Thad Brown: Ton of good from Bills season opening win
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WROC) — There were lots of national NFL experts and pundits and media types who saw the Bills taking a step back this season. Not a big step, but a step. Local experts, too. I was one of them.
It's not that all of those football minds thought the Bills had less talent. It was because there were more questions. Gone were Micah Hyde's and Stef Diggs' and Tre White's and Mitch Morse's. Players you could be confident would play to a certain high level.
They were replaced by a crew of maybe's, possibly's and hopefully's. Draft picks and younger veterans that didn't have the same track record of elite success. The individual paths to success were evident. All of those players walking those paths seemed less likely.
Sunday against the Cardinals, a lot of guys took plenty of steps in the right direction.
Not Greg Rousseau. He didn't take steps. He took leaps and bounds. A three-sack day that started with a cheappy, chase-the-QB-out-of-bounds sack and ended with a dominant, game-changing sack.
Following an encouraging preseason, Rousseau had the look of someone on the cusp of ascension heading into his fourth season. The odds were against him. Of the top 20 active sack leaders, only six had their first 10-sack season after year three. Four of those six did so on a new team (the other two had their first 10-sack season deep into lengthy careers). Taking a leap from competent to elite on the edge was nearly unprecedented this late into a career.
It wasn't just that Rousseau put up the numbers on Sunday, it was how he did it. He was long. He was powerful. He was using his physical gifts with a confidence like he never has before in the regular season, but exactly like he did in the two-sack preseason game in Pittsburgh.
It wasn't just Rousseau. Von Miller also got his first sack since 2022. His sack might have been a bit fluky--Kyler Murray tripped over an offensive lineman--but the pressure he applied on the play was not. It wasn't the only time Miller made Murray sweat. He won a hand fight in the first half that chased Murray from the pocket. Murray might have scrambled for a first down, but Miller had more QB pressures in one game of 2024 than he had in all of 2023.
The Bills certainly have some issues up the spine of their defense with the changes at linebacker and safety. Arizona opening the game with six straight touches for running back James Conner hinted at where they thought Buffalo was most vulnerable.
A good pass rush changes all that in a hurry. Rousseau's sack-fumble was the thing that finally turned the opener for the Bills. He and Miller accounted for four sacks in game one. Even half that pressure on a weekly basis would make offenses worry about Buffalo's edge presence regularly. It could make things a ton easier everywhere else.
The offensive guys have been telling us for weeks their easy button was the variety of weapons the Bills can bring to the table. "Everybody eats." It might already be a bit worn out, but it's a perfect way to describe how Buffalo moved the ball against Arizona.
Nine different players caught passes and Josh Allen was efficient spreading the wealth. Of his 23 attempts, only five hit the ground. He averaged a scorching 10-plus yards per attempt. There were no passing turnovers. James Cook was fine on the ground with 19 carries that went for 3.7 yards a rush. Ray Davis even contributed a couple first downs.
No receiver had more scrutiny heading into week one than Keon Coleman. All the rookie did in his first NFL game is lead the Bills in receptions and yards. Granted, it was only 4 for 51, but he also drew two penalties and added the most spectacular play of the game from a Bills weapon. Coleman's 28 yard catch in the 4th quarter with a defensive back in his hip pocket was the type of play he made often at St. John Fisher. The big catch Sunday confirmed, not only could Coleman do it in a real game, he could do it in a somewhat high leverage situation.
Speaking of having a target on their back, Tyler Bass went six for six on kicks on a pretty windy day. In his first game coordinating a defense, Bobby Babich coached up his group from a 17-point first half to only allowing three in the second half. Joe Brady pressed lots of correct buttons and had some nice wrinkles (loved the fake QB run that led to the Dawson Knox 23-yard catch in the first half). Guys who the Bills need to depend on this season were guys who largely delivered on Sunday.
That's not to say it was all perfect. Matthew Smiley did his best to put the "dynamic" in the new kickoff rule all by himself. Screens and dumps to running backs were a problem. Murray devastates a lot of defenses with his legs and the Bills were no different. It's hard to put that all on the new guys at linebacker and safety, especially when Taron Johnson is always a huge cog in in the center of the Bills defensive machine and he left the game during the first series. This is still a concern going forward.
As much as "everyone eats" had a good day, Allen still shouldered more of the offense than I think the Bills would prefer. He ran the ball nine times, scored twice on the ground and converted two more fourth downs on his own. One of those plays was Allen hurling his 258 million dollar body at the sky and coming down hard enough to cause some damage to his left wrist. He thinks he'll be fine, but admitted "I can't make a living that way".
Two of the Bills four biggest pass plays were classic Allen scramble miracles. He's ridiculously good at them, but the top problem with the Bills offense last year was relying on Allen to move the offense this way. At some point, Allen must be able to let the offense work for him more. There must be other ways the Bills can lean on to generate offense. Coleman created one. Shakir had a couple bowling ball impressions after a catch. The run game had moments. There needs to be more, especially because that Arizona defense might be the worst one Buffalo sees all season.
There's still way more good than bad that came out of this game and that would have been true even if Murray noticed Marvin Harrison, Jr. streaking downfield all by himself on the opposite sideline during Arizona's fourth down play. It's way better to also get the win, but the Bills checked enough boxes to make this game a big picture success win or lose.
If the Bills are going to avoid the step back everyone thought they saw coming (including me), this is a damn good first step forward.