Patrick Mekari, Bradley Bozeman Say Bills Mafia Impacted Ravens' Offense

Mekari, Bozeman say Bills Mafia impacted Ravens' offense originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, fewer than 7,000 fans were in attendance at Bills Stadium on Saturday evening to witness Buffalo's playoff victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

However, those fans certainly made their presence felt. Throughout the evening Baltimore's offense made several mistakes, ones that a pair of Baltimore offensive lineman -- center Patrick Mekari and guard Bradley Bozeman -- attributed to the loud crowd noise from the fans.

"The crowd was like it was at full capacity," Bozeman said. "The Bills Mafia, they came together and they cheered their butts off last night. It was hard to hear."

Whether it was Lamar Jackson's snap count or Mekari changing the protection, Baltimore's offensive line struggled to hear all evening on. Those communication issues led to a bunch of pre-snap penalties from the unit, as well as multiple poor snaps from Mekari, too.

At one point, Baltimore was forced to move into a silent snap count, something they hadn't done all season.

"We had to change to a silent count mid-game," Mekari said. "The snapping mechanics on that snap is different [from] a normal cadence or a normal shotgun snap. That's just something I had to practice more during the week and get more of a feel for...Of course, I take full responsibility for that and I will fix that."

Bozeman, who lines up directly next to Mekari on the line, said he even had trouble hearing the cadence.

"Couldn't hear the snap count, couldn't hear really anything going on," Bozeman said. "Even at guard, I was having trouble hearing the snap count. Lamar was trying to be loud. [The crowd] was as loud as max capacity, in my opinion."

The crowd noise certainly appeared as if it impacted Baltimore. The Ravens' offense as a whole looked out of sync all evening. Baltimore would score just three points, by far their lowest total of the entire season.

Mekari took the blame for many of the unit's mistakes, some of which he's at fault for, but the whole offense could have been better prepared to deal with the noise from Bills Mafia.

"We knew there were going to be fans. They did a great job of making noise, and that's just something I had to practice more and get a feel for more," Mekari said. "Their fans got loud when we were in the red zone or when we were backed up. They got loud and we heard them. Again, it was just an adjustment we had to make and I had to be better with the adjustment."

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