Philadelphia, Pa. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills travel to Philadelphia to take on the 9-1 Eagles and reigning NFC champions on Sunday, while looking for their second-straight win.
In order to get a win on the road, here are my three keys to the game, plus notes and stats:
1.) No turnovers!
The Bills have lost five games, and the common thread in all of them is turnovers.
In each of those losses, the Bills offense turned the ball over at least twice. In two of those games, they turned it over on their very first offensive snap.
They tuned the ball over multiple times in only one of their six wins, and that game came down to the final play against the New York Giants.
It sounds simple, but it's true. If the Bills don't turn the ball over, they'll have an excellent shot to win.
2.) Contain Brown and Smith
The Bills will be without defensive backs Dane Jackson and Taylor Rapp on Sunday due to injury. They will, once again, be a bit thin in the secondary, which isn't a good thing when going against receivers like A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
Brown is third in the NFL with 1,013 receiving yards, while Smith has 632 yards on the season.
The Eagles will be without tight end Dallas Goedert for this game, which means those two players will be relied on even more. The Bills have to have a heavy focus on containing them.
3.) Don't be one-dimensional
While the Eagles rank first in the league allowing only 76.5 rushing yards per-game, the Kansas City Chiefs were able to find ways to run on them last week for a whopping 168 yards and averaged 5.6 per-carry.
The Bills need to find a way to run, as well, and not force the offense and quarterback Josh Allen into one-dimensional situations. Buffalo also cannot allow Philadelphia's very good defensive line to pin their ears back and come after him.
Bills running back James Cook has 688 yards rushing on the season, good for fourth overall in the NFL. He's averaging 5.02 yards per-carry. Buffalo needs to rely on him to take some of the pressure off the passing game to stay balanced, and keep the Eagles defense on their heels.
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