Bills prepare for third Thanksgiving game in last four years

What’s better than football on Thanksgiving? Nothing at all.

There’s nothing like being surrounded by your friends and family and watching the Thanksgiving NFL games, no matter how bad they may be sometimes. Everyone tunes in to watch the Lions, then the Cowboys, and then the Thursday night game. There are some good games on the Thanksgiving slate this year, with one of them being our own Buffalo Bills.

The Bills will face the Lions on Thursday at 12:30pm. The Bills, having played in Detroit this past Sunday against the Browns are going to be no stranger to the locker room, the field, and atmosphere on Thursday. However, their bellies won’t be the only thing that will be full on Thanksgiving, as they’ll also have their hands full with a feisty Lions team. Sorry, was that bad?

The Lions come into this game on a three-game win streak with wins over the Packers, Bears and Giants. The Bills finally got back on track with a commanding win of their own over the Browns on Sunday. Let’s hope that was the bounce back game that the Bills needed before facing Detroit this week. They are starting to shake off whatever funk they were in over the past couple weeks.

While the offense and defense started off very slow and sluggish on Sunday, they eventually got it going in the second half. Josh Allen is clearly working through some issues with his decision making, but it was nice to see him take the check down option more often than not this past week with Dawson Knox accounting for seven catches for 70 yards.

It was also one of the best-called games from a play-calling standpoint, with Ken Dorsey sticking with what was working for them, that being the run game. Devin Singletary and James Cook were an excellent one-two punch on Sunday as the Bills rushed for 171 yards and Josh only accounted for seven of them. Not having to rely on the arms or legs of Josh to do everything for the offense is something we hope to see more of down the stretch.

The Bills defense is severely missing Tre White, Kaiir Elam and Tremaine Edmunds right now in the passing game. While the Bills did a tremendous job stopping one of the best backs in the game, they allowed Jacoby Brisset to throw for over 300 yards and Amari Cooper to go over 100 receiving as well. Dane Jackson was constantly getting torched by Amari Cooper, and Tyrel Dodson looked lost out there as well.

This will be the third Thanksgiving game in four years for the Bills. We know Josh loves playing on Thanksgiving as he’s 2-0 and completed 42/52 passes with 491 yards and 6 total touchdowns! He goes up against a Lions defense that is one of the worst in the league in nearly every category from run defense to pass defense. This is another spot for Josh to get right in and he should have no problem moving the ball against this secondary.

I also expect Cook and Singeltary to find lots of room to run as well.

If the offense performs the way they did in the second half of the game against the Browns, then I don’t think the Bills should have any issues on turkey day. The Bills are the better team in every phase and aspect of the game, and this is a great time for the Bills to come off their short week and keep their momentum going.

While the Lions have been playing better, there really is no excuse for the Bills to lose to the Lions. Josh Allen thrives with the spotlight on him, and he knows how huge this game is for the Bills. They have a chance to get the first win of the week and temporarily take over first place in the AFC East.

The Bills should get Elam back for this game, while Edmunds and Rousseau have been ruled out, Epenesa is doubtful, and Mitch Morse is questionable. Hopefully very soon Buffalo will be back to full strength on the defensive side, Allen will have worked through his mental mistakes on the field, AND we will have established a ground game with Singeltary, Cook and Hines. Good luck beating that team.

Strap in Bills fans, we are on the back half of the season now, let’s see what this team is made of. There would be nothing better than starting the Thanksgiving break off with a Bills win.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and eat lots of food. Go Bills, baby!