Bills pass another big test in possible Super Bowl preview win over Lions

If Sunday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions was truly a Super Bowl preview, then bring it on.

Who wouldn’t watch a rematch of two teams that put up 90 points and nearly 1,100 yards of total offence where the result of the game wasn’t certain until a final onside kick was rescued from the bottom of a pile by the Bills’ Taron Johnson with 11 seconds to play?

Buffalo’s 48-42 win snapped Detroit’s franchise record 11-game winning streak and gave the Bills their second win over a team with the conference’s best record in less than a month, following-up on their victory over previously undefeated Kansas City on Nov. 17th.

And it came in a game where the matchup did not seem to favour the Bills, who lined up against a Lions team that lives off a physical running style that Buffalo seemed ill-suited to stop.

Philosophically, the Bills are rarely a team that sells out other parts of their defence to stop the run. It’s a style that has worked well for Sean McDermott during his tenure in Buffalo. It’s also one that occasionally gets the Bills in trouble, such as during their Week 4 loss to Baltimore and last week’s defeat against the Rams.

Sunday in Detroit seemed poised to be another one of those games, as the Lions’ DNA under Dan Campbell is all about establishing the run early with both Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, and then using play-action off of that to go two dimensional throughout the game. At 12-1 and going into yesterday’s game as the NFL’s highest-scoring team, it’s obviously worked pretty well.

Until Sunday that is, when Buffalo held Gibbs and Montgomery to just 35 rushing yards combined, tweaking their defence to move a safety into the box on early downs and often playing overall tighter to the line of scrimmage than they usually do.

When asked how they did it, McDermott said “attitude,” But the scheme adjustments were significant as well, with Buffalo understanding that if they could limit the Lions effectiveness on the ground early in the game while their own offence kept scoring, they could steal the game script from Detroit.

And that’s what happened.

While the Lions opened with a pair of punts, the Bills answered each time with touchdowns.

The Lions, who regularly run the ball more than 30 times a game, ran it just 15 times versus Buffalo, including just four times after halftime. By playing effective run defence early on and letting Josh Allen and the offence do their thing, the Bills used complementary football to force the Lions to give up on the thing that has defined their success on offence.

That was the plan and they executed it to perfection.

One could see the Lions’ run game surrender point early in the third quarter after Buffalo had opened the second half with a touchdown to make the score 28-14 in favour of the Bills.

Montgomery for no gain. Gibbs for three yards. Goff sacked on third-and-seven. On their next possession there were no runs, the Lions fumbled and the Bills cashed again.

All of which opened the door for Campbell to do something he is prone to do – become aggressive and silly. His attempt of an onside kick with 12 minutes to play down just 10 points fell right in line with that narrative.

The result of that was disastrous for Detroit, as the Bills turned it into a quick score that restored their lead to 17. There was no way even Campbell tries that but for the feeling that Allen and the Buffalo offence couldn’t be stopped.

Which was pretty much true, with Buffalo punting just once in the game. They had just two other drives on which they did not score, one being a missed chip-shot field goal and another when time ran out before the half.

Detroit quarterback Jared Goff didn’t have his best day, throwing 59 times on the night for 494 yards, with 39 attempts and 333 yards coming after halftime.

On most nights those numbers would make you the best quarterback on the field. But not on this one.

Allen threw for 362 yards and ran for 105 more, scoring two touchdowns on the ground and throwing two more. But as strange as it sounds to say, the numbers sell him short.

In recent weeks, Allen has begun to play more outside of structure, extending plays with his legs, buying time and then making throws that would be ill-advised for almost any other quarterback on the planet.

McDermott was asked whether he marvels from the sideline at the things Allen can do with the football when he leaves the pocket.

“Ya, that and blacking-out,” the coach quipped with a smile.

More meaningfully, McDermott said Allen is playing the best football he’s seem him play, and there is no better authority on that.

Linebacker Terrel Bernard echoed what so many of his teammates must have been thinking afterward when he said “I’m just glad he’s on my team.”

A Super Bowl preview?

Perhaps not from an overall defensive perspective, although it’s worth noting that both sides were undermanned in this game in key spots and both sides suffered significant attrition during the course of the game.

A February rematch in New Orleans would produce all kinds of compelling storylines, not the least of which would be the Lions facing the team that stymied their prolific run game and the quarterback for whom their defence had no answers.

In a year where they’ve widely been considered the NFL’s best overall team, that’s a rematch Detroit would welcome as much as anyone.