26CornerBlitz

How the Bills keep pulling off upsets QUICKLY Buffalo grabbed their second win of the season on Sunday, with a green rookie QB surrounded by the worst roster in football. How are they doing it? By ANDY BENOIT October 08, 2018 At 2-3, no one is saying the Buffalo Bills deserve a parade. But the team that’s widely regarded as the NFL’s least talented—including by yours truly—has now beaten the Super Bowl-contending Vikings on the road and AFC South-leading Titans at home. Head coach Sean McDermott, just like he did as a first-time head coach last year, is making chicken salad in Buffalo. His recipe is worth examining. Start by understanding Buffalo’s ingredients. Quarterback Josh Allen has mesmerizing arm strength and underrated athleticism. His accuracy is a work in progress. So is his field-reading, to a much greater degree. Allen does not yet understand how defensive fronts relate to potential pressure designs. He struggles to identify defensive looks that change after the snap. He sometimes predetermines downfield throws, which is to be expected given that he does not yet have a full grasp on how certain route concepts defeat specific coverages. This is not atypical of a rookie four starts into his career. We’ve seen equally raw but less gifted QBs go on to have nice careers. (McDermott tried to let Allen take the Patrick Mahomes path and learn from the bench, but Nathan Peterman wasn’t exactly Alex Smith.)

What are you going to do instead of watching the game on Sunday?

Subscription required for full access: ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Shaq Lawson’s eyes welled up with tears. The bags under his eyes showed how little he’d slept. On Wednesday morning at 7:55 a.m., Lawson got a text from CJ Fuller, a former Clemson teammate and one of Lawson’s closest friends. Fuller was planning on coming to Buffalo to visit Lawson and wanted to make sure he could bring his crutches as he recovered from ACL surgery. Lawson was looking forward to having Fuller in the crowd for the Bills’ Week 5 game against the Tennessee Titans. That afternoon, everything came crashing down. Fuller was found dead at 22 years old. “Man, it’s really been hard for me,” Lawson said. “It’s been a hard week just because of the simple fact that my dog was supposed to be up here to watch me play. That was like my brother. We were everywhere together. We train together. He was always with me.” Lawson’s week was a whirlwind. He cried more than he slept. At times, he was too emotional to be in team meetings. The Bills gave him space to grieve. Lawson wanted to go down to South Carolina to be with Fuller’s family. Laura Young and Marlon Kerner of the Bills’ player services department coordinated the flights, and Lawson flew down Friday after practice.

#27 is Tre-mendous.

The coaches will recap yesterday's win over the Titans. I anticipate we'll get some news on Derek Anderson along with any injury updates. We'll see what they have to say about the upcoming opponents for week 6. Buffalo Bills Video Live The OP will be updated with live presser links as they become available. Leslie Frazier: "[Tre White] Gives Us Something That is Very Valuable" (5:39) Bills Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier spoke to the media on October 8th. Topics included: Shaq Lawson's outstanding effort during the Titans game in Week 5, the upcoming match-up between Texans WR Deondre Hopkins and whichever Bills CB is assigned to him, and finding ways to strategically use the rotating corner position to the Bills' advantage. Daboll: "It's about Execution, It's about Trust" (7:06) OC Brian Daboll talks about veteran leadership, establishing the line of scrimmage and improving the passing game.

Week 5 takeaways: Steelers, Vikes get season-changing wins Buffalo Bills 13, Tennessee Titans 12 The Bills did their best to keep the game out of Josh Allen's hands, limiting the rookie quarterback's mistakes with a conservative game plan that saw LeSean McCoy run 24 times. But even in the limited throws Allen made, his inconsistent accuracy continued. Allen finished with 82 passing yards and a 42.0 passer rating. Beyond the Bills simply protecting a young quarterback, this game should raise questions about Allen for whenever the Bills need to again open up their offense. -- Mike Rodak The Titans fumbled away a chance to make a statement in a game they were favored to win on the road. Tennessee had three turnovers, including a pick and two fumbles, and failed to stop Buffalo from marching down the field for the game-winning field goal. They have to put it behind them as they get set to face a tough Ravens team that is coming off a close loss to the Browns. -- Turron Davenport Bills Today: Jordan Phillips Displays Infectious Energy in Bills Debut

They are NOT drafting a QB in the 1st round with Beane and McDermott running the show.

DAL at HOU Game Book PDF Hopkins sparks Texans to OT win

Did he play on offense at all today?

2018 Texans Uniform Combinations Houston Texans vs. Buffalo Bills Battle Red Day | Hispanic Heritage Month Red | White

Good for us.

He wasn't released. He got to UFA and the Bills signed him.

From 0-4 to 4-0: Rookie quarterbacks make history It's the first time in the Super Bowl era that rookie quarterbacks have gone 4-0 in the same week, according to Elias.

The Buffalo Bills got back to the win column on Sunday, defeating the Tennessee Titans 13-12 at home. The defense certainly looked the part, but where does this offense go moving forward, and how should they approach the game plan for Josh Allen past this week? Joe Buscaglia and Matthew Fairburn discuss the entire game and dive into the deeper issues surrounding the Bills offense at the present moment.

Joe B: 7 observations from Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans (10/7/18) (WKBW) - One week ago, the Buffalo Bills looked lost at sea on offense after a shutout loss to the Green Bay Packers. On Sunday, after they returned home from a two-game road trip, the Bills did just enough to eek out a 13-12 victory over the Tennessee Titans. It wasn't pretty by any means and won't be one that gets remembered even a year from now, but it's one that will be important to the Bills as a marker of their progress in a season centered around just that. Now, the Bills have a 2-3 record with the hopes of evening things out next weekend -- which would be an especially significant accomplishment given their performance in three of the first four weeks. How did the Bills defeat the favored Titans on Sunday? Seven observations from the Bills' win: 1) The defensive interior dominates 2) What's going on with Josh Allen? 3) Finally, full Milano 4) Kelvin Benjamin goes silent once again 5) The Tre'Davious White treatment continues to impress 6) Bills can't make up their minds at cornerback 7) Jordan Phillips fits right in Bills MVP: The defensive tackles - Lotulelei, Williams, Phillips, and Phillips all played a pivotal role in keeping the Titans out of a flow on offense and helped contribute to the victory. Bills LVP: WR Andre Holmes - Josh Allen had another poor game, but he hit Andre Holmes in the hands. Holmes needs to make that play -- or at least bat the pass down, so the team doesn't turn the ball over. Up Next: The Bills go back on the road to take on the Houston Texans on Sunday, October 14 at 1:00 pm

From Joe B's Game Summary: 7) Jordan Phillips fits right in- When the Bills saw defensive tackle Jordan Phillips get released by the Miami Dolphins, they likely didn't think twice about putting in a waiver claim for him. Phillips, a former second-round pick that played a ton of snaps in Miami, isn't what you would think that he is. At 6-foot-6 and 341-pounds, those players have the reputation of being the block aggregators -- the ones that take on the double teams and let the rest of their teammates make the play. However, his combination of both power and speed in such a big package make him a viable option in the penetrating role of three-technique defensive tackle -- and that's the spot we primarily saw him against the Titans. His impact on the game, in limited snaps, was a big one. He made a pair of tackles behind the line of scrimmage and he constantly pushed his blocker back, which helped blow things up for the Titans. The Bills had a big need for depth at three-technique defensive tackle to help fill out their rotation. So, while we'll have to see if the player keeps up this level of play when he's not in the 'prove his old team wrong' frame of mind, Sean McDermott might have found the last piece they needed for that group in Jordan Phillips.

From Joe B's Game Summary: 5) The Tre'Davious White treatment continues to impress- The Buffalo Bills have found themselves in a spot where they continue to challenge their second-year cornerback Tre'Davious White, and all they get is more evidence that he is one of the best players -- if not the best player -- on the team. For the fourth straight week, the Bills chose to have White shadow the opponents' top receiver. This time around it was second-year wide receiver Corey Davis, and whenever White was covering him, he didn't do any damage. The only times when Davis made an impact on the game were when the Bills were either in a zone scheme and had a different corner lined up over him, or if the Titans got the Bills to make a mistake by stacking the receivers ahead of the snap. By showing the ability to take away a team's top target, White has given the Bills the ability to do so many different things with their defense in providing unique pressure packages, without the concern that the most talented receiver is going to make them pay in one-on-one coverage. White has been mostly perfect in those shadow matchups, except for Green Bay's Davante Adams, who got the better him on a pair of plays. Don't expect this trend to go away next week, either. I'd expect to see White lined up against his most difficult matchup yet -- DeAndre Hopkins of the Houston Texans. It will be exciting to see how he does against one of the best in the game.

NFL Week 5 Grades: Bengals and Browns earn 'A's, Broncos fail miserably in loss to Jets Buffalo 13-12 over Tennessee Titans: C The Titans have had some ugly offensive performances this season, but this one was definitely the worst. Tennessee didn't even hit 225 total yards (221) plus they turned the ball over three times. This game marks only the fifth time in Marcus Mariota's career that the team didn't hit 225 total yards. Not surprisingly, the Titans are 0-5 in those games. If the Titans could protect the football, they might have won. Taywan Taylor's first-quarter fumble led to a Bills touchdown. Dion Lewis followed that up with a lost fumble in the third quarter that led to a Buffalo field goal. Bills: B+ The Bills offense isn't flashy, but it doesn't need to be when Buffalo's defense played like it did. Buffalo's defense came up with two huge fumble recoveries, which the offense was able to turn into 10 points. The Bills defense was so rock solid in this game that the Titans got inside of Buffalo's 20-yard line only once the entire game. Offensively, Josh Allen put up some ugly numbers (10 of 19, 82 yards) but he came through in the clutch. Not only did he score the Bills' only touchdown of the game on a 14-yard run, but he drove Buffalo straight down the field for Steven Hauschka's game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter. Coach Sean McDermott also deserves some credit for finally embracing risk. The Bills went for it on fourth down three times and converted two of them.