Grading the Buffalo Bills in their 31-19 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at Highmark Stadium …
Running game: A
James Cook is proving to be worth every penny of the contract extension he signed. He starred again Sunday, rushing for 117 yards and a touchdown in leading a ground game that piled up 165 team yards. Cook averaged 5.3 yards per carry. He has a knack for falling forward at the end of his runs, turning 3-yard plays into 5-yard gains. The Bills ran for a whopping 106 yards in the second half. “The second-half running game was legit. It really was,” coach Sean McDermott said. Quarterback Josh Allen added 45 yards on the ground, 27 of which came on a crucial third-down run in the fourth quarter. Allen also rushed for a touchdown. It was another quiet game for No. 2 running back Ray Davis, who had just one carry for 3 yards. Ty Johnson also rushed just one time, which went for no gain. Receiver Elijah Moore did the same, making it the fourth straight game to start the season in which Moore has taken at least one rushing attempt.
Passing game: B-
Allen finished 16 of 22 for 209 yards and two touchdowns. After his 27-yard scramble, he threw a perfect 28-yard touchdown pass to Dalton Kincaid. It was Kincaid’s only catch of the game, but it was a big one. Khalil Shakir’s 43-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter was the fifth-longest play of the receiver’s career. Shakir caught all five of his targets for 69 yards. Keon Coleman had three catches for 45 yards, and Joshua Palmer finished with two catches for 25 yards. Rookie tight end Jackson Hawes caught his only target of the game for a 15-yard gain. Tight end Dawson Knox was held without a catch and only targeted once.
The Buffalo Bills were waiting … and waiting … and waiting for something good to happen Sunday against the New Orleans Saints at Highmark Stadium. It took a while, but ultimately, Josh Allen happened.
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Run defense: D
The Saints piled up a whopping 189 ground yards on 34 carries, a team average of 5.6 yards per attempt. Quarterback Spencer Rattler hurt the Bills with his legs, eluding pressure and scrambling for 49 yards on six attempts. Missed tackles and gap integrity were trouble spots for the Buffalo defense. Saints running backs Alvin Kamara (15 carries for 70 yards) and Kendre Miller (11 carries, 65 yards, one touchdown) both were productive. Rookie defensive tackle Deone Walker had a pair of tackles for loss for the Bills. Middle linebacker Terrel Bernard finished with six tackles, and fellow linebacker Dorian Williams also had six tackles of his own.
Pass defense: B
Cole Bishop made a spectacular play in the second quarter to record his first career interception. The Bills finished with three sacks, as DaQuan Jones, A.J. Epenesa and Joey Bosa all brought down Rattler. Bosa and Epenesa got their sacks late in the fourth quarter with the Saints in desperation mode. The Bills had just one pass defensed (from linebacker Shaq Thompson) in addition to Bishop’s interception. Cornerback Tre White led the team with seven solo tackles, but that’s usually not a good sign for a defense. One of White’s tackles, however, was for a loss on fourth down, forcing a turnover on downs for the defense. Rookie cornerback Dorian Strong rotated in with White for a few defensive series. The Saints’ longest pass gained just 17 yards.
Special teams: B-
The opening kick return by Johnson went for just 13 yards. Curtis Samuel, in his first game this season, handled the rest of the kick returns and did a better job, averaging 27.3 yards on three attempts that gained a total of 82 yards. With Brandon Codrington inactive, Shakir handed punt returns, although he got just one attempt that gained 6 yards. The kickoff coverage did a decent job, holding Saints returner Velus Jones Jr. to an average of 26.8 yards on five attempts. Bills kicker Matt Prater was perfect on four extra points and a 35-yard field goal. Bills punter Cameron Johnston drew an important penalty against the Saints in the fourth quarter, a 15-yard personal foul for roughing the kicker. McDermott clearly didn’t like that play, as he was seen on the field saying something to the Saints’ sideline.
The Bills are 4-0 for the first time since 2020 and the second time in Sean McDermott’s nine seasons as coach. They overcame 10 penalties and a turnover to avoid the dubious distinction of becoming the first 3-0 team to lose to a 0-3 team in 17 years.
Coaching: C
Wasted timeouts. Questionable play-calling. An uninspired defensive effort, especially at the start. This was not a great showing by the Bills against a clearly inferior opponent. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady picked a weird time to give Davis and Johnson their only carries of the game on back-to-back plays at the start of the fourth quarter. “Obviously, it wasn’t good enough. So, we’ll go back and evaluate that,” McDermott said. McDermott chalked up the early second-half timeouts to substitution issues. Those need to be cleaned up in a hurry, because not having those timeouts really could have come back to bite the Bills. The Bills were also penalized 11 times, which is really sloppy. McDermott was absolutely right after the game when he said there was a lot for the team to clean up. The good news is they can do that after a win, but they’ll have to do so in a hurry because their next opponent, the Patriots, will come to Orchard Park on a roll, having defeated the Panthers, 42-13, on Sunday.
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Jay Skurski
News Sports Reporter
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