Statistical Storylines: Key Metrics from the Ravens’ Week 4 Victory

Welcome to Statistical Storylines, a new column on Baltimore Beatdown with a weekly statistical breakdown of the Ravens’ last matchup, using advanced metrics to tell the story of the game.

There’s only one number that truly matters at the end of a football game: the final score. But advancements in player tracking and the creative work of the NFL’s growing analytics wing has given fans a whole new way to understand how and why their team won (or lost).

Here are the key advanced metrics from the Baltimore Ravens’ 35-10 Week 4 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

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44.1% pressure rate and 3.14 seconds to throw

Josh Allen’s season-high pressure rate and average time to throw (via Next Gen Stats) are the result of Zach Orr’s best game as Baltimore’s defensive coordinator, combining effective blitz packages with well-disguised coverages downfield. In Weeks 1-3, Allen’s 61.9% dropback success rate paced the NFL. In Week 4, that number dropped to 23.5%, the second-lowest mark of his career. He never looked comfortable against a Ravens defense that found synergy between their heavy pre-snap blitz looks and exotic post-snap coverage rotations. Orr slowed down Allen’s processing, forcing him to diagnose pressure packages and giving time for the secondary to reach their zones downfield. Allen then had to hold the ball to go through his reads against unfamiliar coverage patterns, giving the pass rush enough time to get home.

24.1% tight window rate and 70.8% slot rate

Even when Allen was able to evade the pass rush and sort through traffic downfield, he still threw nearly a quarter of his passes into tight coverage downfield with less than 1 yard of separation. That’s the result of a strong night from the Ravens secondary, led by a vintage performance from Marlon Humphrey with 70.8% of his snaps played in the slot, per Pro Football Focus, his highest since 2020. The Bills entered Week 4 as one of the most effective teams in the league when targeting slot receivers this season, but Humphrey’s physical coverage and strong tackling limited completions and yards after the catch.

21.29 miles per hour at 30 years old and 247 pounds

Derrick Henry hit 21.29 miles per hour on his 87-yard touchdown run, tied for the fourth-highest ballcarrier speed in the NFL this season at the age of 30.

If that’s not impressive enough, compare his top speed to Xavier Worthy, who hit 21.46 mph on a 54-yard touchdown catch on Sunday. Henry weighs 1.5 times as much as the 165-pound Worthy, but still came within 0.17 mph in straight line speed of the NFL Combine’s 40-time record-holder. Henry’s age and wear-and-tear were the top concerns surrounding his arrival in Baltimore, but his last two games have shown that The King won’t be slowing down anytime soon.

547 pounds forcing 42.4% base personnel

Entering Week 4, the Bills played exclusively nickel and dime personnel on defense in 2024, with zero snaps of base personnel on the year, according to The 33rd Team’s Dan Pizzuta. But with the Ravens consistently rolling out Henry and Patrick Ricard – whose combined 547 pounds must be among the heaviest backfields in NFL history – the Bills matched with base personnel 42.4% of the time against Baltimore’s two-back sets. With the Bills’ coverage linebackers sidelined due to injury, Lamar Jackson picked the defense apart in the first half, completing 11 of his 13 passing attempts for 135 yards and two touchdowns. He didn’t attempt a single throw into a tight window all game, per NextGen Stats, instead targeting receivers with 3+ yards of separation on 13 occasions for 144 of his 156 total passing yards and both touchdowns.

5.18 yards before contact, 0 pressures allowed

Henry might be known as a physical runner, but he didn’t have to be on Sunday night. The Ravens averaged 5.18 yards before contact vs. the Bills, according to The Baltimore Banner’s Jonas Shaffer, the highest by any NFL team since the start of the 2023 season. Todd Monken’s diverse run game consistently caught an aggressive Bills front out of position, and Henry was more than happy to waltz through wide open holes for chunk plays. Credit to the wide receivers and tight ends, who cleared the way downfield with tough, committed blocking at the second and third levels. Even with Patrick Mekari sliding over the left guard and Roger Rosengarten starting at right tackle, the offensive line didn’t miss a beat, executing a variety of concepts while holding their own against a solid Bills pass rush. The Ravens’ offensive line didn’t allow a single quarterback pressure, per PFF; even Lamar Jackson blamed himself for the Bills’ sole sack after the game. Monken called play action at a 47.6% clip with just 11 true dropbacks to simplify things for his offensive line, but they have stacked two straight confidence-building performances after stumbling out of the gates this season.

43 straight games by 6 points or less

The Ravens’ efforts culminated in a dominant performance for all 60 minutes, trouncing a Bills team that became a trendy Super Bowl pick through Week 3. Buffalo went 43 consecutive regular season games without a losing margin of more than six points until they left M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday night with a four-possession loss that never felt remotely close. The Ravens out-coached, outplayed, and outclassed the Bills in one of the NFL’s biggest statement wins of the season.