MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Buffalo Bills are back to playing their usual catch-us-if-you-can game this season under first-year coach Joe Brady, cruising to an AFC-best 6-1 start with quarterback Josh Allen in his prime and thriving as a constant pass-run threat.
Forgive the 2024 NFL MVP if he's not feeling fully confident about the upcoming game. When the Bills visit the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, their offense will line up against the toughest
team to score against in the league.
“They're the number one defense for a reason, so they're giving a lot of teams fits, a lot of good opposing offenses as well," Allen said. “It's just going to be a hard week.”
But he didn't stop there.
“As a competitor, you’re like, ‘Yeah, heck yeah!’ I want to play the best,” Allen said. “I want to go out there and prove why we are what you say, the number one offense. I know it’s statistically speaking, but that’s still a chip on our shoulder. We want to go out there and be the best offense that we can be.”
The Bills, who have hit the 30-point mark in three straight games and five times out of seven, have scored on 43 of 70 drives this season that didn't end in a kneel-down. They'll try to keep the ball moving in front of a deafening U.S. Bank Stadium crowd against a Vikings defense that leads the NFL in several statistical categories. According to the league, this will mark the first time since 2013 that a team averaging 33 or more points will play a team allowing 14 or fewer points in Week 9 or later.
The not-so-secret sauce for the Vikings under defensive coordinator Brian Flores is the blitz, sending at least one extra pass rusher on nearly three-quarters of the drop-backs they've faced, a league-record rate since tracking began a decade ago.
Allen's size, instinct and speed make him a dangerous player to blitz, with his ability to sidestep the rush and break a tackle or two for a momentum-changing first down.
“There’s risk-reward in pressuring people every week, and it’s certainly our play style," Flores said. “I don’t know if we’re going to go too far away from it, but we’re not going to be reckless and we understand that with a guy like this you can have an unblocked defender and he can make that guy miss.”
The Vikings, who fell to 6-1 after persistent trouble for the offense precipitated a loss at division rival Detroit, have bigger problems than deciding whether or not to blitz. Struggling quarterback Kyler Murray will sit this week with a hamstring strain, and Carson Wentz will start.
“It’s really not a whole formula or a whole rocket science on what can we do to get better,” wide receiver Justin Jefferson said. “It’s just simple small things that we’re doing to hurt ourselves in different ways throughout the game that make us lose that game. But all in all, we’re still 6-1. We’re still a good team.”
Buffalo (6-1) at Minnesota (6-1)
When/where to watch: Monday, 8:15 p.m. EST, ESPN.
Latest odds: Bills by 3½.
Against the spread: Bills 5-2, Vikings 4-3.
Last week: Bills beat Ravens 36-10; Vikings lost to Lions 19-15.
Last meeting: Vikings beat Bills 33-30 in OT on Nov. 13, 2022, in Buffalo.
Series record: Vikings lead 9-6. Bills wins 2018, 2014, 2006, 2002.
Bills running back James Cook vs. Vikings defensive front. Cook, the three-time Pro Bowl pick, is fifth in the league with 707 rushing yards entering Week 9. He'll face a fired-up Vikings defense, which held the high-scoring Lions to 19 points but lapsed down the stretch with a bunch of missed tackles on running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
— Allen and Cook have scored a rushing touchdown in the same game 16 times, the most in NFL history. Allen's nine rushing scores this season entered the week as the second-most in the league, behind Bears running back D'Andre Swift.
— Bills edge rusher Greg Rousseau has seven sacks, one shy of a career high.
— Before limiting the injury-depleted Ravens to 10 points and 144 yards last week, the Bills had allowed 29-plus points five times in six games.
— Tyler Bass has the Bills franchise record with 21 straight field goals made, including seven in a row from 50-plus yards.
— Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell needs one win in the next two games to become the fastest in franchise history to 50 career wins.
— Jefferson has only 335 receiving yards in six games for the Vikings, on pace for what would be by far a career low. He had 193 yards in the 2022 game in Buffalo.
— T.J. Hockenson leads the Vikings with 31 receptions. Since entering the league in 2019, he has the fourth-most receiving yards (4,735) in the NFL among tight ends.
— Vikings edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel had a career-high 2½ sacks last week against the Lions.
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