By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
Who are these guys?
After getting smoked in their season opener and getting pushed around early in their home opener, the Buffalo Bills got their first win of the 2018 season in a shocking fashion.
The Bills completely dominated the Minnesota Vikings en route to a 27-6 win on the road.
With that, here are five takeaways from the Bills win over the Vikings:
Hit the ground running
The biggest problem with the first two games of the Bills’ season was the start of them. Against both the Ravens and Chargers, Buffalo allowed 14 points in the first quarter. Because of that, the Bills were playing behind the eight-ball immediately and hadn’t even held a lead this season until Sunday’s win over the Vikings.
Instead, the Bills flipped that script, scoring 17 unanswered points in the first quarter. To do so, Buffalo forced fumbles to end the Vikings’ first two drives. Almost from the get-go the Bills’ were in the driver’s seat. The most important factor was Buffalo’s second touchdown among this scoring. Both fumbles took place deep in the Vikings’ territory. The first the Bills settled for a field goal. After doing that, you have to punch the next one in for a touchdown. They did on a 26-yard pass from Josh Allen to Jason Croom.
Not a rookie start
Josh Allen didn’t look anything like a rookie quarterback in his first-career start on the road. The Bills’ QB did it all right and next to nothing wrong against the Vikings.
In the air, Allen distributed the ball to nine different receivers after targeting 11 different playmakers in his first-career start last week. Additionally, Allen didn’t let bad fortunes bother him. Kelvin Benjamin and Robert Foster both had bad drops and the QB wasn’t fazed. His numbers throwing would’ve been even higher on the day, but the Bills simply milked the clock in the second half. Allen finished the game 15-for-22 with 196 yards passing and a touchdown.
But, Allen did it on the ground, too. Two rushing scores on the day and another 39 yards on the ground.
Pass rush wakes up
Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins didn’t look great in his own right, but his offensive line didn’t do him many favors. The Bills’ pass rush looked the best it’s looked the entire season. Defensive end Jerry Hughes played arguably the best game of his career and the same can be said for linebacker Matt Milano. Hughes had one sack, a forced fumble and two quarterback hits plus countless pressers. Hughes might haunt left tackle Riley Reiff’s dreams for a long time. Milano had eight total tackles, one for loss, a sack, a fumble recovery and interception.
After a dreadful pass defense to start the year, this pass rush was one the front office envisioned showing up to help out the secondary this season.
Turnover battle
In 2017 the Bills’ cracked their postseason drought mainly due to an ability to cause turnovers and limit their own. That was apart of the recipe for the Bills over the Vikings on Sunday.
Cousins was intercepted by Milano and he also lost two fumbles, fumbling three times in total on the day. On Buffalo’s end, the Bills had a few fumbles of their own from Allen, but the Bills didn’t lose a single one and held onto the ball. The Vikings were shutout at home last in 1962. The turnover battle played a big role in Buffalo almost snapping that streak until a late score from Minnesota had to go and ruin that.
Case of the drops
Things were mostly good for the Bills in this one, but one problem continued to show: Drops.
Top-target outside, Kelvin Benjamin, had two ugly drops early. One was on the goal line which could have been a touchdown early in the game, but it didn’t come back to bite the Bills. Another receiver, Foster, has also struggled with his hands. As an undrafted rookie, he uses his speed to get separation which is appealing for the Bills with their lack of speed at the position, but he should have hauled in a long ball that went right through his hands on a perfect pass from Allen. In a closer game, these will come back to haunt Buffalo.