It wasn’t always pretty, but the Buffalo Bills have escaped Sin City with a victory, defeating the Las Vegas Raiders 33-30 in a hard-fought contest. The Raiders put up a fight against our Bills, but ultimately, it was one turnover that made the difference, and fortunately for the Bills, it was forced by the guys in white and royal blue.
The next time we’ll have Buffalo football to discuss will be in November, as the Bills head into their bye week next week sitting stop the AFC East Division with a 5-1 record. Our horns up and horns down for Buffalo’s final October contest are below.
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Horns Down: C.J. Gardner-Johnson
It wasn’t enough to miss tackles today. Gardner-Johnson outdid himself even beyond a poor performance by spitting at Raiders center Tyler Linderbaum, or tight end Brock Bowers, or just in the vicinity of the Raiders’ huddle. That led immediately to his ejection while Las Vegas was driving inside the two-minute warning towards the end of the first half. Gardner-Johnson is an edgy player, and he’s definitely shown that edge so far this season. While he’s arguably been their best safety, allowing just 10 of 18 passes to be completed when he’s the closest man in coverage, he’s struggled to wrap and tackle. Pro Football Reference credits him with six missed tackles already this season. I assume he’ll be suspended at least for Buffalo’s matchup with the Baltimore Ravens in two weeks, and deservedly so. That was an idiotic decision that put the team in a bad spot today. As a veteran, Gardner-Johnson needs to be better than doing something so stupid. He had one tackle before the ejection.
Horns Up: Keon Coleman
Every time quarterback Josh Allen needed a catch, he found No. 0. Coleman has continued to show growth this season, displaying good burst off the line of scrimmage, and sharpening his breaks in his routes. Coleman’s hands are great, as well, and he made some nice contested catches in addition to those where he was wide open. Coleman caught a wild touchdown pass in the third quarter on a quintessential Josh Allen ad-lib. That was the 258th touchdown pass of Allen’s career, which tied Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly for the most in Bills history. Coleman might not be a Tee Higgins-like superstar, but he’s come along nicely in his third professional season. He finished with four catches for 59 yards and a score on six targets.
Horns Up: Dorian Williams
The inside linebacker made a play, intercepting Kirk Cousins in the third quarter. It looked like Williams was in zone while his closest defensive counterparts were in man, and when tight end Brock Bowers broke for an out route, Cousins expected Williams to follow suit. Instead, Williams sat in the middle of the field, and he was in position to intercept what would have otherwise been a completion to tight end Michael Mayer. Williams has struggled in coverage throughout his career, and he ceded some snaps in obvious passing downs to rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr today, but he was the guy who made a big play when the defense needed one. Williams finished the day with STATS in addition to the interception.
Horns Up: Christian Benford
The Bills’ top corner traveled for most of the game with the Raiders’ top receiving threat, tight end Brock Bowers. That’s no easy task for any defensive back, let alone a cornerback, but Benford was more than game for the assignment. He held Bowers in check throughout the night, as he didn’t even see his first target of the game until the third quarter. Entering the fourth quarter, Bowers had just two catches for 23 yards, and that was mostly due to Benford’s tight coverage. Did the defensive game plan leave more space for Vegas’ other tight end, Michael Mayer, to have a big game? It sure did. However, it was nice to watch the Bills have a clear plan to force someone other than a team’s best player beat them. Kudos to defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard for the design, but at the end of the day, players play. Inexplicably, the Bills went away from it for a few plays late in the game, and Bowers promptly burned them for two catches and 47 yards on consecutive plays. Benford was outstanding today despite being the closest in coverage to Tre Tucker on a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Horns Down: Run Blocking
Leading up to this one, the mismatch—at least on paper—seemed to be Buffalo’s offensive line vs. the run defense of the Raiders. Well, score one for the old cliche, because this is yet another example of why the games aren’t played on paper. James Cook III, who made a concerted effort to hang onto the football all day long, was able to find room to run, but it wasn’t an explosive-heavy day for him. Cook averaged right around four yards per carry, which would be fine for most running backs, but for a player averaging 5.6 yards per rush entering play, it wasn’t quite the day we expected, as the Bills averaged just 4.1 yards per rush on the game as a team when accounting for Josh Allen’s kneel-downs at the end of the game.
Horns Up: Josh Allen
The Western Time Zone is good to Allen, and today was another example. Even without DJ Moore, who was inactive today, Allen was able to buy time, find space, and make plays. The Raiders did well to keep him in the pocket, and even when Allen was able to escape, they prevented him from running wild like the Los Angeles Rams allowed him to do last week. Allen threw two touchdown passes—one to Khalil Shakir in the second quarter and another on the aforementioned ad-lib to Coleman—and showed patience even against solid Vegas coverage. Allen used his legs to keep plays alive so that he could find open receivers. The Raiders beat him up today, too, as he took some big shots throughout play. Allen finished 23-of-33 for 255 yards with two passing touchdowns and zero turnovers. He had just one yard rushing on five carries, though three of those “carries” we’re kneel-downs at the end of the game.
Horns Up: Dalton Kincaid
He didn’t gain much in the way of yardage, but Kincaid was active throughout this one. He saw a team-high eight targets and parlayed that into a team-high seven receptions. He had just 38 yards receiving, but his line would have looked much better had a touchdown catch in the third quarter n0t been wiped out by a holding penalty on O’Cyrus Torrence. Kincaid left briefly to have an x-ray on his ribs, but he returned to the game. It was nice to see him back as a focal point of the offense.
Horns Up: James Cook III
What a week for Buffalo’s top running back, who not only led the team in rushing yards, but also nearly led the team in receiving yards this week. After spending far too much time discussing ball security this week as it relates to Cook, it was nice to watch him dominate and protect the football. Cook is an elite player, and he put his mark on the proceedings tonight. He caught three passes for 58 yards, and his last reception looked like it was going to be a touchdown. Instead, he finished that scoring drive with a three-yard rushing touchdown to put the Bills on top for good. Cook finished with 22 carries for 95 yards and a score in addition to the three catches for 58 yards through the air.
Horns Down: Pass Rush
While the defensive secondary looked pretty solid overall today—Davison Igbinosun had three pass breakups, Maxwell Hairston made some plays, and rookie Jalon Kilgore even had a breakup in the fourth quarter—but they gave veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins plenty of time to feel comfortable in the pocket throughout the day. Cousins threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes where, truthfully, the coverage couldn’t have been much better, but the veteran just put the ball in perfect spots for wide out Tre Tucker. The second score came with just 1:32 remaining, so we can talk about whether the rookie safety, Kilgore, was out of position. Cousins threw for 313 yards and two scores, and he was not sacked in the game.
Horns Undecided: You Make the Call
Okay, friends—who did we miss? Whose stock is rising, and who’s headed to the dog house? Let us know in the comments. Go Bills!