The NFL’s 2 best Week 1 comebacks show it’s never over until it’s over

With 1:09 left in the third quarter on Sunday night, the Baltimore Ravens were the most terrifying team in football.

The Ravens had built a 15-point lead in emphatic fashion. Lamar Jackson, the two-time NFL MVP, was in mid-season form as he sliced through the opposition. Derrick Henry was as scary as ever, running through, over, and around defenders from snap to snap. But the most frightening element was perhaps how the Ravens built that 15-point lead, as they reminded the entire NFL world that they added veteran wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, whose highlight-reel touchdown catch looked like a moment from a football-themed Space Jam remake, and not an NFL game. At that moment, the Ravens had a win probability according to. ESPN of 95%.

Someone forgot to tell Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

Allen, last season’s league MVP, led the Bills to a dramatic comeback on Sunday night, overcoming both that initial 15-point lead and a second 15-point lead the Ravens built later in the game when Henry ripped off a 46-yard touchdown run to stake Baltimore to a 40-25 lead with just 11:42 left in the game. From there, Allen and the Bills scored 16 unanswered points, culminating in a game-winning field goal from 41-year-old kicker Matt Prater, the oldest player in franchise history.

“Our team didn’t quit,” said the Bills quarterback after the dramatic comeback win. “I think there’s people who left the stadium. That’s OK. We’ll be fine. But have some faith next time.”

“Josh, he’s always been like that though. He wants the ball in key moments of the game,” coach Sean McDermott said. “That’s what the great ones, that’s their mindset. That’s what they want, that’s what they do. And he’s never out of it in his mind.”

Buffalo’s dramatic comeback was a reminder that in the modern NFL, a game is never over until the clock reaches zero.

Something J.J. McCarthy and the Minnesota Vikings were all too willing to remind us less than 24 hours later.

The second-year quarterback was making his first NFL start on the road against the Chicago Bears, Minnesota’s bitter NFC North rivals. After a sluggish start from McCarthy saw the Vikings trail 10-6 at halftime, things worsened from there. The quarterback threw a disastrous Pick-Six early in the third quarter, one that staked the Bears to a 17-6 lead and rattled Vikings fans watching both in Chicago, and from afar.

That interception dropped Minnesota’s win probability, according to ESPN, from 43.5% down to just 17%.

But if panic was setting in among fans, it certainly was not in the Minnesota huddle. And that started with McCarthy himself:

Similar to the Bills from the night before, the Vikings stormed back. McCarthy threw a pair of touchdown passes and added a touchdown run as Minnesota went on to win by a final score of 27-24.

For the young quarterback it was not just a team comeback, but a personal one.

After leading Michigan to a national championship, McCarthy was a first-round selection by the Vikings in the 2024 NFL Draft. But he missed his entire rookie season due to a knee injury, forced to sit on the sidelines as Sam Darnold led the team to a 14-3 regular season record, and a spot in the playoffs.

Monday night was his first competitive contest since leading the Wolverines to a 34-13 win over Washington in the national championship game.

“It’s been a long journey,” McCarthy said. “I think it’s been 609 days, I think I saw since my last competitive football game, which was the national championship. So, it’s been a while of being just in the training room, watching a lot of film, learning the playbook and trying to master that. At the end of the day, it’s such a blessing to be an NFL football player and play in this league.”

Two team comebacks, and one personal comeback, to close out the first week of the 2025 NFL season.

And yet more reminders that in this sport, nothing is ever over until the clock reaches zero.