Buffalo News

‘The injuries to the Buffalo Bills’ wide receiving corps did not stop offensive coordinator Joe Brady from leaning on his three-receiver personnel group in Indianapolis. The Bills ran 11 personnel on 57% of the snaps. They got three big pass plays out of it – a 34-yard pass to Dawson Knox, the 44-yard pass to Mack Hollins late in the first half and a 30-yard tunnel screen pass to Khalil Shakir. Curtis Samuel played 89% of the snaps, Hollins 88% and Shakir 72%.’

‘The Bills will be without rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman against the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday. Bills coach Sean McDermott announced the news Monday. Coleman is dealing with a right wrist injury he suffered in the Bills’ 30-27 win against the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 3.’

‘The entire nation will be able to watch the game on CBS, rare for a non-prime-time game.’

‘Their comfort level with each other is most notable when Wood almost immediately augments Brown’s play calls.’

‘The Bills’ defense registered a season-high four takeaways, a major factor in sometimes-ugly 30-20 victory – one that lifted them to an 8-2 record for the first time since 1993, maintained their vise grip on the AFC East and set up an enormous showdown with the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs next weekend in Orchard Park.’

‘There will be days like Sunday, when Josh Allen’s not quite up to being Superman. On those days, the Buffalo Bills need someone else to step up. Against the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, it wasn’t just one person stepping up, however. It was an entire unit.’

‘With wide receivers Amari Cooper and Keon Coleman sidelined because of respective wrist injuries, the Bills once again needed multiple players to step up, and they made it work. It wasn’t the prettiest outing, and it was a close game for longer than it needed to be, considering the four takeaways by the Bills defense. Tight end Dawson Knox joked that on this day “everybody eats” applied to the defense more than the offense.’

‘Buffalo hasn’t started 8-2 since the 1993 season. That was 31 years ago. Amazing. Few people had the Bills sitting 8-2 at this point, and nobody expected them to hold a five-game lead in the AFC East.’

‘The defense produced four season-high four turnovers to aid an offense that was playing without receivers Amari Cooper and Keon Coleman.’

‘The Bills offensive line gave Allen great blocking on his 13-yard touchdown run to give Buffalo the lead for good, 17-13.’

‘It was not great that there was miscommunication on the second play from scrimmage for the offense. It was not a great start for offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s group. Calling an Allen run inside the Colts’ red zone on the second offensive possession was just one of the play-calls that was easy to second-guess. The offense looked disjointed through a fairly large part of the game, and Brady has to share in the blame for that. Still, this is only the fifth time in franchise history the Bills have won at least four straight games and scored 30-plus points in each one of them. Looking at the big picture, the Bills are 8-2 for the first time in more than 30 years. They won in Indianapolis for the first time since 1998. The Colts had not lost a game by more than eight points all season, and trailed by 17 with only 2 seconds left. It wasn’t always pretty, but head coach Sean McDermott had his team focused on the task at hand and not looking ahead to Kansas City in Week 11.’

‘Douglas would arrive at the Cardinals’ facility early each morning, the time reserved for practice squad players to lift weights, followed by a study session to make sure he knew the scout-team plays. He would leave late because post-practice, on-field time was his outlet to work on his techniques.’

‘Run it, run it. The Indianapolis Colts have the second-worst run defense in the NFL right now, allowing 149.8 yards on the ground per game. Running back James Cook and company should be ready to capitalize on that.’

‘139-65 – The Bills have outscored opponents by that much in the second half of games this season. The Bills are No.1 in second-half points per game (15.4) and No. 9 in first half points per game (13.4).’

‘This has the makings of a letdown game. The Bills can’t let that happen. Even though they effectively won the AFC East last week, the No. 1 seed in the conference isn’t out of the question. To get it, the Bills have to beat Indianapolis before they can even start making plans for the Chiefs in Week 11. Give me more of Ray Davis, who played only nine snaps last week, on offense. That’s not enough. Quarterback Josh Allen needs to continue to play a clean game, as the best way to let an underdog gain confidence is to turn over the ball. This is a good gut-check game for the Bills’ run defense, since Jonathan Taylor has given them issues in the past. The defense needs to make the Colts’ offense one dimensional so the pass rushers can get after Joe Flacco. Bills, 28-20.’