Rob Maaddi, FISM News
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The Buffalo Bills made a statement in the NFL season opener, dominating the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams on their home field.
Josh Allen threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 56 yards and a score to lead the Bills to a 31-10 victory in front of a prime-time audience after the Rams unfurled their championship banner.
Von Miller had two of Buffalo’s six sacks and the stingiest defense in the NFL last season shut down Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and the Rams’ high-octane offense.
The Bills entered the season as favorites to win the Super Bowl after losing to Kansas City in overtime in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs last season. Their convincing victory solidified their status.
After the game, a reporter asked Allen is his team was trying to make a statement.
No, we needed to win a game because we needed to put our best foot forward, try to execute the way we know we can execute, and just try to win the game, that’s all. 1-0 each week is our mind-set, playoff caliber, that’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what Coach (Sean) McDermott preaches to us, and what our mind-set, mentality is every time we step in our facility is what can we do to allow ourselves the opportunity to go 1-0 this week.
Allen and the Bills weren’t even at their best. Allen threw two interceptions among only five incomplete passes as he finished 26 of 31. Buffalo also lost a fumble for a total of three turnovers. But Miller and a revamped defensive line wouldn’t allow the Rams to capitalize on those mistakes.
Miller joined the Rams last October in a trade from Denver and helped them win it all. He left for Buffalo in free agency and had an emotional return to his former sideline last night.
We’re going to make the plane do backflips on the way home tonight,” Miller said. “We’re going to celebrate this win, because you have to, but then we’re going to go back to the lab.”
Allen tossed TD passes to Gabe Davis, Isaiah McKenzie, and Stefon Diggs. He scrambled for a 4-yard TD in the fourth quarter and stiff-armed a defender on a highlight-reel run earlier in the game.
“They’re just trying to make a play for the team, just doing what I can do to try to get a first down. That’s it,” Allen said, downplaying the power display on his stiff-arm run. “Guys appreciate that. I play hard. I want to win games no matter how I can do it. That’s just, I guess, an example of what I’m willing to do to win a game and just try to get a first down and allow us to keep moving the ball. It’s just all in the heat of the moment and I think guys appreciate that.”
Stafford struggled after battling elbow issues in the offseason. He threw three interceptions and completed 29 of 41 passes. He was under pressure most of the game and couldn’t connect much with anyone except Kupp, who had 13 catches for 128 yards and one TD.
“We definitely can play a whole lot better than that. I know that,” Stafford said. “As disappointing as it is, you never want to start the season that way. It really doesn’t matter if it’s the first game, last game, whatever it is. You want to win them all. Didn’t accomplish that goal. Didn’t play well enough to do it. I thought our defense played great in the first half. They get us turnovers like that, we got to do something better with the football, capitalize with it, get more points out of those.
Obviously, I can’t give it to them in some of those instances, but overall execution and just our capability of playing better, there’s a whole lot more there. So the one thing that gives me a good feeling is knowing the guys in that locker room and knowing how we’re all going to band together, look at each other, look inward first and go: ‘Hey, what can I do to be better for the guy next to me?’ That starts with our head coach. He’s always preaching that to us and that’s real stuff for us as players. That’s how we act and we believe in that in that locker room.