Buffalo Bills 34, Arizona Cardinals 28: Bills survive the Birds

For the first 27 minutes of Sunday’s game, it looked like the Buffalo Bills were looking for a new game against the Arizona Cardinals. A 17-3 deficit in the home opener wasn’t exactly what head coach Sean McDermott would have wanted, and it seemed like his defense had no answer for the Cardinals’ offense.

Then quarterback Josh Allen and the Buffalo offense went to work. Within 18 minutes, the Bills turned a 17-3 deficit into a 24-17 lead, with the Bills scoring 21 unanswered points thanks to a strong running attack combined with typical Josh Allen theatrics.

It wasn’t easy—what Buffalo game is?—because the Cardinals had the ball with just under two minutes left and a chance to win. The defense held firm, however, and Ja’Marcus Ingram prevented what could have been a Hail Murray redux and secured Buffalo’s 34-28 victory.

While it wasn’t all good, I’m generally a pretty positive person, so today’s recap is a positive one. Feel free to bring me back down to earth in the comments if you want, but here are a few bullet points about today’s win.

Coleman leaves his mark

Buffalo’s best wide receiver was drafted for his ability to win contested catches, and he showed off that ability in a big moment today. With about nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, Josh Allen threw a beautiful ball to Coleman on the right sideline. The rookie fought through tight coverage from quarterback Starling Thomas, where Thomas had Coleman pinned, and caught a great ball on the sideline. A few plays later, Allen scored a touchdown, giving the Bills an 11-point lead. Coleman finished his day with four catches for 51 yards.

Josh Allen is Superman

Buffalo’s quarterback is a beast. There is no other way to describe him. Allen was focused from the start, throwing precise passes through the biting wind and running with no regard for his body. They trailed 17-3 with three minutes left in the first half, but Allen went to work. He engineered a scoring drive capped by a rushing touchdown with less than 20 seconds on the clock to cut the lead to 17-10. Then, early in the second half, he threw a strike to wide receiver Mack Hollins for his first passing touchdown of the season to tie the game. Buffalo scored again on its next drive when Allen hit Khalil Shakir to make it 24-17. Allen capped his day by throwing a Cardinals defender into the end zone to give the Bills a 31-20 lead. Allen injured his left hand on the play but was able to continue. He finished the game with 18 of 23 passes for 223 yards, two passing touchdowns, nine runs for 39 rushing yards and two more touchdowns, as well as a lost fumble in the first quarter.

Greg Rousseau takes over

Groot made some great plays in this game, recording three sacks on Kyler Murray. He was able to strip the football from Murray in the third quarter, giving the Bills great field position to set up their opening goal. Rousseau had six tackles and those three sacks in a dominating performance.

By Miller!

Hey, kudos to the veteran – after an absolutely miserable season in 2023, it was nice to see him break the cut, as Chris Berman would say, and record a sack in his first game of 2024. Miller played quite a bit this week and was in the pocket and around the quarterback quite often.

Tyler Bass looks good

After a whole lot of worry, Bass came out in blustery weather and hit every kick he made today. Bass made two field goals, with his longest coming from 39 yards out, and four extra points. Admittedly, his last two kickoffs were not good, as he missed the end zone twice in the fourth quarter, giving the Cardinals good situations each time. First, DeeJay Dallas returned a Bass kickoff 96 yards for a score, and after a successful two-point attempt, the Cardinals were only three points away at 31-28. Second, Bass missed the end zone again on his last kickoff, and the ball bounced out of bounds, giving Arizona the ball at the 40-yard line.

Injuries are a story until Thursday evening

While Buffalo did not have to contend with a spate of injuries today, two notable names did have to leave today’s contest due to injury.

We touched on Allen’s hand injury, which was heavily taped and caused the star QB some discomfort on Buffalo’s final possession. While he was unable to leave the game, it will be something to keep an eye on in this short week.

Nickel corner Taron Johnson was also injured on the first possession of the game. The team said it was a forearm injury and he did not return to the game. UB product Cam Lewis stepped in and took Johnson’s place. He made ten tackles and had a fantastic performance.