Bills defense looks legit and 5 other observations from Vikings win
· Yahoo Sports
MINNEAPOLIS - We can wholeheartedly acknowledge that in their last two games, the Buffalo Bills’ defense has faced some of the most incompetent quarterbacking we’ve seen in the NFL this season.
Last week it was Baltimore Ravens third-stringer Joe Fagnano forced into making his NFL debut and standing no chance of succeeding, and Monday night it was washed-up Minnesota Vikings veteran Carson Wentz doing a spot on impression of Fagnano in what was one of the worst performances in his 11-year career.
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But it wasn’t all about bad quarterback play in these two games; the Bills’ improving defense had something to do with it and that was especially true in their 23-6 dismantling of the Vikings, a battle between 6-1 teams, one that certainly looked the part while the other looked like a pretender.
“I don’t think it feels different, I think it looks different,” head coach Joe Brady said of the defense’s turnaround since the bye week. “I think the way that they’re communicating, the confidence at which they’re playing. All week we kind of said if you’re worried about your own stats this game we’re not going to get the results that we want.
“I think the way you see our defense playing right now, I see that. Some guys might not be necessarily getting some of the production but they’re making so many plays. No one cares how pretty it looks. Through the good, through the bad, you come out with the dub and then you clean it up.”
Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard’s group made Wentz look like a JV quarterback thrown into a state championship game.
"I haven't had many starts over the last couple years in general," said Wentz, who was booed throughout the night. “This one felt pretty terrible. I'm not going to lie. Yeah, this one wasn't my favorite, that's for sure."
He completed just 8 of 25 passes for 81 yards, threw two interceptions and should have had two more, and under his stewardship the Vikings managed just nine first downs, 178 yards and went 0-for-10 on third- and fourth-down conversions.
“I feel like sort of the first part of the season, especially with a new defense, you’re really trying to figure out who you are, what you're good at, what you're not,” said linebacker Michael Hoecht. “And I think we're starting to figure it out. Credit to Jim because he's done a really good job putting the guys in good situations. It's really rewarding when all the work that goes in during the week then shows itself during the game. It's pretty sweet.”
Minnesota’s biggest gain was 24 yards and it had only six other plays of 10 yards or more. The Bills also recovered a fumble, forced two turnovers on downs, and on nine of the Vikings’ 12 possessions, they managed one or no first downs.
Per ESPN, the Vikings are the first team to have six wins in the first eight games of a season with three of those games producing no touchdowns since 1925 when both the Detroit Panthers and the Frankford Yellow Jackets did that.
Meanwhile for Buffalo, in each of the last two games the defense has had at least three takeaways, multiple sacks, allowed fewer than 200 total yards, allowed a completion percentage under 50%, and gave up no passing TDs. The last NFL team to turn that trick was the historic 1985 Chicago Bears who did it three straight weeks.
OK, so the Bills aren’t the ‘85 Bears, and there will be far more daunting tests to come with Patrick Mahomes, Drake Maye, Jordan Love and Caleb Williams in succession in Weeks 12-15, but no one should be pooh-poohing the defense’s domination the last two weeks. Everyone gets paid in this league, plays still need to be made, and the Bills are making them.
Here are some of my main takeaways:
Bills overcame offensive line issues
Josh Allen has faith in every one of his teammates, but while he’ll never admit it, he had to be at least mildly concerned about playing this Minnesota defense without starting LT Dion Dawkins and LG Alec Anderson.
With all the communication issues that were sure to come up in a noisy dome against a blitzing defense, it was reasonable to worry whether Allen would make it out of the game alive. Per Pro Football Focus it was indeed a rough night for the offensive line as the two backups, Tylan Grable and Austin Corbett, as well as RG O’Cyrus Torrence were all charged with four QB pressures. But the bottom line is that Allen was unscathed and the Bills won the game.
“They stepped up tonight,” Allen said of Grable and Corbett. “Throughout the week, kind of in limbo whether they're going … so they had this mindset of, ‘Hey, I'm going’ and they went in there and didn't miss a beat. There's things we can all clean up, and I'm not perfect. Our offense wasn't perfect tonight, but I'm so proud of how they battled, how they attacked this week.”
Grable has now stepped in for Spencer Brown at RT against the Rams and Ravens and for Dawkins at LT against the Vikings which is exactly what a swing tackle has to do.
Joe Brady leaned into heavy personnel
This was really the only way to go in this game, especially once the offensive line inactives were official. The Bills needed all the blocking help they could muster to slow down the Vikings’ blitzes so Brady used two- or three-tight-end formations on 63.3% of the snaps.
Per Sumer, the Vikings played in their base defense 75.9% of the snaps and played zone on 94.6% of the snaps while blitzing 69.4% of the time. Even with the extra blockers, the Bills still allowed Allen to be pressured 47.2% of his dropbacks, but he was still able to throw for 234 yards.
Where the heavy personnel - which meant Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox and/or Jackson Hawes on the field together - made a difference was in the run game. The Bills' run-pass ratio was 55% to 45% and that helped lead to a whopping time of possession of 42-plus minutes.
“I had the confidence with the way our defense was going to play that I knew we’d have opportunities to possess the ball,” Brady said. “Time of possession is good, yards is good, but it’s only good if you’re scoring touchdowns and you’re finding ways. We have a lot we need to clean up, but the guys stuck together and found a way to get the win and they earned that win.”
Christian Benford is a true No. 1 corner
When your defensive coordinator asks you to take on the opposing team's best passing game target, that’s a sure sign of trust and right now Leonhard has that in spades with Benford.
In the last three games, Benford has played a key role in mostly shutting down Las Vegas TE Brock Bowers, Ravens WR Zay Flowers, and Vikings WR Justin Jefferson. When Benford was in coverage against those three Pro Bowl-level players they combined for four catches for 62 yards and for the games, seven receptions for 128 yards.
Monday, Benford had Jefferson in coverage nine times before leaving the game with a wrist injury in the third quarter and he limited him to two catches on four targets for 39 yards.
“I was playing my ball at the end of the day,” Benford said. “I'm most focused on my technique and my fundamentals. I always want to follow (the best players). It's valued a lot. I'm appreciative, I'm thankful that God gave me the opportunity. I'm thankful that God and Jim trust me.”
Instant replay went the Bills’ way
One of the biggest plays of the game came in the second quarter when Allen was sacked by Andrew Van Ginkel at his own 1-yard line and lost the ball with Van Ginkel recovering. At the time the Bills were up 3-0 and it looked like they were about to gift the Vikings a TD before instant replay properly showed that Allen’s leg was down before he lost the ball.
Before that, Brady nailed a challenge that led to Buffalo taking its 3-0 lead. On a first-down play, Wentz threw a pass to Jefferson and he dropped the ball. At first it looked like a routine incompletion, but Brady got word from his spotter that Wentz threw the ball backward so it should be a lateral and a fumble.
Sure enough, that’s what replay showed so the Bills gained possession because Greg Rousseau alertly fell on the ball. Buffalo promptly drove to the first of Tyler Bass’ three field goals.
Keleki Latu scored a touchdown
Who had that one on their bingo card? Buffalo’s first TD came late in the second quarter as Allen put together an outstanding eight-play, 80-yard drive that ended with his 25-yard pass to the fourth-string tight end.
"It was up there for forever," Latu said of the pass. "Just finally everything come to fruition … just knew that my hard work paid off."
Allen had extended the play with his legs and was running to the right sideline when he noticed Latu working free in the end zone and he drilled it in there for the score, the first TD of Latu’s brief career.
“If you talk to anybody on this team, Keleki Latu, especially when he's on that scout team, you throw it up to him, he's coming down with it,” Allen said. “He's a young player that's just gotten better each and every year. He continues to work hard, doesn't complain ever, finds himself in a spot tonight, makes a great play for us, and it's a huge play for us.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for more than four decades including 37 years as the full-time beat writer/columnist for the D&C. He has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [email protected], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills defense looks legit and 5 other observations from Vikings win