The Buffalo Bills beat the San Francisco 49ers, 34-24 to improve to 9-3 on the season for a second-consecutive season.
For the first time ever after a Monday Night Football game, my Arrows start Up:
ARROW UP:
- Sean McDermott
A five-hour trip, a late start that this team isn’t used to, and some scheduling changes from it’s original location.
It didn’t matter. The Bills head coach had his team prepared and ready to play.
The Bills played a disciplined game (only four penalties), their assistants had a terrific game plan, and the players executed as well as they have in any game this season from start-to-finish. They were extremely well-prepared and in control almost all night.
That’s the sign of a well-coached team.
Despite hearing all week about not having won on Monday Night Football since 1999, going 0-for-their-last-9, and knowing the Miami Dolphins are now right on their heels in the AFC East, the Bills didn’t let any of that get to them in any way.
McDermott said during the week, “we have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.” They played like they were very comfortable.
This was a statement win for the 2020 Bills and the organization as a whole, and McDermott and his staff deserve a lot of credit for that.
- Josh Allen
Allen was on fire from the start of the game.
His first half was simply ridiculous, going 19-for-23 for 236 yards and two touchdowns. He was particularly good throwing on the run, making several great throws on the move.
He kept it going in the second half, finishing the contest going 32-for-40 for a remarkable 80% completion rate, 375 yards and four touchdown passes, all to different receivers.
Allen was in control the entire game, and in control of it. It was a terrific performance.
- Cole Beasley
With the 49ers down a couple of nickel cornerbacks, the game set up pretty well for the Bills to be able to take advantage of Beasley in the slot, and boy did they ever. Beasley finished the game with nine catches for 130 yards and a touchdown. He caught seven passes for 113 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone.
- Stefon Diggs
When the 49ers finally decided to pay more attention to Beasley, Diggs stepped up and did what he usually does - catch a whole bunch of passes, finishing with 10 catches, the most of any player on the field for either team, for 92 yards. His route running is always great, but it really showed up on the national stage Monday night, turning defensive backs inside out a few times.
- Goal line stand
After the Bills had just been stopped on 4th-and-goal on their opening offensive drive of the game, the 49ers started at their own two-yard line, then drove 97 yards, all the way to the Bills’ 10-yard line. From there, the defense made four straight stops, including one from the two-yard line and two final plays from the one-yard line, keeping the 49ers off the board.
- Pass protection
Allen threw the ball 40 times on Monday and was only sacked once. The 49ers, as a team, were credited with only three quarterback hurries, which is a very low number for any team in a game. The Bills’ offensive line did a terrific job of protecting Allen all night long.
- Darryl Johnson
Johnson showed up both on defense and special teams with a couple of big tackles on both, including one on for a nine-yard loss on the opening drive of the third quarter that took the 49ers from the Bills' 25-yard line back to their 34, eventually resulting in only a field goal.
- Micah Hyde
Hyde came up with a timely interception late in the third quarter, taking the ball all the way back to the 49ers' five-yard line.
Then, with just over seven minutes left in regulation and the 49ers knocking on the door of the Bills’ goal line looking to get it back to a 10-point deficit, Hyde made a terrific tackle to keep wide receiver Kendrick Bourne out of the end zone. The play was originally called a touchdown, but replay showed Bourne’s knee was down just short of the goal line thanks to Hyde’s tackle. So instead of the touchdown, the 49ers faced a third down.
On the next play, Tre’Davious White intercepted Nick Mullens. Hyde’s tackle was huge.
He also finished with 12 tackles, the most of any player for either team.
- Brian Daboll
The Bills offensive coordinator had a wonderful game plan. From the get-go, the offense was efficient. Receivers were getting space, the offensive line knew exactly where any pressure was going from, and Allen was as prepared as ever.
- End of first half: Part I
With just 1:05 left the first half and up a touchdown, the Bills got the ball at their own 10-yard line. Seven plays later, they were at the 49ers’ 19-yard line, setting Tyler Bass up for a field goal as time expired. They did a vey good job of being aggressive and getting valuable points out of the drive that went seven plays, 71 yards, using the entire 1:05 off the clock.
- Tyler Bass
Once again, Bass was perfect on the night. He converted all six of his kicking attempts, including two field goals and four extra points.
He’s now converted on his last nine field goal attempts and 12 of his last 13, only missing a 61-yard try at the end of the half against the Seattle Seahawks. He’s also now pushed his overall percentage on field goals and extra points combined to 89.3% on the season.
- Run defense
There was a big concern about the Bills being able to stop the 49ers' rushing attack, but they did a good job of that. San Francisco ran the ball 21 times for just 81 yards, an average of just 4.1 yards per-carry.
- Vernon Butler
The Bills defensive tackle was making plays, or forcing them, all night. Butler finished with three tackles, one for a loss, and a quarterback hurry. He seemed unblockable, at times, on Monday night.
ARROW DOWN:
- Red zone offense
The Bills were inside the 49ers' red zone five different times, but only came away with a touchdown on two of them. Often in the NFL, a 40% red zone conversion rate will cost a team. Luckily it didn’t cost the Bills.
- 4th-and-goal
On the Bills' very first drive of the game, the Bills drove all the way to the 49ers' one-yard line and faced a 4th-and-goal. McDermott elected to go for it, and Daboll called a play-action pass. Allen couldn’t find his initial read, then went back to the other side and threw it... to tight end Lee Smith. On 4th-and-goal.
Not the target you want to see the ball intended for in such an important situation and play. The pass was high, a bit behind Smith, and incomplete.
- Zack Moss
The Bills rookie running back didn’t have a good showing in his first-ever Monday Night Football game.
Moss was given the ball a couple times early, and on one of them he put it on the ground. It didn’t matter because he was down before that, but it’s still not something you want to have happen, especially since it was initially called a fumble on the field but reversed upon review.
Then, Moss actually did fumble in the worst place possible - right at his own goal line after the Bills came up with that huge goal line stand. Moss simply closed his hands too soon and never had the ball. It popped out and right to the 49ers, who scored a touchdown three players later.
It’s no coincidence Moss didn’t play much after that. He finished with only three carries for just nine yards, plus one catch for five yards.
- Brian Winters
When starting guard Jon Feliciano went out of the game with a knee injury, Winters replaced him at right guard. Immediately, the 49ers got pressure right over Winters, as he had trouble with a bull rush right at him. Feliciano came back on the very next series.
- End of first half: Part II
Even though the Bills did a god job overall of getting points on the final drive of the first half (see above), they might have cost themselves a chance at a touchdown instead of settling for a field goal.
On the very first play of that drive, after Devin Singletary ran for eight yards to their 18-yard line, the offense let almost 20 seconds run off the clock before snapping the ball, despite having all three timeouts remaining. Then, when the drive wrapped up at the 49ers' 19-yard line, the Bills still had one more timeout left, but had to kick the field goal because there was only four seconds left. They took that timeout with them to the locker room.
Had they used it after that first play, they could have had at least one more, and probably two more plays before having to kick the field goal.
- Offensive sequence after Hyde’s interception
The Bills had a chance to maybe put the 49ers away late in the third quarter when Hyde picked off a Mullens pass and brought it back to the San Francisco five-yard line. However, the Bills went backwards from there, mostly because of two costly penalties, having to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown.
- Late 49ers drives
Even though the Bills had things well in-hand, they couldn’t put the 49ers away late.
San Francisco’s last three drives were all long, going for 75, 74, and 78 yards. Two of them resulted in touchdowns. Of course, some of that is playing softer pass defense to sacrifice yards for time off the clock, but the Bills have let teams hang around, and even get back into games too often this season.
This was almost another example of that, if it weren’t for an interception at the goal line on one of those drives.
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