Stephen A. & Cam Newton’s VERDICT on collapse or comeback in Bills vs. Ravens 👀 | First Take

Stephen A. & Cam Newton’s VERDICT on collapse or comeback in Bills vs. Ravens 👀 | First Take

[Applause] What a game we had last night. Good morning everybody. Welcome in to first take. Thank you for being with us. D Wood, good to see you, sir. First Monday. Stephen A, we got you in NYC so we know things are official. Pam’s back from Brazil. You approve of the color? Yeah, approve the color. I just had to make sure. I mean, well, Molly would I’m thinking I’m looking good and she’ll say to me, you out of season and all of that stuff. So, I want to make sure I keep learning about color shades and fabrics. But, you know, you’re really evolving before my eyes. I’m so proud of you. Like you said, Dan O will be here. Peter Shreger, guys, the thriller we had last night, Sunday Night Football. Let’s go. A rematch of the divisional AFC game and Lamar Jackson and the Ravens faced off against Josh Allen and the Bills. Allen rallied the Bills for 16 points in the last four minutes to stun the Ravens 4140. A prime time thriller. Let’s hear from the quarterbacks post game. No one on the sideline blinked. Um, I mean, down 15 points, whatever we were with five, six minutes left. Um, staying with it, fans leaving, you know, the stadium. You know, you got to play this game for 60 minutes. And that’s that’s a really good outfit that we just played. And, you know, um, God willing, we we take care of business how we’re supposed to, um, and how we think we will. You know, it’s probably a team we’ll see again. All I know is when we up in the fourth quarter, you know, um like I said, the game is not over till it’s 00 0 on the clock and everything not going to be perfect. You know, like I said, it’s the beginning of the season. We got a lot of season left. All right, how about this nugget from our analytics? The Bills are the first team in NFL history to overcome a 15-point deficit in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter to win a season opener. I’m starting with our quarterback, Cam, by the way. That ties dope. It’s official. Uh tell me this. Was this a Bills comeback or a Ravens collapse? Uh Ravens collapse. I mean, there’s things that cannot happen. Uh Derrick Henry knows that that fumble cannot happen. Another thing, too. Hey, Stephen A, where was the Ravens defense? When I’m looking at the statline, 251 passing yards in the fourth quarter alone. Josh Allen had over 400 yards by himself of offense alone. Gier Alexander, hey bro, where you at, doggy? Yo, there was so many people to call out and I’m not trying to deflect, but I think the Baltimore Ravens showed the world what they’re capable of. They did every single thing but win the football game and that’s a little disappointing. Yeah, listen, for me it’s it’s definitely B it’s definitely Baltimore. Um, and the reason I say that is Baltimore has a habit of these type of collapses, these type of uh not being able to finish out games. Okay, they let’s let’s be frank about it. They dominated this game for three and a half quarters last night. They really did. Buffalo’s defense had no answer for Derek Henry rushing the football and Lamar Jackson. They had absolutely no answer. And here’s the thing that really bothered me about Baltimore about Baltimore yesterday. Baltimore is their organization traditionally as far as their DNA is always about the defense. It’s always about the defense. When that game was on the line, they had a fourth down and two and John Harbaugh decided to punt the ball. Baltimore’s defense showed no desire to stop Josh Allen. Why in the world would you want to punt the ball back to Josh Allen for Josh Allen to go and do what he did last night? It’d be the same way if you know opponent is playing against Tom Brady. You punt the ball to Tom Brady, guess what? He’s gonna finish the deal. I always feel like with the Baltimore Ravens, their best side in the football is their offense with Lamar Jackson and King Henry. Yes, we know Derrick Henry had the the critical fumble, but in order to win that game last night, you got to put the ball in your best player’s hand, which is Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. So for me, this is definitely a collapse by Baltimore. Well, listen, it’s a trifecta. We all agree on that. But let’s let’s let’s let’s crystallize it even more so for the viewers out there. We have a situation right now where you’re the Baltimore Ravens and you’re dominating. Molly, uh, Woody, Cam, do y’all know that no team in NFL history had ever scored 40 points and rushed for more than 235 yards in a game and lost until last night. They lost until last night. That is the first time in NFL history that that has happened. Scoring 40 points and rushing for 235 yards and still lost the damn game. All right. Now, when we talk about the collapse, at the end of the day, there’s a couple of things that we have to say. Number one, the Baltimore Ravens defense ain’t what we ain’t what we expected them to be because I got news for you. As dominant as the team was, the team was dominant because of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. It wasn’t dominant because you were neutralizing, you know, uh, Josh Allen and his crew. I’m sorry. If I’m sitt If I’m John Harbaugh, I’m doing everything that I can to make sure that man don’t touch the ball because I don’t have faith in this defense. You sit up there and and and Keon Coleman is going in for a touchdown, you got to know not to make that tackle. You got to let them score so the ball can get back to Lamar Jackson as opposed to tripping them up when you know they in field goal range and they in position to win the game. But if you’re going back to the Baltimore Ravens, here’s what you really, really got to bring up. Yes, the fumble by Derrick Henry, that is an aberration. That is not something that is normal. This man is a man amongst boys. He was running rough shard all over them all night long. They had no answer for him whatsoever. Big plan that time. It happens. I feel sorry for them when they play him next because this brother, you know, he walked off the field. He knows it’s on him. He doesn’t fumble the ball, you’re winning this game. You got a 40 to 32 lead with 310 left. You had a 15-point lead with 5 minutes left. You’re not losing this game if Derrick Henry doesn’t fumble that football. Okay? So, that’s a big loss. But we have to go to coach John Harbaugh. is a Super Bowl champion. This universally respected and recognized as one of the great coaches in the National Football League. What are we what are we lamenting or what should we be lamenting when we talk about John Harbaugh? Do you know that there’s no coach that’s blown more double digit fourth quarter leads since the ‘9s? Nobody’s done it. We don’t talk about that enough. The fact of the matter is is that this man, his team in the fourth quarter have been known to blow some fourth quarter lead. We have to talk about moving forward. I’m sorry. I I mean I’m just I’m just looking at it from that. No, you’re right. Cuz they’re not finishing games and who do we put that on? Is it coaching? Is it the psyche of the team? Because the team also I think to your earlier pointach has to be deflated because this continuously keeps happening. Yeah. I mean, listen, I always said I don’t care what the Baltimore Ravens do in the regular season because we know that they’re you they’re going to run rough shot. They’re going to do what they do. It’s all about the postseason. when you’re not able to finish games, when you have critical mistakes during the game, that’s really been the mantra of the B of the Baltimore Ravens. It’s the mistakes at critical times. And for for an organization that’s coached by John Harbaugh, who’s one of the one of the best one of the best coaches that we have in our game to continually see this every time, especially in big games involving some of the elite teams in the in the conference or even out of the conference, it just makes you think like, okay, when is this team going to finally get over the hump? Because you’re not going to have a better team than what the Baltimore Ravens have right now. And and Cam, here’s the deal. You got you you know there’s certain cats that you just don’t want them touching the ball. Anything you can it’s it’s it’s a minute and 33 left. You got a fourth and three. You can’t punt that ball. You got to go you got to try to get that first down. The the number one incentive is we can’t let Josh Allen touch the ball because we know what this brother the reigning league MVP. You can’t stop them. You know what he’s going to do. I’m glad you brought that up and their mistakes. Cam I want to come to you on this. What is the bigger mistake? Is that Henry fumble or the Ravens not going for it in fourth and down their own t territory and punting the ball back to Josh? I think I think the biggest mistake obviously is the uh Derrick Henry fumble. Uh I think in that type of situation yes you know the the Baltimore Ravens you know went into very conservative mode where you know you know Damian where a team goes to super aggressive to oh we’re trying to hold on to win the football game. when you’re playing not to lose, you typically lose, right? Well, in that situation, coach John Harbaugh has to punt the football because now if you do not get it, do if you do not convert, then it’s a first down, if not even the first down, you’re already in field goal range. Right now, I get it. I understand that there’s so many whatifs. There’s so many different possibilities. Put the ball in Lamar Jackson’s hands. Put the ball in, you know, King Henry’s hands. But at the end of the day, we’re talking about, hey, we’re expecting our defense to show up like we’ve known the DNA of the Baltimore Raiders. But see, that’s the problem. But they Cam, that’s the problem right there. See, we’ve been, this is not the 2000 Raiders. This is not some of the elite Baltimore Lewis and Ed Reed and them brothers. This ain’t them. This is like, listen, it’s in their DNA. They got a bunch of first rounders over there over the over there on the Baltimore Ravens defense. But show me a point last night where the Baltimore Ravens, you know, shut down Josh Allen. If Josh I’m gonna go if I’m gonna go down. I’m gonna go down because of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry. I’m not I’m not going to go down with Gier Alexander, you know, fumbling and bumbling back in the secondary. I’m not doing that. I’m putting the ball in my playmaker’s hand. If they don’t get it, then so be it. You got a situation where you got Keon Coleman, second year wide out, seven receptions, 95 yards, and a touchdown in the second half. Like you said, Cam, you’ve got Josh Allen accumulating over 400 yards by his damn self for the game. We see what the brothers bringing to the table. Okay, but let’s let’s reverse that. Let’s look at the Baltimore Ravens. Y’all know that Derrick Henry averaged 9.4 yards a carry. Derek Henry is in the back field. Okay. And Lamar Jackson who rushed for 70 yards last night. Scampering out of the pocket. You think the You think they got him. You think they got him pinned and somehow someway he escapes. You got a fourth and three and everybody in their mother knows you do not want Josh Allen to get the ball. This is not the Ravens defense of oh you can’t look at the Ravens defense and say okay we could and all they need is a field goal. It would be I would understand it a bit more if they needed a touchdown in order to win the game. All you needed was a field goal. All Josh Allen needed to do was get them in field goal range. No, I’m doing everything I can to make sure he doesn’t get that ball back. Cam. Okay. I listen. Just as many stars as you have on the offensive side for Baltimore. You have just as many if not more on the defensive side. You got Rocoan Smith. You got Marlon Humphre. You got Jire Alexander. You got Nate Wiggins. You just signed your safety. You got another uh first round safety. You got uh Cal Vanoi. The list goes on. The list goes on. The list goes on. And sooner or later, we’re gonna have to start having, you know, a realization to say we have to have complimentary or we have to play complimentary football. Of course, is this an ideal situation that you want to be in? Absolutely not. But defense from Baltimore, this is something that we’ve seen last year too, Stephen A and Damian. I mean, at the end of the day, the Baltimore Ravens defense start to show up in the latter part of the season, but when we have opportunities to play great opponents in the Buffalo Bills, I mean, Shawn McDermott is the epitome of uh generating and having a DNA of his team to be very opportunistic, very claw scratch, and and and to to feed off of mistakes from the opposing offenses. And that’s what this game came down. I didn’t see any type of rush that that that Baltimore could generate uh defensively. I did not see any type of uh you know uh mistakes that was trying to geared of of creating any type of mistakes or turnovers. And that’s what it really came down to. I don’t care how talented that you are on offense. The old cliche saying in football is offense win games, defense wins. Yeah, hold on. Hold on. You know what about the eye test? What about watching damn near 60 minutes of action where you seeing the league MVP doing what the hell especially in the fourth quarter. Especially in the fourth quarter when he put on an absolute show when you see that momentum. I mean it’s about it’s about recognizing what’s happening in the moment too. I understand what you’re saying from a general perspective coming into the game, but as the game unfolds and you see how things are are panning out and you see this brother doing what he wants to do, when he wants to do, how he wants to do it, etc., etc., you got to sit up there and go like this. Wait, wait. This ain’t this ain’t our night. This ain’t the night for us to be thinking we going to stop that brother. Right now, he’s flowing. We can’t do anything about it. There’s only two ways to do this. Lamar and Derek. Oh, by the way, maybe three cuz Zay Flowers was baller last night as well. You got to look at it from that standpoint and say this this is the way to go. I understand under the normal circumstances we might do this but we going to change this up a little bit because what we seeing from this league MVP right now who by the way won it overstar quarterback. Lamar Jackson played an exceptional game. It wasn’t Josh Allen’s game. He didn’t play like Josh Allen played it. It was a different level especially in that fourth quarter. I’m sorry. I’m not putting the ball in his hands. I’m doing everything that I can to keep the ball away from him. Uh listen, I mean, you got a point. You got a point. And and I it’s just when you put up 40 points, right, from an offensive mind, you would think that that that gives you a win. All right. I mean, we all have statistics to throw at the, you know, the screen right now, but anytime that Derrick Henry rushes for a hundred yards, Stephen A. Smith, Damen Woody, and Molly Carum. The Baltimore Ravens were 10 and0. With that statistic last night, they’re they had their first loss. So, everything is pointing to a win. You just have to find ways to win the football game. I mean, shouts out to, you know, the Buffalo Bills and and Josh Allen, you know, with that type of that type of win, it definitely propels your confidence going into the rest of the year. Uh, but the Baltimore Ravens have to play better complimentary football in order for them to be a contender in AFC. Sorry, Cam. Sorry to step on you there at the end. Stephen Nate, should they still be co-favorites to win the AFC? Who? The Ravens and the Bills were co-favorites to win the AFC. Like the the Ravens are still a Super Bowl contender after what you saw last year. The RA the absolutely what I saw them do for the vast majority for basically the first 50 to 55 minutes of this game justified me saying they the favorites to win the chip. I believe in the Baltimore Ravens. And it’s not just because of Lamar Jackson. I believe in them because of Derrick Henry. When you have to pay that much attention to this bellcow that’s out of the back and he is the preeminent bellcow. See, we saw say we got caught up in Saquon Barkley rushing for 2005 yards last year. We forgot that Derrick Henry ran for damn near you know, 1900 yards. We forgot the kind of year he had. And the fact that he doesn’t I mean he’s he’s defying father time. He is a man amongst boys. You know, Chris Collinsor said on a broadcast last night, you know, he’s never seen anybody embarrass more people than because he’s just swatched them like fl these are grown men. These are grown men. These are not little people. They got muscles. They in shape. They’re strong and everything. And he swatched them away like flies. You just look at them. It’s like, damn, this is who he is. So, I’m looking at it. I will say I do have some trepidation, y’all, because of their defense. I did not like the way I saw their defense looking at spots last night. That’s not a Super Bowl championship defense, but that offense and the fear that the combination of Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson strikes in you and Dehop with the one-handed catch and Z Flowers balling the way that he did. Man, they call him Action Jackson and King Henry for a reason. I want to come to you with a player’s perspective on the fan incident, though. So, Lamar Jackson shoved a Bills fan. I think we have that video who struck him and DeAndre Hopkins on the helmet after a TD. You can see the incident right here. What is your reaction to that? To the fan coming at them, Woody, I think the fan should be tossed. I think the fan should not be allowed back in the stadium. In no way, shape, or form should a fan ever put his hands on a player. And Lamar Jackson was in his was absolutely in his right to retaliate against that fan. You are there. You are there to watch the to watch the entertainment. You are not there to put your hands or you know come close to the players at all because there’s so much emotion in this game. That’s how things can can can end up at a at a very dangerous spot. And so for me, fans, I know we talk about players got to control their emotions and all those type of things, but there’s absolutely no reason for a fan to ever touch a player while they’re out there on the football reason. None. Zero. He should be expelled from the stadium. Not should be able to come back. Here’s what Go ahead, Cam. You first. You You first, Cam. Go ahead, bro. Man, we learned this all the way dating back into kindergarten. Keep your hands and your feet to yourself. And you know with Jaylen Carter in in this inserted in this conversation and your feces, right? With this particular situation, ladies and gentlemen, we play into the we play in the NFL, the best league in the world. So for that reason alone, as fans, players respects the fans. Now it’s time for the fans to respect the players. You know, there should never be a instance where a player should question his safety, question his respect as he’s trying to perform the best of his ability. Now, granted, are you in a hostile environment? Yes, I get it. Are you in a situation where people despise you, hate you? Yes, I get it. But that should never cross the line as a fan, which make you put your hands or put anything that’s in your hands on another particular player. And you lucky. you lucky that it turned out to just a push and not anything more than that. C approach to all of this is we don’t want to come across as anybody condoning violence. So we want to say that for the purposes of the honchos, the viewing public, the advertisers and sponsors etc. Potential presidential all of those things all of those things might all those things try to prove that message. The point that I’m trying to make to you is this. Even though we want to make sure that we do that, we also want to say damn that. The minute somebody feels compelled to put their hands on you, it’s a violation. And you know, Russell Westbrook of the NBA said this along with various other NBA players on many occasions. You wouldn’t roll up on me in the streets and do that on your own. It’s a punk move by the fans because you think you’re insulated from retaliation, which is part of the biggest reason why you do something like that. Let’s understand, it’s not just their fur. It’s not just their angst or adrenaline or whatever. It’s the notion that you can do it without repercussions, without physical repercussions. And so for me, I thought that Lamar Jackson was somewhat restrained because I know plenty of people that might have did a Lambo leap right into the stands. If you going to slap them upside their head, even though they got a helmet on, you got to watch what you do. Who the hell do you think you are? So, I think it’s important that even though we have to say what we have to say, understand these are football players. These are brothers that are capable of hurting you at a whim. You know it. You would never roll up on them in public. to put your hands on them automatically makes you the perpetrator, the violator. You should have been ejected from the game. Um and and and I I we cannot condemn Lamar Jackson. That much I know you’re 100% right, but I want to take it a step further. The player should still be protected. This is their workplace. So, you got to think of it that way. I get it’s I get it’s a wild environment, but Stephen A, someone’s not coming up to you and sucker punching you at work. It’s their workplace. And sometimes they’re treating them like zoo animals. Well, there are people that have tried when I walked outside the door and and bad things happened to them. You know, his name is Ju. His name is Juie. No, I’m just saying I’m just His name is Juvie. He’s about 320 pound dude that that that had to hurt somebody. But what I’m saying to you is this. My point is, yes, we always say that, but it’s almost it’s almost in a sim, not in a similar way, but you know, when we were talking last week about the fans storming the court or whatever, and I pointed out how, look, there’s only but so much you can do if you got thousands of thousands of people. I mean, the police, we we got to act like we got to remember law enforcement can’t be everywhere. They can’t cover every crevice. You understand what I’m saying? They’re covering, you know, you’re at the stadium. You’re doing what you can, but you’re going to miss some things because you got thousands upon thousands upon thousands of fans. You’re not anticipating that something like that is happening in the moment. So, you’re there to respond in the immediate aftermath of it happening, but sometimes you’re not anticipating that somebody’s going to be that stupid and would do something like that. And that’s what the challenge is. I mean, it’s in every walk of life we have to deal with. I would say this, Molly. Um, I think the Buffalo Bills need to come down hard on this guy. Yes. Because you need you need to set an example that that that type of action will not be tolerated. Again, I speak to it. Cam knows this as well. It’s Sunday night football. It’s the team that that eliminated you from the playoffs last year. Emotions run high. That thing could have escalated to a whole different level. The NFL doesn’t want that. The players don’t want that. This this thing needs he needs to be a example set on him to other fans to let him know this will not be tolerated. [Music]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Cam Newton and Damien Woody join Molly Qerim to discuss:
0:00 Baltimore Ravens vs. Buffalo Bills
1:40 Bills comeback or Ravens collapse?
6:30 The blame game
12:10 Stephen A. Smith chimes back in!
16:00 Lamar Jackson shoves a fan for slapping his helmet?

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