The Bills did just enough in Los Angeles to keep the national voters interested.
Buffalo’s 37-34 overtime win over the Rams pushed the team to 4-1 and helped it climb back up the Week 6 power rankings, even if the performance came with more stress than style. The game needed a blocked field goal from Greg Rousseau and a 45-yard winning kick from Tyler Bass, which says plenty about how Buffalo escaped. It also says plenty about why some outlets still aren’t ready to fully buy in.
Across the eight-outlet consensus, the Bills moved from fifth to third. Their average ranking jumped from 5.38 to 4.25, leaving them behind only San Francisco and Kansas City. Seven of the eight outlets bumped Buffalo up, with Pro Football Talk the lone holdout, keeping the Bills at fourth.
ESPN, The Athletic, FOX Sports and Yahoo Sports all slotted Buffalo at No. 3. NFL.com placed the Bills sixth, while USA Today was the most cautious of the group at seventh.
The rankings boost makes sense on paper. Josh Allen rushed for 121 yards, James Cook added 111, and Buffalo piled up 234 rushing yards.
The offensive line held together after Spencer Brown left in the second quarter. When the game went to the edge, Rousseau swatted away the Rams’ potential winning field goal and Bass finished the job.
Still, nobody watching that game mistook it for a clean performance. Buffalo turned it over twice, was flagged 13 times and gave up 454 yards and five touchdowns.
FOX Sports’ Ralph Vacchiano moved the Bills up two spots to third while pointing to Allen’s impact and the defense’s issues. NFL.com’s Nick Shook gave Buffalo credit for its toughness but singled out Cook’s ball security as a concern.
That’s the tension with this team right now. The Bills keep finding ways to win. They just keep making it harder than it needs to be.
Sunday brings another chance to answer some of those questions, this time in Las Vegas. The Raiders started 3-0, but that feel-good opening has faded fast. After two straight losses, they’ve slid in every outlet’s rankings following a 45-17 defeat against the Patriots.
Las Vegas fell from 11th to 16th in the consensus, and its average ranking dropped from 11.50 to 16.25. CBS Sports hit the Raiders hardest, dropping them eight spots to 18th. Yahoo Sports was the most forgiving at 12th, while NFL.com had them all the way down at 19th.
The numbers from New England explain the fall. The Patriots rolled up 536 yards, including 165 on the ground. Las Vegas mustered just 38 rushing yards, which left Kirk Cousins and the passing game with little support.
That sets up an interesting gap heading into Buffalo’s trip. Every outlet has the Bills ahead of the Raiders, and the average spread between them is 12 spots, up from 6.13 entering Week 5. Buffalo is clearly the more respected team right now.
But the Bills still have to prove that ranking means something on the field.
Their defense just watched Matthew Stafford complete 40 passes and saw the Rams erase a seven-point lead in 94 seconds. And Las Vegas still has Brock Bowers, who caught eight passes for 110 yards and a touchdown against New England even in a one-sided loss.
Buffalo’s clearest edge is on the ground. Allen and Cook drove the offense in Los Angeles, and the Raiders just got gashed by New England’s run game. If Buffalo wants to avoid another overtime nail-biter, the formula is simple: finish drives, protect the ball and get enough stops to keep the game from turning into a late rescue mission again.
Los Angeles, meanwhile, slid from sixth to a tie for ninth in the consensus. The Rams’ average ranking dropped from 7.63 to 9.63.
The Athletic dealt the biggest blow, sending them from fifth to 10th, while NFL.com nudged them up from 13th to 12th despite the loss. At 2-3, they still sit in the top 10 consensus range, and they remain the only team with a losing record there.
For Buffalo, the message from the rankings is clear: the wins are respected, even when they’re messy. What the Bills haven’t shown yet is a full afternoon of control. Vegas offers another shot to do that.
In Other News...
Bills Win Took A Back Seat To Bradley Chubb Postgame Drama
Buffalos overtime win over the Rams should have been the full story, but the postgame scene quickly pulled attention away from the result. During a jersey exchange after the game, Rams offensive tackle Alaric Jackson punched Bills linebacker Bradley Chubb, turning a routine moment into the kind of after-the-whistle flashpoint that can linger long after the final horn. The NFL responded with a two-game suspension for Jackson, adding an official layer to an incident that left the Bills dealing with more than just a hard-fought victory.
Joe Brady said there is still plenty to sort through about what happened after the game, and Buffalo is waiting for the details to continue coming in. For now, the Bills are moving on to the Raiders, trying to keep their focus on the next opponent while the league reviews a scene that overshadowed the ending in Los Angeles. [Read more 🡒]
Ray Davis Took Heat For A Bills Return Fans Can't Ignore
Ray Davis gave the Bills a jolt on the opening kickoff, but the return ended in a way Buffalo fans could not quite shake. What should have been a routine special-teams play turned into one of the more unusual moments of the day, with Los Angeles Rams punter Ethan Evans in the chase and Davis being steered toward the sideline before the return could fully break loose.
Evans, who is not exactly built like a traditional coverage ace, drew plenty of attention for the way he ran Davis down and finished the play. For Buffalo, it was the kind of sequence that leaves a little frustration behind, because the return had enough early momentum to make fans think something bigger might be coming. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Face A Bigger Test Than Their Record Has Answered
Josh Allen and the Bills head into Week 6 with the kind of momentum that makes every matchup feel like a measuring stick, and the Raiders are the next team asked to see how real the start can be. Buffalo has already shown it can win in different ways this season, with Allen again carrying the offense and covering for the rough patches that tend to show up over the course of a game. Las Vegas arrives with a winning record of its own, which at least gives this one the outline of a legitimate test instead of a routine AFC checkpoint.
The intrigue is whether the Raiders can keep Buffalo from turning the afternoon into a familiar Allen-led grind, because the Bills have been living with a few self-inflicted issues even while the results keep coming. Las Vegas has enough on paper to make the game interesting on both sides of the ball, but the bigger question for Buffalo is whether its offense can keep separating when the margins tighten and the game starts asking for answers rather than projections. [Read more 🡒]