Orchard Park, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills improved to 2-1 on the season with a 2nd consecutive blowout win, this time at home inside Highmark Stadium Sunday afternoon over the Washington Football Team, 43-21.
Josh Allen turned the clock back to 2020, dominating the Football Team and igniting the Bills passing attack. Buffalo scored points in all four quarters and Allen completed passes to eight different receivers.
Buffalo’s offense had 29 first downs in the game, went 9-for-14 on 3rd down, and finished with 484 total yards.
Here are seven observations from the game.
Josh Allen is back
Allen was surgical in the first half. He talked this week about his frustrations during the first two games as he searched for a rhythm that never came. He found it against the Football Team, completing 22 of 28 passes (78.6% completion rate) for 263 yards and three touchdowns.
It was a combination of taking what the Football Team defense gave him with some short completions and finding his accuracy on the deep ball. His first touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders came after he rolled to his right and placed a perfect loft on a 28-yard dime to a sliding Sanders in the end zone. He hit the 34-year-old in the second quarter on a 41-yard bomb to a streaking Sanders to set up a Tyler Bass field goal.
Allen kept things going into the second half. He finished the game with 358 yards pass on 32 of 43 passing (74.4%), four passing touchdowns and a rushing score to finish it off in the fourth quarter. According to Pro-Football Reference, Allen is the first NFL quarterback since Norm Van Brocklin in 1950-51 with multiple games of four passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown through the age of 25.
Dawson Knox breakout continues
Knox had one of the best plays of the afternoon to put the Bills up three scores in the second quarter. He got 1-on-1 coverage against WFT linebacker Cole Holcomb and went up and made a sprawling, two-hand catch and came down in bounds for the touchdown.
Plenty of offseason chatter among Bills Mafia centered around the team’s need to add a playmaker at the tight end position. Bills general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott showed confidence in the third-year Knox by ignoring the pleas and standing pat. Knox now has two touchdown catches in his first three games and hasn’t dropped a pass this season. He had 4 catches for 49 yards.
Isaiah McKenzie special teams blunder
After the Bills went up three scores early, the Football Team made a dent in the lead. The first big play came on an Antonio Gibson screen that went 70-plus yards for a touchdown. The next came on the ensuing kickoff. The wind was powerful inside the stadium and kickoff was short.
The wind was bad during the pregame warm up, so it’s not like McKenzie shouldn’t have expected it to play a factor. He was late getting under it and was forced to let it bounce. The Football Team recovered and went on to score their second touchdown on a Taylor Heinicke scramble. The Bills had a blocked punt in Week 1 and Sean McDermott emphasized the importance of limiting mistakes on teams. This could have been costly but the Bills offense and defense picked up the special teams unit.
Bills’ elite safety duo both get picks
The Bills defense was elite once again, forcing three turnovers against the Football Team and holding Heinicke and company to 291 yards of total offense and three scores.
Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer continue to play at a Pro Bowl level early this season. They are always floating around near the ball and were able to pick off Heinicke. Both plays led to Bills points from the offense.
Cole Beasley puts up video game numbers
Beasley has been consistently open all season and entered Sunday’s game with 12 catches for 96 yards. Against Washington, Beasley hauled in a game-high 11 catches on 13 targets for 98 yards.
Allen wanted to take more of what the defense gave him this week and Beasley is almost always the best way to do that. He flashes open quick on his routes and he was getting yards after the catch today, turning short passes into good gains and first downs.
Zack Moss featured, delivers for 2nd straight week
Moss was the Bills’ leading rusher with 60 yards on the ground on 13 carries, showing off the physical run style that led to two touchdowns last week.
His biggest play came in the second quarter when he popped open for Allen on a short out route and caught a 7-yard touchdown reception to put the Bills up by two scores early. Moss’s production in the pass game continues to help keep him in the mix to dominate touches in a backfield with Devin Singletary.
MORE: Zack Moss scores 1st-half TD, continues to punish tacklers vs. Washington (video)
Bills offensive line turns in another solid game
The Bills offensive line didn’t commit a single penalty against the Washington Football Team just two weeks after a ton against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which contributed to the loss. Allen wasn’t sacked a single time in this game as the o-line did a great job of neutralizing Chase Young and the rest of the vaunted Football Team defensive line. Allen helped with hsi mobility in the pocket.
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