Buffalo Rumblings
The Buffalo Bills entered Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots in need of a win to keep their slim hopes of an AFC East Division title alive. After 24 minutes of play, Buffalo trailed 21-0. Things did not look good. A Bills touchdown stabilized things a bit, but the Patriots answered with a field goal before the half to give themselves a 24-7 lead at intermission.
And then, Buffalo just flipped a switch and dominated the game. The Bills scored on their first four second-half possessions, taking a 28-24 lead and wrestling control of the game back. After allowing a long touchdown run to TreVeyon Henderson, his second score of 50-plus yards on the day New England retook the lead. However, Buffalo’s offense could not be stopped, and they scored again to give themselves the 35-31 lead, a lead they would not relinquish.
A game like that one is not something most cardiologists would recommend, but for the Bills, the outcome was exactly what the doctor ordered. Buffalo sits a game back of the Patriots, who still own the tiebreaker at present, but they are now within striking distance of another AFC East crown.
It took some genuinely Herculean efforts from multiple players on the Bills’ roster to pull the team out of a 21-point hole, and many of those players directly involved with the comeback were among our five players to watch this week.
Here’s how our fivesome fared in last Sunday’s victory.
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QB Josh Allen
When looking at Allen’s total numbers (19-of-28 passing for 193 yards with three touchdowns; 48 rushing yards on 11 carries), a boxscore scout might suggest that it wasn’t any sort of special day for Buffalo’s quarterback. However, three of the Bills’ offensive possessions started in New England territory — shoutout to outstanding kickoff return man Ray Davis — which meant that the Bills didn’t have much ground to cover on three big drives.
More importantly, I’m less concerned with an Allen day that doesn’t see many passing yards when it involves a clean sheet. If this Bills team wins the turnover battle, they’re nearly indestructible, so watching Allen take what the defense gave him time and again was a thing of beauty.
He also made a few throws that were just absurd. One came on a fourth down, as he placed a slightly-underthrown ball right into Khalil Shakir’s bread-basket. Marcus Jones interfered with Shakir, and he and many Patriots fans need to brush up on the rules about simultaneous possession, but when both men had the ball on the ground at the same time, it was correctly ruled a 37-yard completion and a first down.
Allen also threw an absolute dart to Dawson Knox on a 3rd & Goal from the 15 for his third and final touchdown pass of the day. Allen hit James Cook III on a Joe Brady special — mesh traffic, AKA “slither” — to open the scoring for the Bills in the second quarter. He also...
