Bills-Lions Reactions: How Different is the Bills Offense?

The Bills beat the Lions 41-31 in Highmark Stadium’s first regular-season game to move to 2-0, after opening the year with a win in Houston. For the second week running, the offense cleared 400 yards while Josh Allen threw and ran for a combined 5 touchdowns. On this episode of 1st and 5, Dave and Greg broke down the win, including:

• What’s different about this Buffalo Bills offense?
• The DJ Moore injury and its impact on the offense going forward
• How good is the Bills defensive line?
• Can the secondary be fixed?
• Concerns with Jim Leonhard’s second-half adjustments

Is This Buffalo Bills Offense Actually Different?

Two games in, the answer’s yes, and it’s about more than talent. Greg sees a clear philosophy now. On an early 2&1, a down Buffalo used to burn on a run up the middle, they’re taking deep shots, because the tush push gets them the first on 3&1 anyway. Allen’s dropping back and hunting downfield on his first read instead of checking down, which Greg hasn’t seen in the last several years.

That points at Joe Brady. Dave thinks Brady’s line about wanting to put on a clinic reads like a coach who hears the pressure and answers it by turning the offense loose. It’s the same energy Ben Johnson brought to Detroit. For example, up 17 in the second half, Buffalo was still throwing on first down. And Allen played through the flu, got IVs before kickoff, and has nine touchdowns with no turnovers in two games, the only quarterback ever with back-to-back two-passing, two-rushing games.

Offensive Concerns Without DJ Moore

Moore left with an injury, and the building went dead silent. What happened without him is the good part. Dalton Kincaid slid into a large role for his second straight big game and is getting national love for it, down to a Dan Orlovsky breakdown of the Kincaid touchdown where he and Allen were perfectly in sync.

DJ Moore injury update: DJ Moore was listed on Friday as day-to-day, leaving his status for the Chargers’ game unknown. You can find up-to-date Buffalo Bills and NFL injuries via our interactive NFL Injury Tracker.

The overarching point is bigger than Kincaid. The routes are crisp and the timing’s right, which tells him the whole offense finally understands what it is, unlike last year when a banged-up Kincaid and Allen kept misfiring. Joshua Palmer added a wide-open deep touchdown, the downfield threat Buffalo signed him for, and Keon Coleman made some tough first-down grabs. It’s a good sign for an often-maligned Coleman.

Is the Defensive Line Finally Good? Like, For Real Good?

This was the good news. Ed Oliver was ruled out, and the front still took over. Greg Rousseau had another two-sack game and became just the second Bill ever, after Bruce Smith, to open a season with two sacks in each of the first two games, a nice touch with Bruce in the building as the first legend of the game. 

Bradley Chubb had a strong game too, better than Greg expected, and Deone Walker kept flashing, once running down a back far lighter than him. Buffalo held Jahmyr Gibbs to about 3.2 yards per carry, closer to two if you toss out his one 16-yard run.

The gut punch was Oliver going down in warmups, forcing a change to the inactives 10 minutes before kickoff. They sat him rather than dress him and lose a body, and the two agreed that’s the right call, since the 10 days before the Chargers matter more than a game Buffalo could win in a shootout.

Can Anyone Trust The Bills Secondary?

This is the worry that ran through the show. The back end got picked on again. Christian Benford had a second straight rough night, Dee Alford followed a nice tackle on Gibbs with two misses, and the tackling was sloppy across the group.

Greg’s concern is the projection. Benford earned “the right” to travel with the top receiver, and if he’s getting worked now, that’s trouble in January against a Chase or a Higgins. 

Dave pushed back on this assessment, and some banter ensued. Benford covered those two fine last year, and noted that he was drafted for a different scheme, and it’s two games into a new system where the communication is still coming together. Buffalo’s rotating Maxwell Hairston and IGB across from him, a sign Jim Leonhard doesn’t know the answer yet either.

But this is what had Greg worried. New system or not, the DB either covers the WR or doesn’t, system be damned. Where they agree is that it has to improve by the bye, or corner help through a trade, or the wire belongs on the table.

Did Jim Leonhard Win the Second Half?

Greg put a yellow flag on the adjustments. The first-half pressure vanished, Detroit adjusted in the third quarter, and Leonhard had few answers until the defensive line bailed him out. Greg even dug up Leonhard’s Wisconsin box scores over the summer and found steady scoring given up rather than big halftime clampdowns, which nags at him as a first-time NFL coordinator learning to adjust from the sideline.

Dave gave the other side. It’s two games against two of the best offenses on the schedule, the softer second-half shell looked deliberate against a team that scores in bunches, and the defense got its stop when it had to. 

The linebackers were fine, with Dorian Williams playing downhill and violent, once, noted by Dave, slamming Gibbs to the turf, while Terrel Bernard stayed hot and cold. The fair read is it’s too early to panic or relax, and the three softer weeks before the Rams, plus the bye, will be the real tell.

Wrapping Up a Bills Win

Are you buying this offense as the best in football, or does the defense have to catch up before you believe in January?

Be sure to tune into the 1st and 5 podcast live on YouTube and Facebook each weekday starting at 12 ET, and be sure to Like, subscribe, and comment.