The Buffalo Bills went into Minneapolis on Monday night without the left side of their offensive line and came out 7-1. Left tackle Dion Dawkins (ribs) and left guard Alec Anderson (ankle), who had started all seven games together, were both inactive, so Tylan Grable started at left tackle and Austin Corbett at left guard against one of the league’s most aggressive pass rushes. Buffalo scored three points on its first six possessions, then wore the Vikings down for a 23-6 win and 42 minutes, 32 seconds of possession.
Head coach Joe Brady said the slow start never rattled the sideline. “There’s no panic early in the game when things weren’t going our way,” he said in his postgame news conference. “Obviously, our defense was outstanding, which allows us to kind of play that type of game. But really proud of that. Really proud of the locker room coming on the road in this environment and not blinking and coming out with a victory.”
Joe Brady’s full postgame news conference in Minneapolis. Video: Buffalo Bills on YouTube.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be pretty”
Brady said the Bills expected a grind. “We knew it wasn’t going to be pretty,” he said. “That’s as good as the defense there gets, and they make you earn every single play, and on the road it’s as loud as can be.” He listed communication breakdowns and penalties, and said the Bills wasted good field position early. “Time of possession is good, yards is good. It’s only good if you’re scoring touchdowns,” he said. “I’m upset. We had some opportunities to kind of put points on the board and we didn’t do that.” He also said he has to be better.
He admitted that sticking with the run came with some second-guessing, because James Cook averaged under three yards a carry for much of the night before finishing with 107 yards on 31 carries. “It’s really hard with Josh Allen, too,” Brady said. “It’s a struggle to mine always is like, hey, I got Josh Allen in there and you’re running the football, but we felt like that was the way to win this football game.” His plan was to avoid “a drop-back fest” and trust that “that first-half run is going to pay dividends in the second half.” Then he added: “It wasn’t going to be sexy runs.”
Grable and Corbett on the left side
Brady said the Vikings’ defense makes it hard to give help in protection. “This defense kind of forces you to not be able to necessarily help if you want,” he said. “And so you’re going to get in some one-on-one opportunities, and obviously I have the confidence in those guys.” He praised Grable as a player who “has played such good football” and Corbett as someone who “has played a lot of football in his career.” He added: “To go on the road in the environment without two of your starters and be able to run the football, be able to possess the ball kind of speaks to the depth that we have and the confidence that we have in those guys.”
Allen said the two linemen did not know all week whether they would play. “Throughout the week, kind of in limbo whether they’re going, whether or not they took every rep in practice,” he said. “So they had this mindset of, hey, I’m going, and they went in there and didn’t miss a beat. Our offense wasn’t perfect tonight, but I’m so proud of how they battled, how they attacked this week. Gives me a lot of trust in them.”
Josh Allen’s full postgame news conference. Video: Buffalo Bills on YouTube.
Allen: “Bad play early on, wipe it”
Allen threw an interception on the game’s first series, a deep ball for DJ Moore that Byron Murphy Jr. picked off in the end zone. “That backside corner makes the pick on the ball to DJ,” Allen said. “I wish I could have gotten some more into that instead of lobbing it up there, but he makes a heck of a play. And from there on out, we were better with ball security.” He finished 21 of 31 for 234 yards and was sacked four times.
He called Minnesota’s defense “one of the better you’ll see in the league, any year, I don’t care going back a long time,” and said the plan was simple to say and hard to do. “Be efficient on first down, which I don’t think we were very efficient in the first half,” he said. “Second-and-long, they’re getting to their third-down menu. They’re making it really tough for opposing offenses.” Asked how he stays level through a game like that, he said: “Not being result-driven, going out there and being process-driven. Bad play early on, wipe it. Next drive, let’s go.”
On Cook, Allen said: “That’s James Cook. It was awesome to sit back and kind of watch him run, especially late in that drive, making guys miss and finding his way into the end zone. The more times we can get James Cook the ball, the better we’re going to be as an offense.”
“Lucky Latu” and a first career touchdown
Buffalo’s first touchdown came with 44 seconds left in the first half, when Allen rolled right and found tight end Keleki Latu alone in the back of the end zone from 25 yards out. It was Latu’s first NFL touchdown. Allen said the scout team already knew what Latu could do. “If you talk to anybody on this team, Lucky Latu, especially when he’s on that scout team, you throw it up to him, he’s coming down with it,” Allen said. “He’s a young player that’s just gotten better each and every year. He continues to work hard, doesn’t complain ever. Finds himself in a spot tonight, makes a great play for us.”
Latu said he read cover zero before the snap and then followed his quarterback. “I knew he was scrambling,” he said. “I was like, okay, he’s going right, so I got to go right, get in the end zone, and, you know, he throws it up and I’m going to catch it using my length to the best of my ability.” He added that Allen “can make the craziest passes possible, so I was getting ready for anything.”
Bernard, Williams and “the Jugs”
The Bills’ defense intercepted Carson Wentz twice in the third quarter, first by Dorian Williams on a throw for T.J. Hockenson at the Buffalo 11 and then by Terrel Bernard. Brady, who has backed Bernard all season, teased him anyway. “I joked with him, how about make the next one?” Brady said. “Maybe he needs to get on the Jugs with Dorian. Dorian’s just, all he does is catch balls now.” He called Bernard “a leader of our team” who is “playing such winning football.”
Williams said he expected the throw on his interception. “Off the fullback motion out, I knew I was probably going to be target, with 87 being there,” he said, referring to Hockenson. “Just carried him up the middle and turned into him. Made a play.” He said the defense’s improvement over the last two games comes from “communication” and “the intentionality of practice, walkthroughs.” Brady put it this way: “If you’re worried about your own stats this game, we’re not going to get the result that we want.”
Tyler Bass made all three of his field goals, from 39, 25 and 52 yards. “This is the only Tyler Bass that I was expecting to get,” Brady said. “I don’t even look at the field goals because I have the confidence in him.” Then he turned to the bigger picture. “We haven’t done a damn thing yet. We haven’t earned anything in this league yet.”
What’s next
The Bills have a short week before a trip to the New York Jets on Sunday, November 15. They also face Tuesday’s trade deadline at 4 p.m. ET (11 p.m. Cairo), while they keep an eye on cornerback Christian Benford’s wrist injury from Monday night. For the drive-by-drive picture, see our step-by-step look at how Buffalo controlled the clock in Minneapolis.
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