Buffalo Bullies, Washington Wows in Monday Mayhem (9/23)
Easy, Double-Digit Covers for Bills and Commanders
Two games to recap. Let’s jump right in…
Buffalo (-4.5) beat Jacksonville 47-10, winning yardage 388-239, yards-per-play 6.5 to 3.5, third downs 53-15%, rushing 122-92, drive points (60+ yds) 30-7, red zone TD pct 80% (4/5) to 25% (1/4), and TOs 2-0. Buffalo also had four 4D failures chasing from behind all night.
Quite a beatdown. Buffalo’s skeptics were overdoing it this past summer. Though, it could turn out that bullying Miami “without Tua” and this version of Jacksonville doesn’t mean that much in the big picture. Baffling point spread drop to Buffalo -4.5 (-4 in spots) before kickoff. Nothing in any key stats I could see would have foreshadowed sharp interest in the Jags. If anything, losing to Cleveland last week looked much WORSE after the Browns lost to NYG. Maybe somebody was supposed to be hurt. Looked dumb right away because Buffalo went for the jugular, and found it.
JAX: x-3-I-x-D----7-D-D-F (1/10)
BUF: 6-7-7-7-7---3-x-3-7 (6/9)
“I” stands for Interception. “D” stands for “loss on Downs.” “F” stands for “Fumble.” That opening salvo from Buffalo is what New Orleans did at Dallas last week. Nothing but TDs the first five possessions. Very hard to do in the NFL, where some TEAMS still don’t have 5 touchdowns all season through three games (Miami, NE, Pitt, Denver, Chicago all have just three offensive TDs).
Buffalo moves to 3-0. Soft opponents the past two weeks could mean that the Bills are still a team that bullies cupcakes but gets exposed vs. quality. For now, appreciate the execution. Jaguars fall to 0-3, and played like they had thrown in the towel on the ’24 season by late in the first quarter. Offense is nowhere near expectations. (Frankly, it’s hard to lose drive points by a count like 30-7 in an NFL game unless you’ve at least thrown in the towel on that game at some point.)