Here’s why this Bills’ team might just be the one their fanbase has been hoping for since the start of this millennium.
After opening the season 3-0, they faced the first of four road tests in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.
After flying across the country to Las Vegas on Saturday to face a fired-up transplanted Raiders team in only their second game at luxurious Allegiant Stadium, Buffalo was still a 3-point favorite.
How did it respond?
Try a 30-23 victory in which the Bills never trailed.
Yeah, the Raiders were banged up, especially at wide receiver and in the defensive backfield, but they were playing at home without trip fatigue, have one of the NFL’s top running backs and a highly-efficient quarterback who had the league’s best completion percentage (74) and came into the game with six touchdown passes and no interceptions.
WHAT MADE the win so impressive, though, was that Buffalo didn’t play close to its best against a good team but still prevailed.
Still, the Bills defense remains disturbingly suspect.
It surrendered 383 yards — nearly 50 more than the offense generated — and was virtually on its season average. Plus, after four games, it’s giving up a concerning 25 points per.
But, Buffalo’s ‘D,’ which permitted Las Vegas to convert an unacceptable 8-of-14 third downs, recovered the two fumbles it caused and logged a couple of sacks, and that was just enough. That and recovering an onside kick in the final 90 seconds that denied the Raiders possession in their final bid for the tying touchdown.
THUS, AS has been the case in all four games this season, in a reversal of what was anticipated, Buffalo continues to win with its offense.
Quarterback Josh Allen, the defending AFC Offensive Player of the Month, wasn’t quite up to his gaudy numbers the first three games … but close enough.
For the first time this year, he failed to exceed 300 passing yardss, going 24-of-34 for 288 with two touchdowns, no interceptions and a solid 115.2 passer rating … but nine points lower than what he had coming in.
Allen also reduced his rushes to three in the game, including a 1-yard QB sneak for a touchdown. He personally accounted for three of Buffalo’s four TDs.
However, he did have one of those “Josh” moments.
In a display of “hero ball,” rolling out under pressure, he flipped a left-handed shovel pass to wide receiver Stefon Diggs shortly before halftime. It was an impressive play until Allen was jammed to the turf by two Raider defenders and he headed to the locker room with a sagging left shoulder clearly in pain.
He returned for a kneel-down to end the second quarter and played through the discomfort — thankfully he’s right-handed — but not before he gave Bills’ Nation a collective anxiety attack with a side-order of heartburn.
IN HIS postgame Zoom press conference, coach Sean McDermott was asked about Allen’s epiphany from the player he was his first two seasons to the MVP candidate he is now.
“He loves to win … he’s a competitor … a competitive sucker,” said McDermott, who is usually metered in dispensing compliments. “I can’t say enough about him, he loves to play the game. He puts his heart and soul and body and everything into this game and as a teammate, how could you not love him?”
Of Allen’s 2020 performance and the confidence offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has come to have in him, McDermott noted, “He’s just early in Year 3 at this point … we kind of threw him out there (in this Covid-19-affected campaign) and that’s just him gaining experience.
“We did that in training camp, exposing him to different looks, and I think that helped. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to do it at game time and he’s done that. When the offense is on the same page, that alignment is critical … communication-wise, execution-wise, it’s all important.”
However, predictably the fourth-year coach added, “We can play smarter in some situations and we’ll work on that this week.”
Especially with that struggling defense.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
