One of the toughest questions of this NFL season has been, “What's the problem with the Buffalo Bills?”
Maybe there isn't one. The Bills, who started slow and couldn't quite get it together for most of the early season, have come into some form of late. And on Sunday, they pulled off perhaps the most impressive win any team has had all season: a 31-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, who came in with a 10-3 record and were humbling the league week after week with their high performances . flying quarterback-and-receiver duo Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. But when the Cowboys arrived in Western New York, the Bills greeted them rudely: Prescott was under duress all afternoon, Lamb had no separation from the Bills defenders, and Buffalo's defense was suffocating against an offense that seemed impossible to stop . Dallas finished with 10 points, but they all came in garbage time. For Buffalo it was as good as a shutout.
The Bills offense didn't have too many problems and the home team moved to 8-6. They will need to win at least two of their last three games to get into the playoffs that once seemed like a lock and then seemed highly unlikely. But Buffalo is finally on the same solid footing they always seemed to be on over the last four years as they made the playoffs. Maybe there is still a future for this team.
Perhaps the most striking thing about the Bills' dominance was that it came on a day when Josh Allen, the franchise quarterback, couldn't get much going with his arm. Allen threw just 15 passes and completed seven for 94 yards. It didn't matter much as the Bills' offensive line acted as a battering ram for talented running back James Cook. His big men blew open the gaps with abandon, and Cook ran through them with authority on his way to 179 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries. It was Cook's first rushing game of over 100 yards since November 13; he had been an efficient option in recent games and had a career outing in this one. The sophomore from Georgia ran the offense on a day when Allen didn't do much (and, in truth, didn't need much).
The Bills' season has changed dramatically in eight days. Heading into last week's game against the defending Super Bowl winners, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bills were 6-6 and reeling from embarrassing revelations about coach Sean McDermott's leadership. (Among other things, McDermott appeared to have praised the teamwork of the September 11 hijackers in an attempt to make a point to his players.) But the Bills outlasted the Chiefs with some help from KC receiver Kadarius Toney, who lined up. offside on what would have been a game-winning touchdown. And they didn't need that much luck to dismiss the Cowboys.
The Bills are unlikely to win the AFC East, as the high-flying Miami Dolphins are coming off a ten-to-eight win streak. And when the games wrapped up on Sunday, they were left, via tiebreaks, on the wrong side of the wildcard playoff picture. But they would make the playoffs if they won, and two of their remaining three games are against the awful Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots. (Both are on their second quarterback of the year, due to injuries or performance.) The Bills appear to have cured their biggest ailments, so the crucial question is no longer what's wrong. Instead, it's more forward-looking: How far could they go?
MVP of the week
Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins. Tagovailoa has developed into one of the league's most productive passers over the past two years, but his naysayers have remained vocal regardless. Tagovailoa, opponents assume, is a mediocre quarterback who looks better thanks to coach Mike McDaniels' scheme and the preternatural abilities of his skill position players — especially well behind Tyreek Hill, the league's fastest player. Hill was out with an ankle injury on Sunday, and Tagovailoa put together a dominant effort anyway in a 30-0 loss to the woeful New York Jets. He completed 21 of 24 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown, that to Hill's partner-in-speed, the lightning-fast Jaylen Waddle. Tagovailoa was masterful and continued to look like a franchise quarterback on his own terms, one who certainly was advantages of the greatness around him, but is in no way dependent on it. If he plays half as well in January, the Dolphins will be a playoff threat. He would have had more gaudy numbers on Sunday if McDaniel hadn't shown the Jets mercy in the face of the lopsided margin.
Statistic of the week
13. That's the number of consecutive years the New York Jets have missed the playoffs, a streak that officially grew by one when the Jets lost to Tagovailoa on Sunday and the rest of the AFC playoff picture failed to make their way . One result is that it seems even less likely that quarterback Aaron Rodgers will return this season. Rodgers has made a lot of noise since suffering an Achilles injury in Week 1 about pulling off a shocking early return and playing this season out of a desire to help the Jets, burnish his credentials as a master of healing, or both. But Rodgers has also hinted that he might not return if the Jets aren't in the playoffs, and Sunday's loss ensured that. The 5-9 Jets will likely want to try again with Rodgers in 2024, but they'll at least need a better backup than the miserable Zach Wilson. Rodgers' immediate injury might not have doomed the franchise to such a bad season if his bosses had put a better insurance policy behind him.
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Video of the week
Justin Fields' three years in the NFL have been up and down (more often than not), but the young Chicago Bears quarterback has had a lot of great plays under his belt lately. The story of a 20-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns was Fields making incredible plays that his pass catchers (mostly) couldn't change. Case in point: a game-ending Hail Mary slant that fell into the arms of receiver Darnell Mooney, before Mooney literally punted the ball away for a game-ending interception. There was good news, though: Perhaps the best touchdown pass of Fields' career came in the first half, when Fields was under immense pressure, ran right and then left again and delivered a hit in the corner of the ball. the end zone to tight end Cole Kmet. The Bears must quickly decide whether to pick up the fifth-year option on Fields' rookie deal, which would extend his contract through 2025. With much of the league in need of decent QB play, Fields will have value if the Bears keep him or jettison him for a rookie like North Carolina's Drake Maye or Southern California's Caleb Williams.
Elsewhere in the competition
With Rookie of the Year quarterback CJ Stroud suffering a concussion, the Houston Texans went on the road and defeated the Tennessee Titans 19-16 on a last-second field goal in overtime by Ka'imi Fairbairn. The Texans improved their playoff position in an astonishing comeback season under first-year coach DeMeco Ryans, and their fans got a measure of revenge as well: the Titans wore old Houston Oilers uniforms, nodding to the identity the franchise had. for it packed up and left Houston for Nashville. On Sunday, the Titans lost to the expansion franchise that replaced the Oilers in their old city. Football can be poetic sometimes.
The Atlanta Falcons fell further into disappointment. The Falcons played a miserable Carolina Panthers outfit that posted a 1-12 record, but couldn't gain traction in a rainstorm in Charlotte and mustered just one touchdown drive in a 9-7 loss. Carolina's starting quarterback, No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young, struggled mightily as usual in front of a nearly nonexistent crowd. But the Panthers' franchise player did lead a grueling 17-play, 85-yard touchdown drive as time expired. Eddy Pineiro's 23-yard field goal as the clock expired was the difference. The Falcons moved to 7-7 and squandered a big opportunity in the race for the dreadful NFC South division. The loss made head coach Arthur Smith, who went 7-10 in each of his first two seasons, less likely to get a fourth year in the job.