The Buffalo Bills have, to put it lightly, struggled to stop the run this season. They’ve been gashed to the tune of 5.8 yards allowed per rushing attempt, by far the worst in the league. This week’s opponent, the Carolina Panthers, averages 4.7 yards per rush, and given that it looks like they’ll be without their starting quarterback thanks to injury, they’re likely to lean on that strong rushing attack to move the ball and keep quarterback Josh Allen off the field.
Can the Bills buckle down and
slow that Carolina rushing attack? Can they score enough points on offense to set up a negative game script where the Panthers and veteran Andy Dalton will be forced into obvious passing downs? Those are some big keys to this game, and in order for the Bills to come out with their fifth victory of the 2025 season, they’ll need to shut down some of Carolina’s top players.
Here are five Panthers to watch this week.
_____________________________________________________________________________
RB Rico Dowdle
The sixth-year man has been a revelation since taking over as Carolina’s featured back three games ago. In the Panthers’ first four games, he carried 28 times for 83 yards while working in behind starter Chuba Hubbard.
Hubbard missed two games due to injury, though, and Dowdle was incredible. He carried 53 times for 389 yards and a touchdown in those games, adding seven catches for 84 yards and another touchdown as a receiver. While Hubbard started the game last week against the New York Jets, Dowdle outpaced him in carries and yards, as he ran 17 times for 79 yards compared to Hubbard’s 14 carries for 31 yards.
Buffalo needs to be sound in their run fits, something that has given the defense fits this season. Hopefully, bye week film study will allow for a return to form on defense, because if the Bills let Dowdle run wild, it’s going to be a long afternoon.
WR Tetairoa McMillan
The rookie is Carolina’s unquestioned No. 1 wideout, as he leads the team in targets (53), receptions (30), receiving yards (413), and touchdown catches (2). No other Panther has more than 30 targets, 17 catches, or 142 receiving yards.
We’ve seen this movie before, as the Bills have faced a few opponents in a row where the passing game clearly went through one player. Buffalo couldn’t stop Stefon Diggs or Drake London, but at least with the latter, they were able to make an adjustment in the second half to keep him contained for 30 minutes.
Buffalo let Christian Benford match up with London more often in the second half, and he caught just one pass for 11 yards after tormenting them throughout the whole first half. Benford should follow McMillan on Sunday, because if he doesn’t, then the rookie will make minced meat out of Tre’Davious White.
DE Derrick Brown
The big defensive lineman is one of two players on Carolina’s front with the same surname — the other is nose tackle Bobby Brown, who has also been dynamic this year. But, we’re going to focus on Derrick rather than Bobby Brown, which is our prerogative. Derrick Brown has already tied his career high in sacks with three, and he has seven quarterback hits, five pass knockdowns, and two tackles for loss.
Just a game after Josh Allen was blitzed, harried, beaten, and confused by an aggressive Atlanta Falcons defense, it’s not great to see a team that has some big fellas up front who can collapse the pocket from the interior line. Quarterbacks hate pressure that comes directly up the middle, so Buffalo’s three interior linemen need to be on point this week.
LB Christian Rozeboom
I remember Rozeboom from that wild 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams last season, and he was a player who could do a whole lot on defense. He remains that guy, as he leads the Panthers in tackles this season with an even 50. He’s athletic enough to play the spy role on Allen, and he’s big enough and tough enough to add some thump on run defense.
What he doesn’t do well, though, is cover running backs and tight ends, so if the Bills can find ways to put him in situations where he has to do that, they could be in good shape. That would require using the running backs in the passing game, though, something that hasn’t happened much this season.
If Rozeboom is spying Allen, perhaps they can leak a running back out of the backfield after Rozeboom commits to a rush. Alternately, they can flood the middle with crossing routes or different leveled routes that look to put him in assignment jeopardy.
CB Michael Jackson
Throwing it to the receiver that Jaycee Horn is covering isn’t a recipe for success. Horn has allowed a ridiculous 37.9% completion rate when he’s the closest man in coverage, allowing just 11 completions on 29 attempts. While he has allowed two touchdowns, he has three interceptions, and opposing quarterbacks have just a 45.9 quarterback rating when throwing at him.
If the Panthers do what the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons did, they’ll likely use Horn to shut down Keon Coleman, meaning that Jackson will be left to guard Buffalo’s other outside receiver. If I were Joe Brady, I’d make that person Khalil Shakir more often than not. I’d trust my best guy to beat Jackson, and I’d also treat this matchup just like Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott did. He didn’t stop ‘til he had enough, targeting Jackson 10 times and completing seven of those passes for 124 yards and a touchdown.
In fact, if you take out Jackson’s stats against the New York Jets, whose passing offense barely registers as anything resembling a professional offense, he’s allowed 22 of 38 passes thrown his way to be completed for 358 yards and two touchdowns. The game plan for the passing attack should be simple: Where is No. 2 in Carolina blue? Throw it to who he’s guarding.
