By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
The Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions will meet at New Era Field on Sunday. Both teams entered the seasons with playoff hopes and only one has them left, barely.
The Bills (4-9) are favored in this one, but they’ll be playing spoiler as the Lions (5-8) are still desperately grasping to life in the NFC. While the Bills are only playing for pride, there’s still plenty to watch throughout this one.
With that, here are five Bills storylines to watch on Sunday:
Allen’s arm
Alright, we get it. Josh Allen can run and damn can he do it well. Last week he added another 101 rushing yards and touchdown to his season totals and in all likelihood, he’ll finish the year as Buffalo’s leading rusher, despite how… not exactly ideal that is.
Last week, Allen wasn’t extensively outplayed by his rookie quarterback counter part in Sam Darnold, but he was via the arm test. Darnold had 170 yards, a touchdown and interception. Allen had 206 yards and two interceptions. The biggest different was completion percent as Allen was 18-for-36 and Darnold was 16-for-24 passing. The Jets’ rookie was also big in clutch time. Allen’s career 52.4 completion percent is a little concerning to this point, too. Plenty of time to fix it, but let’s see if he can take a step in the right direction there.
Will defense be clutch?
The Bills have the No. 1 overall defense in the NFL, allowing 290.6 yards per game. Despite that, the formidable defense hasn’t had great outings the past two weeks in crunch time. As prior mentioned, Darnold led his first career fourth quarter comeback against Buffalo last week. Tre’Davious White allowed a touchdown in the game and 37-yard completion to set up the game-winning score to Robby Anderson, too.
The week prior, Ryan Tannehill completed a late touchdown pass to Kenny Stills with Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde in coverage. It’s tough to be perfect and the Bills defense, overall, has been great in 2018. But if it comes down to crunch time vs. Matthew Stafford and the Lions’ offense, can the Bills get it done this week?
Will the QB be hit?
Speaking of Stafford and the quarterback position, the Bills did something for the first time last week against the Jets and not in a good way. They didn’t touch Darnold. Not once. Zero sacks, zero QB hits. They had at least hit every quarterback they faced this year up until that point.
It wasn’t all awful, Shaq Lawson had a pass defended and Jerry Hughes and Kyle Williams forced Darnold out of the pocket on two plays. However, they went in very opposite directions as Williams’ pressure led to a touchdown and Hughes’ pressure led to Tremaine Edmunds’ first-career interception. Currently the Bills have 31 sacks this year, tied for 21st. They’ll want to add to that against the Lions, who’ve allowed 37 this year (T-6th most, No. 21 overall).
Youth progression
The Bills have had their youth on display the past few weeks and it’s not going all that bad. The highlight will be Allen, of course, but the QB is throwing to two other young guns who got a big increase in snaps last week and they made it pay off.
For the first time this season, Zay Jones wasn’t Buffalo’s No. 1 receiver in terms of snap counts. Robert Foster slightly edged him out and he nabbed seven catches for his second 100-yard receiving game of the year (104). Isaiah McKenzie is the other who saw more snaps. He had four catches for 47 yards and had four rushes for 22 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively there is youth to watch, too. Levi Wallace continues to impress at corner, clocking in as Pro Football Focus’ sixth-best coverage corner in the NFL last week. Undrafted rookie Corey Thompson could also be filling in for the injured Matt Milano at linebacker. And maybe, just maybe, rookie Harrison Phillips could see a bit of a bump at defensive tackle, too.
How will running back look?
The Bills’ running game is brutal this year. It’s mainly on the offensive line’s play, though. Pro Football Focus currently has Buffalo ranked as the NFL’s second-worst, run-blocking team. Yikes. Things haven’t been good for LeSean McCoy either. He has one 100-yard rushing game this year and only two touchdowns. They came in the same game.
That might stay the same this week. McCoy is considered “day-to-day.” He’s dealing with a hamstring injury which he sustained last week after only two carries and nine snaps played. Buffalo moved running back Keith Ford up from the practice squad to join a backfield also with Chris Ivory and Marcus Murphy. But with the way the youth movement has taken over for the Bills, could Ford, an undrafted rookie, actually be the one to take the load? Or at least a chunk of it if McCoy’s out?