Bills nearly flawless, but win comes with a cost: Sal's 4 observations from Monday night

ORCHARD PARK - As cathartic victories go, this was a pretty good one for the Buffalo Bills.

Seriously, how sweet do you think it was for the Bills to beat down the Titans the way they did in the home opener at Highmark Stadium Monday night, a 41-7 laugher that improved Buffalo’s record to 2-0 on the young season?

Never mind Josh Allen’s completely milquetoast answer when I asked him that very question about how vindicating it must have been to knock off a Titans team that has given the Bills fits the previous two years.

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“Not at all,” Allen said with a straight face. “When you can play a game like that, it doesn’t matter who it’s against. That’s a good team that we played. For us to go do that was great. But we turn our attention toward the Dolphins. We’ll learn from it and turn the page and look forward to Miami next week.”

Sigh. If only Allen’s press conferences could be as spectacular as his play which, on this celebratory night was once again sublime.

It’s a pretty easy case to make that the Bills have been a better team than the Titans dating back to 2020, but Mike Vrabel’s team has just been a physically tough matchup with its powerful ground game and stout defense. Yet they blew out Buffalo 42-16 in 2020, and then hung on for dear life at the end of last year’s 34-31 victory when they stuffed Allen near the goal line on his ill-fated fourth-down QB sneak.

Allen, Sean McDermott and everyone else who lived through those two losses can say this game meant nothing more than any other victory, but you know they have their fingers crossed behind their backs. Of course this meant a little more.

They won’t admit it, but we can all surmise that this was a game the Bills have been pointing to ever since the schedule came out, not only because it was the home opener, but because they owed this team a punch in the face.

You got the feeling, as they were scoring the final 34 points after the Titans had tied the game at 7-7 in the first quarter, that the Bills wanted to play all night just so they could keep pouring it on against their nemesis. Instead, McDermott called off the dogs and pulled Allen, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, and several other starters late in the third quarter.

This game was so over by that point, even Vrabel - who suffered the worst point differential loss of his Titans coaching career - waved the white flag and yanked quarterback Ryan Tannehill and star running back Derrick Henry.

Both starting quarterbacks out of a regular season game, not because of injury, in the third quarter of a regular-season game? That doesn’t happen too often in the NFL, and neither does this. If you can believe it, this was Buffalo’s 20th straight regular-season victory by double digits, tying an NFL record that was set by the Chicago Bears of George Halas spanning the 1941 and 1942 seasons.

“We got our (butts) kicked, plain and simple,” Vrabel said. “They outcoached us. They outplayed us.”

Here's my recap of what happened:

1. Stefon Diggs was simply unguardable

If there’s anyone who loves the bright lights of prime-time games, it’s the Bills star wide receiver. Since he entered the NFL with the Vikings in 2016, no player has more receptions (82), receiving yards (949), or touchdowns (12) in Monday night games than Diggs.

He made a mockery of an overmatched Tennessee secondary by catching 12 passes (his most as a Bill) for 148 yards and three touchdowns in less than three quarters.

“I feel like it was a lot left on the bone, really,” the never satisfied Diggs said. “I’ve been with Josh for a couple years now. It’s just trying to fine-tune and get better in all areas. At this point, that’s two wins. Try and go get the next one.”

The Titans did not have their best cornerback, Kristian Fulton, and were forced to send out 2021 first-round pick Caleb Farley (just his fourth NFL game), 2022 second-round pick Roger McCreary, undrafted rookie free agent Tre Avery, and Chris Jackson who came up from the practice squad to replace Fulton.

They played a bunch of zone, hoping their outstanding safeties, Kevin Byard and Amani Hooker, could help the inexperienced foursome, but they couldn’t. Diggs was open all night, regardless of what type of route he ran. Allen targeted him 14 times because why wouldn’t he? Even without injured Gabe Davis, Allen was still able to play pitch and catch with Diggs.

“In a couple situations, I think we just weren’t playing aggressive enough,” Byard said. “We knew he was the top target, you know what I’m saying? I just feel like we didn’t do a good enough job of limiting his big plays. We knew he was going to get all the targets, but he had 12 catches on 14 targets. That’s not good enough.”

2. Bills did a great job on Derrick Henry

The No. 1 priority when you play the Titans is to at least try to contain the locomotive that is Henry. When the Titans get Henry going, everything in their offense works better, especially Tannehill’s play-action game.

The Bills did better than contain Henry; they pretty much derailed him off the tracks as he finished with just 25 yards on 13 carries and what was eye-popping is that he had zero yards after first contact according to Pro Football Focus. Henry makes his living by piling up yards after contact because usually, he’s almost impossible to tackle on first contact.

“We were ready and understood what they were gonna try to do, and how they were trying to attack us,” safety Jordan Poyer said.

Henry had just 12 yards on eight carries in the first half, though he did score a touchdown. And by the time the Bills went ahead 27-7, Henry had only 14 yards on 11 carries.

It’s rare when any team can slow Henry down like that, but the Bills were outstanding at the point of attack. And they were able to do this even though two of their top defensive tackles, Ed Oliver and Tim Settle, were inactive due to injuries.

DT’s Jordan Phillips and DaQuan Jones each played a big role in filling the void left by Oliver and Settle, and as they were holding up the Titans blockers and preventing them from opening holes or getting to the second level, it allowed other defenders to make plays.

Henry was tackled for lost yardage on five plays by five different players - CB Christian Benford, DE Greg Rousseau, LB Tremaine Edmunds, DE Von Miller and S Jordan Poyer. That’s some impressive work.

3. Buffalo Bills victory came at quite a possible cost as injuries pile up

As enjoyable as the victory was, the Bills came out of it tremendously banged up which is not great when they’re facing a trip down down to Miami Sunday in a game for first place in the AFC East.

With a little less than a minute to play in the first half, cornerback Dane Jackson was making a tackle on Titans wide receiver Treylon Burks when Edmunds came flying in and accidentally hit Jackson in the head, snapping his neck back.

A hush fell over the crowd, and though Jackson was seen moving on the field, the Bills’ trainers took every precaution. They unscrewed his facemask and immobilized his head before placing him on a backboard. He was then loaded into an ambulance and taken to Erie Community Medical Center in Buffalo.

Not that it mattered on this night, but during the first half when it was still a game, the Tennessee defense gave the Bills all kinds of problems in short yardage situations.

Jackson had full movement of his extremities and he was going to undergo a CT scan and an X-ray at the hospital. It was reported Tuesday morning that Jackson left the hospital late last night and was home, so perhaps that’s a great sign.

With Jackson out, the Bills had to rely on their two rookie cornerbacks, Christian Benford and Kaiir Elam, for the rest of the night. Benford started for the second game in a row and led all defenders by playing 91% of the snaps, and Elam (57%) mixed in after the second series and the rotation would have continued if Jackson had not gotten hurt.

Then in the second half, the Bills suffered three more injuries to their starting defense. Safety Micah Hyde went down with a neck injury and after he slowly walked off the field, he went into the blue medical tent and then was carted to the locker room. Jaquan Johnson took Hyde’s place.

Later, linebacker Matt Milano - shortly after his 43-yard interception return for a touchdown - left the game with a stinger. And then Phillips had to exit with a hamstring injury which he hurt while trying to block for Milano on his return.

By the numbers

• This was the Bills first home Monday Night Football victory since 1994 when they defeated John Elway and the Broncos. Of course, this was only the fifth home Monday night since then. Overall, the Bills are now 20-27 in Monday games and 40-46 in all prime-time games.

• Only five players in the Super Bowl era have at least three career games with at least 140 receiving yards and three receiving TDs. They are Jerry Rice (7), Randy Moss (4), Diggs (3), Marvin Harrison (3) and Tyreek Hill (3).

• Since the start of the 2020 season, no team has punted fewer times than Buffalo’s 97. Kansas City has punted the second-fewest times at 100.

• The Bills have scored an opening drive TD, including playoffs, in seven straight games which is the second-longest streak by any team in the last 40 seasons. In 2016 the Falcons did it in eight straight.

• There was one point in the middle of the game where offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey called 21 consecutive pass plays. Yes, it appears he knows how the Bills’ bread is buttered.

Game balls

▶ WR Stefon Diggs. Yeah, it couldn’t have been much better for the Bills elite receiver.

▶ QB Josh Allen: He completed 26 of 38 passes for 317 yards and four touchdowns with no turnovers. And, he only ran the ball once, gaining 10 yards on a scramble. Dorsey didn’t call a single QB designed run.

▶ DE Greg Rousseau: The 2021 first-round pick is really starting to affect games. He had one sack of Tannehill and one tackle for lost yardage on Henry while playing 46% of the snaps.

▶ LB Matt Milano: He had a 43-yard interception return for a touchdown that put the finishing touches on the scoring, and he could have had a second pick-six on the very next series.

▶ WR Jake Kumerow: He helped fill the void for injured Gabe Davis and caught a 39-yard pass with the score 10-7 that set up Diggs’ first TD. He played a whopping 78% of the offensive snaps (basically all of Davis’ load) and he also played his usual special teams load (70% of those snaps).

▶ CB Christian Benford: The sixth-round rookie started again and he played a team-high 91% of the defensive snaps and not only did he play well in coverage, he tackled Henry for a four-yard loss.

What’s next

The Bills head to Miami to play the suddenly resurgent Dolphins in a battle for first place in the AFC East between 2-0 teams.

While the Bills are riding high after outscoring their first two opponents - the defending Super Bowl champion Rams and the 2021 No. 1 AFC playoff seed Titans - by a combined 72-17, the Dolphins have their own mojo working.

Under new coach Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins easily handled the Patriots in Week 1, then pulled off an epic comeback from a 35-14 fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Ravens 42-38.

The Bills have owned the Dolphins in recent years, winning the last seven games by a cumulative score of 258-123.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's new twice-a-week newsletter, Bills Blast, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills rout Titans as Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs dominate: Observations