What is the story about?
Joe
Brady’s head coaching debut with the Buffalo Bills ended in a win, and it took quarterback Josh Allen’s 34-yard touchdown to Joshua Palmer with 1:36 left to get there. Allen finished with 334 yards passing with two passing touchdowns and two more rushing scores.
Here’s everything I wrote down as it unfolded. Let’s open the notebook…
1st Half
- A lot of 3 TEs early, but some of those formations were essentially what the Bills run with 12 personnel, simply with Dalton Kincaid in Tyrell Shavers’ role as a big WR. Interesting.
- I like Joe Brady going for it on 4th and 2. It didn’t work, but you have Josh Allen and a powerful offense. Live and die by them.
- Good to see a healthy Terrel Bernard flying around to start the game.
- Base 3-4 D did ok against the run, but when in nickel, they struggled to stop it.
- Man-to-man with Damar Hamlin on the field is dumb. It cost the Bills a good opportunity to leave the field on a 3rd down.
- Michael Hoecht is being used as the 2nd IDL on passing downs, but he hasn’t looked close to the guy we saw for two games last year — which is normal coming back from the injury he had.
- This D needs better IDL play. Deone Walker is the only consistent good piece there. Ed Oliver must be better — credit where it’s due, he did come up with the fumble recovery that set up Tyler Bass’ first field goal, but the group needs more of that. Can’t say I expect much from Landon Jackson or DeWayne Carter. T.J. Sanders didn’t look good in preseason and is out now. Gaines was invisible. Major room for improvement there.
- Kincaid looks good. Awesome catch to start the 2-minute drill — he’d finish the day with 5 catches for 130 yards. Brady had balls to call that PA play with his back against the wall against that pass rush.
- Nice how Brady has used his main pass catchers in several different positions — Kincaid inside and out, Khalil Shakir outside sometimes, D.J. Moore in the slot sometimes. Move the guys around, make it tough for the D, keep them thinking.
- Poor Reed Blankenship. That’s Josh Allen ball velocity — you think you can make a play on the ball just to see it zip past you. Moore appreciates it: that’s the 43-yard touchdown that pushed it to 24-14, and he’d close out his Buffalo debut with 5 catches for 100 yards.
- 24 first-half points, and you thought my Madden 27 simulation wasn’t realistic, huh?
- What was that by the D with 1 minute left in the 1st half? Bernard gets caught changing the play during the snap, covers the flat, and leaves the middle wide open for a big play. Awful — that’s the drive that set up Nico Collins’ 12-yard touchdown, cutting it to 24-21 at halftime.
- It’s not an easy matchup for anybody, but Nico Collins is winning too much versus Christian Benford.
- Josh certainly isn’t afraid of targeting Moore deep, and I love it.
- For now, our O is the real deal, our D is a work in progress.
- Josh in MVP form already, BTW.
2nd Half
- Good to see Tyler Bass being consistent — a perfect 2-for-2 on field goals, 46 and 33 yards. Bills need that. Good debut by the rookie punter as well.
- Ray Davis continues to be a threat on kickoffs, but quiet debut by Greg Dortch.
- D allowed a lot of in-break route completions. Lack of pass rush, plus loose man coverage, plus no enforcers to make people pay for those catches in the middle of the field, isn’t a good combination.
- 2nd half by the D was way better. Forced Houston to go for it on a couple of 4th downs to keep drives alive. Avoided the mess of the last few minutes of the 1st half.
- Still, it seems this D lacks talent. Deone Walker might be the only potential true game changer, and he doesn’t even play on clear passing downs (he should, going forward). Next few weeks will be interesting to see if somebody else steps up.
- Other than the fumble, it’s been frustrating how our D wasn’t even close to potential INTs or other forced TOs — David Montgomery still walked away with a 3-touchdown day between the ground and through the air.
- For all the preseason hype, C.J. Gardner-Johnson was invisible.
- Josh Allen threw through some really tight windows in this game. It’s gonna be a fun season.
- Josh wasn’t afraid of giving his guys a chance downfield by any means. I know people will say that throw to Joshua Palmer was careless, but he literally threw it up high, versus single coverage. As a receiver you gotta be able to locate that ball quickly to at least compete for it. Palmer took too long and it almost became an INT by Kamari Lassiter.
- Awesome throw and catch on the very next play — the 34-yard game-winner with 1:36 left. Palmer as your 4th option is ok. You don’t pay that much for 4th options, though.
- Can this D close the game? That’s why Jim Leonhard is there. (Yes, they could).
- Maxwell Hairston’s mental mistake set the Texans up for a potential game-winning TD. What a time for it. Already in a rotation, that’s how you lose your job to the new guy.
- Deone Walker is a beast. What a move for such a big guy. He gotta stay on the field more often, also on clear passing downs.
- Greg Rousseau — he flashed during this game, with two strip-sacks on the day, the second one sealing it. That’s a guy the Bills need to see making those plays more often. Oliver and Bradley Chubb are the other two.
- Terrel Bernard is such a ball magnet. Love to see him closing the game out with the ball in his hands — recovering Rousseau’s game-sealing strip-sack — after everything he went through last season. If he can stay healthy, he’ll have a big season.
- As crazy as it sounds, with all the numbers Josh has put up during his career, there were a lot of times when he didn’t play free, didn’t have the weapons, or was stuck on a ball control/run-first offense that limited his numbers. Not anymore. He’s finally freed from the get-go.
- It’s clearly a different Bills team. They don’t seem to care about ball possession. Josh is in full command of the offense and has the green light to go and score on any play. They aren’t worried about the D “looking bad” because of the number of points on the scoreboard, as long as they make enough plays to make sure that number is lower than the one the Bills put up. Will it always work? Obviously not. But today it did. Offense put points on the board (as they usually do), and the defense, despite its shortcomings, closed the game. That’s what really matters at the end of the day — make the plays when it’s needed.
1-0. Go Bills!
Catch up on all this and more with the latest edition of Leading the Charge!
