As I See It.
The Bills finally have figured out a recipe to success.
Get physical. Let an underrated Oline go hunting, and take some pressure off your star quarterback. Continue reshaping a D that is finding itself at the right time. Rally behind a coach under fire.
Hopefully, it’s not too late.
Specifics coming, but a shout out to sponsors Atwal Eye Care, the Bills vision specialists who fixed me up with cataract surgery over the summer that was hugely successful.
BluTusk Tech of Orchard Park, where refurbishing computers is a specialty!
GlobalVendingGroup of Buffalo, heading a world wide program to place book vending schools in schools to enhance child literacy.
The Bills 31-10 rout of a red hot Dallas Cowboys team was stunning on many levels. Yes, the Boys were not as good on the road, but with MVP candidate Dak Prescott and a ton of talent, most everybody figured the Bills would have to play a perfect game to win this matchup on a cool and rainy night in Orchard Park.
Perfect? Josh Allen with only 15 pass attempts? A total of 7 completions for 94 yards and one TD? Zero catches for Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox, Gabe Davis or Khalil Shakir? Only 4 catches for 48 yards for Stefon Diggs?
Yes perfect, because under new OC Joe Brady a new formula – at least for now – is working while taking some heat off Allen. James Cook is more than an after thought, and then some. Brady is trusting the 2nd year RB from Georgia, and just wow. Cook is electrifying, and his Oline is giving him the charge he needs. Cook had a new personal best with 179 yards rushing on 25 carries and a TD: that’s 7.2 yards per carry. Cook also had 2 catches for 42 yards and a TD, so good that even a dropped TD pass doesn’t matter.
With the quick realization that the Cowboys D is a bit undersized to emphasize speed and pressure enemy, the Bills attacked on the ground, and stayed with it. Allen didn’t need to be Superman, although he did extend a couple drives with 3rd down runs, and added a rushing TD for good measure. After the game, Allen joked that he felt like the kid in school that didn’t do anything but got a good grade anyway.
Oh yes. A streak was broken too. ZERO INTs for Allen, who rushed for 24 yards on 8 carries, and was sacked only once. He extended his NFL leading total TD’s to 37 (26 TD passes, 11 TD runs).
With Cook leading the charge, the Bills didn’t need to rely on Allen bombs or chunk plays, although that may change over the final three games. The Bills put together drives of 13 plays for 72 yards and a TD, 11 plays for 71 and a TD, 12 plays for 70 and a TD, and 15 plays for 65 yards and a FG. 28 first downs and 351 total yards, with 266 of that on the ground.
The Bills ball control helped keep the ball away from Prescott, and the D – thank you Sean McDermott – was relentless. The Cowboys, who’d won five straight impressively, were held under 200 yards, and about 80 of that came on a late drive for a TD with Allen and the Bills starters watching on the bench. Speaking of coaching. The Bills had ONE penalty for 15 yards for the entire game. That’s it. The Cowboys on the other hand extended three of the Bills first four drives with penalties, to pour fuel on a building fire.
It’s really interesting to see how the Bills have evolved to this point. They’ve lost six games by 6 points or less, and lost late leads in half of those. McDermott deserves some heat for this with some questionable clock management and a D that just couldn’t get stops in the crunch.
That is changing. The Chiefs aren’t the offensive juggernaut they have been, but holding Patrick Mahomes to 17 points at Arrowhead Stadium is impressive. Holding the Cowboys to 10 even more so.
This isn’t all on Ken Dorsey, who was given a blue print to start the season meant to keep Allen from taking so many hits. But Allen has to be Allen, and a slump in midseason made that clear. To his credit, Brady made some subtle changes, including giving Cook more touches both as a runner and receiver. The mindset was to become more physical, and the Bills Oline loves it! Much more fun to shove your guy backwards than get punished by backing up in pass pro. LT Dion Dawkins and yes, RT Spencer Brown, were blowing people off the line. The threat of the run also makes play action that much more effective, and we’ll be seeing more of that IMO in the coming weeks.
We also must give GM Brandon Beane some credit here for a couple moves that have really helped the D. LB Leonard Floyd has really stepped up in the absence of Von Miller, and going over 10 sacks earned him a cool $ 1 million bonus. Cornerback Rasul Douglas is playing exceptionally well and because he’s only 29 is a good candidate to be resigned. Miller, btw, is just now starting to show flashes of his pre injury form, and his timing couldn’t be better.
The Bills are already 13 point favorites at the LA Chargers next Saturday night, and I can’t imagine they’d have any kind of let down now. They MUST win. Then they host the Patriots – and owe them one – before a season ending game at Miami. The Cowboys, who’ll be quite tired of hearing how they can’t win on the road, can do the Bills huge favor by knocking off the Fins at Miami this weekend.
But the Bills just have to think one at a time, and everything they want is still in their sights.
Again thanks to sponsors Atwal Eye Care, BluTusk Tech and GlobalVendingGroup of Buffalo.
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Ed your writing is concise and knowledgeable and gee, we love you!