ORCHARD PARK - For the second week in a row, the Buffalo Bills have a seemingly similar challenge in front of them when they travel to Baltimore to take on the Ravens Sunday night.
Last week, many - and I’m raising my hand here - assumed the Bills would be in for a brawl against Jacksonville because the Jaguars were coming to town 0-2 and desperate to get their season turned around, making them a dangerous opponent. Obviously, that was a pretty silly storyline because the Bills made a mockery of the Jaguars during a 47-10 bombardment.
However, it’s not crazy to be thinking the same thing when the Bills and Ravens take to the NFL’s biggest stage on Sunday Night Football because unlike the 3-0 Bills, Baltimore has stumbled to a 1-2 start and is already trailing the 3-0 Steelers by two games in the rugged AFC North.
“To be honest, every game is a big game for us, because we’re trying to get somewhere,” Ravens QB Lamar Jackson said Sunday after he led a 28-25 victory over the Cowboys to get the Ravens into the W column. “We’ve got to win these games to get to the playoffs, man, and win these playoff games to get to the Super Bowl. It starts with the game that’s in front of us. So, the 0-2 start, we didn’t want that to happen.”
The game in front of them next is Buffalo against a team that has outscored its first three opponents 112-48 and if you care at all about power rankings, has taken over the top spot in many iterations from the defending Super Bowl champions who have been wholly unimpressive during their own 3-0 start.
Not that the Bills are paying attention to any of that, especially considering what they have in front of them with three straight road games against expected AFC playoff teams Baltimore, Houston and the Jets.
“What we’ve been doing here with the Buffalo Bills is just keeping it simple and just playing our game,” edge rusher Von Miller said. “Not really just focusing on the results. Just going in and playing football, keeping it simple, keeping the expectations down, and just playing our game. And that’s been working for us, and that’s the type of mindset that we bring into this game as well.”
Here are three questions I have heading into the Ravens game:
1. Do the Bills have the best boundary CB duo in the league?
It’s way too early to start making that claim, but Rasul Douglas and Christian Benford are playing at an elite level for the Bills. Among the 42 cornerbacks who have played at least 100 snaps in coverage, Pro Football Focus has Benford as its second-highest graded player while Douglas is 20th.
Benford continues to be a stunningly effective player. He has been targeted 13 times and has allowed just five catches for 26 yards. His 25.4 snaps per reception ranks fourth among corners, and his passer rating against of 14.6 is tied for third-best. As sixth-round picks go, Benford has been one of the Bills’ all-time draft finds , and he essentially wipes out their miss on first-rounder Kaiir Elam from the same 2022 draft.
“I think he went to a basketball school, Villanova, so I don’t think people were looking there for football players, but he popped up,” Douglas said. “He’s just got that nasty attitude about himself, that like whenever he gets around to play, he’s gonna make sure you know he’s around. He’s one of the guys who I say is real disciplined in like what he does.”
As for Douglas, he has allowed seven receptions on 11 targets for 68 yards, and he brings the constant threat of a big play with 19 career interceptions and three fumble recoveries, six of those turnovers coming in just nine games last year for the Bills after he was acquired in a trade from Green Bay.
“Well, they do a good job, and those two have formed a really good relationship which has been fun to watch,” McDermott said of his tandem which eliminated prized first-round pick Marvin Harrison Jr. in the opener, muted Miami’s dynamic duo of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, and then shut down Christian Kirk, Gabe Davis and another prized rookie first-round pick Brian Thomas on Monday. “Rasul not even really being here a full year yet, so I think they learn off of one another and the experiences that they’ve had both on and off the field.”
2. Is this the best offensive line of the Josh Allen Era?
Yes, and it’s not particularly close. Mitch Morse spent five years as Allen’s center and he was a very good player, and for Morse’s entire stay, Allen also had Dion Dawkins at left tackle.
However, through the years they were lining up with guys such as Daryl Williams, Rodger Saffold, Ike Boettger, Ryan Bates, Jon Feliciano, Quinton Spain, Brian Winters and Cody Ford. Not great, and Allen’s legs were often his saving grace.
Things began to solidify in 2023 when Spencer Brown, in his third season, began to excel at right tackle, left guard Connor McGovern was signed to shore up that spot, and rookie second-round pick O’Cyrus Torrence played every snap in all 17 games and grew immeasurably through the season.
Morse is now gone, but McGovern slid seamlessly to center, David Edwards has assumed left guard, Torrence played well against Jacksonville after two rough games, and Dawkins and Brown have been two of the best tackles in the NFL through three weeks. Per PFF charting, Dawkins and Brown have allowed no sacks and just five total pressures in three games.
Allen was named AFC offensive player of the week and his reaction to that: “It’s a shame our O-line can’t win offensive player of the week, ‘cause they played their tails off, and even going back to Week 2, James was able to win that because of what our O-line’s doing. So, making sure that they’re getting love, and they’re getting the praises. They deserve it because they’re playing together, they’re playing very well, they’re communicating well. It’s easy to play quarterback behind these guys right now because of how hard they work and how well they’re executing.”
3. Do the Bills need more from Dalton Kincaid?
Kincaid made two big plays against the Jaguars and they came on the same drive in the first quarter. He got open for a 28-yard gain on a third-and-3, and then he finished that drive by extending his route and finding open space while Allen bought time in the pocket, and he reeled in Allen’s pass on the run in the back of the end zone for the touchdown that made it 13-0.
Beyond that, Kincaid caught one other pass for seven yards and was targeted just two other times on his 34 snaps.
The Bills are making lots of noise about their “everybody eats” mentality on offense, but on a team where there isn’t a clear-cut No. 1 receiver, the opportunity for Kincaid, the team’s first-round pick in 2023, to become a big-time player is there, yet it hasn’t happened yet. He’s been good, but it just feels like there could be so much more.
Among the 20 tight ends who have been targeted at least 10 times, Kincaid’s 85 yards receiving ranks 13th, and of his eight receptions, only three have produced first downs. Las Vegas rookie tight end Brock Bowers already has 18 catches for 197 yards with 10 first downs, and he’s catching passes from Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills, Ravens take to NFL’s biggest stage: 3 questions heading into the showdown
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