1. Brian Daboll gives these reasons for Buffalo's success on third down
The Bills rattled off three straight touchdown drives on Sunday to take a 21-7 lead over the Giants. Buffalo consistently marched down the field converting multiple third down opportunities on the way.
Josh Allen found Cole Beasley and John Brown on 3rd-and-long plays to extend drives and lead them to the end zone.
"Third downs are money downs for us," offensive coordinator Brian Daboll said. "Most of the time the defenses know you're going to throw it so the protection is harder, the looks are harder, the coverage is tighter. The same thing when we get down to that four-minute drive at the end of the game where we seal the game and they know we're going to run it. You have to be a really effective, good offense. He [Allen] did a good job on his third downs and made some really good plays."
Allen is looking at his new targets Beasley and Brown. The two combined for 12 of Allen's 19 completions and 155 yards receiving this week. Daboll said he was impressed with the separation the receivers are getting and their ability to catch the ball.
"They do a good job of seeing the game through the quarterback's eyes. They've been successful in other spots that they've been in. I'm glad they're here," Daboll said.
2. Sean McDermott is confident in Buffalo's back-up quarterback situation
Injuries have been piling up around the league but they've been especially apparent at the league's most important position.
Multiple teams lost their starting quarterbacks for the foreseeable future. The Steelers lost Ben Roethlisberger for the season, the Saints lost Drew Brees for a number of weeks, the Jets lost Sam Darnold, the Jaguars lost Nick Foles and the Colts had to deal with the surprise retirement of Andrew Luck.
If anything were to happen to Josh Allen this season, the Bills remain confident in who is backing him up, Matt Barkley.
"You've got to have two," head coach Sean McDermott said. "That was one of the questions we needed to answer this offseason, this spring, this training camp. Knowing what we know about Matt but also giving him another opportunity to show and get a pretty good amount of playing time to train, the reps and in preseason games which was intentional. We thought he collectively handled himself extremely well and he's a great young man who brings great energy to our football team."
3. How In-game adjustments are paying off for the Buffalo defense
Buffalo's defense got a wakeup call on the Giants first drive of the game on Sunday. The Giants ran five plays for 75 yards and a touchdown. Buffalo quickly found itself down seven points and needed to respond. The Bills didn't allow another point until late in the fourth quarter.
"Those are moments where if you don't have adjustments, they can snowball on," defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said. "Fortunately we have a very mature group and a good coaching staff and that's exactly what we did."
"We talk all the time about there's going to be adversity in the National Football League and how you respond to them determines what kind of success you're going to have or lack of success," Frazier said.
The Bills responded and forced five punts and an interception afterward. The only time the Giants had a drive longer than four plays it resulted in a missed field goal.
