The Buffalo Bills didn’t spend Week 2 swimming in yellow laundry the way they did in Week 1, but the flags were still part of the story in the win over the Detroit Lions. The raw numbers dropped hard, yet a few of the penalties still carried real weight, and the Lions had their own share of costly mistakes to match.
On the surface, Buffalo’s cleanup job looked obvious. Last week the Bills were hit with ten accepted penalties and 12 total.
Against Detroit, that fell to five accepted and six total. That’s exactly half across the board, and it put Buffalo below average while the opponent finished above it.
The more interesting wrinkle is that the true count moved the other direction: more flags were thrown than in Week 1, but fewer were accepted. Over the long haul, both numbers should come down, but for one week at least, it was a strange little league quirk.
The yardage picture was a little less tidy than the count. Buffalo wasn’t wildly out of line on assessed yards, even with the lower total of flags.
Detroit, meanwhile, stacked up an above-average number of penalties and still came out close to perfect on the yardage side. Once the yards wiped out by penalties are folded in, the Lions’ numbers jump more sharply, while the Bills still land in a decent spot.
That’s where the Harm metric starts telling a better story than the raw flags alone. Buffalo’s total Harm improved from 13.2 in Week 1 to 10.7 against Detroit.
Better, yes. But not as dramatic as the drop in penalties would make you think.
One of the Bills’ bigger issues came on Landon Jackson’s tripping call late in the second half. The flag was warranted, and it came at a point where Detroit was already in field goal range and didn’t have enough time to run another play.
It still moved the Lions 13 yards closer and handed them a free down, but in this situation the extra down didn’t really matter and the yardage probably wasn’t enough to change the field goal picture. Harm is meant to flag the plays with the most potential to hurt a team, not serve as a perfect grade on how bad a penalty was in every case.
The two Bills penalties that really did matter came on defense. Davison Igbinosun’s defensive holding on fourth down was a clear example.
The standard five-yard penalty was only part of it. Because it came on fourth down, it also gave Detroit three extra downs, which is where the Harm number climbs.
The Lions went from an ended drive to a fresh set of downs, and the call looked pretty clean on film.
Then came Christian Benford’s defensive pass interference. Buffalo had forced a 3rd & 7, and if Benford isn’t flagged, Detroit may still choose to go for it.
But there’s a big difference between 4th & 7 at the nine and 1st & goal at the one. The ball also looked uncatchable from the stadium view, even if the call stood.
That sequence helped turn a drive into a touchdown opportunity and made life harder on the Bills than it needed to be.
Detroit was worse overall. The Lions finished with 16.7 Harm, and their penalties had a habit of undoing their own work.
Tyler Lacy’s face mask was one of the more layered flags from a Harm standpoint. The call itself cost 15 yards.
Because it happened on second down, it also surrendered a down, and it wiped out a three-yard tackle for loss. That combination pushed the total Harm to 2.8.
Larry Borom’s holding flag was another painful one. It erased a 19-yard gain by Jahmyr Gibbs and added the ten yards on the penalty itself. The silver lining for Detroit was that it came on first down, so it didn’t immediately kill the possession.
The biggest Detroit mistake, though, was Roger McCreary negating a turnover early in the second quarter with Buffalo already ahead 14-0. That’s one of the worst things a defense can do with a flag.
A negated turnover is automatically a big Harm play because it gives the offense new life, and on third down it gets even worse. The Bills were suddenly handed free chances at a touchdown, and the five-yard penalty barely mattered compared with the fresh set of downs.
From there, Detroit kept digging. Buffalo ended up with 1st & goal at the four after the McCreary flag, and then Jack Campbell was called for defensive holding.
That moved the ball to the two-yard line, but the bigger issue was what had just happened before it: Detroit had sacked Josh Allen for seven yards, only to lose that advantage almost immediately. First down and two to go is a lot different from second down and eleven.
Both teams left the game with reasons to regret a few flags. Buffalo cleaned things up from Week 1, but still gave Detroit a couple of useful gifts. The Lions, though, did even more damage to themselves.
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