Wheeeew — what a housewarming performance from the Buffalo Bills in their Week 2 victory over the Detroit Lions in the first regular-season contest inside the new Highmark Stadium.
Such a glorious night in Orchard Park.
These were my five biggest takeaways from Buffalo’s 41-31 victory.
The new Highmark Stadium is VERY LOUD
The text I kept sending friends and family from my initial reaction to the Bills opening touchdown drive, and subsequent three-and-out stop on defense that culminated in a sack of Jared Goff was “it’s so loud in here
it’s hurting my ears.”
Now, I’m not trying to scare you away from the stadium — it’s unreal. When it comes to the actual football, the crowd noise absolutely matters, and the overall verticality of the stadium along with the canopy — which I think is the real driver here — make this 60,000-seat palatial structure a giant boom box.
The Bills scoreboard crew didn’t regularly utilize a decibel meter throughout the entire course of the game. When it was shown, the collective noise in the stadium regularly cleared 120dB. I’m certainly not a sound engineer, but I assume some of the crowd pops probably reached well in the 130dB range, which is well into “the level of sound from a plane taking off nearby.”
I couldn’t get over how easily Buffalo scored 41 points
Four touchdowns on the first four drives was sensational. Borderline effortless. But as we were reminded of in this contest, teams almost always have to play a full 60 minutes in today’s NFL.
And the Bills had a tiny lull in the middle portion of the contest, where it felt like the offense lost its juice a little. Post-DJ Moore injury, really.
They got back on track, and still scored 41 points. Sure, the modern NFL is heavily geared toward offense, but that is still absurd.
On the way to 41 points, the Bills offense fully demonstrated its real-time adaptability. Moore goes down with an injury? OK, start pounding the rock and occasionally looking for Dalton Kincaid off play action.
We have seen incredible aerial attacks in the Allen era. Everything Buffalo’s offensive line and James Cook learned from last year’s run-game masterpiece might just be precisely what this Bills team needed to truly become a multi-layered, beat-you-however-we-want offense.
Credit where credit is due for Keon Coleman
I’ve not had much confidence in Coleman during his time with the Bills. He simply hasn’t produced. Before the season, when it appeared obvious they weren’t going to trade or cut him, I figured whatever statistical output the team could get from Coleman would be a bonus, not anything the Bills should be expecting.
Well, in this game, he made a handful of important, even difficult grabs in traffic when things got a little dicey in the second half. Four of his six receptions went for first downs, and his half-dozen grabs were the second-most of his NFL career.
Coleman is not at all a separator. But he can win against zone. There’s nuance to that. And maybe he’s finally learning how exactly to find those soft softs, post up and use his size to make himself an available target for Allen. If Coleman can provide the Bills with more six-snag, 63-yard performances throughout the season, that will be a massive development for the passing offense.
Deone Walker
That’s it. Deone Walker. Each game, it’s looking more and more likely he is a DUDE. The crux of my gameday column before Bills and Lions in Week 2 was Buffalo’s opportunity to see how some of its star players — beyond Allen — stacked-up against the legitimate stars the Lions would trot onto the field.
Walker absolutely looked like a superstar on TNF (after an awesome performance in Week 1). Sure, the Lions were down a few offensive linemen, and we can’t forget that regarding this evaluation, but nine pressures on 30 pass-rush snaps from a defensive tackle in the NFL is magnificent regardless of competition.
Oh, and there was this absolutely outrageous rep from Walker:
That is against PENEI SEWELL, one of the Lions superstars I referenced in the aforementioned article. You know, a three-time first-Team All-Pro the past three seasons. Squarely in the prime of his NFL career. Walker tossed him aside like he had better things to do.
Oh, following up to my own column, through two games, the Bills have had plenty of other serious stars beyond Allen, Cook, and Walker. Greg Rousseau was a man possessed again. And Kincaid is Mr. Efficiency as a receiving tight end. That’s the type of makeup I believe a team needs to hoist the trophy.
Defensive lowlights and low-key improvement
Once again, I’ll write — the Bills secondary is going to take time to gel. Understand where to be in relation to teammates. And against specific pre-snap looks from opposing offenses. All that. Two of their outside corners, Max Hairston and Davison Igbinosun, are 23 and 22, respectively.
The defensive line probably isn’t as deep as Jim Leonhard would like it — although I thought DeWayne Carter flashed in this one. When the Bills build big leads, the secondary very well could surrender some big plays.
Ironically, I was impressed by the run defense, once again. This week, it was even more impressive given how explosive — and powerful — Jahmyr Gibbs is as a runner. Detroit only had 66 yards on the ground on 20 carries. That is not how they want to play. And they’re typically much more dynamic in the run game, of course. Buffalo’s run defense allowed 3.9 yards per tote against Houston.
From an analytics perspective, the Bills run defense was 31st in EPA per run play in 2026. It’s currently 20th in EPA allowed per run before the full slate of Week 2’s action. Very easily could be middle of the pack once Monday Night Football concludes this week.
Darn good improvement.
