From the moment the schedule was released, Sunday night’s game between the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens was billed as the “Game of the Year.”
Bills players mistook Matt Prater for a coach, then he became their hero
Matt Prater, the ‘oldest guy in the world,’ helped the Bills stun the Ravens
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Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
While Baltimore’s early dominance shattered that myth early in the game, by the time midnight loomed on the East Coast, the contest had lived up to the hype. Despite the Ravens building a 15-point lead with just under 12 minutes to play, the Bills found a way to storm back. Josh Allen connected with Keon Coleman on a ten-yard touchdown pass with 3:56 remaining to cut Baltimore’s advantage to 40-32, and then after Ed Oliver forced a Derrick Henry fumble, which the Bills recovered, Allen scored from one-yard out four plays later to make it a one-score game. While the two-point conversion failed, the Bills trailed by just two points.
Buffalo still needed one more stop, and the defense delivered again as the Bills forced a three-and-out. John Harbaugh’s decision to punt on 4th-and-3 at the Ravens’ 38-yard line will be a talking point in the days to come, but the Baltimore head coach trusted his defense.
That trust was not rewarded.
Allen drove the Bills into field goal territory with two big passing plays, providing the bulk of the yardage. The Buffalo QB connected with Josh Palmer on a 32-yard gain to get the Bills into Ravens’ territory, and on the next play, a completion to Coleman for 25 yards gave Buffalo a 1st-and-goal at the nine-yard line.
After three consecutive kneeldowns to run time off the clock, Allen gave way to a player who was coaching high school football a few days ago, and the oldest player in Bills’ history.
Kicker Matt Prater.
With kicker Tyler Bass dealing with hip and groin injuries, the Bills signed the 41-year-old on Thursday as an insurance policy. Shortly after signing Prater, the Bills placed Bass on Injured Reserve, meaning that he will miss at least the first four weeks of the season as he deals with his injuries.
And it was Prater who delivered the game-winner in what may very well be the Game of the Year:
When the Bills signed Prater, some of his teammates thought he was a new coach:
Offensive lineman Dion Dawkins might have dropped the line of the night, when he called Prater the “oldest guy in the world.”
Perhaps it was clips like this that had his new teammates thinking he was a coach:
But on Sunday night in Baltimore, Prater was more than a coach.
Much more.
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