J.J. Watt Provides Recipe for Bills to Reach Super Bowl LXI

The Buffalo Bills have an offense that’s capable of going the distance this season.

It’s no secret.

There are plenty of supporters of the notion around the league from other media members, coaches, and players—both current and former—that Buffalo and quarterback Josh Allen could be on the path to SoFi Stadium later this season for Super Bowl LXI.

Now, following the Bills’ most recent back-to-back road victories over the Los Angeles Rams and Las Vegas Raiders, longtime NFL defensive end and current CBS broadcaster J.J. Watt says you can add him to the list of names in that category, as well.

Former NFL defensive legend lays out Bills’ outlook during team’s bye week

“I think, with the Bills (and) the offense, we’ve kind of been saying it for a while—everybody kind of knows that—that offense is good enough to win a Super Bowl,” J.J. Watt said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday.

“They held on to the ball better in this (last) game, obviously, than they have up to this point in the last three weeks or so. Josh Allen continues to do things that maybe only he can do, and some of those Brett Favre-type plays where he draws up the defense (to him and) flips it over the top (for a touchdown).

“(Josh Allen) didn’t run the ball, you know, scramble-wise, nearly as much as he did Monday night, but it’s very, very good.”

Watt just announced Buffalo’s 33-30 victory over Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium last Sunday, which is a matchup where Allen threw for 255 yards and two touchdowns while his counterpart in the backfield—reigning 2025 rushing champion James Cook III—piled up 95 yards and one touchdown on 22 carries.

Buffalo’s defense continues to struggle during latest two-game winning streak

The team’s defense, however, surrendered 30 points and 378 total yards of offense on 61 plays (6.2 yards per play) to a reeling Raiders’ squad that was coming off two straight losses and had only managed to record 17 points and 306 yards on offense for an average of 5.4 yards per play the week prior against the New England Patriots.

The outing came on the heels of another shaky, yet victorious performance against the Rams—at that aforementioned Super Bowl venue in Inglewood, California—where Bills’ first-year defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s unit allowed 454 yards to Los Angeles’ 18th-year quarterback Matthew Stafford and Co. under the lights of Monday Night Football.

It’s a major concern, one of which there’s no hiding from . . . and it might end up costing the Bills in a big way at some point down the line later this season if it’s not fixed in a hurry.

Watt worries defensive woes could deny Bills’ entry into SoFi for Super Bowl LXI

“It’s just (about) if the defense can catch up. . . . It’s all going to come down to their defense,” Watt added during his appearance with Pat McAfee.

“And, I liked some of the stuff that they did in the game in terms of playing a little more man, (and) being a little more aggressive. Jim Leonhard put in Christian Benford directly on Brock Bowers at times, and that worked really well. 

“It was a fun battle to watch all day long to just see how they were trying to defend Brock Bowers.”

So, although there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about Buffalo’s chances later this season under first-year head coach Joe Brady, there are more than a few areas of concern that give outside observers like Watt pause.

And, for good reason.

Bills’ brass must be mindful of mishaps, be aggressive to right ship

However, with that in mind, hopefully Brady and Leonhard—as well as Bills’ general manager Brandon Beane—have a solid plan of attack coming out of the team’s current bye week in order to get things corrected on that side of the ball.

If they can, then Bills Mafia might be dancing in the sunshine of the West Coast once again later on in February like they were over this past two-week stretch.

But, if Buffalo’s brass can’t manage to figure things out, then it might be another year of wondering, “What if?”

The next several weeks of the regular season, especially before the trade deadline, could get very interesting in Western New York.

Stay tuned.

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