The Buffalo Bills fought hard against the Los Angeles Chargers, weathering a first half period of horrendous play before settling into what was ultimately a very competitive football game. After falling into a 10-0 hole early on, the Bills were able to tie it up at 10 before the end of the first half.
A series of miscues throughout the game prevented Buffalo from gaining any sort of momentum, however, until the fourth quarter. The Bills added two second half turnovers to the three they committed in the first
half, limiting any positive progress that the team made on offense.
Eventually, the Buffalo offense fought through that early malaise, doing just enough to pull out an ugly, hard-fought win over a motivated Chargers team desperate to avoid an 0-3 start. While Buffalo trailed into the fourth quarter, the Bills ultimately prevailed, digging deep for a 24-13 win and a 3-0 start to the 2026 NFL season.
The Bills aren’t going to put much of today’s game on any highlight reels, but an ugly win is always better than a pretty loss. There were plenty of ups and downs today, and we’ve done the best we can to reflect the roller coaster ride in our stock report for this one.
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Horns Down: Offensive Preparedness
It was a sloppy first quarter, and that’s putting it kindly. On Buffalo’s first offensive play, James Cook lost a fumble, negating the advantage given to the Bills by Greg Dortch’s excellent opening kickoff return. It also gifted the Chargers a short field, which they took advantage of in the form of a short passing touchdown to running back Keaton Mitchell. After a punt on their second possession, the Bills third possession came to a quick end when Josh Allen misread the Chargers’ defensive coverage and threw an interception directly into the hands of safety Genesis Smith, which led to a Chargers field goal and a 10-0 first quarter lead. A holding penalty on Alec Anderson and some poor blocking from Connor McGovern and O’Cyrus Torrence also had Buffalo on the ropes early. It was a horrendous starts for a Buffalo offense that had been exceptional in its first two outings.
Horns Down: First Half Josh Allen
With Allen, turnovers tend to come in bunches or not at all. Unfortunately, that trend continued, as Allen threw his first interception on a bad read. Then, on the ensuing possession, Allen made another boneheaded decision, throwing into triple coverage deep down field in an attempt to let DJ Moore make a play. Granted, it took an absolute fluke play for Genesis Smith to come down with his second interception of the day, but the decision to throw the ball was not a great one. After two nearly flawless games to open the year, Allen played about as poorly as he could have to start the game. It wasn’t pretty, but he cleaned it up as the day went on, eventually leading the Bills on long scoring drives that gave Buffalo the victory. Allen completed 16-of-26 passes for 204 yards. He also rushed eight times for 22 yards and two scores. His three turnovers were an issue, but the Bills were able to do enough to overcome them.
Horns Up: Special Teams
Greg Dortch looked good on kickoff returns, averaging nearly 31 yards per try. Sam Franklin Jr. was a demon on kick coverage, notching two tackles and sticking his nose in plenty of tough spots. Tyler Bass hit all three of his PATs and his lone field goal try, a 28-yard boot. Tommy Doman Jr. drilled a 51-yard punt. Overall, the special teams unit led by special teams coach Jeff Rodgers has been a positive for the team.
Horns Up: Greg Rousseau
Groot has been incredible this season, and he made his presence known early in today’s game. He made a few solid run stuffs on plays to the outside, and he also brought a first-half drive to an end by notching Buffalo’s first sack on Justin Herbert. That was Rousseau’s fifth sack of the season, continuing what has been an outstanding start to the year for Buffalo’s 2021 first-round pick. Rousseau’s career high for sacks in a season is eight; at this pace, he’s going to race by that before the Bills’ bye in Week Seven. He added another sack in the second half to give him six on the year, and he notched eight tackles, including four tackles for loss, in today’s win.
Horns Up: DJ Moore
Playing through a painful shoulder injury isn’t an easy task, but Moore was huge for the Bills in the first half. We already talked about the bad Allen force on what turned out to be an unlucky interception (a play where Allen might have thought he had a free play with a Chargers player offside), but Moore was able to find space and move the chains for Allen and the offense on the team’s first touchdown drive. Moore converted two huge third downs on that two-minute drive, catching a 13-yard pass on third-and-four before the two minute warning, and then another 10-yard pass to convert a third-and-seven on the other side of the two minute warning. Moore added one other grab on the drive, which ended with a one-yard Josh Allen plunge. Moore looked good throughout the afternoon, catching six passes for 67 yards on a team-high ten targets.
Horns Down: Christian Benford
I feel like a broken record hammering the same point over and over, but Benford has played poorly all season. He’s losing in coverage when the team plays man, finding himself in trail position far too often. He also committed a huge holding penalty (that was, if you’re asking a biased Bills fan like myself, not a foul) to negate what would have been a big interception from C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Granted, the Bills defense held the Chargers to a field goal, but the difference between holding the team to three points or no points at all is huge in the grand scheme of a Sunday. I think it’s fair to wonder whether Benford is miscast in new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s defense. He went down with an injury late in the third quarter, and it was announced that he was questionable to return with a toe injury. I hope I’m overreacting to a poor stretch of play, but Benford needs to be better overall.
Horns Up: Davison Igbinosun
The rookie looked excellent in relief of Benford, notching a pass breakup on the second play after No. 47 left with his injury. He also was strong in run support, totaling six tackles on the afternoon, most of which came near the line of scrimmage. There was speculation that Igbinosun was drafted to provide competition for second-year man Maxwell Hairston, but today, he proved to be a more-than-capable replacement for Benford.
Horns Up: James Cook
Yes, he had that one negative play to start the game. However, as the afternoon wore on, the Chargers run defense had few answers for him. Cook continually found big chunks on the ground, and he was able to get out some tough yards between the tackles, as well. Buffalo’s offensive line settled as the day wore on, especially in run blocking, which gave Cook plenty of room to operate. He totaled 21 carries for 141 yards and a big-time touchdown in the fourth quarter to ice the game.
Horns Up: C.J. Gardner-Johnson
The veteran had an interception overturned by a questionable penalty on Christian Benford, but then he made up for it later, ending a potentially back-breaking Chargers drive by intercepting Justin Herbert in the end zone on a third down early in the fourth quarter. Gardner-Johnson’s long return put the Buffalo offense in great position, and it could have been even better had a facemask penalty been called as he was tackled. Overall, Gardner-Johnson was a bright spot in the secondary, which was a positive sign after two weeks of middling play from the veteran. Gardner-Johnson had five tackles and two pass breakups to go with the aforementioned interception.
Horns Down: Flags
I feel bad for Skarekrow this week. On the bright side, he’ll have plenty to work with…but, it was a bad day for the Bills in terms of penalties, and it was also a bad day for the zebras throwing (and not throwing, in some cases) those flags.
Horns Down: These Uniforms
Regardless of the result of the game, those things are hideous.
Horns Unknown: You Make the Call
What do you think, friends? Who deserves some praise—and who deserves more criticism? Let us know in the comments below.
