After two closely contested games in a row, the Bills made a statement on Sunday against the Steelers, dominating from the opening drive en route to a 38-3 victory in front of their home fans.
While we take stock of the win and what the performance on the field means for the rest of the season, we’ll dive into another edition of Studs and Duds.
As a reminder, this column looks simply at the performance in the most recent week, identifying who stepped up and who struggled and what those performances might mean for the Buffalo Bills going forward. Some heroes will just have one-off great games while some struggles could signal major issues, so we’ll make sense of that together here.
Duds
Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.
Self-Inflicted Wounds
The Bills put together a dominant performance, but it also could have been so much better. Sunday was another game in which the Bills made crucial mistakes that cost themselves points.
After Buffalo scored on their opening drive, Pittsburgh fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving the Bills the ball on the Steelers’ 21-yard-line. On the second play, Ryan Bates committed a holding penalty to negate a Devin Singletary first-down run, and the Bills were forced to attempt a 49-yard field goal that was blocked.
In the second quarter, with the Bills leading 10-3 and driving deep in Pittsburgh territory, Josh Allen tried to hit Gabe Davis for a touchdown in the corner of the end zone, but Levi Wallace picked him off. Given how Davis had burned Wallace earlier, the decision wasn’t terrible, but the throw was. Allen drastically underthrew Davis and gave Wallace a chance to reel it in. It reminded me a bit of how Allen underthrew McKenzie in the end zone with a chance to win the game against Miami. A bad throw here and there is expected, but the ones in the end zone tend to get more attention.
The last big error occurred with the game already in hand. The Bills had 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard-line when Quintin Morris tried to dive for a touchdown only to have the ball knocked away and recovered in the end zone by the Steelers for a touchback. It’s a mistake from a reserve tight end in a blowout win, so you don’t want to put too much emphasis on it, but it is another example of the Bills leaving points on the table, which they absolutely cannot do against the better teams in this league, like against the Chiefs next week.
Boogie Basham is Losing Playing Time
It’s hard to really call this a dud, but it’s also hard to find lots of duds in a 38-3 win. However, for the second week in a row, Boogie Basham lost snaps to Shaq Lawson. Last week, we thought it was just because of Lawson’s run defense against Lamar Jackson; however, Basham played just 37% of snaps against the Steelers to Lawson’s 44%.
Given how many depth players were used late in the game, it’s a bit concerning that the Bills didn’t give their former second-round pick more action. It would have been the perfect time to get him more game reps to help him grow as a player.
At this stage in his career, Basham simply doesn’t offer enough as a pass rusher and was often playing in the interior of the line as a defensive tackle. It’s too early to write him off since we’ve seen A.J. Epenesa improve across the board this season, but an end-of-the-depth-chart rotational lineman isn’t what the Bills were hoping for with their 2021 second-round pick.
Kaiir Elam
Again, this is a tough “Dud” designation but those are the only ones we have today.
Elam had his first career interception, so it certainly wasn’t a bad game for the rookie, but it wasn’t a great one. The Steelers attacked him early and often with both Diontae Johnson and George Pickens, and fellow rookie Pickens made a few nice catches where his physical advantage over Elam was clear.
On the day, Elam was targeted 13 times and gave up 10 receptions for 126 yards. Most of the damage was done on comeback routes, suggesting that the rookie may be giving too much cushion as he gets into his drops. However, Johnson has proven himself to be a good NFL receiver, and Pickens certainly looks like he’s one of the more explosive players in this last draft, so giving up catches to them isn’t the end of the world, especially for a rookie.
Yet, even Elam said after the game that he’s a “way better player than what [he]gave up… I wish the ball rolled in my favor, but that’s something I’m just gonna keep preparing for, keep getting better at.”
He’s likely going to have to get better in a hurry because it’s unlikely Tre’Davious White will be activated and ready in time for the Chiefs game next week, which means Elam will have to be ready to step up if Mahomes attacks him the same way Pickett did on Sunday.
Studs
Now for the good news.
Josh Allen
We obviously have to start with Allen here. Sunday was not just a good Josh Allen day, but it was one of the best games of his career from a statistical standpoint.
He started with a 98-yard touchdown strike to Gabe Davis from his own two-yard-line and never looked back.
98 YARDS! 🤯
📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/P3rA4gbxYl
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) October 9, 2022
Allen finished the day completing 20-of-31 passes for 424 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for 42 yards on five carries. He did get picked off, as I mentioned above, but that was the only real blemish on the day.
In fact, one thing that really stood out for Allen was how aggressively he pushed the ball down the field. His 13.7 yards per attempt on Sunday was a career-best by a long shot since his career average is currently 7.2 yards per attempt. Allen’s 13.7 yards per attempt is actually the 10th-best mark in the NFL since 2018.
The Bills’ leader was throwing haymakers on Sunday and connecting on more than a couple, which helped make this an early knockout.
Gabe Davis
Well, Gave Davis looks healthy again. After hobbling on an injured ankle for a couple of weeks, Davis looked more like the explosive player we saw in Week 1 (and last year’s playoffs). In addition to the touchdown catch in the video above, he had an impressive one-handed touchdown catch where he physically ripped the ball away from Minkah Fitzpatrick to secure the 62-yard score.
Davis finished the day with 171 yards and two touchdowns on just three catches and provided undeniable evidence of just how dangerous this offense can be when he’s healthy. The connection that Davis and Allen have on deep passes not only provides a threat in itself, but it opened up the middle of the field for Stefon Diggs (eight catches, 102 yards, and one TD) and Khalil Shakir (three catches, 75 yards, one TD).
Damar Hamlin
When Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde were both hurt early in the season, many assumed it would be Jaquan Johnson that stepped up. After all, the four-year pro had impressed with every opportunity he’s gotten and seemed likely to be the future starter if/when Poyer is not re-signed.
However, it was Hamlin who got the first crack at replacing Hyde since he’s a more traditional free safety. While there were a couple of hiccups against Miami, Hamlin came back on Sunday and looked great. His eight tackles were third on the team (behind fellow bench players thrust into starting roles, Tyrel Dodson and Kaiir Elam) and Hamlin plays with a speed and aggression that jumps off the screen.
He’s certainly not Micah Hyde, but considering Hyde only has one year left on his contract, Hamlin is starting to look like he could be a strong replacement. I know Bills fans don’t want to think about replacing Hyde and Poyer, but with big contracts being paid out to the rest of their core players, it might be likely that the team moves on from their veteran safeties once their contracts run out.
Run-Blocking
This is just a small victory and not quite a “stud,” but I’ve criticized the run-blocking on this offensive line enough that I need to point out when they perform well. Even without Josh Allen’s 42 yards factored in, Buffalo ran for 80 yards on 11 carries before pulling their starters in the fourth quarter. That’s 7.3 yards per carry from their running backs, which is a drastic improvement over what we’ve seen coming into Sunday’s game.
