Bills offensive tackles Daryl Williams and Dion Dawkins turned in technically sound performances against star pass rushers Chase Young and Montez Sweat.
Give quarterback Josh Allen and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll big assists in preventing the Washington Football Team from getting a single sack in the Bills’ 43-21 victory.
Williams blocked Young, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 draft, 34 times in pass protection and gave up only four hurries, according to Buffalo News charts. Dawkins blocked Sweat 29 times in pass protection and gave up only one hurry. Both offensive tackles got their hands on the big edge rushers and almost never got beaten cleanly.
It was just the third time in the last 31 games that Washington was held without a sack. But it was a team effort.
The Bills focused on the quick passing game and exploited Washington’s linebackers in the middle of the field in zone coverage.
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“That’s great,” guard Jon Feliciano said. “When Josh is out there getting the ball out quick, it kind of brings the D-line down because they're like, ‘Damn, how am I supposed to get a sack when the ball is going out this quick?’ ”
The Bills did a little bit of chipping on the edge rushers with a running back or tight end, but not a lot. Daboll used play action to cause the Washington pass rush to respect the run for a beat or two on pass plays. Allen was 11 of 14 for 181 yards and a touchdown on play-action fakes.
“That's one thing I think we did today that was put them in good situations,” Allen said. “And there were a couple of plays, we alerted some checks to get out of bad situations. They played well, they executed, they communicated well. It's fun to play back there when you have that confidence in them. And I've got, you know, supreme confidence in our front five right now.”
Allen was sensational when he faced pressure. His first two touchdown passes and his touchdown run all came when he calmly navigated pressure in the pocket.
“I'm watching an offensive line improve every week,” said coach Sean McDermott. “It's not where it needs to be yet, and we're not where we need to be. I'm not where I need to be. Just embracing that, and let's go back to work, let's put on the blue jeans and the hard hat and go back to work and earn it. And I thought they did a good job.”
Washington put the onus on its front four to get pressure. Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio blitzed Allen on only 5 of 46 dropbacks, according to News charts. Allen was 5 of 5 for 68 yards vs. rushes of five or more, and that included the 41-yard deep pass to Emmanuel Sanders.
Williams and Dawkins did a good job of using their long arms to get their hands on the defensive ends and steer them wide of the quarterback.
Feliciano got help double-teaming Jonathan Allen on occasion, and the 2017 first-round pick managed only one pressure.
“I feel like 93, Jon Allen, doesn't get the credit he deserves,” Feliciano said. “I think he's the best guy on their front, the dude’s a werewolf.”
It was a good thing the outside matchups went well for Buffalo, because guard Cody Ford struggled with the speed of defensive tackle Daron Payne, the 13th overall pick in 2018.
By The News’ count, Ford gave up eight pressures to Payne. Pro Football Focus gave Ford 12 pressures allowed. The best thing that can be said about Ford is most of the time, he protected inside but was getting beaten to the outside by Payne’s speed. That allowed Allen to step up in the pocket. On the first six pressures allowed by Ford to Payne, Allen was 5 for 5 for 104 yards.
One of those was a poised slide in the pocket by Allen to avoid Payne and throw a 23-yard third-down completion to Gabriel Davis. On the next one, Payne got across Ford’s face and flushed Allen to the right sideline, where he threw a 28-yard TD pass to Emmanuel Sanders.
If more than one Bills lineman had been giving up pressure on any given play – as happened in the season opener against Pittsburgh – Payne might have had a bigger impact on the game.
“Going into this game, we knew that that they had that hype,” Dawkins said. “There's a lot of high-profile guys, all first-round guys, all high-caliber dudes. And we just knew that we had to worry about ourselves, cuz you can get lost in the sauce, honestly, if you take that approach like, ‘Man, that's Chase Young, that's Sweat, that's Payne, that's Allen. We took it as look, let's just focus on us. There's gonna be good things and bad things that happened during this game no matter what. As long as we flush it and keep it pushing, we’ll be all right.”
