The Buffalo Bills’ defense performed a remarkable turnaround in the second half of Sunday’s loss in Tampa.
The Bills were skewered for 303 total yards, including 89 on the ground in the first half. They gave up 18 first downs and allowed the Bucs to convert 5 of their first seven third-down situations.
In the second half, the Bills held the Bucs to 110 yards, including just 44 on the ground. The Bucs managed just five first downs in the second half and converted just 1 of 7 third downs from late in the first half to the end of regulation.
But the turnaround went for naught on Tom Brady’s 58-yard winning touchdown pass to Breshad Perriman in overtime.
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Here’s a closer look at key plays from the game:
Shallow cross to the house. The winning score came on a third-and-3 play from the Bucs 38. Perriman ran a short route across the field to the right, with Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans running across the field in the other direction.
It had to be a coverage mix-up by the Bills’ defense. Perriman caught the ball 10 yards downfield with linebacker Tremaine Edmunds two steps behind and chasing. Perriman runs the 40-yard dash in 4.26 seconds, one of the fastest pre-draft times in the past 20 years. There was no way Edmunds was catching him.
Bills coach Sean McDermott acknowledged the defensive call was not designed to have Edmunds in man coverage on Perriman.
“I know the look of it is linebacker on a wide receiver, that’s not designed to go that way,” McDermott said.
The Bucs ran pre-snap motion on the far left, with Chris Godwin moving to the slot, inside of Perriman. Bills cornerback Taron Johnson stuck with the slot receiver, Godwin, who ran an out-route to the left sideline. The cornerback on the far left, Levi Wallace, stayed in off coverage to the outside. It was a man-to-man coverage call. It looked like either Wallace didn’t get the call or he and Johnson weren’t on the same page.
Dane Jackson was in man coverage on Evans.
“It was basically like a mesh route,” Perriman said, referring to two receivers running shallow crosses from opposite directions. “It was crazy how it worked out. I was supposed to be picking for Mike. It just so happened, I went underneath and Mike went over the top and basically picked for me. Tom threw an amazing ball and the rest is history.”
“They kind of jumped Mike going across the field and left BP back there and I picked him out, out of the corner of my eye,” Brady said. “He made a great catch and run. He’s got great speed. Once I saw him in the open field, I said, ‘Go BP, run!’ ”
The Bills’ linebacker on the defensive left, where Perriman ran, was Matt Milano, and he blitzed on the play. Bucs running back Leonard Fournette blocked Milano enough to allow Brady to deliver a perfect pass.
“To be honest, I don’t know what happened because they brought a crazy ... blitz,” Fournette said. “I was on the ground blocking someone. I looked up and BP was gone.”
No funeral, no foul. The hands of Bucs cornerback Carlton Davis were all over Stefon Diggs on a third-and-2 pass from the 7 to the left side of the end zone with 25 seconds left in regulation.
Davis grabbed him by the right shoulder pad and then by the neck of Diggs’ jersey, pulling it downward. As both fell to the ground, Davis pulled his hands away. There was no call. The Bills were forced to kick a tying field goal to send it to overtime.
Drawing the flag. Three snaps before the winning touchdown, Wallace was flagged for a 19-yard pass interference foul on Evans that gave Tampa the ball on its 35.
Evans had his right arm over the back of Wallace in an attempt to draw a contact foul. It worked. Wallace got his head turned around to look for the ball at the last second as the pass arrived. He didn’t run through Evans. The pass was underthrown. No matter. It was a bad call. The referees got baited into it by a great receiver.
Textbook power. The Buccaneers blocked up the Bills’ defense exactly the way it was drawn up in springing Fournette for a 47-yard touchdown run to open the scoring.
Defensive end Greg Rousseau got dominated at the point of attack on the edge by tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Edmunds was blocked up by pulling guard Ali Marpet off right tackle. He couldn’t get off the block to slow down Fournette.
The weakside defender, Johnson, had the best chance to fill the gap and reach Fournette, but he took a bit of a bad angle, and his path to the runner was altered because he had to get around Rousseau, who had been pushed back a step or two by Gronkowski.
Milano was blocked off right end by pulling guard Alex Cappa, but Milano was the widest defender, protecting against the run getting outside of him.
The Bills had two deep safeties. Jordan Poyer was blocked up by left tackle Donovan Smith.
Ridiculous catch. Evans showed one reason why he’s a strong Hall of Fame candidate with the touchdown catch that broke the game wide open in the second quarter.
Evans is one of the great big receivers of the past 20 years, and he used all of his huge frame to catch a 13-yard TD pass in the left corner of the end zone to give the Bucs a 17-3 lead. It was zone coverage, and Micah Hyde was in great position. But the throw from Brady was too good, and Evans just barely snagged it with his fingertips.
Evans is 6-foot-4 3/4 inches and 230 pounds, with arms that are like that of an offensive tackle – 35 1/8 inches. By comparison, Buffalo’s 6-2 Gabriel Davis had 32 1/4 inch arms. Stefon Diggs’ arms are 31 1/4 inches.
Barring injury, Evans is sure to hit 1,000 yards receiving for the eighth time in his eight NFL seasons. Last year, he became the first receiver in league history to hit 1,000 yards in each of his first seven seasons, breaking a record held by Hall of Famer Randy Moss.
It was Evans’ 11th TD catch of the season.
