The Bills may have gotten off to a bit of a slow start in their first game after their bye, but the club had no trouble dispatching of the Panthers for a dominant 40-9 victory.
Running back James Cook set a new career high with 216 yards, accomplishing it on just 19 carries. His long on the day was a 64-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter that put his team up 12-3. Cook then put in a 21-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter to make the score 33-3.
Cook had seven runs of at least 10 yards during the contest, illustrating the dominance of the ground attack. As noted on the Fox broadcast, Cook’s 216 yards were the most by a Bills running back since O.J. Simpson in 1976.
Buffalo finished the contest with 245 rushing yards, surpassing their previous high of 224 against the Jets in Week 2.
Quarterback Josh Allen didn’t need to do much in the passing game, finishing the contest 12-of-19 for 163 yards with a touchdown before Mitchell Trubisky came in for mop-up work. But Allen also had 7 yards on three carries with two TDs. It’s Allen’s 46th game with a passing and a rushing touchdown, pushing him past Cam Newton for the most in NFL history.
Khalil Shakir took a pass than went 4 yards in front of the line of scrimmage and made it 54 yards down the field for a 54-yard touchdown, exemplifying Carolina’s poor tackling on the day.
Starting for the injured Bryce Young, backup QB Andy Dalton played poorly all game. He finished 16-of-24 for 175 yards with an interception and two lost fumbles. He also took an unacceptable sack at the end of the first half that made a field goal attempt much more rushed than it should’ve been, as the Panthers had no timeouts. Ryan Fitzgerald missed the 32-yard attempt to keep the score at 19-3, Buffalo, at the break.
While Chuba Hubbard still started at running back, Rico Dowdle was much more productive at the position. Dowdle had 54 yards on eight carries while Hubbard had 12 for 34 yards.
The Bills lost defensive tackle Ed Oliver to a biceps injury, as he was ruled out in the first half.
The Panthers had several injury concerns, with linebacker Trevin Wallace exiting midway through the third quarter for a concussion evaluation. He was subsequently ruled out. Right tackle Taylor Moton was ruled out with a knee injury. Carolina also lost right guard Brady Christensen when he went down early in the fourth quarter and defensive tackle Derrick Brown was examined on the sideline midway through the fourth quarter.
With the win, the Bills are 5-2 and are now set up for a big showdown at home against the Chiefs in Week 9.
The Panthers fall to 4-4 and will be on the road to face the Packers next Sunday.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen continues to rewrite the history books with his impressive play.
With his 54-yard touchdown pass to Khalil Shakir, Allen has now passed Cam Newton for the most games with a passing and rushing touchdown with 46.
Coincidentally, Allen breaks the record in the stadium where Newton called home for the vast majority of his professional career.
Buffalo now leads Carolina 26-3 early in the third quarter.
Allen’s record-breaking touchdown pass was not the most impressive throw of his career, as he hit Shakir with a short pass just 4 yards in front of the line of scrimmage. But the Panthers have tackled poorly all game and that continued on the play, as Shakir was able to evade defenders and get into the end zone for Buffalo’s second score of at least 50 yards on the day.
Allen is now 8-of-15 for 128 yards with a touchdown. Shakir leads with five receptions for 87 yards with a TD.
NFL kickers have been benefiting this season from a new rule that gives them more time to break in the K-balls, the special footballs the NFL provides for use on kicking plays. Kickers like to have time to work the balls to their liking, and this season the NFL changed its rules so that kickers can have the balls they’ll be kicking on Sunday in advance, and prepare them to make them easier to kick.
But there’s one exception to the rule that K-balls are brought in for all kicking plays: In a hurry-up situation when the field goal team is scrambling onto the field while the clock is running, the officials just keep the offensive ball on the field, rather than using the K-ball. That happened before halftime in two different games today. And both times, the kickers missed without the K-ball.
For the Bears, it was kicker Cairo Santos missing from 58 yards after sprinting onto the field just before time expired on the second quarter. For the Panthers, it was kicker Ryan Fitzgerald missing from 32 yards after Andy Dalton took a sack and the field goal team unexpectedly had to hurry onto the field.
A sample size of two missed kicks does not, of course, prove that the regular footballs are much harder to kick than the K-balls. And for all the talk of the K-balls benefiting kickers on long field goals this season, the accuracy rate on field goals from 50 yards and beyond isn’t much different than it was last year: Heading into today’s games, NFL kickers had made 70.2 percent of their field goals from 50 yards or longer this season. Last year, NFL kickers made 69.9 percent of their field goals from 50 yards or longer.
But kickers always prefer to use their own broken-in footballs. And it’s notable that today, when two kickers were prevented from doing so, both of them missed.
The Bills lead the Panthers 19-3 at halftime, but they have a significant injury concern along their defensive line.
Defensive tackle Ed Oliver has been ruled out for the remainder of the contest with a biceps injury.
Oliver went to the sideline late in the second quarter and headed to the locker room after a brief stint in the medical tent. He was quickly ruled out.
Oliver has already missed multiple games due to an ankle injury. He recorded a sack and two tackles for loss in the first half before exiting the game.
Buffalo has been running all over Carolina, with James Cook tallying 153 first-half yards on just 12 carries. His longest run was a 64-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter.
Quarterback Josh Allen also had a 1-yard touchdown run late in the first half after Panthers backup QB Andy Dalton tossed an interception to A.J. Epenesa that the defensive end took back to the 1-yard line.
The Panthers could have had at least six points, but Dalton took an unacceptable sack late in the second quarter when Carolina had no timeouts and there were only 17 seconds left on the clock at the start of the play. Though the Panthers somehow got off the “emergency” field goal attempt with one second officially on the clock, Ryan Fitzgerald’s 32-yard attempt — without the K-ball — was wide left.
Allen is 6-of-13 for 66 yards through the air.
Dalton is 8-of-14 for 100 yards with an interception and a lost fumble on a scramble. Though he’s still not the starter, Rico Dowdle leads with 52 yards rushing on seven carries. Chuba Hubbard has 17 yards on seven carries.
The Bills will receive the second-half kickoff.
James Cook had a dominant first quarter and now has put the ball in the box on his longest run of the season.
Cook took a 64-yard run for a touchdown, putting the Bills up 12-3 midway through the second quarter.
Matt Prater missed the extra point wide left to keep Buffalo ahead by only nine.
Cook had a dominant first quarter, rushing for 79 yards on nine carries. His longest run in the opening quarter was 24 yards, as he was consistently picking up chunks on the ground.
But for Buffalo’s first full possession of the second quarter, Cook got explosive. He took a handoff to the left, burst through the line, and went 64 yards down to the end zone for his sixth touchdown run of the season.
Cook’s previous long run of the year was 44 yards.
Cook already has 146 yards on 11 carries so far on Sunday.
