The sun is a little brighter, the air is a bit cleaner, and the grass is greener on Victory Monday. Buffalo returned home and took care of business, in dominating fashion, vs Washington 43-21. In reality, the game wasn’t even as close as the scoreboard suggests.
The Bills received the opening kickoff and got to work right away. They opened the game with an 8-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that saw Josh Allen go 5/6 and gave the “Josh Allen isn’t elite crowd” something to chew on. He showed poise and patience before rolling to his right and hitting Emmanuel Sanders on laser near the boundary of the endzone for the TD. That play showed the kind of vision, talent, and skill that Allen possesses and it was nice to see him uncork that in the face of all the criticism.
Heading into the game, I said that despite where Washington ranked last season, the Bills had the better defense right now and it was great to see that hold up. They were ruthless coming out of the gates, forcing a 3 & out, a fumble, and an interception on Washington’s first three possessions. The Bills actually had a shot at a long field goal after the Washington punt but opted not to try the long kick in the wind and turned the ball over on downs.
The ensuing fumble by WFT set up the Bills’ second TD drive of the game. Allen went 3/3 and hit Zack Moss for the score in the flat. In total, Moss had five touches on that drive (3-carries for 10-yards & 2-receptions for 24-yards) and it’s great to see the balanced approach paying dividends. That kind of versatility and the power we saw last week in Miami is exactly why the Bills drafted him and if he can stay healthy and not fumble, the ceiling is very high.
Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer (who I’ve confidently called the best safety tandem in football for several years) came away with picks in this one, but it was the latter who caught Washington QB Taylor Heinicke trying to force the ball to his #1 weapon Terry McLaurin and came away with the interception that set up the Bills’ third score. Poyer returned the ball to the WFT 17-yard line and gave Allen and the offense a very short field. It only took Allen three plays to capitalize and the ball he threw to Dawson Knox for the TD was a back-shoulder beauty. At 21-0, it was looking like a repeat of the week before but Washington managed to make it interesting.
After a red-hot start, the Bills’ D maybe got a little too comfortable because WF running back Antonio Gibson found a little space on a screen route and took it 73-yards to the house. The offensive read was right, the blocking was great, and Gibson is a very talented player. Hats off to him, it was a fantastic effort to cut it to 21-7. The game was still firmly in hand, but the shenanigans didn’t stop there.
On the ensuing kickoff, Dustin Hopkins popped the kick way up in the air, Bills’ return man Isaiah McKenzie misread it in the air, and the bounce sent the ball sharply back where it came from and Hopkins (who was trailing the play) saw the confusion in front of him and was able to corral the loose ball for the strangest onside kick recovery I have ever seen. Football is a momentum game and, at that point, Buffalo was just bewildered.
Starting with fantastic field position, just outside the red zone, Taylor Heinicke was able to connect on a couple of short passes to tight end Logan Thomas and Cam Sims to set them up with first down at the BUF 4-yard line. Heinicke missed trying to hit Gibson again, but he would keep it himself and run it in for the TD on the next play to cut the lead to 21-14. Some crazy luck notwithstanding, it was a ball game again.
The Washington defense was able to get a quick stop on the Bills’ next drive, but went 3 & out themselves and punted the ball right back. Buffalo moved into FG range quickly with a deep strike to Sanders who made a sexy fingertip grab. Allen’s only incompletion of the drive came on 3rd & 3 but Tyler Bass tacked on the field goal. Bills CB Taron Johnson would intercept Heinicke on WFT’s next possession but the refs threw every flag they could think of to get that overturned. They ultimately called three very soft penalties on the play and Sunday saw officiating absolutely suck across the league. Anyway, Washington wound up punting anyway.
Getting the ball back with only 25-seconds left in the half, Allen engineered a beautiful series going 4/4 to set up a 48-yard FG from Bass to make it a 27-14 game at the half. By halftime, Allen had thrown for 3-TDs and was close to 300-yards passing. For all those people talking shit, calling Josh Allen trash, their mid-game snack was a full plate of crow. I’m sure there were plenty of people unwilling to eat their words at that point, but Allen grabbed the spoon and started force-feeding them with his first drive of the second half.
This 17-play drive was a thing of beauty. It was the longest in terms of plays and yardage, and exactly what I want to see out of the Bills’ offense. Allen led his team 93-yards, going 9/10 and finding Sanders for his second TD of the afternoon. However, they also ran the ball seven times on the drive. They only got 22-yards out of those carries, but the balance is crucial. Up to and including this drive, each of the Bills’ TD drives had started with a run play. The four other drives to that point had all started with passes and those went: turnover on downs, punt, FG, FG. Only their final TD drive of the game started with a pass and they were starting basically in the red zone already. I was preaching balance after Week 1 and now we are seeing exactly how and why it makes the reads harder for the defense and I’m glad Brian Daboll has recognized that as well.
I have been hard on him because the standard of success is really high, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. So, I want to take a little detour to say I’m sorry that he suffered a very difficult loss prior to this game. My heart goes out to him and his family and it says a lot about him as a man and as a coach that his guys were able to go out there and perform like that for him. He’s not going to look at this, but I’m happy he’s part of this team and it’s all love Dabes.
Anyway, moving on, that final TD of the game for Buffalo came on the short field and Allen took it in himself to punctuate a 5-TD game and make it 43-14. Washington was convincingly beat already so their pity score didn’t mean anything to the outcome, but it was a nice 10-play, 75-yard drive against a good defense to make it a 43-21 final. It also showed where WFT is strongest, leaning on Scary Terry, Gibson, and Thomas, but they are going to have to get some better play elsewhere if they want to turn the corner. Oddly enough, it’s not even the offense that’s been the problem.
The narrative has shifted quite a bit since the end of the Steelers game in Week 1. Buffalo now has the highest point differential in the league (tied with Denver) at +50, they are right back in the conversation as Super Bowl contenders, and have the inside track at home-field advantage over their primary rivals Kansas City, Baltimore, and Cleveland. Yeah, I know, Denver and Las Vegas are 3-0 but let’s be real, the Bills would beat either of those teams.
In the previous episode of The Sheist Podcast, I talked about Emmanuel Sanders’ impact on the offense. He can run every route in the book and having a guy like him in the receiver group is invaluable. In the first two games of the season, it was clear to me that both Brian Daboll and Josh Allen were aware of Sanders’ potential within the offense and they were trying to get him involved. The relationship wasn’t quite there yet and we saw Allen miss him deep in the first game but they’ve connected on that deep ball in the last two games.
The ball distribution has been pretty good. As you’d expect Diggs (31) leads with Beasley (30) in 2nd and Sanders (20) in third and all three of them are right around 190-yards through the first three games. Dawson Knox has been a nice boon, coming in with 12-targets, 107-yards, and 2-TDs but standout receiver Gabriel Davis has been noticeably absent from the offense. He’s a talented player and I’m sure he’ll have some moments, but he’s on pace for some major regression. So far, he’s only about 10% of the way to his 2020 numbers with 17% of this season in the bag. Buffalo hasn’t really been a 4-WR spread offense and having quality depth at WR is important, but I don’t want to see Gabe get wasted either. I’ve been preaching balance so I won’t pass judgment yet and, honestly, it’s a good problem to have.
Performance Grade: A+
The Bills get a very user-friendly matchup at home with the Texans in Week 4 and the oddsmakers have BUF opening as monstrous 17-point favorites. I don’t want any part of that action. Just like it would have been nice to see Ryan Fitzpatrick out there on Sunday, it would have been great to see Tyrod Taylor take the field in Orchard Park next week, but the football gods would not allow it. I hope he makes the trip because there’s an ovation waiting for him. It shouldn’t be a competitive game but you never know. As long as the Bills show their opponent respect, they should handle business comfortably.