The Buffalo Bills, losers of two straight heading into their bye week, have done some outstanding things on tape, to go along with a few hiccups.
Buffalo has scored at least 30 points in all four of their wins; they failed to eclipse 20 in their two losses.
In Week 1, they won a thriller over Baltimore. While one could argue that Baltimore is part of the four woeful teams (New York Jets, Miami, and New Orleans) that Buffalo defeated, it was an epic and difficult matchup before Baltimore was hit with injuries a few weeks later.
They were the last undefeated team for a few hours before losing to New England and then laying another egg against Atlanta.
The Bills do a lot of things right, and with a long season still ahead of them, they need to continue to lean into what’s worked well so far this season.
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The reigning MVP, Josh Allen, has had another excellent start to the year, throwing for nearly 1,400 yards and 11 touchdowns — top ten in each category.
Here’s the distribution of his 11 touchdown passes:
Allen has thrown 11 touchdowns via:
- Screen passes to Khalil Shakir (twice)
- Play action (3 times)
- Shotgun (6 times)
And three rushing touchdowns via:
- Play action and scramble (twice)
- Quarterback sneak
Allen is ninth in expected points added (40.85) among quarterbacks that took at least 50 snaps. He’s fifth in the same category (21.56) on play action. He’s thrown five touchdowns against the blitz, tied-third among quarterbacks.
The eight-year veteran is putting up another phenomenal statistical year, now let’s look at the rest of the team on film.
What the Film Says About the Bills
Buffalo’s defense has shown fantastic coverage disguises and similar blitz looks from the same players and personnel.
Here’s a classic coverage disguise:
Pre-snap, Taylor Rapp is the deep middle safety — indicating a Cover 1 or Cover 3 look. Both coverages have one safety responsible for the deep middle third of the field.
Cole Bishop (#24) is the key here. He’s in the box pre-snap before him and Rapp rotate into a Cover 2 — two deep safeties look.
Check the quarterback, Spencer Rattler’s, eyes. He’s scanning his left side of the field but sees Bishop covering that deep half of the field.
Rattler takes the checkdown pass to Alvin Kamara. From there, Christian Benford (#47) makes a good pursuit angle to take Kamara out of bounds for no gain.
Buffalo Bills Blitzes
Buffalo’s defense is excellent at showing blitzes from one direction when the actual pass rush is coming from the other side.
Here, Terrel Bernard (#8) and Cameron Lewis (#39) are both showing blitz in A gap — the gap between the center and the guards. Bernard and Lewis bail out of the blitz to cover the hook and curl area.
The fourth pass rusher comes from the nickel corner — Taron Johnson. Traditionally, the nickel corner is part of the blitz package; on this particular play, Johnson is the fourth pass rusher.
It’s A.J. Epenesa’s bull rush — ramming into the left guard that generates pressure to send Tua Tagovailoa out of the pocket and force an incomplete pass.
Similar concept here:
Bernard is head-up over the center, showing another blitz. On the snap, Bernard bails out, only to delay his blitz. The center is working to double team a Bills’ pass rusher. That allows Bernard to rush up the “A Gap” — the shortest gap towards the quarterback and create pressure.
While Bernard makes a good play, Drake Maye makes a better play by locating the ex-Bill Stefon Diggs on the scramble drill.
James Continues to Cook
Now to their run game, starring James Cook. He’s scored at least one touchdown in each of Buffalo’s four wins. In both of Buffalo’s losses, he did not hit his head on the goalpost.
Cook’s vision to find opportunities for cutbacks is phenomenal.
It’s a run play into the “B gap” — the gap between the guard and tackle. Left guard David Edwards makes a pull block — a block laterally from his original spot to create the hole for Cook.
From there, Cook makes the cutback once he’s at the second level to pick up ten yards.
Here’s another cutback by Cook:
The Bills offensive linemen go to “BOB” — big on big blocking, which means they block whoever is front of them. Each lineman successfully finds someone to block and Cook displays another nice cutback. Cook goes ten yards untouched before adding another four yards.
Buffalo’s keys to success have been their defensive disguises, blocking schemes and of course, Allen.
Were the Close Losses Really That Close?
There were several keys in both of the Bills’ losses that gave them breaks as they were playing catch-up.
Down ten in the fourth quarter against New England, Buffalo went 74-yards in eight plays to cut the lead to three. On that 74-yard drive, Buffalo was aided 30-yards via a pair of unnecessary roughness calls.
On the next drive, they immediately drew a 19-yard defensive pass interference that led to them tying the game momentarily before the Patriots walked it off with their own field goal.
In Atlanta, the Bills nearly gave up a miraculous 40-yard catch-and-run touchdown to Drake London at the end of the half. On the review, it was ruled that, with Taylor Rapp’s effort, London stepped out of bounds before breaking the plane.
Not only did Atlanta miss out on a touchdown, London’s decision to keep running prevented them from kicking a field goal that would have left Buffalo down three scores at intermission.
The breaks Buffalo received covered for some of their miscues in their losses. They cannot rely on opponents bailing them out with breaks that keep them in games.
As Buffalo regroups off the bye week, they will pay their monthly dues and get back to weekly good Buffalo Bills football on Sundays.
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