The Buffalo Bills were surprisingly unbothered this offseason while everyone else wondered if their Super Bowl window had closed.
The Bills season ended with another crushing playoff loss. Then they traded Stefon Diggs, who had made four Pro Bowls in four Buffalo seasons, and didn’t make a big splashy move to replace him. Other longtime veterans were let go as the Bills got their salary cap in order. The reaction was generally that the Bills were in for a rough season.
On Thursday night, they still looked like a Super Bowl contender.
The Bills have owned the Miami Dolphins since drafting Josh Allen and that didn’t change in Week 2. Buffalo got three touchdowns from James Cook, another touchdown from the defense and cruised to a 31-10. They’re 2-0 to start the season.
The Bills still have a good defense that flustered Tua Tagovailoa, who ended up leaving the game due to a concussion after a scary hit. Buffalo picked Tagovailoa off three times, including a pick-6 that practically finished the Dolphins’ chances. And Buffalo still has Allen at quarterback. That’s enough for them to still be one of the NFL’s most dangerous teams, or so it appears after two weeks.
The Bills started the season slowly. They trailed the Arizona Cardinals at home 17-10 at halftime of their opener. Over the next five quarters, Buffalo outscored Arizona and Miami by a combined score of 55-21.
Thursday night started great for Buffalo and not so much for Miami. Cook scored on a beautifully designed play that got him open in the flat on fourth down, he caught Allen’s pass and cruised 17 yards into the end zone. Tagovailoa threw two interceptions in the first quarter, the first time he had ever done that in his NFL career. Both turnovers seemed to be mistakes by receivers Grant DuBose and Robbie Chosen, players who didn’t have a single target between them in Week 1.
Cook scored a couple more touchdowns on the ground, giving him a hat trick before halftime. His third touchdown came after a magnificent third-and-12 throw on the move by Allen to Ty Johnson to the 1-yard line. By that point everyone was checking to see if they were facing Cook in their fantasy football matchup this week.
In the third quarter, the game got out of hand and the focus of it changed too. Tagovailoa was under pressure and threw blindly on third down. It turned into an easy interception and touchdown return by Bills cornerback Ja’Marcus Ingram. That made the score 31-10.
The night got a lot worse for the Dolphins. Tagovailoa scrambled and ran for a first down on fourth-and-4, and because it was a fourth down he didn’t want to slide too early. He lowered his head and hit Bills safety Damar Hamlin, went down hard and couldn’t get up right away. He was ruled out shortly after with a concussion.
Tagovailoa said he had considered retirement after he suffered multiple concussions during the 2022 season. The concern for him after Thursday night isn’t just when he might return from this concussion, but for his long-term health.
Since the Bills drafted Allen in 2018, they’re 12-2 against the Dolphins including a playoff win. Given the uncertainty over Tagovailoa, the Dolphins might not be a factor in the AFC East race this season.
The Bills look like they’re chasing more than just another division title. They have had some tough-luck playoff losses, but it’s still a team that can compete for a championship. Most of that is due to Allen, though the players around him on offense are contributing. It doesn’t seem like they are missing the veterans who they had to let go this offseason. Von Miller had a horrible 2023 but is making an impact early this season as he looks healthy, and his reemergence would be massive for the Bills defense.
The Bills and Dolphins came into Thursday night and it seemed like we would find out a lot about the hierarchy in the AFC East. Even before Tagovailoa left due to his latest concussion, the Bills made it clear that the Dolphins were still far behind them.
Maybe the Bills aren’t as much trouble as you might have heard this offseason.
