Sam Martin had a quiet night in his Bills debut.
Martin signed on as the punter in Buffalo earlier this month, but his first game with the team showed him that punting isn’t always part of the responsibilities of that job. Martin held for five Tyler Bass kicks over the course of the evening and never was called on to give the ball back to the Rams at the end of a drive in a 31-10 Bills win.
It’s the fourth time in the last six Bills games that their punter has not been asked to punt the ball. They did not punt in Weeks 16 or 17 last season and they also went without a punt in the Wild Card round rout of the Patriots in January.
Since the start of December 2021, there have only been two other teams that went an entire game without punting.
Four turnovers were part of the reason why Martin was able to keep his foot in its holster all night and that’s certainly not something the Bills hope to do on a weekly basis. Generally speaking, though, things will be going well in Buffalo if Martin is doing more holding than kicking.
