That left emergency quarterback and undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano as the last remaining active QB on the Ravens. He entered the game in relief and played most of the second quarter and all of the second half.
Minter explained that Fagnano served as the scout team quarterback during the week, mimicking Josh Allen and the Bills offense in practice. As a result, the rookie did not get many reps with the starting offense during the week.
“Obviously not an easy situation to do that on the road,” Minter said. “[Fagnano] is really engaged in the meetings, pays attention, and was ready to really execute some of the plays, to his credit. And then I think when stuff like that happens, you need everybody to raise up a little bit and that’s probably what we weren’t able to produce.”
With Baltimore down to its third-string quarterback, Buffalo dialed up the pressure and never let the Ravens settle in offensively.
Buffalo blitzed 20 times against Baltimore, its highest total of the season. The aggressive approach paid off, as the Ravens averaged just 2.5 yards per play when blitzed.
Eight of Buffalo’s blitzes came on third down, and the Ravens converted just 3 of their 13 third-down opportunities. Safety Cole Bishop was a blitzer on one of those third-down plays in the first half, getting home for a strip sack on Huntley, while rookie linebacker Kaleb Elarms-Orr recovered the fumble.
“Sometimes it’s about creating the matchups, there’s so many different nuances to [blitzing],” Brady said. “I thought Jim Leonhard called an incredible game. He had a great pulse on how the game needed to be played.”