to have a better team than what the Baltimore Ravens have right

now. And Cam, here's the deal. You know there's certain cats that you just don't want them touching the ball. Anything you can. It's a minute and 33 left. You got a fourth and three. You can't punt that ball.

You got to try to get that first down. The number one incentive is we can't let Josh Allen touch the ball because we know what this brought the reigning MVP. You can't stop him. You know what he's going to do.

I'm glad you brought that up and Cam I want to come to you on Is that Henry Fumble or the Ravens not going for it and forth and down their own territory and punting the ball

back to Josh. I think I think the biggest mistake obviously is the Derek Henry fumble. I think in that type of situation Yes, you know the the Baltimore Ravens, you know went into very conservative mode where you know, you know Damien where a team goes to a super aggressive to oh We're trying to hold on to win the football game when you're playing not to lose you typically lose, right? well in that situation coach John Harbaugh has to punt the football because now if you do not get it, do you if you do

not convert then it's a first down. If not even a first are you already in field goal range right now? I get it. I understand that there are so many what ifs there's so many different possibilities put the ball in Lamar Jackson's hands put the ball in, you know, King Henry's hands. But at the end of the day, we're talking about, hey, we're expecting our defense to show up. Like we've known the DNA of the Baltimore Raiders.

No, but see, that's the problem. So what's the cam? That's the problem right there. See, we've been, this is not the 2000 race. This is not somebody elite, both Louis and egg reading them brothers. This ain't them. This is like, listen, it's in their DNA. They got a bunch of first rounders over there, over the over there on the Baltimore Ravens defense, but show me a point last night where the Baltimore Ravens, you know, shut down Josh Allen. If Josh, I'm going to go if I'm going to go down, I'm going to go down because

of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. I'm not going to I'm not going to go down with Jair Alexander, you know, fumbling and bumbling

back in the second.

I'm not doing that. I'm putting the ball in my plate maker saying if they don't get it then so be it.

You got a situation where you had Keon Coleman second year wide out seven receptions ninety five yards of the touchdown in the second half. Like you said Kim you've got Josh Allen accumulating over 400 yards by his damn self for the game. We see what the brothers bring into the table, okay?

But let's reverse that. Let's look at the Baltimore Ravens. Y'all know that Derrick Henry averaged 9.4 yards a carry? Hmm? Derrick Henry is in the backfield, okay? And Lamar Jackson, who rushed for 70 yards last night. Scampering out of the pocket. You think the good that you think they got him. You think they got him pinned and somehow some way he escapes. You got

a fourth and three and everybody in their mother knows you do not want Josh Allen to get the ball. This is not the Ravens defense of all you can't look at the Ravens defense to say, okay, we can and all they need is a field goal. It would be, I would understand it a bit more if they needed a touchdown in order to win the game. All you needed was a field goal. All Josh Allen needed to do was get them in field goal range.

No, I'm doing everything I can to make sure he doesn't get that ball back.

Cam?

OK, listen. Just as many stars as you have on the offensive side for Baltimore, you have just as many, if not more, on the defensive side. You got Ro'Quon Smith. You got Marlon Humphreys. You got Jair Alexander.

You got Nate Wiggins. You just signed your safety. You got another first-round safety. You got Kyle Van Nooye. The list goes on. The list goes on.

The list goes on. Sooner or later, we're going to have to start having, you know, a realization to say, we have to have complimentary or we have to play complimentary football. Of course, is this an ideal situation that you want to be in? Absolutely not. But defense from Baltimore, this is something that we've seen last year,

too, Stephen A. and Damian. I mean, at the end of the day, the Baltimore Ravens defense start to show up in the latter part of the season. But when we have opportunities to play great opponents in the Buffalo Bills, I mean, Sean McDermott is the epitome of generating and having a DNA of his team to be very opportunistic, very clawy, scratch and and to feed off of mistakes from the opposing offenses. And that's what this game came down. I didn't see any type of rush that Baltimore could generate defensively.

I did not see any type of mistakes that was trying to geared of creating any type of mistakes or turnovers. And that's what it really came down to. I don't care how talented that you are on offense. The old cliche saying in football is offense win games, defense wins champions.

Yeah, Cameron. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. You know, what about the eye test? What about watching damn near 60 minutes of action where you seeing the league MVP doing what the hell, especially in the fourth quarter, especially in the fourth quarter, when he put on an absolute show. When you see that momentum, I mean, it's about recognizing what's happening in the moment too. I understand what you're saying from a general perspective,

coming into the game, but as the game unfolds, and you see how things are panning out, and you see this brother doing what he wants to do, when he wants to do it, how he wants to do, when he wants to do, how he wants to do it, etc. etc. You got to sit up there and go like this, wait a minute, this ain't our night. This ain't the night for us to be thinking we gonna stop that brother. Right now, he's flowing. We can't do anything about it. There's only two ways to do this. Lamar and Derrick Henry.

Oh, by the way, maybe three, because Zay Flowers was balling last night as well. You got to look at it from that standpoint to say this is the way to go. I understand that the normal circumstances we might do this but we gonna change this up a little bit because what we see it from this league MVP right now who by the way won it over our star quarterback Lamar Jackson played an exceptional game. It wasn't Josh Allen's game. He didn't play like Josh Allen played. It was a different level especially in that fourth quarter. I'm sorry. I'm not putting the ball in his hands. I'm doing everything that I can to keep the ball

away from him.

Him.

Listen, I mean, you got a point. You got a point and it's

just

when you put up 40 points, right from an offensive mind,

you would think

that that that gives you a win. All right? I mean, we all have statistics that throw at the, you know, the screen right now, but anytime that Derrick Henry rushes for a hundred yards, Stephen A. Smith, Damian Woody, and Molly Caron,

the Baltimore Ravens were 10-0. With that statistic last night, they had their first loss. So everything is pointed to a win. You just have to find ways to win the football game.

I mean, shots out to, you know, the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen, you know, with that type of win, it definitely propels your confidence going into the rest of the year.

But the Baltimore Ravens have to play better complementary football for them to be a contender in AFC.

Sorry, Cam. the football. They may be a contender in AFC. Sorry Kim. Sorry to step on you there at the end. Steven should they still be co-favorites to win the AFC. Oh the Ravens and the Bills were Like the Ravens are still a Super Bowl contender after what

you saw last the Raver.

Absolutely. What I saw them do for the vast majority for basically the first 50 to 55 minutes of this game justified me saying they're the favorites to win the chip. I believe in the Baltimore Ravens me and it's not just because of Lamar Jackson I believe in them because of Derrick Henry. When you have to pay that much attention to this bell cow that's out of the back and he is the preeminent bell cow. See we saw say we got caught up

in Saquon Barkley rushing for 2005 yards last year. We forgot that Derrick Henry ran for damn near 19, you know, 1900 yards. We forgot the kind of year he had and the fact that he does it. I mean, he's he's defying father time. He is a man amongst boys, you know, Chris Collinsworth said

on a broadcast last night, you know, he's never seen anybody embarrass more people than this because he's just swats them like flies. These are grown men. These are grown men. These are not little people. They got muscles. They in shape. They're strong and everything.

And he swats them away like flies. You just look at him like, damn, this is who he is. So I'm looking at it. I will say I do have some trepidation y'all because of their defense. I did not like the way I saw their defense looking at spots last night. That's not a Super Bowl championship defense, but that offense and the fear that the combination of Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson

strikes in you and D-hop with the one-handed catch and Zay Flowers balling away that he did.

Man. They call him Action Jackson and King Henry for a reason. I want to come to you with a player's perspective on the fan incident though. So Lamar Jackson shoved a Bills fan, I think we have that video, who struck him and DeAndre Hopkins on the helmet after a TD. You can see the incident right here. What is your reaction to that to the fan?

Coming at them, Woody.

I think the fans should be tossed. I think the fans should not be allowed back in the stadium in no way, shape or form should a fan ever put his hands on a player and Lamar Jackson was in his what was absolutely his right to retaliate against that fan. You are there. You are there to watch the to watch the entertainment. You are not there to put your hands or come close to the players at all

because there's so much emotion in this game. That's how things can end up at a very dangerous spot. And so for me, fans, I know we talk about players gotta control their emotions and all those type of things, but there's absolutely no reason for a fan

to ever touch a player while they're out there on the football field, none, zero. He should be expelled from the stadium, not should be able to come back.

Here's what I, go ahead Cam, you first. You first Cam, go ahead bro.

Man, we learned this all the way dating back into kindergarten. Keep your hands and your feet to yourself. And you know, with Jalen Carter in this inserted in this conversation and your feces, right? With this particular situation, ladies and gentlemen, we play into the, we play in the NFL, the best league in the world.

So for that reason alone, as fans, players, respects the fans. Now it's time for the fans to respect the players. You know, there should never be a instance where a player should question his safety, question his respect as he's trying to perform the best of his ability. Now, granted, are you in a hostile environment? Yes, I get it. Are you in a situation where people despise you, hate you?

Yes, I get it. But that shit never crossed the line as a fan, which make you put your hands or put anything that's in your hands on another particular player. And you lucky, you lucky that it turned out to just a push

and not anything more than that. The approach to all of this is we don't want to come across as anybody condoning violence. So we want to say that for the purposes of the honchos, the viewing public,

the advertisers and sponsors, etc.

Potential presidential candidates.

We want to do all of those things.

All of those things.

For all those happy people might wear. All of those things are true.

All of those things, try to prove that message. The point that I'm trying to make to you is this. Even though we want to make sure that we do that, we also want to say, damn that. The minute somebody feels compelled to put their hands on you, it's a violation. And, you know, Russell Westbrook of the NBA said this, along with various other NBA players on many occasions.

You wouldn't roll up on me in the streets and do that on your own. It's a punk move by the fans because you think you're insulated from retaliation, which is part of the biggest reason why you do something like that.

Let's understand, it's not just their furor, it's not just their angst or adrenaline or whatever. It's the notion that you can do it without repercussions, without physical repercussions. And so for me, I thought that Lamar Jackson was somewhat restrained, because I know plenty of people that might have did a Lambo leap right into the stands if you gonna slap them upside their head

Even though they got a helmet on you got to watch what you're doing who the hell do you think you are? So I think it's important that even though we have to say what we have to say Understand these football players. These are brothers that are capable of hurting you at a win You know it you would never roll up on them in public, and to put your hands on them automatically makes you the perpetrator, the violator. You should have been ejected from the game. Um, and-and-and I-I...

We cannot condemn Lamar Jackson. That much I know.

You're 100% right, but I want to take it a step further. The players should still be protected. This is their workplace. So you got to think of it that way. It's a wild environment, but Stephen a someone's not coming up to you and sucker punching you at work It's their workplace and sometimes they're treating them like zoo animals

There are people that have tried when I walked outside the door and bad things happen to The name is Juvie is about 320 pound dude that had hurt somebody but what I'm saying to you is this my point is Yes, we always say that, but it's almost... it's almost in a sim... Not in a similar way, but you know, when we were talking last week about the fan storm

in the court or whatever, and I pointed out how, look, there's only but so much you can do. If you got thousands and thousands of people... but law enforcement can't be everywhere. They can't cover every crevice. You understand what I'm saying? They're covering, you know, you're at the stadium, you're doing what you can, but you're gonna miss some things

because you got thousands upon thousands upon thousands of fans. You're not anticipating that something like that is happening in the moment. So you're there to respond in the immediate aftermath of it happening, but sometimes you're not anticipating that somebody's going to be that stupid and would do something like that. And that's what the challenge is.

I mean, it's in every walk of life we have to deal with that.

I will say this, Molly. I think the Buffalo Bills need to come down hard on this guy. Yes. Because you need to set an example that that type of action will not be tolerated. Again, I speak to it. Cam knows this as well.

It's Sunday night football. It's the team that it that eliminates you from the playoffs. Last year emotions run high. That thing could have escalated to a whole different level. The NFL doesn't want that. The players don't want that this this thing needs. He that. The players don't want that this this thing needs. He needs to be a set example set on him to other fans. Let him