The Buffalo Bills took on the Los Angeles Rams Monday night, winning 37-34 in overtime in a back-and-forth shootout. Buffalo improves to 4-1 on the season, sitting first in the AFC East, and fourth in the AFC.
Josh Allen and the Bills offense started to get things going in the second half, with Allen using his legs in the open field, alongside James Cook, who was a big part of Buffalo’s offense.
On the other side of the ball, the Bills struggled immensely against a high-powered LA offense, getting beat numerous times by both of their big-play wide outs.
Below are my risers and fallers following Buffalo’s Week 5 win:
Stock up
Josh Allen was on the stock down portion in the first half of Monday night’s game after completing four of his seven pass attempts for 60 yards and an interception. Coming out of half, Allen had a fire lit underneath him and turned things around for the offense, using his legs as a weapon.
Allen completed 12 of his 19 pass attempts for 210 yards and led the Bills in rushing with 10 carries for 121 yards, scoring a touchdown both through the air and on the ground. With the passing attack not working at full strength Monday night, Allen did what he had to in the final stretch.
With DJ Moore out, Keon Coleman was the next man up. Coleman had the Bills one, and only, receiving touchdown on the night, finishing with just one reception on the stat sheet for seven yards.
What is not shown on the stat sheet is the other two receptions he had, one for another seven yards, and one for 17 yards, however both were called back for offensive penalties. He also drew multiple penalties on the defense.
Greg Rousseau has made the stock-up list consistently, and this week might have been his most impactful performance of the season. In overtime, with Los Angeles lined up to take a 48-yard field goal for the win, Rousseau exploded through the c-gap and got his hands up to block the kick.
Rousseau’s impact has been huge, not only the sack numbers, but the pressure off the edge has also been a tremendous force on Buffalo’s defense. He finished with one tackle, one hit on the quarterback, and led the Bills with six pressures.
James Cook was relied on a ton Monday night with the absences of DJ Moore. Cook was the workhorse, finishing with 25 carries for 111 yards and two touchdowns. He is now third in rushing yards on the season with 532.
Despite reaching the end zone twice, the issues came with his two almos-costly fumbles, one of which came in overtime.
“Look, he’s doing so many good things running the football. I don’t want to lose sight of how great he’s running the ball right now,” said Bills HC Joe Brady. “But we’re putting the ball on the ground, and it’s negating all the positive… I have all the confidence in him. But at some point there has to be consequences when we’re putting negative stuff out there.”
Ty Johnson was a big help in the Bills passing attack Monday night. With not much going in the first half, 40 of Allen’s 60 passing yards came from Johnson’s receiving. He led the Bills in receptions with four, for 72 receiving yards.
In overtime, from 45 yards out, Tyler Bass was called on for the game-winning field goal try, and he nailed it. Bass made three of three field goal attempts and two of his three extra point attempts.
Stock down
Pass coverage
The Bills secondary struggled against the Rams receivers. Stafford completed 40 passes for 383 yards and three passing touchdowns, targeting Puka Nacua 24 times and catching 17 for 138 yards and a touchdown. In the red zone, Davante Adams was a huge threat, scoring twice on Buffalo.
In the secondary the Bills started rookie Davison Igbinosun at cornerback alongside Christian Benford who heavily out-snapped Maxwell Hairston only playing 17 snaps, either way the secondary could not find a rhythm and got diced up.
Linebackers
Inside linebackers Terrel Bernard and Dorian Williams have struggled in the past few weeks and including Monday night in pass coverage against tight end Tyler Higbee, who finished with 83 yards. The linebacker unit got exposed against the Rams passing attack.
Many have called for a switch at the position, looking for Buffalo to pull up veteran Shaq Thompson from the practice squad and look to start rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr.
Passing Attack
Buffalo’s passing attack was limited on Monday night. The Bills relied heavily on the run game with both Allen and Cook, with Allen finishing with just 19 pass attempts. Khalil Shakir was the leading receiver with just three receptions for 80 yards, with one catch going for 57.
Aside from Shakir, Johnson was the only other player with multiple receptions. The drop-off in the passing attack was evident without Moore on the outside.
Turnovers
The Bills lost the turnover battle in this one but still won. The first turnover came at the end of the first half when Allen threw a ball into double coverage for Coleman which was picked. Cook then fumbled twice, one in the third quarter which was retained, and the one in overtime which was recovered by Aaron Donald. Simply put: the Bills have to take better care of the football.
Penalties
The penalty flags were flying for both sides on Monday night. Buffalo was flagged for 13 of the 24 total penalties that were called, resulting in 112 yards.