{"id":379574,"date":"2025-09-19T06:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/379574\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T06:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:05:10","slug":"sports-illustrated-the-bills-unconvincing-win-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/379574\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Illustrated – The Bills\u2019 Unconvincing Win Over\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Josh Allen found Elijah Moore for a 30-yard gain on second-and-16 to essentially seal Thursday night\u2019s 31\u201321 victory for the Bills over the Dolphins, there was relief in the stadium and on the field in Buffalo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the Bills, a win is exactly that. It\u2019s a win. They\u2019re 3\u20130 and alone atop the AFC, with only the Colts, Chargers and Joe Burrow\u2013less Bengals also among the ranks of the conference\u2019s unbeatens. If someone had to pick a team as the most likely representative of the AFC in Super Bowl LX, it would be Buffalo based on a soft schedule, an MVP quarterback and a hot start in the standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, all isn\u2019t well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Week 1, the Bills allowed 40 points, 8.6 yards per play and four rushes of at least 30 yards to the Ravens in a wild 41\u201340, come-from-behind victory. It was the Game of the Year<\/a>, even without having seen the majority of the final 15 weeks, with Josh Allen throwing for 254 yards in the final quarter.<\/p>\n

But the defensive issues were evident on that night. After stymieing the Jets at MetLife Stadium last week in a 30\u201310 victory in which New York didn\u2019t have a third-down conversion, the problems showed up again Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Despite looking like the NFL\u2019s worst team through two weeks and being on the road, on a short week, Miami held its own. The Dolphins were 10-of-15 on third down and ran for 5.2 yards per carry, led by De\u2019Von Achane\u2019s 62 yards on 12 carries. Buffalo was rarely challenged by Tua Tagovailoa in pass coverage, with the quarterback treating the line of scrimmage like an aerial forcefield. Of his 22 completions, Tagovailoa threw just three more than 10 yards in the air<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle consistently beat man coverage when called upon, scoring two touchdowns with ease against Christian Benford and Tre\u2019Davious White, respectively. If Tagovailoa had played better, they could have far exceeded their combined total of 10 catches for 88 yards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, Buffalo has ample reason to smile. The Bills don\u2019t have any meaningful long-term injuries, they should eventually get first-round corner Maxwell Hairston back from his summer knee injury, and they have the winless Saints on deck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Dolphins
\n\t\t\t\tThe Bills defense in particular has struggled, allowing Thursday for the Dolphins play-makers to run into free space after the catch. | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Looking around the AFC,\u00a0 no team looks overwhelming. Perhaps the Chargers are the scariest<\/a>, and they haven\u2019t won a playoff game since the 2018 season, when Philip Rivers was still under center. Los Angeles has convincing wins over the Chiefs and Raiders, but is also without star left tackle Rashawn Slater for the year due to a torn patellar tendon, and the rest of the line is shaky, save for Joe Alt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Indianapolis, the Colts have scored 62 points and have yet to punt, but Daniel Jones has a long way to go before anybody believes he\u2019s leading a team to ultimate glory. Indianapolis has also beaten the Dolphins and needed a game-extending leverage penalty on the Broncos to win last Sunday. Otherwise, they\u2019d be another 1\u20131 team.<\/p>\n

As for the Ravens, they\u2019ve done little to excite. Yes, the stats are excellent. Lamar Jackson has thrown for a league-high six touchdowns and Derrick Henry has 192 rushing yards, good for third-most entering Week 3. But Baltimore\u2019s defense was a mess against Buffalo, surrendering 497 yards. And in last week\u2019s home opener against the listless Browns, the Ravens managed just 242 yards on 4.6 yards per play, despite winning 41\u201310 with a 21-point explosion in the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, there are the Chiefs. Kansas City is 0\u20132 for the first time since 2014 and has looked mediocre offensively, ranking 17th. Without Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy, Patrick Mahomes has been left to do everything, evidenced by 123 rushing yards, ranking 16th entering this week. While Worthy could be back Sunday and Rice is slated to return from his suspension in Week 7, the Chiefs might already be buried with games against the Giants, Ravens, Jaguars and Lions before then. For a team that\u2019s been to five of the last six Super Bowls, Kansas City is in peril.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right now, the Bills are the team in the AFC\u2019s pole position. They have a great quarterback, an electric backfield and a terrific offensive line. But Buffalo also has a defense that has ranged from very good (vs. Jets) to downright atrocious (vs. Ravens) and somewhere in between, as we saw Thursday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a long road to February and the ultimate destination in Santa Clara, Calif. Perhaps the Bills will get there, ending a 32-year Super Bowl drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But right now, no contender in the AFC can claim top-dog status with any certainty. It\u2019s open to all comers, with the only clarity being that we won\u2019t have any for weeks, and maybe months.<\/p>\n

More NFL on Sports Illustrated<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Bills\u2019 Unconvincing Win Over Dolphins Proves AFC Is Still Up for Grabs<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Josh Allen found Elijah Moore for a 30-yard gain on second-and-16 to essentially seal Thursday night\u2019s 31\u201321…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,787,25670,7,25673,25668,88,21911,25669,25671,6,169,25672,14123],"class_list":{"0":"post-379574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-daily-news","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-global-news","15":"tag-inkl","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-news-app","18":"tag-news-headlines","19":"tag-news-today","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-ravens","22":"tag-today-news","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115229460207360153","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}