By Staff Reporter
ORCHARD PARK — The Buffalo Bills are 4-1, they won a Monday night overtime thriller in Los Angeles, and their quarterback just collected his 100th career win. Their defensive coordinator still sounds like a man whose team is losing.
“It’s time to be good at something, and that’s our struggles right now,” Jim Leonhard said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. “It’s too inconsistent to pretend that we’re building and working and making improvements. Everything’s being evaluated.”
That was a day after Josh Allen ran for 121 yards and the Bills outlasted the Rams 37-34 at SoFi Stadium. It was Allen’s 100th career win and his first in eight overtime games, the team said. It was also a night when the Bills defense was on the field for 78 snaps and could not get the Rams off it.
What the numbers say
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford completed 40 of 54 passes for 383 yards and three touchdowns. Receiver Puka Nacua was targeted 24 times and caught 17 passes for 138 yards, the most catches any player has ever had against the Bills, according to the team’s own recap. Buffalo also committed 13 penalties for 112 yards.
The AP’s accounting of the first five weeks is harder on the defense than any single game:
- The Rams’ 33 first downs matched the most the Bills have allowed in a game in records dating to 1991. Buffalo has given up 20 or more first downs in all five games.
- Opponents have thrown for 250 or more yards four times already, two more than all of last season.
- Opponents have converted 8 of 9 fourth-down tries.
- Buffalo ranks third-worst in the NFL in yards allowed per game (389) and fifth-worst in points allowed (141). Its defense has played 350 snaps, second only to Detroit.
Leonhard, who took over the defense after Sean McDermott was fired, is running a new 3-4 scheme with four new starters. The weak spot has been the secondary. The cornerback job opposite Christian Benford is unsettled: second-year player Maxwell Hairston started the first four games and was replaced Monday by rookie Davison Igbinosun. The team opened the season with only five cornerbacks.
‘It has to change’
Leonhard thanked Allen for playing what he called the role of Superman, but said a defense that leans on its quarterback is not built to last.
“It has to change. It has to get better,” he said. “We plan on being in a lot of big games, and it’s our job as a defense to go close them out for wins.”
He also put some of the blame on himself. “We have to get some bigger wins earlier in the game,” Leonhard said. “I have to be more aggressive in helping us get off the field in some situations to help these guys not get to that fourth quarter and be burned out.”
And he did not rule out roster moves. “This is professional football. If we don’t feel like the answers are there then, yeah, then there gets to be some big conversations,” he said.
A warning on the other side of the ball
Head coach Joe Brady had his own warning, for running back James Cook. Cook entered the week second in the NFL with 532 rushing yards and fourth with five rushing touchdowns, but he has fumbled four times and lost two. One of those came at the Rams’ 20-yard line on the Bills’ first possession of overtime.
“I have all the confidence in him. That’s why I put him right back out there,” Brady said, according to the AP. “But obviously, at some point there has to be consequences.”
A week on the West Coast
Instead of flying home, the Bills spent the week practicing at the University of California, Irvine, before heading to Las Vegas. Brady credited the owner for signing off.
“I’m fortunate; Mr. Pegula was all about it,” Brady said, according to the team’s website. “They played a lot of plays the other day, but there’s no excuse. No one cares come Sunday.”
Allen described the week the same way. “We’re looking to improve,” he said. “Watching the tape, there’s a lot of things we can be better at, both sides of the ball, all three phases of the game … But yeah, we’re here for a business trip.”
The trip came with a medical list. On Friday, Brady listed five players as questionable for Sunday: wide receivers DJ Moore and Joshua Palmer, defensive linemen Ed Oliver and T.J. Sanders, and nickel cornerback Dee Alford, the team reported. Moore, Oliver, Palmer and Alford all missed the Rams game. Two of the five play on the defense, and Alford is one of the five cornerbacks.
“If they’re ready to go, they’re going to play,” Brady said.
What to watch
Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. game against the Las Vegas Raiders (3-2) at Allegiant Stadium is the Bills’ last before a Week 7 bye. It is the first look at whether “everything’s being evaluated” means anything on the field. The Raiders, coached by Klint Kubiak, came in with quarterback Kirk Cousins at 1,269 passing yards and 12 touchdowns, and tight end Brock Bowers with 24 catches, according to Pro Football Reference.
The questions after Sunday are the ones Leonhard raised himself. Does the cornerback job change hands again? Does the defense blitz more to get off the field sooner? And if the bye week brings the “big conversations” he mentioned, are they about the scheme or the people playing in it?
The Bills are winning. Their coordinator is telling everyone that is not the same thing as being good.
Featured photo: The Bills defense lines up against Tampa Bay at the old Highmark Stadium in November 2025. Photo by WuTang94 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
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