What is the story about?
The Buffalo Bills walked out of U.S. Bank Stadium with a 23-6 win on Monday Night Football
. Here’s everything I wrote down along the way.1st Half
- Joe Brady chose to start with the ball on offense again. You have to be very secure you’ll make them pay with it. A 3-and-out going backwards shows they weren’t good enough for this choice.
- James Cook has to catch those checkdowns. 2nd game in a row he starts with a drop.
- Pre-snap penalties by the OL with 2 backups in a loud venue are expected, unfortunately.
- The Bills WRs have to be able to beat their matchups quickly, or Brian Flores will send everybody after Josh Allen all night. Josh must have an easy button against it, and DJ Moore is my hope here.
- Great 1st defensive drive by the Bills. Quick 3-and-out. The Vikings’ offense isn’t anything special, but with the way Buffalo’s D played before the bye, we couldn’t be sure about them being able to do that to start the game.
- 2nd offensive drive, and the run game has struggled so far, but they must be patient with it. Josh has 2 quick completions on 3rd downs against the blitz, to Moore and Khalil Shakir. Easy buttons start to appear as the Bills use motion pre-snap to confuse the Vikings D.
- A Josh Allen intentional grounding penalty put the O in a bad spot in a promising drive until that point. Man coverage on a PA bootleg play, and Josh couldn’t get the ball to the line of scrimmage as he was tackled by Andrew Van Ginkel.
- 3rd and long, and Josh airs it out as he gets hit. Moore was open deep, but the ball seemed to go too inside, giving time to the opposite-side CB to make the play on the ball. It was kind of an arm punt, but the return was great. Tylan Grable made a great play to stop it at midfield.
- Defense’s back on the field and making plays. I think it was a backward pass, and the Bills will have the ball. Brady with a good challenge here.
- After the replay, Bills ball. Also after the replay, the INT was an awesome play by Byron Murphy. No way Josh could have expected it from him.
- First Bills points on a Tyler Bass FG. Every point should be valuable today, game of patience. 3-0 Bills.
- Whoa, Tommy Doman forcing a fumble, and it flies right to the arms of another Vikings player. The Bills almost create another TO.
- Bills D continues to succeed as Justin Jefferson gets hurt. Everything’s under control on that side of the ball so far. Offense has to take care of the ball and play safe, be patient.
- The O strategy hasn’t worked. They have to insist on the run game, but they can’t have Josh under center on obvious passing downs. The OL is struggling to deal with those pressure packages.
- Jefferson is back, and Christian Benford is following him everywhere. Carson Wentz has struggled to deliver the ball to him so far. Bills D is also aggressive.
- Why in the world is Kyle Allen warming up?
- Grable with a false start. Rough game for him, Corbett, and the rest of the OL so far.
- I guess I’ll write 3 and out a lot today. Another one.
- Damar Hamlin literally hugs T.J. Hockenson running his route. Easy for the refs.
- Greg Rousseau starts to change the game for Buffalo. How fun it has been watching Groot this season. Bills will get the ball again.
- What a punt. Down at 1.
- Josh Allen is crushed at the 1-yard line and fumbles the ball. Thankfully he was down already, and it got reversed. Bills punt, and Vikings get great field position, almost in FG range already. What an ugly game.
- Bills D continues to do its job and holds the Vikings to an FG here. 3-3.
- Yeah, it’s a great defense and all, we’re missing the left side of the OL, I know. But it’s frustrating to see a top offense in the league show no different alternatives when their go-to style doesn’t work. No spreading WRs out and trying to explore mismatches vs the secondary one-on-one; no change in the tempo. A top offense should have more repertoire.
- 2 min warning, 3-3. Bills going shotgun on 1st down for a change and running out of it, not usual. Show more unusual stuff Brady, so far it hasn’t been pretty.
- Now RPO and uptempo, let’s go. We have Josh Allen, and the offense is always run like he’s an ordinary QB. Spread those WRs and make them pay for one-on-ones.
- See? TD Bills. Empty formation, Allen buys time, finds Latu at the back of the endzone. 44 seconds left, 10-3 Bills.
- Run more 2 min offense during the game. The defense can hold their own, score a couple of TDs, and put the Vikings in a tough situation. The Bills’ “regular” O can be very good 80% of the time doing their usual stuff with heavy formations, run game, and PA, but you gotta be able to do something different in those 20% of the time, especially having Josh fricking Allen.
- Jefferson with his 1st catch in the game, for 24 yards. Jordan Addison catches another one and the Vikings are in FG range.
- Not anymore, false start penalty.
- Another completion to Jefferson and a spike. Hoecht dives and almost makes the play of the year, intercepting the spike. It goes through his hands, though. Vikings kick the FG and make it a 10-6 game. Half time.
2nd Half
- Vikings start with the ball and start the drive well, but Dorian Williams makes a huge play in man coverage versus Hockenson. Interception, Bills ball.
- Bills offense back to heavy formations and run game. It has worked for now. The impact of showing their defense you can do different stuff as well. Keep them off balance.
- There’s nothing as obvious as the Bills PA from under center after a bad 1st down run. Defenders go straight to the QB every time. Pass incomplete.
- Awesome 3rd-and-8 completion to Ty Johnson downfield, running a fly route from outside, as a WR.
- Another PA puts Josh in a bad spot with Van Ginkel all over him. He somehow makes him miss and delivers a strike to Dawson Knox for a 1st down.
- Some zone read and inverted veer on back-to-back plays. Runs from shotgun are welcome to avoid the predictability.
- It’s funny how obvious it is that Keon Coleman incorporated some of Stevie Johnson’s tempo and change of pace into his route running. It’s been great for him.
- 3rd and goal, Josh puts it on the money for Knox (who’s having a good game), but it goes through his hands. Blake Cashman was all over him, but that’s a ball you’d like to see your TE come down with. Why wasn’t it Dalton Kincaid there running this route? Bass FG is good, 13-6 Bills.
- Buffalo has controlled the ball possession in this game, but Minnesota starts the drive with three very good runs in a row.
- Terrel Bernard with the INT. He has looked healthy today, and this INT was reminiscent of his best days.
- Grable gets schooled by Pace, and Josh is sacked, seemed hurt. Then a pre-snap penalty, 2nd and 24.
- Hook and ladder gets just 6 yards. 3rd and 18.
- Tipped pass falls onto Kincaid’s arms, which gets enough yardage for a FG attempt.
- Bass hits it from 54 yards, but a false start penalty denies it. Brady decides to punt it, and then another false start, are you kidding me?
- Oh my God, TB, there isn’t an easier INT than that. Joshua Palmer level drop.
- Bills D forces another punt. Max Hairston almost tackles Dortch in the return.
- Start of the 4th, Allen changes the play at the LOS, moves from under center to shotgun and quickly finds Coleman for a 1st down. Love to see it.
- That’s (4th quarter) normally when the insistence with the run game pans out. No big play by Cook yet, but 4 to 6 yards a pop in the last few runs.
- How do the refs rule it short? In every sport and in every league, the stars get some “special treatment”, but when it’s the Bills and Josh Allen, they’re always ready to call it against Buffalo. Thankfully, the booth reversed this awful call.
- Great hands by Kincaid on a 3rd-and-3 conversion. Josh had to adjust to Van Ginkel’s pressure, and it was a laser in a short distance.
- 4th quarter, and the Bills’ ground-and-pound wears down the Vikings’ defense to submission. A few plays later, Cook scores the TD. 20-6 Bills.
- Again, nothing wrong with Brady’s preferred way of running the offense, but oh boy, throw some different stuff at defenses that find a way to slow down plan A. They have the pieces, and especially the QB, to do so. Keep them guessing.
- Another great defensive drive by Buffalo, this time without Bernard or Benford on the field. Very promising couple of snaps from the rookie IGB against Jefferson. Bills’ ball, and the game is totally under control.
- Bass hits another one, dude is on fire. 23-6 Bills.
- Bills in prevent defense and several backups on the field. Nice sack by Javon Solomon.
- TB for the stop on 4th down to close out another very promising defensive performance. Ball game, Bills 23-6.
Final Thoughts
The Bills’ offense isn’t always the most exciting one in the league, but they’re a nightmare to stop, and even if it takes more time than I’d like, Brady has a plan B to use when plan A struggles. We can trust them to score more than enough points. Putting up 23 on this Vikings defense, at their home field, is impressive.
On the other side of the ball, the defense
looks more confident, more aggressive, and plays faster. They haven’t faced the best QBs lately, but they’ve done what they’re supposed to do versus poor ones. That’s an upgrade from what we saw before the bye.
Hopefully, Brandon Beane has one or two moves to strengthen this squad in him. The AFC one seed is totally achievable, and the team’s window is wide open. It’s time to go all in and believe it’s Buffalo’s year.
1-0, Go Bills.
Catch up on all this and more with the latest edition of Leading the Charge!
