It’s the last of the Bills four trips to the Pacific and Mountain time zones this season.
And, to this point, the success on two of the three previous visits has positioned Buffalo well in this breakout campaign. There were wins at Las Vegas and San Francisco and only the galling 32-30 “Hail Murray” loss at Arizona with two seconds to play kept the cross-country record from being perfect and spoiling what could be a seven-game win streak.
And today (4:30 NFL Network, 95.7 FM, 100.1 FM, 550 AM), at Denver’s Empower Field at Mile High, the Bills can put an exclamation point on the most challenging part of their road schedule.
Buffalo (10-3) can claim its third playoff berth in the past four seasons with a victory over the Broncos (5-8) and, at the same time, keep alive its bid for the American Football Conference’s No. 2 seed as it chases Pittsburgh (11-2) while owning the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Bills, who beat Denver 20-3 in Orchard Park last season, are 6½ favorites against a struggling team which has been inundated with major injuries and dealt so poorly with the coronavirus it was forced to play a home game (31-3 loss to New Orleans) using a practice squad wide receiver at quarterback when all four of its QBs were forced to quarantine.
BUT, THE Broncos accept their fate.
As safety Justin Simmons noted, “All across the board, we have our hands full (with Buffalo). There’s not going to be any ‘poor me’ this week from us. There’s going to be talk about guys being injured and guys being rotated in and playing with new guys, but no one’s going to feel sorry for us.
“We played a game without a quarterback. We’re going to have to really lock in and focus on our attention to detail, especially being a short week, and really have to focus on all of (the Bills) threats and play a complete game on the defensive side of the ball.”
It wouldn’t hurt the offense to step up either.
Denver ranks 29th of 32 teams in scoring (20 points per game) and 25th in yardage (329). By contrast, Buffalo is ninth in scoring (28 ppg) and 10th in yards gained (375).
And the most telling statistic for the Broncos is an NFL-worst minus-18 in giveaway/takeaway ratio compared to Buffalo’s plus-2 (14th).
However, despite its struggles, half of Denver’s eight defeats have been in one-possession games and, in the last two starts, it went to Kansas City (12-1) and lost only 22-16, then traveled to Charlotte and beat the Panthers (4-9) 32-27.
AND THOUGH the Broncos’ primary concern is impressively-improved Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen and his dangerous wide receivers — Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley — coach Vic Fangio has also noticed the gradual improvement of Buffalo’s defense.
“They’ve got good corners, which helps right off the bat,” he said. “They play aggressive and try to make negative plays. They’re a hard-playing unit, which I think is a compliment to them, and they’ve benefited by their offense really coming around.
“They’re playing with a lot of leads and they’re playing with confidence that if they give up something, their offense is going to get it right back.”
Fangio admitted, “Any time your whole team is playing well it has an effect. If one phase is playing well, it has an effect on the other phase too. These guys are really good on defense, they’re obviously really good on offense, and they’re playing well as a team together.”
To which Denver quarterback Drew Lock added, “Every position you look at on their defense, it’s a very talented, very skilled player. They’re not going to give it to you easy. You’re going to have to put drives together. It’s going to be a battle up and down the field for four quarters.
“You can’t take anything for granted with their defense. You’ve got to be ready to go … know your assignment. You’ve got to know where your possible problems are at all times because you never really know what they’re going to bring. This is a very sound defense that likes to bring a lot of different things and try to get you to force the ball to them.”
Meanwhile, Fangio pinpointed why the Buffalo offense has been so productive.
“(Diggs, acquired in a trade with Minnesota) changed them tremendously,” he said. “They already had a good receiving group, but you add Diggs to that group of Beasley and (rookie Gabriel) Davis and (Isaiah) McKenzie, and now they’ve got another bell cow. He’s caught 100 balls. Allen has developed a good rapport with him quickly this season. He’s a big strong receiver, with strong hands, real competitive, and he’s a good runner after the catch. He’s been a tremendous help to their offense.”
INJURY-WISE, the Bills remain healthy as only backup safety Jaquan Johnson (ankle) is out for today’s game.
The Broncos, not so much.
Denver put a pair of cornerbacks –Duke Dawson and Kevin Toliver II — on injured reserve with knee problems. In addition, its top two running backs — Melvin Gordon III (shoulder) and Phillip Lindsay (hip) — are questionable as is starting guard Graham Glasgow (foot).
