ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here are my five thoughts on the Buffalo Bills’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night at Highmark Stadium:
1. It’s only the third week of the NFL season, yet the Bills already face questions about whether their roster can withstand mounting injuries.
The biggest are on defense, where they’re looking to a pair of backup of linebackers and a reserve nickel cornerback to help them go 3-0.
Start with the linebackers. Baylon Spector will make his first NFL start in place of captain Terrel Bernard, who suffered a pectoral injury early in last week’s victory at Miami. Spector held up well the rest of the way, but entering a game as a starter is a different challenge. For one thing, the Jaguars now have been able to see what Spector is all about. Secondly, this a Jacksonville team capable of playing better than its 0-2 record would indicate.
The Jaguars have a solid running game and their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, has more than enough arm talent and athleticism to allow him to snap a seven-game losing streak (longest among starting NFL QBs this season). He has been a victim of some of his poorly thrown passes and sloppy play (he has 10 turnovers through that 0-7 stretch), but also by the league’s highest rate of dropped passes, according to Pro Football Focus.
Additionally, the Bills are going into their third game with Dorian Williams starting in place of Matt Milano, one of the game’s top linebackers when healthy. Williams doesn’t have Milano’s exceptional skills in pass coverage or extraordinary ball instincts, but he has mostly kept his head above water.
“Yeah, they are tough to replace,” Sean McDermott said of Spector and Williams. “They’ve just got to go in and be themselves and we’ll play well around them. They did a nice job last week, but they’re focused on this week … and just really learning the game plan.”
Cam Lewis has been more than serviceable since taking the field early in the season-opener against Arizona after All-Pro nickel back Taron Johnson suffered a forearm injury that will keep him out Monday night. Lewis and fellow UB alum Ja’Marcus Ingram are making their presence felt on the back end of Buffalo’s defense.
Their performance is a testament to the mantra that permeates throughout the defensive backs room.
“The standard is the standard,” cornerback Rasul Douglas said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you are on the depth chart. So, when you get a rep and practice with the scout team or with the defense, you’ve got to take that rep like it means something to everybody because we’re all depending on you to do your job just like you depend on everybody else to do their job.”
2. The Jaguars’ defensive front figures to pose as strong a challenge as any the Bills have faced so far. That might not be saying much, but it’s worth noting.
It’s also worth noting that Jacksonville doesn’t show a lot of strength in its defensive backfield. But the only way for the Bills to exploit that is for Josh Allen to have sufficient time to make plays against standout edge rushers Josh Hines-Allen, Travon Walker and Arik Armstead.
“You know, their front seven, they get after it,” Allen said. “They’ve got two really supreme edge rushers; I’d even go out and say three. You know, the last couple times we’ve played them, they’ve gotten the best of us. … They’re flying around … They’ve got guys with a lot of motor. They don’t let up. So, we’re going to have our hands full.”
In their season-opener against Miami, the Jaguars managed to have success with four pass rushers, allowing for a maximum amount of coverage. That can be a quarterback’s worst nightmare.
“Yeah, I mean it makes life pretty tough back there as a quarterback, especially with the group that they have,” Allen said. “If they can consistently get to the quarterback and only bring four and have seven guys, whether it be in man or zone coverage. That’s a defense you’ve got to be scared of, when they don’t have to (manufacture) pressure to get quarterback hits and sacks and force you off your spots, which they’ve shown to do.
“So, again, protection game, we have to understand what’s going on, where their guys are at, making sure we’re blocking it correctly. And, again, when they do bring pressure, making sure that we understand what they’re bringing and try to execute as well as we can.”
3. When will the Bills’ passing game be a factor?
So far, it has been a no-show, though that has largely been true with many other teams. However, that doesn’t provide much comfort for the Bills faithful, which has come to expect Allen to carry the team on his talented passing arm.
It’s clear that he has yet to develop chemistry with his revamped group of receivers. And it’s fair to say a dynamic game-breaker has yet to emerge to replace Stefon Diggs, who now plays for Houston, or even Gabe Davis, who now plays for the Jaguars.
Through two games, the Bills have had a power-driven offense, relying primarily on the legs of James Cook. Meanwhile, the team has attempted the second-fewest passes in the league.
“I mean, I think given our situation last week when we’re running it as well as we are and you get the ball kind of in really good field position throughout the entire game, that’s just kind of the game it’s going to be,” Allen said. “I think it feels pretty good and being able to hand the ball off to James and Ray-Ray (Davis) and let them go do some work and our offensive line is opening some holes for them and they’re running it really hard and we’re having some success doing it. So, it’s working, keep calling it and I know that it's going to present itself in the pass game. We're going to have opportunities and we’ve got to go make them.
“I think when we have opportunities, we’ll try to hit on those and try to execute as well as possible. But at this moment right now, if teams want to continue, and I think over the course of the league right now, what defenses are doing, playing a lot of two-high shell and running is in high demand right now for an offensive side of the football. It helps you do a lot of different things. So, as we continue to run the ball effectively, we’ll have more opportunities to hit downfield.”
4. Credit Josh Allen for displaying a selfless attitude when it comes to the Bills’ lack of passing game production.
Not that this should come as a surprise. Allen has always been one of the foremost team-first players in the league. He embodies the philosophy that McDermott constantly preaches about each man doing his “one eleventh.”
As long as the Bills keep winning, the quarterback will keep smiling, regardless of what his individual stats say.
“If you’re focused on stats and what’s going on, it’s frustrating,” Allen said. “But in terms of winning football games, it’s not. It’s just whatever helps us score and move the ball and scoring, that matters. So, that’s all we’re caring about right now.”
The prevalent use of two-deep zone coverage is forcing teams to keep smaller defenders on the field beyond obvious passing situations. Consequently, it makes sense for offenses to attack with power-oriented schemes.
“As defenses get smaller to combat speed on the field and spread offenses, that’s when you start seeing some bigger (running) backs go down there and start bruising again,” Allen said. “It’s the evolution and cycle of football that we’ve seen over the last however many years where you get big, and then the offense gets fast, and defense gets small and fast, and the offense gets big again. So, it’s kind of a cool evolution to be a part of and to see unfolding as I’m playing in it.”
5. Speaking of strategy, one noticeable difference in the Bills’ defensive scheme is the emphasis on simplicity. That has gone a long way toward allowing it to play with considerable speed and physicality.
Simplicity is the cornerstone of the approach of new defensive coordinator Bobby Babich, who understands the players he coaches tend to perform far better when not burdened by too much thinking.
“We don’t really want to think, for real,” Rasul Douglas said. “Like, we just want to hit everything … So like, when you put it simple, it’s like we all can play faster. Because we ain’t got to think so much and we ain’t got to worry about too much going on. It’s just like, this is what it is. Like, let’s just go.
“So, when you practice that every day, it gets easier and easier. Now, you kind of know everything about how to do this exact one thing. Instead of practicing 16 things and being a major in one and then a minor in 15 others, you major in one thing and no minor. Now, it’s kind of like all your focus is just on your major. So, that’s what best fits for us as a defense.”