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    • The Buffalo offense comes to life and defeats the Titans
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    The Buffalo offense comes to life and defeats the Titans

    Kathleen William Posted on

    ORCHARD PARK — Whether it had anything to do with the arrival of Amari Cooper is up for debate, but as the new wide receiver began to find his way in the Buffalo Bills' offense Sunday afternoon, Josh Allen started to look like Josh Allen, and that is a beautiful thing to see.

    Don't get me wrong, Allen's play was perfectly fine through the first six games. In fact, he was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Month in September, and he still hasn't thrown an interception in 2024.

    But especially in the losses to Baltimore and Houston, it became clear that Allen was missing a key ingredient in the passing game, the presence of an experienced winger who made the difference, and after a sloppy first half in which nothing was going, Allen hit the ground running He connected with Cooper for a touchdown in the third quarter, and from there the Bills simply exploded, defeating the Tennessee Titans 34-10.

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    “It looked pretty good,” Allen said of Cooper’s four-catch, 66-yard debut. “Kudos to him for putting in the extra hours to prepare for this game. It's not easy to get traded in the week and play a game and get real live reps where he played quite a bit. Yeah, it’s huge to have him out there.”

    If that's any indication of what Cooper can do after learning only a small portion of the playbook and only going through two full practices with Allen, then the passing game – which ranked 25th in yards per game in Week 7 – should began – about to take a big step forward in the coming weeks.

    “It felt good to go out there and make some plays for the team,” Cooper said. “I’m just trying to hold on, learn as many plays as I can and just be a professional. That's the main thing, having chemistry between quarterback and receiver, like I said, just try to come in, be a professional. This is not new territory for me, I have been in a similar situation before and so I had a fair idea of ​​what to expect.”

    This is how I evaluated the bills:

    Passing offense: A

    If you had told me in the first half that I would give Allen and the passing game an A in this game, I would have told you that the New York Yankees were the best baserunning team in baseball. For all you non-baseball fans, you may be going to the World Series, but as your radio play-by-play man John Sterling said, they're running the bases like drunks.

    And in the first half, the Bills' passing game seemed drunk, as Allen was sloppy and inefficient, completing just 4 of 11 for 65 yards, and 44 of those came on a pass to Keon Coleman, where the Titans suffered a colossal turnover in coverage and he was wide open. But in the second half, Allen found nirvana, finishing 21 of 33 for a season-high 323 yards and two touchdowns, while a third touchdown to Coleman was negated on replay because the receiver's foot was on the line.

    Obviously Cooper was the main contributor and his debut was solid, four catches for 66 yards and a TD after dropping his first target. His presence on the field seemed to give the others some space, and the Bills, as they like to do, let everyone eat. Khalil Shakir, still dealing with his ankle injury, had seven catches for 65 yards, Coleman had four for 125 yards, while he also hauled in a 57-yarder on a short strike, breaking a tackle and through the middle of the field sprinted. Dalton Kincaid also had a nice day with two outstanding downfield catches among his three total catches for 52 yards.

    RUNNING INJURY: C

    The Bills never really got going, as James Cook returned after missing the Jets game and only managed 32 yards on 12 carries, although one of those was an 11-yard touchdown in the second quarter to cap the Bills' rally to start from a 0:10 deficit.

    Ray Davis only had five carries as he battled a calf injury that prevented him from following up his big 97-yard performance from a week ago. But like Cook, he had one touchdown, a beautiful 16-yard carry in the fourth quarter when he showed his trademark aggressive style as he bounced off tacklers on his way to the end zone.

    Allen didn't have much success, managing just one measly yard in three attempts against a big and powerful Titans front line.

    PASS DEFENSE: B+

    It all started slowly, and that was also the case in pass defense, as Mason Rudolph beat the Bills with short passes, completing 18 of 23 for 155 yards in the first half, producing consecutive scoring drives that resulted in a score of 10 -7 lead. But the Bills began to defend the short areas more effectively, and when Rudolph had to start throwing downfield, especially after the Titans had blown their lead, he was unable to do anything.

    In the second half, he was just 7 of 17 for 60 yards and threw a late interception to Damar Hamlin. The Bills' pass rush picked up steam and along with three sacks, they had 11 QB hits on the backup starting in place of the injured Will Levis, six of those hits coming on Greg Rousseau. The Bills held Tennessee's two veteran WRs, Calvin Ridley and DeAndre Hopkins, to a total of three catches for 31 yards.

    AJ Epenesa had a chance to make a big play in the first quarter, but he let a pass thrown to him right at the line go through his hands. He made a great play in the second quarter when he sacked Rudolph and forced a fumble, and although the Titans recovered, they were stuck with one second and 30.

    Rousseau and Dawuane Smoot shared a sack and DaQuan Jones had a solo sack. Taron Johnson, Christian Benford and Rasul Douglas all had a pass breakup, while Johnson and Taylor Rapp led the secondary with seven tackles each.

    RUN DEFENSE: B

    The Titans needed Tony Pollard to make a bigger difference than he did. He finished the game with 61 yards but averaged 3.8 yards per carry, and as the game turned out to be a turning point, he was picked off by Bills rookie DT DeWayne Carter on a fourth-and-two carry early in the third quarter blown up. That turnover on downs sparked the Bills' comeback and they scored the only 27 points of the second half.

    Carter continues to grow in the middle of the defense, although his snap count is down a bit due to the return of Ed Oliver after a two-game absence. Oliver had two tackles and was blamed for a forced fumble when Rudolph fended off a snap and Terrel Bernard recovered the ball. Dorian Williams led the Bills with 10 tackles, including one for loss of yardage, while Bernard, before leaving with an ankle injury, had eight tackles, two of them behind the line of scrimmage.

    SPECIAL TEAMS: C

    The spotlight was on Tyler Bass after the Bills added a kicker to their practice squad to remind Bass that he needs to get better. He was not tested in this game as his field goals consisted of chip shots from 28 and 30 yards and he also hit all four of his extra points. In other words, he did what he was supposed to do, nothing more.

    Sam Martin had a tough day with some wind. He made five punts and his 33.8 net average showed his struggles. In coverage, the Titans had two punt returns for eight yards from Jha'Quan Johnson, and he also had kickoff returns for 34 and 21 yards with Baylon Spector bringing him down twice.

    Brandon Codrington's only kickoff return was a 27-yarder, he also averaged 11.2 yards on five punt returns, and there were no penalties in the kicking game.

    COACHING: C+

    I didn't like that for the second time at home, the Bills came out completely flat and looked poorly prepared to play. Against Arizona in Week 1, they fell behind 17-3 before rallying, and on Sunday the deficit was 10-0 before waking up. Sean McDermott admitted he has to figure it out.

    Offensively, Joe Brady couldn't get Allen into any rhythm in the first half and the first three possessions were three-and-outs, totaling 13 net yards. But there was something miraculous in the second half when he got everyone involved and the Bills scored on all five possessions, covering 41, 64, 56, 59 and 84 yards. At the end of the day, they had 389 yards, more than the Titans' No. 1 defense had allowed all year.

    On defense, Bobby Babich made the right decision early in the third period in Tennessee's 4-2 contest and turned the game around. He also made a nice adjustment after Rudolph destroyed the Bills early with short passes because those no longer existed in the final two quarters.

    Sal Maiorana has been covering the Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as a full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books on the team's history. He can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

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    Kathleen William
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