The Buffalo Bills’ 35-point margin of victory Sunday over Miami ranks tied for the fifth largest in team history.
Here’s a position-by-position grading of the Bills, based on video review and on a scale of 0 to 5:
Defensive line (5.0): A.J. Epenesa had the best game of his Bills career. He had three hits on the quarterback – including the one that knocked Tua Tagovailoa out of the game – and three other pressures, according to The News’ count. He caused the last two sacks by beating tackle Austin Jackson. Justin Zimmer got the first of those two, beating guard Robert Hunt to clean up for Epenesa. Greg Rousseau got the latter. That play was an impressive pass rush. Epenesa swiped Jackson’s hands away and showed a dip and speed move around the edge. Epenesa also got a QB hit on the intentional grounding play. A hurry by Jerry Hughes against Jackson helped Rousseau get his first sack. Rousseau had dropped into coverage on a four-man rush and stepped up to take down the QB. Everyone on the defensive line made a noteworthy play. Mario Addison stayed home on an early bootleg to force an incompletion and then got in Tagovailoa’s face on a run-pass option to make the QB hold the ball, causing the offensive linemen to get illegally downfield. Addison had a hurry on a nice spin move, too.
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Linebackers (5.0): Matt Milano was all over the field. A.J. Klein filled in for Tremaine Edmunds in the second half and showed his versatility on blitzes and in run support.
Defensive backs (5.0): Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier rushed defensive backs on blitzes or zone dogs on 10 plays, and Miami netted just 7 yards on those plays. The first two safety blitzes produced sacks by Taron Johnson and Micah Hyde. Jordan Poyer and Hyde do so many little things well. On Miami’s first play from scrimmage, Poyer was in a back-half position and drove on DeVante Parker, running a slant. Tagovailoa didn’t pull the trigger, looked right and was blindsided by Johnson. Poyer had a pass breakup covering Mike Gesicki. Later, he made a sure tackle to hold Jaylen Waddle to a 4-yard gain. Good thing, because the Bills rushed six men on the play. In addition to his forced fumble in the red zone, Johnson had a fourth-and-2 pass breakup on Preston Williams. It was a bit surprising Miami targeted Tre’Davious White seven times. They got four completions out of it and only one of more than 10 yards (it went for 16). Levi Wallace made up for a taunting penalty by coming off his receiver to make an interception when Jacoby Brissett tried to fit a pass into a hole in a zone along the sideline.
Quarterback (3.0): Josh Allen couldn’t get into a rhythm in the first half. Three drives were derailed, one by fumble, one by interception and one by two penalties. Nevertheless, the Bills' QB made enough athletic plays to produce touchdowns. His first TD pass was a scrambling escape and throw-back across his body to wide-open Stefon Diggs. That came after a perfect deep ball to Emmanuel Sanders. Allen got into a rhythm on the first drive of the third quarter when the Bills sliced up Miami’s zone coverage. The TD pass to Dawson Knox was a high-level throw to his left. The interception to Xavien Howard was forced. Miami’s defensive line dropped back, forcing Allen’s pass to be a tad late and behind Diggs. It’s easy from a keyboard to say he probably should have thrown it away. There were a couple other off-target throws. He underthrew a deep-over route for Diggs. He made a good throw on a deep-over for Sanders, but Byron Jones batted it away.
After forsaking play-action in Week 1 in deference to Pittsburgh’s pass rushers, the Bills used run fakes on 12 drop-backs. Allen only was 4 of 12 on those passes, but they included the 35-yarder to Sanders, the TD pass to Dawson Knox and the 41-yarder to Diggs.
Running back (4.0): Devin Singletary now is averaging 6.4 yards a carry through two games. His 46-yard TD was the second longest run of his career. The only demerit is the fumble by Zack Moss, who rushed eight times for 26 yards. And 24 came after contact. Veteran linebacker Elandon Roberts was hurting coming off the field after losing a collision with Moss on the final TD run.
Receivers (3.5): Howard is one of the top five cornerbacks in the NFL, and Jones is a top-end starter. Still, the Bills connected on a deep ball on each of them. Knox’s TD catch continued his encouraging start to the season. The Bills’ receivers had no drops. Miami had five drops.
Offensive line (3.0): Guard Jon Feliciano bounced back from his rough outing against Pittsburgh star Casey Heyward with a strong performance in Miami. Feliciano was a key blocker on Singletary’s TD run, he got a seal block on Allen’s 15-yard QB sweep, and he pulled and wiped out Jones on the toss-sweep TD by Moss. Daryl Williams gave up the lone sack, but both he and Dion Dawkins were much improved from Week 1. Andrew Van Ginkel did almost nothing against Dawkins. Cody Ford had a quietly solid Week 1 showing, but wasn’t quite as good in Week 2. He gave up three hurries, had a holding penalty and couldn’t cover up Christian Wilkins on a third-and-1 run failure.
Special teams (4.0): An unheralded player who had a fantastic game was special-teams ace Taiwan Jones. Isaiah McKenzie fielded Miami’s first punt at the Buffalo 34 and returned it 20 yards to set up the Bills’ opening score. Jones is the “jammer,” the blocker on the wide right side of the field. Jones so dominated Miami gunner Jamal Perry that Perry hadn’t even reached midfield when McKenzie fielded the punt. Both Jones and Siran Neal (the Bills’ gunners in punt coverage) had superb coverage late in the first half on the punt muffed by Jaylen Waddle. Neal hit Waddle, and Jones recovered the muff. Jones also had a great jam on a fourth quarter punt return. Neal drew a hold in punt coverage.
