The Baltimore Ravens’ season came to an unceremonious close last season after a defeat to the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs. This year, the Ravens are starting fresh, but many in the building still have a sour taste in their mouth from last year’s defeat.
Luckily for them, this year, Baltimore is opening the season on Sunday night against those very same Bills.
“That team sent us home out of the playoffs, so I don’t think it’s just going into a normal game per se,” left tackle Ronnie Stanley said, according to the Ravens’ official website. “We were very unhappy with the result last time we were there. A lot of us will give anything to leave there with a dub.”
Defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike was blunt in his assessment of last year’s playoff loss when asked if he’d watched film of the game.
“Yes, I have,” he said. “It’s not a good feeling. There’s things that we did good, things that we did bad, but the bad overrides the good. We really want to tighten the bolts on that.
“It will be great motivation. That’s the last game we played. To go back there and play the same team that we lost to that we believe we should’ve won, self-inflicted mistakes. Everybody’s pumped up. You want to get that bad taste out of your mouth.”
The Ravens are entering the 2025 season with Super Bowl aspirations, and a marquee win in the season opener would be a sure way to start on the right track.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.