Zack Moss has gone from being a healthy inactive to leading the Buffalo Bills’ running backs in playing time in the span of three games.
Moss, in his second season, played 44 offensive snaps in Sunday’s 43-21 victory over Washington at Highmark Stadium. That was 56% of the team total, and 10 more than starter Devin Singletary.
Moss responded with 60 yards on 13 carries and 31 yards on three catches. He has three touchdowns in the past two games after starting the year on the bench against Pittsburgh in Week 1.
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"He's done a real solid job," coach Sean McDermott said. "Zack, I think, came back off of being inactive that first week and was hungry. I think that's a good thing. Sometimes playing time is a great motivator, right? You never want to directly send that message, but indirectly it happened for the reasons it happened and I think he's come off of that making the best of every opportunity that he's gotten since that point. I'm seeing a hungry football player, and I love it."
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Here are four more takeaways from the snap counts Sunday:
1 A.J. Epenesa’s snap count was lower than expected. Coming off a game with nine quarterback pressures against Miami, he seemed in position to get a boost in playing time against Washington. Instead, he played just 20 defensive snaps, 37% of the defensive total. Washington ran just 54 offensive plays.
2. Taron Johnson played every snap. The Bills went with five defensive backs for the entire game, which means Johnson played all 54 snaps and linebacker A.J. Klein, who comes in when the Bills run a traditional, 4-3 defense, was relegated to just nine snaps on special teams.
3. Gabriel Davis played just 23 snaps. The second-year receiver played 29% of the offensive snaps, finishing with just one catch on his only target. It was a big catch, though, for 23 yards to convert third-and-15 on the Bills’ opening drive that ended with a touchdown.
4. Levi Wallace played 100% of the defensive snaps. The veteran cornerback was questionable coming into the game because of a knee injury, but it didn’t seem to slow him down.
Quote of the game
“As a defense, I feel like we gave up a couple big plays, which you can’t have. We take a lot of pride in not giving up big plays and maybe making teams try to nickel and dime us all the way down the field. And that's where we were able to get some takeaways. But I think overall, it's a process. We're going to keep building this thing into December and January, hopefully into February. So if we can keep getting these takeaways, setting up our offense, scoring points, then the sky’s the limit for us.” – safety Micah Hyde
Game ball: Josh Allen
An easy choice after the quarterback went 32 of 43 for 358 yards and five total touchdowns. “Felt pretty good in terms of just getting the ball out, seeing the defense, what they were doing early on,” Allen said. "It takes 11 guys out there, and we were pretty much all on the same page throughout the game today.”
Stat of the game: 8
The number of starting defensive linemen in the game who were first-round draft picks, the first time since at least the 1970 AFL-NFL merger that’s happened, according to the Bills’ public relations department. Buffalo started Greg Rousseau (2021), Ed Oliver (2019), Star Lotulelei (2013) and Jerry Hughes (2010), while Washington started Montez Sweat (2019), Chase Young (2019), Jonathan Allen (2017) and Daron Payne (2018).
Coming attractions
The Bills conclude their two-game homestand by welcoming the Houston Texans to Highmark Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday. Here are three things to know about the Texans.
1. For the second consecutive week, there won’t be a quarterback reunion. The Texans will be without quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who is on injured reserve after suffering a hamstring injury in Week 2 against Cleveland. With star quarterback Deshaun Watson being kept away from the team, Houston is left with starting rookie Davis Mills.
2. They’ve got extra rest. Like Washington on Sunday, Houston will come to Orchard Park well rested. The Texans played on Thursday Night Football in Week 3, losing 24-9 to Carolina.
3. Head coach David Culley has ties to the Bills. Culley worked as quarterbacks coach during Sean McDermott’s first two years as head coach in 2017 and '18 after he and McDermott had been on Andy Reid's staff with the Philadelphia Eagles. From there, Culley went to Baltimore for two years to work as the Ravens’ assistant head coach, wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator. He became the oldest person hired as a first-time NFL head coach when he took the Texans’ job in January at the age of 65.
