Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills escaped Sunday night with a nail-biting victory over the New York Giants at Highmark Stadium that came down to the final play of the game.
With no time on the clock and the Giants given an untimed down at the Buffalo one-yard line, a pass floated up for Darren Waller fell incomplete, as Bills safety Taron Johnson was able to provide just enough coverage for the New York tight end to not come up with a catch.
The play capped off an ugly 14-9 win for the Bills that featured the Buffalo offense struggling to come up with any positive production through most of the game.
This game was circled as a "get right" game for Bills by many people in the football world after a tough loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars the week prior in London, England. However, the rough start from the Buffalo offense made it seem like the Bills were still feeling the effects of that defeat.
Despite some major injuries on defense, the Bills were able to keep the Giants out of the end zone for the entire game, allowing only three field goals from kicker Graham Gano. The defensive front also continued to get to the quarterback this week, sacking former Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor three times.
It wasn't until the third quarter when the Bills finally got something going offensively in a positive direction. Their first drive of the second half chewed nearly 10 minutes off the clock and ended with a touchdown pass from quarterback Josh Allen to Deonte Harty.
Then after a Giants field goal to re-take the lead, the Bills bounced right back with another scoring drive to put, what ended up being, the nail in the coffin for New York with a 15-yard strike from Allen to tight end Quintin Morris.
Although the Giants had two more opportunities to win the football game as the clock ticked away to 0:00, the Buffalo defense did what it needed to do to help secure the fourth win of the season for the Bills.
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After getting back into the win column, the Bills will head back to the road as they get ready to take on the struggling New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
The Patriots, like the Giants, have struggled for much of the 2023 season. Their offense has only scored two touchdowns in the past three games, while their defense hasn't been able to take control of any games.
Just this past week, the Patriots lost on the road to the Las Vegas Raiders, 21-17. The team is still constantly changing their quarterback mid-game, as Mac Jones was pulled and has now had an early exit in his last three starts.
Aside from last week, the Patriots haven't had a good track record, getting outscored by a 72-3 total in the two weeks prior against the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys.
Overall, the Patriots sit at 1-5 in the standings as one of the worst teams in the entire NFL.
If Howard Simon wasn't more reserved with his approach to "Howard Picks the Bills" in Week 6, he was even more reserved with his picks heading into Week 7.
While Howard has confidence the Bills will beat the teams they should for the remainder of the season, he remains worried about the offense and its ability to put up consistent outputs.
Luckily, Howard's confidence heading to Foxboro is as high as it has been all season with the Bills taking care of business easily with a win over the Patriots.
However, when all was said and done with his picks, Howard only got the Bills to 11 wins on the season compared to six losses. This included losses to the New York Jets once again in Week 11 at Highmark Stadium, as well as a Week 18 loss to the Dolphins in Miami.
With this week's results, it is difficult to foresee the Bills coming away with a fourth-straight AFC East title. Nonetheless, an 11-6 record should still be good enough for the Bills to squeak into the playoffs as a Wild Card team.
Be sure to follow along on X, formerly known as Twitter, for the latest picks from Howard by using the hashtag #HowardPicksTheBills. You can also track all of Howard's picks throughout the season with Brayton Wilson's picks tracker on X: @BraytonJWilson.
You can listen to, and watch the latest edition of "Howard Picks the Bills" available below: