Coming off of back-to-back second-half collapses, the Buffalo Bills will have to battle through the snow against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

Cleveland Browns (3-6) @ Buffalo Bills (6-3)

Game Details:

Location: Ford Field in Detroit, MI
Time: Sunday, November 20th at 1:00 p.m. ET
Channel: CBS

Betting Stats:

SPREAD: BUF -8
OVER/UNDER: 42.5

Top Matchups/Storylines:

How does the location change impact the game?

Well, we’ll add a sixth key here since the game was moved from Buffalo to Detroit due to a massive snowstorm that should bring about three feet of snow to Buffalo over the weekend. So how does that impact the game?

Honestly, this should benefit the Buffalo Bills the most. Even though the snow was projected to stop before game time, the field would have still likely been sloppy and wet, and the temperature outside was going to be pretty cold. All of those conditions tend to favor a power running game, which the Cleveland Browns have. The Bills have also struggled to stop the run, so Cleveland was probably pretty happy about playing in nasty weather.

Now, instead of playing a game outside in sloppy conditions, they’ll be playing inside a dome at Ford Field. That means no issues for quarterbacks gripping the ball or receivers planting their feet in and out of their routes. The game should be faster and more conducive to passing, which plays right into what Buffalo wants to do.

Of course, there are other key questions if Buffalo is passing the ball a lot.

Can Josh Allen take care of the football?

By now, Josh Allen’s recent struggles have been talked about ad nauseam. Through the first six weeks of the season, Allen was playing like the clear MVP frontrunner and was operating at a level that, really, only Patrick Mahomes can match.

However, since the second half of the Packers game, Allen, and the Buffalo Bills by extension, have not looked like themselves on offense. The quarterback is taking unnecessary chances with the football, misdiagnosis defense, and escaping from the pocket rather than standing tall and going through his reads.

The problems have just gotten worse in the red zone. Over the last four games, Allen has four red zone interceptions. He had just two in his previous 67 games COMBINED.

What we’re seeing is a quarterback going back to his old habits of not taking what the defense is giving him and forcing bad throws. Oftentimes, he even seems to be so locked into a target that he simply doesn’t see defenders in the area. Part of this could be that his mistakes are compounding on one another and Allen is in his own head, but the other issue could be a growing lack of trust in his offensive line, which is forcing Allen to play more “hero ball” than he has in a while (more on that later).

However, even as we point out these issues, we can discuss that the problems Allen has had are really only in three total quarters. While the Jets’ defense did give him problems throughout the game, he played well in the first half of the Packers and Vikings games. It was just in the second half that we saw him struggle.

In the second half and overtime of the last three games, Josh Allen is 26-for-51 passing (51% completion rate) for 336 yards, 0 TDs, and 5 interceptions. That’s unquestionably bad.

However, over those three full games, he is 60-for-102 (58.8% completion rate) for 753 yards with three touchdowns, and six interceptions. He’s also added 219 rushing yards and two touchdowns over that span.

It’s still not vintage Josh Allen, but it’s not the production that makes you think the sky is falling. If you take away Allen’s second-half struggles during those games, it means that his first-half performance through those three games is 34-for-51 (66.7% completion) for 417 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception.

Allen simply isn’t delivering in the game’s biggest moments, which is obviously important, but it’s also important to keep the larger context in mind. This is still an immensely talented quarterback that is pressing right now and making the wrong reads at the wrong time.

Sunday’s game against a Browns defense that is 24th in yards allowed per play, 27th in yards allowed per completion, 22nd in pressure rate, 27th in interception rate, and 28th in QB rating allowed should be the right “get right” spot, especially now that the game is inside.

Can the Buffalo Bills stop Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt?

The biggest question for the Buffalo Bills on Sunday will be how it stops the run. For three straight games, they have been unable to control the opponent’s ground game, and none of those three teams has the rushing attack that Cleveland does.

The Browns are 5th in the NFL in rushing yards and rushing yards per game, and 7th in the NFL with 4.9 rushing yards per attempt. They also have the 5th-most attempts in the NFL at 290 through nine games. The Bills, for comparison’s sake, have 222 rushing attempts.

Their rushing attack is led by Nick Chubb, who has 904 yards and 11 touchdowns on 160 attempts. He has a 22.5% broken tackle rate, averages 3.8 yards after contact, and 67.4% of his overall yards come after contact, all of which are elite and mean that the Buffalo defenders are going to need to wrap up in order to ensure they can bring him down.

Kareem Hunt has also chipped in 314 yards and three touchdowns on 83 carries and 127 yards receiving on 20 catches, so this is just a solid overall backfield.

Another big aspect of that for Buffalo is the health of Tremaine Edmunds. The 24-year-old has been one of the team’s best defenders this year and his departure with a groin injury on Sunday was immediately apparent on Dalvin Cook’s 81-yard touchdown run. The drop-off from Edmunds to Tyrel Dodson is large enough that the Bills really need Edmunds to be healthy on Sunday to have their best chance of slowing down this ground game.

Considering the team claimed former Buffalo linebacker A.J. Klein off of waivers on Thursday, it would seem to be a good indication that Edmunds will miss this game, and Buffalo knows their reserve linebackers haven’t been good enough.

Can Buffalo figure out its offensive line issues?

All season long I’ve been mentioning the offensive line’s issues with run blocking. According to Pro Football Focus, they remain one of the worst run-blocking lines in the league. That alone is an issue heading into a game where there could still be lots of snow on the field and passing could be problematic.

However, the unit’s pass blocking was also a problem last week against the Vikings. Rodger Saffold, who has really performed poorly since being signed this offseason, was abused on multiple occasions by Harrison Phillips, and right tackle Spencer Brown was a liability in his first game back from an ankle injury.

Perhaps Brown wasn’t 100% healthy, but he allowed six quarterback hurries and took two penalties. He’s going to need to step his game up this week with Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney coming to town.

Can Buffalo force third-and-longs and get stops?

Everybody knows what Cleveland wants to do when they get the ball. They are 3rd in the NFL in rush DVOA and, as we covered above, are among the league leaders in rush attempts and yards. However, they are also 10th in the NFL in passing DVOA. They don’t ask Jacoby Brissett to do much, but he’s completed 64% of his passes and has just five interceptions on the year.

Cleveland ranks 18th in adjusted air yards per pass attempt, so they don’t push the ball down the field too often, but they do have solid receivers in Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones, so they are capable of converting deep. However, the key for Buffalo is obviously going to be bottling up Chubb and Hunt on early downs to force third-and-long situation and make Brissett beat them.

On the season, the Browns convert just 41.3% of their third downs and the Bills allow just 40.4% conversions on third down, so the matchup favors Buffalo. However, Buffalo also had several third-and-long situations and even fourth-and-long situations (like the Justin Jefferson catch) and failed to capitalize against the Vikings.

If the defense is able to get the Browns in long down-and-distance plays, they are going to need to get big stops and get off of the field. The longer the defenders are on the field, the more it plays to the advantage of a bruising running back like Chubb.

Will the Bills finally play their trade deadline acquisitions?

Last week we talked about the fact that Nyheim Hines had just one touch last week despite it being his second week with Buffalo following the trade that brought him over from Indianapolis. It’s time that he finds the field more.

Devin Singletary and James Cook have been fine but Hines is an elite pass-catching weapon out of the backfield. He can offer Allen an extra safety blanket but can also operate as another dynamic receiving threat to offer some help to Stefon Diggs, who has had to shoulder too much of the load of late.

Additionally, if Jordan Poyer is at all limited then Buffalo needs to find more snaps for Dean Marlowe. The veteran was brought back at the deadline because he’s played for the Bills before and knows Leslie Frazier’s system. Yet, he was on the bench last week in favor of Cam Lewis, a former practice squad cornerback who has been converted to hybrid safety. Unfortunately, Lewis was at the center of one of the biggest plays of last week’s game when he didn’t knock down the prayer that Justin Jefferson wound up catching.

Buffalo needs that veteran presence in the back of the secondary if Poyer can’t play.