ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here are my five takes from the Buffalo Bills’ 24-18 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Thursday night at Highmark Stadium:
1. It wasn’t convincing, it wasn’t pretty, but it was a win – a win the Bills needed. Badly.
A loss would not have meant the end of the season, but it certainly would have felt as if the Bills had slid into the sort of hole from which an escape would be difficult.
“It’s good to win,” safety Micah Hyde said. “Obviously, with that sour taste in our mouth we had on a short week, it’s good to get up, go out and get a big win.”
The Buccaneers aren’t a good team. It’s hard to say how much better the Bills are, given that they allowed the Bucs to hang around until the very end and come close to pulling out a win on a last-second heave to the end zone by Baker Mayfield. The ball had a better chance of being caught in the end zone by a Tampa Bay receiver (Chris Godwin was closest to it), because no Bills defenders jumped for it before it landed on the ground. That came after Mayfield led the Bucs on a 17-play, 92-yard drive (helped by some penalties) that ended with his 24-yard touchdown throw to Mike Evans and a two-point conversion pass with 2:44 left.
Nevertheless, there were some encouraging signs for the Bills to take into their mini bye. The offense, their largest shortcoming in the previous three games, showed a bit of improvement. Josh Allen threw for 324 yards and two touchdowns and also had a 13-yard scoring scramble on a called pass play. There were a couple of lowlights. Allen had an interception that set up the Buccaneers’ lone touchdown. The Bills also were stopped on fourth-and-goal from the Tampa Bay 1-yard line in the first quarter when an Allen pass nearly turned into a pick-six.
For the most part, however, he looked more comfortable in the pocket, thanks in part to some better pass protection and effective intermittent use of an up-tempo no-huddle attack.
“This team moves really well when I’m able to get the ball around to our playmakers,” Allen said of completing passes to six different receivers. “And I thought guys did a great job of the ball in their hand, making some RAC. … I thought (offensive coordinator Ken) Dorsey did a great job of giving us stuff we were familiar with, get into it early and often. …
“I think our offensive line played extremely well tonight. I think that they made their calls and we picked up a lot of the pressures that they were doing, so credit to our coaching staff for putting together a good game plan. But ultimately the guys out there executed.”
Allen also ran more than he had in recent games, carrying seven times for 41 yards.
2. Gabe Davis became the focal point of the Bills’ offensive revival.
The receiver had a career-high with nine receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown. He consistently got good separation in coverage, including when he was wide open in the back of the end zone for the four-yard TD catch that gave the Bills a 24-10 lead in the third quarter.
Davis continues to show he has what it takes to give the Bills a more than solid No. 2 receiver to Stefon Diggs. He, too, finished with nine catches, but his biggest impact might have come in the locker room prior to kickoff. Sean McDermott said the receiver gave the team “his little motivational couple of words before we went out there.” The coach didn't get into what Diggs said, but commended his leadership as a captain.
3. Dalton Kincaid rose to the occasion of replacing injured No. 1 tight end Dawson Knox and extended his rookie coming-out party in the process.
Kincaid caught five passes on seven targets for 65 yards and his first career touchdown, a 22-yarder that also gave him his longest reception to date. Allen made a point of running to the end zone to grab the ball to make sure Kincaid would have it as a keepsake.
“We call them stupid rookies,” Allen said. “You never know what they’re going to do on their first touchdown, so I stole it from him and made sure I got it to our equipment manager.”
In Sunday’s 29-25 loss against New England, Kincaid had a game-high eight catches for 75 yards. He’s showing a much better grasp of how to run routes and find gaps in coverage while displaying extraordinarily dependable hands. Doing so against a solid Buccaneers defense was no small feat.
Kahlil Shakir also was a significant factor in the passing game, catching all six of the passes thrown his way for game-high 92 yards, including a 30-yard catch.
4. The Bills did get a scare when Allen entered the medical tent in the second quarter after falling hard on his right (throwing) shoulder while being sacked.
On the first play after returning to the field, he had a pass tipped at the line by safety Antoine Winfield Jr., and intercepted by defensive lineman William Gholston. That set up a three-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to Chris Godwin to tie the game at 10-10.
It was the sort of sequence of events that no doubt caused some squirming among Bills fans.
But Allen showed no limitations with his throwing the rest of the way.
“I took a little fall on it and felt a little funky about it,” Allen said. “But, you know, just trying to keep it warm and keep it loose. I’ll be sore for a couple of days, but we’ll be fine.”
5. Despite how close the Bucs came to scoring a last-second touchdown, the Bills’ defense did redeem itself after failing to stop the Patriots from scoring the winning touchdown in the final seconds on Sunday.
Granted, Tampa Bay can’t run a lick and Mayfield’s passing success is sporadic at best. Still, the Bills’ D deserves credit for making the stops that needed to be made on the way to limiting the Buccaneers to 302 yards and sacking Mayfield three times. After the Bucs tied the game at 10-10 with 6:46 left in the first half, their next four drives ended with punts. The longest of those possessions covered 29 yards.
Buffalo’s special teams also had a little redemption after Tyler Bass’ missed 42-yard field goal against New England. Bass had a 37-yard field goal on the game’s opening drive, punter Sam Martin twice pinned the Bucs deep in their territory and Shaq Lawson got a piece of a 50-yard field-goal attempt by McLaughlin to force it to fall short.
A negative for the special-teams unit was committing penalties that cost the Bills good field position.
