The Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings played the kind of knock-down, drag-out football most of us anticipated tonight. The No. 1 defense in the NFL resides in Minnesota, and it was as-advertised throughout the evening. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores and his charges made life miserable for the league’s No. 1 scoring offense for most of the evening, but especially in the first half.
Flores’ defense flustered, frustrated, beat, and battered Buffalo’s offense for most of the first 28 minutes of the contest,
but Buffalo eventually broke through. Like the eponymous Rosie in my favorite AC/DC song, it wasn’t exactly pretty, but coming out of this game with a win wasn’t exactly small, either.
For the Bills, emerging with a 23-6 victory tonight is a big statement. Buffalo’s defense looked great, and their offense did enough by moving the ball on an elite defensive unit to score enough points to win the game.
There was plenty of good tonight, and there was enough bad to keep us talking throughout the week, as well. Here are our horns up and horns down for the Bills in this Monday night slug-fest.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Horns Down: Austin Corbett
Based on his play tonight, I don’t have to ask which Billy Joel album is Corbett’s favorite. While I also love Turnstiles, it’s not exactly how I want to see an offensive lineman perform. Yes, there is a reason why Corbett lost the preseason positional battle to Alec Anderson, but as a nine-year vet making his 79th career start, I didn’t expect him to be the guy consistently whiffing on blocks while quarterback Josh Allen ran for his life. Anderson was able to log a limited practice at the end of this past week, so he’s hopefully going to be able to play next week. I do wonder, though, if the Bills would consider using Tylan Grable at guard over Corbett in the future when both Dion Dawkins, who sat tonight with a rib injury, and Spencer Brown are both healthy.
Horns Up: Greg Rousseau
Groot was all over the offensive backfield at times, as he hit quarterback Carson Wentz three times, sacked him once, and whacked his throwing arm to cause an incomplete pass in the first half alone. Rousseau was a big problem in the passing game and the run game, as he consistently used his length to create issues for Minnesota’s offensive line. He even recovered a fumble on what was originally ruled an incomplete pass by Carson Wentz. He finished the game with just those first-half stats, but his presence was felt throughout the game.
Horns Down: Early-Game Offensive Play Calls
It took the Bills some time to settle into the game, as head coach and play-caller Joe Brady was far too predictable early. At one point, Buffalo had run the football on seven of nine first-downs. James Cook III is a great back, but when every first down is a handoff through the A-gap against a fantastic Minnesota defense, it becomes a little predictable.
To his credit, Brady started to mix things up as the game progressed, and his calls diversified to include some spread looks—which really helped the Bills—as well as some better looks for Cook on second down runs. The adjustments helped Buffalo to move the ball against an elite defensive unit, putting up enough points for the game they were playing tonight.
Horns Up: Jim Leonhard
Kudos to the defensive boss, who was leading an awful unit through Buffalo’s first six games. Between tonight’s game and last week’s win over the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo’s defense has looked like an entirely different unit. Granted, that success has come against two teams who were without their starting quarterbacks, but let’s not pretend that Carson Wentz is Joe Fagnano. Wentz might have looked like Fagnano for most of the evening, but part of that was thanks to the looks Buffalo’s defense gave him. Leonhard has done a nice job turning the tide for Buffalo’s stop unit over the last two weeks. If they can build on this, and maybe find some help on the trade market to supplement the group, things could be looking up.
Horns Up: The Linebackers
Dorian Williams and Terrel Bernard each made huge plays in the second half. Williams went up and made a big interception when he was one-on-one with tight end T.J. Hockenson, bringing an end to Minnesota’s first drive after the half. Then, after the Vikings had gashed Buffalo on the ground for four straight plays, Bernard undercut Justin Jefferson and intercepted Wentz off a play-action pass. Bernard had three pass breakups and Williams had one. Ultimately, both players looked good, as did rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr, who was flying around the ball on his snaps, as well. Bernard led the Bills in tackles, totaling six on the evening to go with the aforementioned pass breakups. Williams had three tackles, and Elarms-Orr had two on his ledger.
Horns Up: Keleki Latu
Any time you catch your first career touchdown, it’s a horns up from me. Latu did a great job staying alive on the scramble drill, and Josh Allen did Josh Allen things by finding him in the back of the end zone when basically any other normal human would have thrown the football away. It was a 25-yard score where Latu found himself wide open, and it was a huge score in what was mostly a field goal-fest. Latu even mixed it up as a blocker, looking more than capable of holding his own all night long.
Horns Down: Staying On the Snap Count
Five false start penalties. Sure, they’re on the road, and yes, Vikings fans were loud tonight. But, five? This is a continuing theme this season where little things that hint towards a team’s discipline—of lack thereof—show up. Buffalo has the talent to overcome it most of the time, but the Bills committed too many penalties again tonight. Pre-snap penalties are absolute killers.
Horns Down: Tylan Grable
Alright, maybe this is harsh, because stepping in to play left tackle against this Minnesota defense is no easy task. However, for any of us who thought that Grable could easily come in and replace Dion Dawkins, tonight was a bit of a reality check. Grable held his own for much of the game, but he did whiff entirely on linebacker Ivan Pace in the second half, leading to a sack on Josh Allen. As the game progressed, Grable and the rest of Buffalo’s offensive line was able to open holes for James Cook in the run game, but tonight’s performance didn’t show me that either Dawkins or Anderson should be anywhere but the starting lineup for the foreseeable future.
Horns Up: James Cook III
What a tough performance out of Cook tonight. He was an old-school workhorse in a game where the running game was an absolute necessity. This was just the fifth time in Cook’s career that he’s had more than 25 carries in a game, and just the second time in his career that he totaled 30 carries in a game. He handled the workload—and the punishment that came with it—beautifully. Cook totaled 107 yards and a game-sealing touchdown on his 31 carries. He dropped his only target, which came on Buffalo’s first possession of the game.
Horns Up: Khalil Shakir
Allen’s safety blanket was explosive in this one, coming up with big plays every time he touched the football. Whether it was on screen passes or crossing routes, Shakir made the most of his four targets, catching them all for 58 yards. It’s not the kind of stat line that impresses you in fantasy football, but against the NFL’s best defense, it’s the kind of performance that wins games. Shakir was clutch.
Horns Up: Josh Allen
Allen was 21-of-31 for 234 yards with one touchdown and one interception (on a PHENOMENAL play by Minneosta corner Byron Murphy Jr.). Glamorous stat line? Nope.But, again, Minnesota came into the game allowing an average of 154 yards passing per game. Allen was poised, decisive, and accurate throughout the night despite constant pressure from a relentless Minnesota pass rush. Allen also had 15 rushing yards on the game, which put him over 5,000 yards rushing for his career. He’s just the fifth player in Bills’ history to hit that plateau, joining O.J. Simpson, Thurman Thomas, Fred Jackson, and his teammate, James Cook, who also hit the 5,000-yard plateau tonight.
Horns Up: Christian Benford
I almost missed him, but once again, Benford was incredible while shadowing an elite wide receiver. Justin Jefferson was a non-factor for most of the evening, and while much of that was certainly due to Carson Wentz and his immense ineptitude, part of that ineptitude was a result of Buffalo’s top corner removing Minnesota’s top target from the game plan. The Vikings targeted Jefferson 11 times, but he caught just three of those passes for 58 yards. One of those catches came on Minnesota’s final drive when Benford was on the bench and Maxwell Hairston was in coverage. Benford was, once again, incredible tonight. He had just two tackles and a pass breakup, but more importantly, his man was erased.
Horns To Be Determined: You Make the Call
Alright, friends. Who did we miss? There were plenty of quality performances to go around in an ugly win, but like I’ve always said, I’ll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. Let us know your horns up and horns down in the comments below!
