The Buffalo Bills beat the Los Angeles Rams 37-34 in overtime on Monday Night Football to improve to 4-1, and Josh Allen got his first career overtime win. It’s a signature win that could pay dividends for the team down the stretch.
Here are my notes by half, overtime, and final thoughts.
1st Half
- Ray Davis, All-Pro kickoff returner. Awesome start. Scoring a TD on the 1st drive would be huge in this game.
- Josh Allen keeps refusing to take those short routes. Eats a sack after refusing to throw to the open receiver on the flat. Drive stalls, FG, 3-0 Bills.
- Despite what Joe Brady said, Noah Igbinosun is out there opposite Christian Benford, not Maxwell Hairston. He’s deserved the nod, but it’s not nice to see a 1st-round pick benched after one poor game.
- The Rams simply have too much talent for the Bills’ secondary to deal with. The quick game is easy for Matthew Stafford and his receivers right now. (383 passing yards, 3 TDs)
- Kyren Williams and their run game isn’t an easy task as well, especially with how scared they are about their WRs.
- Bills’ defense keeps failing to get out of the field on 4th downs. It wasn’t an easy one, but still. Getting stops there could be huge for them.
- A lot of space for Puka Nacua behind the Bills’ LBs in the cover 3 defense. Thankfully Stafford misses the throw. We’ll need those. (17 receptions, 138 yards, 1 TD)
- Oh, missed FGs are also welcome. Still 3-0 Bills.
- Good next drive. Josh looks healthy, moving well, even running defenders over. Great.
- James Cook’s also looking good. Fast and physical. (23 carries, 108 yards, 2 TDs)
- Aaron Donald schools O’Cyrus Torrence and sacks Josh. Gotta protect the franchise better. He has taken way too many hits recently.
- Josh misses Dawson Knox high in the back of the endzone. Eli Manning points out he looked scared of the DB there, and if you’re gonna miss those kinds of throws, you miss them high to avoid INTs. Another missed opportunity after a very good drive, another FG. 6-0 Bills.
- Too much Knox and too little Dalton Kincaid in the passing game so far.
- Bills’ D continues to play too many soft zones. Stafford, Puka, and Davante Adams are killing them. Also, bad tackling after the catch is costing stops.
- Rams at the goal line, as soon as Stafford sees Adams 1-on-1 with CJ Gardner-Johnson, it’s a wrap. TD Rams, and Adams has some words for CJGJ, who was loud on a previous play where Adams couldn’t score on IGB.
- Damar Hamlin is the option to replace Dee Alford again today, but he’s not lining up as the nickel CB. Cole Bishop isplaying there in the nickel package. Still not ideal, mainly on passing downs. I’d like to see Benford there a bit.
- Two consecutive successful screen plays in a row, to set up a James Cook TD run. First a WR screen to Khalil Shakir, on what looked like an RPO play. Then a nice RB screen to Ty Johnson, with that orbit pre-snap motion with Shakir going the other way. Creative ways to move the chains in a game our WRs haven’t been able to beat their matchups so far. 13-7 Bills.
- Hairston’s getting snaps outside now. Allowed a 1st-down completion.
- DeWayne Carter with the sack. Great to see the big guy making plays.
- Oh, unfortunate penalty on CJGJ here. Literally separated the TE from the ball. I believe the hit was perfectly timed, just unfortunate there was a bit of helmet-to-helmet.
- This defense needs those big plays so bad, so far Jim Leonhard’s unit is clearly a bend but don’t break type, allowing a lot of yardage.
- Kaleb Elarms-Orr almost with the pick. Terrel Bernard with the pressure on Stafford on a delayed blitz, giving the rookie an opportunity. Gotta make those plays.
- Bills get the ball back for a 2 min drive but run out the clock on the first two downs, then burn a timeout on 3rd and 1 with 37 seconds left. Brady istotally going the Sean McDermott way today. Long drives on both sides, fewer possessions overall.
- After a penalty making it 3rd and 6, Josh arm punts. I’m fine with those, and I’ll tell you one thing: it pisses me off the way WRs allow those to happen. Fight for the ball, justify the QB’s trust in those kinds of situations. Josh’s pass also could’ve been better, but there was time for Keon Coleman to go for it.
- Stafford almost pulls out a miracle pass to close the half. Inches away from a big-time TD. How can the Bills’ coverage allow that there? IGB got lucky.
- Despite looking really ugly, conceding just seven points to this Rams offense in the 1st half is definitely mission accomplished by this defense. Probably more lucky than competent, but still.
2nd Half
- Another forced 4th down. A penalty makes it 4th and 6, and they still can’t get out of the field, my goodness.
- Bishop’s being exploited in coverage as the nickel. 4th-and-6 conversion and PI in the endzone on him. TD Blake Corum. 14-13 Rams after the extra point.
- Weak penalties are killing the Bills’ O right now.
- Josh’s in bad situations, forcing passes as nobody’s getting open. Looks like last season’s passing offense. They need healthy DJ Moore badly. (7 completions through three quarters)
- Good defensive drive. Desperately needed.
- My gosh, James Cook. Another fumble. Luckily Knox recovered it.
- Josh’s making things happen on the move but questionable penalties again.
- PI on Keon, Bills inside the 10.
- 2nd week in a row Josh is struggling to find open receivers on his rollouts to the right. Defenses figured those plays out, it’s time for Brady to design some different routes there.
- Skyler Bell with an opportunity to make a play for Josh there, drops it in the endzone. Pass a little behind, not the easiest catch.
- After a false start and then a defensive holding, Cook loses yards, but Josh finds Keon on a nice route combo that freed him in the endzone. Well-designed play.
- Can’t say the same about the 2-point try. What are they doing there? False start and missed kick after it. Bills lead 19-14, but 2-point conversions continue to be an issue.
- Corum breaking tackles for a big gain after the catch, CJGJ seems hurt.
- Goal-line fade to Puka, over IGB, TD Rams.
- 2-point conversion not good! TJ Sanders flashes here. 20-19 Rams.
- Run game is looking good early in the 4th again. Cook with 2 runs, and then 2 play-action plays. Josh scrambles for a big play, followed by a great screen to Ray Davis, who again takes advantage of his opportunity. Bills at the goal line.
- Tush push stopped from the 3-yard line, with a defensive penalty. Next play, TD Josh Allen, another tush push.
- 2-point conversion is good! It looked bad at first, but Josh extends it a bit and Kincaid gets open. 27-20 Bills.
- We need one more stop here by the D, and the offense must close this one.
- Bernard and Benford are shaken up on this drive. The LB is quickly back. Rams keep moving the ball easily downfield.
- People are holding Deone Walker and it doesn’t matter, he still makes the play vs. the run.
- TD Rams on 3rd down. Middle-of-the-field route behind the Bills LBs, and the safety is nowhere to be found in the deep middle zone. Way too easy for Stafford.
- Josh’s looking like Josh. Makes defender miss for a 1st down.
- Great catch by Shakir on a deep in route. Had to survive the hit in the middle of the field to guarantee the 1st down. We need more of this from him.
- Silly fouls smh.
- 2nd and 16 becomes a 1st and goal. That’s Josh, you really think he looked healthy last week? Awesome scramble, not afraid of contact. Bills in command of this game. (10 carries, 121 yards, 1 TD)
- Superman is back.
- Nate Landman with another stop, tackling Cook. We don’t have anything like that at LB.
- TD Bills, James Cook. He broke some tackles to get into the endzone. Rams still have 1 timeout left, and 1:39 is more than enough for them to score against our defense.
- Can this D close this game???
- 3 plays and they’re in FG range.
- 4 plays and they’re in the red zone.
- TD Rams, what a pathetic effort by this defense. LA didn’t even need their timeout. Unbelievable. 34-34. With 5 secs to go, OT next.
- BTW, another GWD by Allen was stolen by an awful defensive drive.
OVERTIME
- Bills will get the ball 1st.
- Phantom holding call on Bell negates 1st down.
- Josh hits Shakir for a big gain, Kamren Kinchen saves the Rams. He wasn’t supposed to run that fast. I really wanted him over Bishop on that draft, and I still feel like he’s the best player.
- Oh, James Cook. C’mon. Another fumble, at the worst possible time. (2 fumbles, 1 lost)
- Stafford completes a pass under pressure, one man completely open downfield, between four Bills defenders.
- Another long completion to Puka vs zone. Leonhard has a lot of work to do. This secondary can’t cover to save their lives.
- Greg Rousseau! Big-time players make big-time plays, and Groot is becoming that, finally. FG block gives Josh and the offense another opportunity.
- Superman with a Houdini-like escape puts the Bills in FG range. Then another QB keeper for another 1st. Josh is finishing it himself.
- Tyler Bass with the clutch kick to close the game. What a win.
Final thoughts
I was feeling that familiar bad taste as this one played out live. The one I felt so many times in the playoffs the last few years. Despite an amazing effort from Allen, it wasn’t going to be enough I thought. The team simply doesn’t look good enough around him, and yet they fought hard and made the game so close.
This team lacks elite talent, period. Who are the potential All Pro/Pro Bowl guys other than Josh Allen? True game changers? James Cook certainly, but his fumbles have been a huge problem. Deone Walker is trending in that direction, but he’s so young and might be a year away from being a true difference maker in a playoff run. Even if he already is this guy, he’s just one man. But then, when everything looked lost, Greg Rousseau showed he’s truly establishing himself as one of those difference makers, one we badly needed, especially on defense. A FG block on OT, really?
And then Josh, who already had that look we know so well on the sidelines, showed he wouldn’t waste a new opportunity. He (almost) won it by himself next. Almost. Because we still needed Tyler Bass, a guy who some still don’t trust in big moments, to make that kick — and he made it.
Great win by the Bills in very difficult circumstances. It was a game I wasn’t expecting much from, and they delivered. Yet, it’s not a game that makes me more confident in their Super Bowl chances — I continue to “Billieve” — we have Josh, and when he’s healthy, we have a shot versus anybody.
However, I still don’t think the team around him is near good enough. We like our guys, we wanna believe in them. But we need more. More talent, better calls, better execution. More help to 17. Hopefully DJ Moore is back soon. Hopefully, Brandon Beane adds talent before the trade deadline.
We can’t waste another year of 17 being Superman, nor expect him to always carry us, almost single-handedly, to the wins. It’s not sustainable, not against the best teams in the league for 3 or 4 consecutive weeks.
1-0, Go Bills.
Catch up on all this and more with the latest edition of Leading the Charge!