From Albert Breer: https://www.si.com/nfl/week-15-nfl-takeaways-sirianni-eagles-bumpy-week-bills-rebound#_r2u4986ha

Buffalo Bills

Last week’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams stuck with the Buffalo Bills—in a good way. The NFL season is long. It’s hard for a team to bring its best every week. And if every team is going to hit a ditch or two at some point over the course of the year, the Bills sped right into theirs last Sunday in Los Angeles.

On paper, it was understandable. The Bills beat the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11, had their bye in Week 12, then throttled the other Super Bowl team, the San Francisco 49ers, in Week 13.

But that doesn’t mean Buffalo was going to accept how it played in Week 14.

“We’ve had tight teams before, Albert, but this team is, I would say, extra tight,” coach Sean McDermott said, leaving Ford Field on Sunday night. “I mean, they really enjoy playing, and they really enjoy playing with one another, from a teammate standpoint. And they also realized that we probably didn’t have the focus that we needed a week ago. And the leaders took over and led by example this week.”

The result: a 48–42 win in Detroit against a Lions team that came in 12–1.

The Bills showed plenty in the win. Josh Allen played like the MVP of the league, and he may well be named that, officially, a couple of months from now. The Bills rushed for 197 yards on 34 carries. Nine different skill guys caught passes. The defense did allow 42 points and nearly 500 yards through the air, but rendered the Lions one-dimensional on offense and allowed a lot of that yardage, and scoring, while Detroit played catch-up, and with a secondary that’s pretty banged up right now.

What you, and everyone else, will remember is James Cook’s 41-yard touchdown run; Allen exploiting a depleted Lions linebacker group by throwing to running back Ty Johnson; and Allen’s strikes downfield to Keon Coleman, Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox. You’ll remember Greg Rousseau and Ed Oliver getting after Jared Goff, and the Bills jumping up 14–0, 21–7 and 35–14 on their stunned hosts and in front of a stunned crowd.

McDermott, though, is going to remember, like he said, how one week affected the next.

Even now, he can’t explain exactly what went wrong early on in L.A. But the way the Bills reacted, even in the moment, made him feel a lot better about it. Buffalo was down 38–21 going into the fourth quarter, and the Rams might not have survived had the fourth quarter been 16 minutes instead of 15.

When I asked McDermott what happened at the end of that third quarter, he joked, “Uh … Josh Allen?” And there was a ton of truth in that—Allen was a force of nature that could only be stopped by the expiration of the clock at SoFi. But there’s more to it, too.

That includes what he saw during the week leading up to Sunday’s showdown in Detroit, after, McDermott says, “I probably didn’t have them prepared the way I needed to” for the game against the Rams. And it really came alive, from his own standpoint, in how much he was looking forward to going back to work with the guys.

“We’ve all been there, where you’re like, hey, you’re kind of just trudging through the snow, the wet snow, and it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re good.’ But every week’s a headache, you got guys late, you know how it goes,” McDermott says. “Not that we were perfect and everybody’s an angel. But they want to win and they’re willing to put the work in. And I’m saying, I feel like—-as across the board as it could be—-it’s almost like they don’t want to let each other down.”

And that, McDermott continues, is, and was, especially true with Allen, who’s embraced the leadership role he’s moved into as some of the Bills’ old cornerstone captains left the building in the offseason.

“It’s staying after to work with receivers for an extra five to 10 minutes to make sure they have the detail, the timing down, in order to execute at a high level in some of those moments,” McDermott says. “I mean, that’s just one example I would say that happens during the week. And then just coming in a way of [being] ready to work. Again, I don’t want to sound like he hasn’t done this in the past, but there’s a difference.”

As a result, there’s a difference in these Bills too—-because the group is more tightly knit, more focused and with an increasingly maniacal quarterback.

It showed Sunday, in the lessons they took from the week before.

“Every lion picks up a scar along the way. And we picked up a scar,” McDermott says. “Now, that scar has got to stay with us.”

If these Bills truly are as different as McDermott thinks they are, there’s no doubt it will.

‪ProFootballTalk‬ ‪@profootballtalk.bsky.social‬
In the last two games the Bills have played, 176 total points have been scored.

Andrew Whitworth@AndrewWhitworth
@BuffaloBills have avg 45 ppg last 2 weeks, both games came down to an onside kick, and they are 1-1 in those 2 games. Wild!

Doug Farrar@NFL_DougFarrar
The last team to both score and allow more than 40 points in consecutive games was the 1966 New York Giants.

Adam Schefter@AdamSchefter
Oddity of the day: The Lions now have won a game this season in which Jared Goff threw five interceptions (Week 10 vs. Texans) and lost a game this season in which he threw five touchdowns (Week 15 vs. Bills).

pic.twitter.com/RV5siaEw1a

— roberto clemente (@rclemente2121) December 16, 2024

GB up 30-13 w/ 5 minutes left in the game.

+ Smith was injured. Hope he’s okay.

…

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Rams are about to move into first place in the NFC West and the No. 4 seed in the NFC playoff picture entering Week 16.

(Bucs have conference record tiebreaker, which is why they’ll be the No. 3 seed)

JARED GOFF TO AMON-RA ST. BROWN FOR 66 YARDS ON 3RD AND 17 pic.twitter.com/c8mumlSLO8

— PFF (@PFF) December 15, 2024

Jonathan Jones@jjones9
Initial diagnosis for Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is a high-ankle sprain, source says. He will continue to be evaluated tomorrow and is considered week to week now.

Holy smokes, Jayden Daniels & Terry McLaurin. pic.twitter.com/88pC76yCDz

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 15, 2024

The all-22 look of Kevin Dotson manhandling 49ers defenders in the open field to clear space for Puka pic.twitter.com/DjBxWCCzpT

— Rams Bros. (@RamsBrothers) December 14, 2024

wv wrote:

You sure about that?

No. Not sure. I think the ILBs as a unit, Speights and Rozeboom, have been playing better than what we saw early in the season. But not to the point of impressive. I said Speights is getting some praise and that’s true. But I don’t know what a cold coaching eye will see in that unit. I expect draft attention to go to both CB and ILB. (Along with OT and WR).

nittany ram wrote:

zn wrote:

Sosa Kremenjas@QBsMVP
Just 8 DTs in NFL history have more career sacks through their first 31 games than Kobie Turner’s 16

So you’re saying Kobie Turner is the 9th best DT who ever lived?

High praise albeit a tad premature. I’d like to see a little more before I follow you down the “he’s the 9th best DT of all-time” rabbit hole.

He’s probably more like the 10th or 11th best at this point.

You’re just arguing for the sake of arguing.

Next thing, just watch, you’ll start getting all ad hominem.

I think we can count on that from you. It’s something your type always does.

Josh Dubow@JoshDubowAP
#49ers didn’t cross the Rams 25 yard line last night. That’s first time that’s happened for them since a 21-0 loss to the Bucs in Week 11 of 2010 with Troy Smith at QB. They reached the 33 that game (and somehow Singletary punted on 4th and 4 down 7 points in 2nd half.)

Schrager and Cowherd. They start off with the Rams.

…

Kichens is essential man on the seam route
Cover-2 up top
quarters below but maybe a palms call where the S has the #1 recevier deep

anyway, whatever it is, Kuchens makes great play on the ball. He has shaky beginning to season but after the first few games he's been excellent pic.twitter.com/JuGMBofIY0

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) December 13, 2024

zn wrote:

BALDINGER: is this really a 49ers Offense. The mistakes; the missed assignments

My take? They didn’t get the offense ready in the short window before a Thursday game.

The defense was ready though.