Buffalo will be hosting a Cardinals team that many prognosticators had pegged as one of the best clubs in the NFC this season.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
For the early part of this week the Bills largely focused on themselves with pass coverage corrections to make on defense and a new approach on offense to adopt under new coordinator Anthony Lynn. But as the game plan is installed through the middle of the week, the players will invest more time preparing for perhaps one of the deepest, most well-rounded clubs in the league in the Arizona Cardinals.
“As anybody who watched the Cardinals play this past week, realizes the task at hand,” said Bills head coach Rex Ryan. “We’re playing against, if they’re not the best team out there, they’re certainly one of them in all three phases. I think they’ve led the league in offense a couple of times. Their defense is right there at the top. We know what we’re facing and I’ll be honest it’s an impressive group. Bruce Arians does a great job and he has those guys humming right now.”
The Cardinals are coming off a 33-point drubbing of the Buccaneers last week (40-7), in a game where Arizona’s head coach thought they left yards on the field and “should’ve scored 50.”
The assessment isn’t surprising knowing Arians’ team finished second in the league in scoring in 2015 at better than 30 points per game and currently rank fifth. Add in the fact that Arizona’s defense has finished in the top seven in the league the last three seasons and the challenge for a Bills team trying to establish its identity is sizable.
As the players see it their opportunity to win on Sunday will have more to do with their own execution than the talent that the Cardinals can put on the field.
“It’ll be tough going against that defense,” said Charles Clay. “That’s a very tough group to game plan against it doesn’t matter what offense you’re running. We’ll have our work cut out for us, but we’re looking forward to it.”
“We have to play better as an offense and as a team and as an individual effort,” said Sammy Watkins. “That’s what it’s really about. We can do better and play better. That’s what we have to fix on the field.”
Buffalo’s run game, which was their identity last season, has been noticeably absent the first two games as the Bills have just 151 yards on the ground to rank 24th in rushing. The Bills ball carriers believe they’re close to solving that problem.
“As far as the running game, in the games I don’t think we really had a chance to go because we’re playing from behind so much,” said Mike Gillislee. “But I think our run game is still there and it’s coming.”
If it is it will have a solid matchup against the league’s 11th ranked run defense.
The Bills defense has some fixes to make as well. Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker presented mismatches in terms of size last week. Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John and Jaron Brown offer precision, size and breakaway speed.
“Our pass coverage has to be much better than it was this past week for sure,” said Ryan after watching his defense surrender almost 500 yards last week. “They present a lot of weapons to you. I think it starts with Carson Palmer. He’s incredibly accurate as a quarterback. Sees the whole field. So that I think is the first challenge.”
Of course Ryan is equally impressed with David and Chris Johnson in Arizona’s offensive backfield and the Cardinals pair of Pro Bowl guards.
If there’s one area where the Bills are looking to win more than anything it’s on third down on both sides of the ball. The offense might have better success knowing Arizona is allowing opponents to convert almost 52 percent of the time.
“Third down is definitely one of those situations where you’ve got to stay on the field and give your defense a rest and anytime you’re not very good on third down it’ll be tough to beat anybody in this league,” said Clay. “So that’s definitely an area where we have room for improvement.”
Buffalo’s first win of the season has proven elusive through the first two weeks. The task gets no easier this Sunday.
“This is a team that has it all,” said Ryan of the Cardinals. “It’s a daunting task.”