For the second straight year, the Baltimore Ravens will open their regular season against the team that ended their season.
But according to linebacker Roquan Smith, the Ravens already have their Week 1 date against the Buffalo Bills circled on the calendar.
“Revenge is best served as a cold dish,” Smith told NFL Network’s Rich Eisen when Eisen informed Smith of Baltimore’s season opener against Buffalo. “It’ll be nice to get up there in Buffalo and get a little payback for those guys from the end of the year.”
The Ravens fell to the Bills in the AFC divisional round 27-25 on Jan. 19 after Baltimore smacked Buffalo 35-10 on Sunday Night Football in Week 4 on Sept. 29 at M&T Bank Stadium.
The Baltimore-Buffalo Week 1 game will again be a primetime, national-TV affair, broadcast on Sunday Night Football on NBC.
More Litmus Tests
There was no mistaking where Smith’s focus was when asked which game he was looking forward to most on the schedule.
“The first game of the year,” he said “That’s how you start the season off, and that’s going to set the tone for the entire season. That’s the first game for sure.”
Despite their eventual 12-5 record, and second straight AFC North championship, the Ravens’ season tone was set on the wrong foot in their season opener in 2024. Baltimore went toe to toe with the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs yet fell 27-20 — when Isaiah Likely’s toe landed out of bounds on the last play of the game.
Smith is fired up to get another chance at the Chiefs — the three-time reigning AFC champs — since the Ravens will go to Kansas City on Sept. 28 for a 4:25 p.m. game on CBS.
“I know Kansas City is a great team year-in and year-out,” Smith said. “Going in there and imposing our will on those guys and not beating ourselves and having self-inflicted mistakes. If we play ball that way, it’ll be hard for any team to beat us. But I know it’ll be a challenge.”
If Baltimore had hung on and defeated the Chiefs — or if it had defeated the lowly Raiders in its season opener the next week — it would have had home-field advantage against Buffalo rather than having to play in Western New York in the playoffs, since the Ravens had the tiebreaker.
Baltimore still came within a Mark Andrews dropped two-point conversion of forcing overtime but fell short of the Super Bowl again.
“They won the game fair and square last year,” Smith said of the Bills. “You use that as motivation throughout the off-season.”
Considering the Bills, Chiefs and Ravens — along with the Cincinnati Bengals — are perceived as the class of the AFC yet again, the Week 1 contest in Orchard Park should have larger implications than just whether the Ravens get revenge. The winner is likely to end up with home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Other Notable Dates
The Ravens’ primetime date with the Bills is just one of 17 games on their calendar, and Smith has another specific game circled on the schedule — namely the team with whom he spent his first five seasons.
“I’m definitely excited for the Chicago game,” Smith said. “That one’s going to be sweet.”
The Bears drafted Smith eighth overall in 2018, and he compiled 16.5 sacks in a Chicago uniform before the Bears dealt him to Baltimore for two 2023 draft picks and linebacker A.J. Klein at the 2022 NFL Trade Deadline.
Smith has gone on to make three straight All-Pro teams with Baltimore but has yet to face his former club. That will change when the Ravens host the Bears on Oct. 26 in Week 8 of the season.
“I have a couple of guys over there I still know and keep up with and a lot of my friends are still in Chicago,” Smith said. “It’s going to be one I’ve been looking forward for a little while now. I’m very excited about it.”
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