A look back, a look ahead

Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - My new day to write for the WGR website is Tuesday. In an NFL season, it feels like a sweet spot to still be thinking about the game that just happened, as well as spinning things forward to start thinking about the next game.

With that in mind, I’m gonna start typing and see what happens. Feel free to come along.

First up, a look back at the Bills' win Sunday over the Arizona Cardinals in the season opener.

For me, the vibes were erratic heading into Josh Allen’s seventh opener with the Bills.

The first significant roster turnover of Allen’s career with the Bills happened in the offseason. Familiar names and faces with loads of talent walked out the door at One Bills Drive.

It’s been a challenge trying to get my head around exactly who and what the 2024 edition of the Bills are going to be.

That left me much more tense than normal heading into Sunday’s kickoff in Orchard Park.

Will the new safeties hold up? Is Von Miller ready to contribute? Can Greg Rousseau take another step? How much will Matt Milano be missed? And of course, who is going to catch all the passes on a team that returned only one wide receiver who had caught a regular season pass from Allen?

Recognizing that we don’t get definitive answers to all of these questions off of a season opener, the amount of uncertainty created quite a bit of anxiety for me heading into the matchup with the Cardinals. I mean, imagine if after the offseason the Bills had, how we’d have reacted to them losing at home to Arizona to start the season.

Then the game started, and it was t-o-u-g-h.

Arizona won the toss, elected to receive, and held the ball for almost half of the first quarter on a methodical touchdown drive to put the Bills in an early 7-0 hole.

It took a while for things to improve for the Bills.

Allen got sacked and fumbled on the Bills' first offensive possession of the season. That led to an Arizona field goal.

The Bills then had an Allen touchdown run nullified by a penalty, and settled for a field goal of their own before Arizona mounted another seven-plus-minute touchdown drive to make it 17-3.

Allen had only attempted two passes at this point, and it felt pretty sad.

However, things turned late in the half in Buffalo's favor.

The Bills got a touchdown on, of course, an Allen run to close out the half. Then they opened the second half with a drive capped by an Allen-to-Mack Hollins touchdown pass, and the game was tied at 17-17.

It began to feel like the Bills game after all, eventually getting to 31-20, Buffalo, before an Arizona kick return touchdown slowed the party bus down, creating a somewhat tense finish.

As mentioned above, I wasn’t expecting concrete answers to all the questions we’ve got about the 2024 Bills. But one game in, how about it?

It felt, to me, like the Cardinals left some plays out there against the safety tandem of Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin. That bears watching, especially going to play the Miami Dolphins on a short week.

Not sure if Cole Bishop is ready to be thrown in off an inactive list appearance in the opener followed by a short week against the fastest offense in the NFL, but I’m concerned about the safeties.

Miller’s performance on the edge was encouraging.

Rousseau was a monster, and perhaps I’ve underestimated his ability to take his game to another level in Year 4 of his career.

There was more of a mixed bag from Dorian Williams in the Milano spot at linebacker.

As for the pass catchers, a 28-yard back-shoulder job from Allen to rookie Keon Coleman went a long way toward easing concerns about how much the kid would contribute early on. Coleman’s snap count, 73%, was certainly encouraging.

And even though I didn’t list it as a question mark earlier, it was encouraging to see that despite Dalton Kincaid only caught one pass, he was on the field for 84% of the offensive plays. I’d expect targets and catches to follow.

As for the look ahead, Allen has owned the Dolphins since entering the league. I’d expect that they’ll need another version of Allen as the AFC Offensive Player of the Week to keep up with Miami.

The Dolphins are loaded with speed, speed, and more speed. I’m not even sure I typed "speed" enough times there.

Speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed, speed.

There, was that enough?

The concerns I have about the safeties are magnified in this matchup. I might do well to remember that Rapp iced last years meeting in Miami with a fantastic interception.

Disrupting Tua Tagovailoa’s timing is paramount, so pass rush is only part of it.

Rasul Douglas and Christian Benford should try to disrupt Miami’s speedy backs and receivers as best they can in an effort to gum things up for the Dolphins.

Discipline and not over pursuing Miami’s running backs is also paramount if the Bills want to get off to a 2-0 start to the season.