A clear Monday night in Western New York couldn’t have gone any better for Buffalo, and couldn’t have gone any worse for Tennessee. The Tennessee Titans made the northward hike to Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park to play the Buffalo Bills in what was supposed to be a clash of the AFC’s elite.
After all, the Bills and Titans were both top-4 seeds in the conference in 2021, so to expect anything less than a dog-fight would’ve been ignorant to the seasons these two teams had just a year ago.
But it wasn’t a dogfight, it wasn’t a close game, and it certainly wasn’t as close as the 41-7 final score made it look. The first quarter was undoubtedly as competitive as this game got. Buffalo took the opening drive down the field and set up a screen play from Josh Allen to fullback Reggie Gilliam from the 11 yard line to put the Bills up 7-0 with just over 9 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Tennessee, fueled by a deep pass from Ryan Tannehill to new tight end Austin Hooper, also marched down the field their first time with the ball. Their lone scoring drive of the night was capped off by a Derrick Henry scamper from the one yard line on a 4th and 1, which would be his only production of the night.
The game looked like the AFC heavyweight bought we were all expecting 10 minutes into the first quarter knotted up at 7-7. The two teams traded possessions with no one scoring again until there was 7:25 remaining in the 2nd quarter when Bill’s kicker Tyler Bass booted a 49 yard field goal to give his team a 10-7 advantage.
The Titans went 3 and out on their next possession before punting the ball back to a Buffalo offense that was about to catch fire. Josh Allen was quick to put the ball in the air and connected on a deep strike down the left sideline to wide receiver Jake Kumerow which set the Bills up in plus territory with just under 4 minutes left on the clock.
Allen got his second touch- down of the night on a crossbody lazar after evading the Ti- tans’ defenders, throwing to the right sight of the endzone to superstar receiver Stefon Diggs to put the Bills up 17-7 going into the break.
At the half the game was still relatively close. Teams in the modern NFL erase deficits like that all the time. However, no one, even the most hardcore of Bills’ Mafia saw the dominance that was about to ensue coming.
On the Bills’ first possession of the 3rd quarter Allen once again found Stefon Diggs; however, this time, for a 46-yard strike over the middle of the Tennessee defense. The Tennessee defense was able to hold tight the next time they faced the red hot Bills a chance to test out their new punter Sam
Martin, who they signed to replace the controversial Matt Araiza. Even this went right for the Bills, as the punt was muffed by college-return legend Kyle Phillips, which once again set Buffalo up to score. They capitalized on this turn- over by booting a 37-yarder to go up 27-7.
On the ensuing Titans drive the Bills’ defense tipped a pass from Ryan Tannehill that ended up being picked off by first team all defense safety Jordan Poyer, which then led to another Allen-to-Diggs touchdown, giving the pair four and three touchdowns on the night respectively.
Tannehill was once again picked off on a short throw over the middle on Tennessee’s next attempt. Linebacker Matt Milano jumped a pass intended for Robert Woods before running it back past Tannehill for 6 going the opposite way. Two big plays by the Bills’ defense put the team up 41-7 effectively ending the game before the 3rd quarter was over.
Both Tannehill and Allen were sent to hold the clipboards, albeit for totally different reasons and the writing was on the wall for Monday night in Orchard Park. The Bills looked unbeatable and the Titans looked like they had a lot of questions to answer.
If the Bills play this well against the AFC’s “elite,” its hard to imagine anyone has much of a chance at stopping them from hoisting their first Lombardi this February.