Bills vs. Ravens Week 8: Josh Allen Passes Jim Kelly as Buffalo Routs Baltimore 36-10

Lamar Jackson's comeback lasted one snap. Three weeks of rehabbing a high ankle sprain, a week of telling reporters he no longer felt like a statue, and then his right hand smacked into Greg Rousseau's arm on a throw toward Zay Flowers. Before most of Orchard Park had settled into its seats, Baltimore's season had a completely different shape.

What followed was a slow-cooked blowout. The Buffalo Bills beat the Baltimore Ravens 36-10 at Highmark Stadium on Sunday, as Josh Allen ran for a score, threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes and passed Jim Kelly for the most touchdown passes in franchise history. Buffalo improves to 6-1 and stays on top of the AFC East. Baltimore, down to its third quarterback by the second quarter, falls to 4-4 with three straight losses.

One Snap, Three Quarterbacks

Buffalo opened like a rested team. Allen capped a 10-play, 60-yard opening drive by pushing the ball over the plane on his second straight sneak, and Tyler Bass drilled a 56-yard field goal on the next possession. Allen's short throw for tight end Jackson Hawes got bobbled into the arms of defensive lineman Broderick Washington Jr. at the Buffalo 17, and Derrick Henry turned the gift into a 2-yard touchdown run that made it 10-7 late in the first quarter.

Then the Ravens' quarterback room started to empty out. Tyler Huntley, who replaced Jackson, went 2 of 4 for zero yards before Cole Bishop came untouched on a third-and-8 blitz, knocked the ball loose and watched linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr recover at the Baltimore 20 early in the second quarter. Huntley left with a toe injury, and Joe Fagnano, an undrafted rookie out of UConn who had been running Baltimore's scout team, walked into an NFL debut nobody had scripted.

Buffalo spent the rest of the half tripping over its own shoelaces. It went for a fourth-and-4 at the Baltimore 37 and missed Keon Coleman. It reached the 1-yard line and settled for a 22-yard Bass field goal. DJ Moore had the ball punched out after a catch, and Baltimore recovered. The Ravens could not cash in either, as Tyler Loop clanked a 34-yard try. The tie went to the defense. Geno Stone tipped a Fagnano throw, Davison Igbinosun caught it for a first career interception, and Buffalo took over with 1:08 left. Allen ran for 14 yards on the drive, and Bass hit a 51-yarder with two seconds on the clock for a 16-7 halftime lead.

"That first half was, by our standards, really bad," Allen said. "We didn't play up to our standard."

The Turning Point: 49 Yards to Moore

Baltimore actually had a pulse. Loop opened the third quarter with a 26-yard field goal, and a 16-10 game felt closer than the final would admit.

Allen then flicked the whole thing away. He found Moore for 49 yards, and James Cook ran it in from 5 yards out on the very next snap for a 23-10 lead. From there, Buffalo looked like the league's highest-scoring offense again, scoring touchdowns on three of its first four second-half possessions and piling up a season-high 242 yards after halftime, at 7.0 yards per play.

Fagnano finished 10 of 21 for 91 yards with an interception and lost a fumble on a botched snap. Baltimore managed 144 total yards. Flowers, whom our preview circled as the matchup that could swing this game against a patchwork Buffalo secondary, was targeted five times and caught none of them.

Allen Takes a Breath, Then the Record

Early in the fourth quarter, Allen hit Moore for an 11-yard touchdown, and Kelly, sitting in the building, watched the franchise record change hands. Allen tied Kelly back in Week 6 at Las Vegas, and after a scoreless first half through the air he finally broke the tie. A 23-yard strike to Dalton Kincaid finished the scoring and gave Allen 260 career touchdown passes counting the playoffs, per the AP.

Allen finished 21 of 34 for 289 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, and added 30 rushing yards on seven carries. After halftime he was 13 of 15 for 177 yards. His explanation for the slow start was refreshingly simple. "I think early on I felt like I was pressing," Allen said. "So we can't do that." Joe Brady summed up the second half in a sentence: "The second half I thought was more of who we are, being able to finish drives."

"I mean, look, with Josh, we're spoiled, right?" Brady added. The win was Allen's 102nd including the playoffs, which moves him past Tom Brady for third among players in their first nine seasons, per the AP.

Moore, back after missing two games with a shoulder injury, finished with four catches for 82 yards and the record-setting touchdown, and hyperextended a knee late. Brady's verdict: "He's good to go." Moore's own review of the return was better. "I was like 'am I in game shape?' and today I found out I was," Moore said. Kincaid caught four of six targets for 86 yards, and Cook added 80 rushing yards on 21 carries plus two catches for 21. According to the Bills, Allen and Cook have now each run for a touchdown in the same game 16 times in the regular season, the most by any pair of teammates in NFL history.

Leonhard Sends the House

The quiet star of the afternoon was Jim Leonhard's play sheet. Buffalo blitzed a season-high 20 times, eight of them on third down, and Baltimore averaged 2.5 yards per play against the extra rushers and converted 3 of 13 third downs. The Bills finished with four sacks and 12 quarterback hits spread across eight players. Rousseau, Bishop and first-time sackers Landon Jackson and TJ Parker all got home.

"Sometimes it's about creating the matchups, there's so many different nuances to [blitzing]," Brady said. Bass, meanwhile, went 3 for 3 to stretch the streak to 21 straight field goals, breaking the franchise record of 18 set by Rian Lindell in 2007.

The Numbers Behind It

• 144 total yards for Baltimore, against 426 for Buffalo.
• 0 catches for Zay Flowers on five targets.
• 20 Buffalo blitzes, its most this season, per Buffalobills.com.
• 3 of 13 on third down for the Ravens.
• 12 straight wins for the Bills coming out of a bye week.
• 5 turnovers in the game, three of them by Baltimore.

What It Means

For Baltimore, this is the gut punch of the season. "That'll be a surgery deal; he'll go to injured reserve," Jesse Minter said of Jackson's thumb. Cornerback Nate Wiggins was evaluated for a concussion in the fourth quarter, and Huntley's toe clouds a short week. Minter credited Fagnano for stepping in under ugly conditions. "Obviously not an easy situation to do that on the road," Minter said, before landing on the only message available: "Things happen. It's how you respond."

Henry finished with 53 yards on 11 carries, and the touchdown was the 136th scrimmage score of Henry's career, tying Marshall Faulk for fourth in NFL history. A holding flag erased a second one. The Ravens host Jacksonville on Thursday night, Nov. 5, now searching for a quarterback as well as a second half.

Buffalo lost receiver Josh Palmer to a right hamstring injury in the first quarter but otherwise exits with its AFC grip intact. The Bills visit Minnesota on Monday night, Nov. 9.

Kelly Was There to See It

Fitting, really. The record fell not on a heave or a scramble, but on an 11-yard throw to a receiver back from injury, on an afternoon Allen called really bad by Buffalo standards. Kelly's teams never stopped coming. Neither did this one.

Stats from the Associated Press game story via CBS Sports, Buffalobills.com and ESPN's play-by-play. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press and Buffalobills.com.