How good are these Buffalo Bills? It was often ugly, somewhat boring, and memorable mostly for what went wrong than the handful of explosive plays leading to Buffalo\u2019s win against the New Orleans Saints in Week 4. The Bills are fortunate to have Josh Allen and lucky to be 4-0.<\/p>\n
To play below expectations and win in the NFL is not to be dismissed, for every week is a different story. Somehow, this team continues playing incomplete football yet manages 30-plus a game. If one believes we haven\u2019t seen the best from these Bills (and we haven\u2019t), then what\u2019s likely ahead should allow for incredible memories. That\u2019s probably true only if they get some of the bigger concerns figured out.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a banner day on offense, though James Cook continues to put the league on notice. Playing without starting right tackle Spencer Brown proved to be a challenge. Replacing Brown is no easy feat, and Ryan Van Demark drew a tough assignment, and endured a lot of criticism from Bills Mafia. However, Van Demark wasn\u2019t alone in struggling, with an uncharacteristically bad day at the office by right guard O\u2019Cyrus Torrence.<\/p>\n
Overall, the pass protection was awful. Allen barely had time to work beyond his first read, and when he did there were too many moments where receivers failed to haul in catches. The Bills need better, and more consistency at wide receiver \u2014 and soon, before opponents require it.<\/p>\n
As for the defense? There\u2019s a lot to talk about and we\u2019re likely to do so in critical form in the coming days. If you believe this team can win a Super Bowl playing the brand of defense witnessed today, you may be in a very optimistic minority. The Bills have fielded a rather sloppy and ineffective defense far too often since the season began.<\/p>\n
But to this point, Allen has proven capable of playing above the defensive deficiencies, and when it matters most. In the first half, things weren\u2019t going well for Allen. But when given a bit of faith, Allen again proved why he\u2019s the reigning NFL MVP with a late-game scramble that put the nail in New Orleans\u2019 Week 4 coffin. Allen finished a pedestrian 16-0f-22 for 209 yards, but he added two passing touchdowns and another on the ground (en route to 7 rushes for 45 yards) for yet another TD hat trick.<\/p>\n
Yet right now, this is James Cook\u2019s world, and we\u2019re all enjoying the moment. How good does that contract look at present? Cook again played the featured back role, toting it 22 times for 117 yards and one touchdown; adding three catches for 18 yards. For all the offensive line\u2019s pass-pro struggles, they\u2019ve been superb as run blockers. So, too, is fullback Reggie Gilliam. That\u2019s a group of men who deserve their flowers amid this historic run by Cook.<\/p>\n
Shifting focus: You know what else is true? This defense shows up when it matters. For whatever reason, they play their best football when there\u2019s five minutes to go in regulation. That, alone, could be used to argue for Super Bowl glory, but it\u2019s not a habit to continue relying on in the coming months.<\/p>\n
The team still need a lot more from Greg Rousseau, even if there are those jumping to credit him for others\u2019 success. He\u2019s not a one-tech, and he should be creating more havoc than we\u2019ve seen through four games. Who knows if the run defense ever improves under defensive coordinator Bobby Babich\u2019s system, especially if the move continues to be signing smaller speed defenders for the front seven.<\/p>\n
Cornerback Tre\u2019Davious White has been much-maligned in September, but many are quick to ignore his contributions as a tackler. His role to this point hasn\u2019t look all too dissimilar from what Rasul Douglas brought before. White\u2019s tackle of running back Alvin Kamara on a key late-game fourth-down try essentially shifted momentum, maybe serving as the moment where Buffalo could breathe clearly with a win in sight.<\/p>\n
Then later, the pass rush came alive thanks to edge rusher Joey Bosa and with an injured and hurting A.J. Epenesa forcing a fumble by quarterback Spencer Rattler that gave the Bills the ball back with mere minutes to play. So for all anyone can do to criticize players coming up short, some of those who\u2019ve seen the biggest critics have made game-changing or sealing plays when the moment demanded it.<\/p>\n
Head coach Sean McDermott preaches \u201cone day at a time,\u201d \u201cone game at a time,\u201d but perhaps when it comes to this Bills defense, it\u2019s important to take them one play at a time. Buffalo closes out its three-game homestand by hosting the New England Patriots in Week 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How good are these Buffalo Bills? It was often ugly, somewhat boring, and memorable mostly for what went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[4424,7,896,55,2572,2571,6,320,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-406167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-buffalo-bills-discussion","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-opinion","16":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115287483245184497","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406167","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=406167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}