INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Josh Allen’s long overtime wait finally ended Monday night, and it took a wild sequence to get Buffalo there.
The Bills quarterback had never won an overtime game before, and had been on the wrong end of seven such results across the regular season and overtime. That streak looked like it might reach 0-8 when James Cook coughed up the ball deep in Rams territory on Buffalo’s first possession of the extra period. But Greg Rousseau erased that problem in a hurry, blocking Harrison Mevis’ field goal try and giving Buffalo one more shot.
Allen then used his legs to push the Bills back into range, and Tyler Bass nailed a 45-yard field goal to seal a 4-1 start to the season.
Cook was at the center of a lot of Buffalo’s good work, for better and for worse. The Bills kept feeding him after last week’s quiet stretch in the loss to New England, and early on against the Rams it paid off.
At halftime, Cook had 10 touches on 18 plays, helped Buffalo move the chains on the ground, and scored the team’s first touchdown. Then came the mistakes: Rams defensive end Nate Landman punched the ball loose in the third quarter, and Cook’s overtime fumble nearly became the game’s decisive play before Rousseau’s block saved it.
Buffalo’s passing game never really found a clean rhythm in the first half. Allen finished the opening two quarters 4 of 7 for 60 yards and an interception, with 40 of those yards coming on a short throw to Ty Johnson. Without DJ Moore, the aerial attack had trouble creating easy answers, leaving Joe Brady with work to do in terms of getting his pass catchers open.
The defense got important help from its young interior linemen. DeWayne Carter, who had already flashed against the run through the first four games, added his first sack of the season when he got Stafford in the second quarter and helped force a punt near the two-minute warning.
T.J. Sanders made his season debut and made it count in a big moment, bursting into the backfield to sack Stafford on the Rams’ two-point try after a Puka Nacua touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
That stop kept Buffalo within a point, and the Bills answered with a touchdown on the next drive before converting their own two-point try on a Dalton Kincaid catch.
Ray Davis made his presence felt immediately on special teams. Opponents had been kicking away from him early in the year, and it was easy to see why on the opening kickoff, when he ripped off a 70-yard return deep into Rams territory.
Buffalo settled for a field goal, but the return set the tone. Davis also chipped in on offense later, turning a short pass into a 31-yard gain that set up 1st-and-goal from the two.
Keon Coleman also delivered when Buffalo needed a punch. After posting over 100 receiving yards last week against the Patriots, he wasn’t heavily featured for long stretches Monday night as the passing game sputtered. But late in the third quarter, Coleman ran a clean route off a well-designed play with Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid and hauled in the touchdown that put Buffalo ahead.
Allen, meanwhile, kept punishing the Rams with his feet. Los Angeles didn’t have a plan to stop him the way New England said it did, and Allen made them pay under the lights. With pressure closing in, he took off repeatedly for big gains and finished with 121 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.
Buffalo’s late-game defense nearly let things slip away. After the Bills scored a little too quickly late in the fourth quarter, the Rams responded with a 63-yard drive in eight plays and tied the game with five seconds left. Los Angeles never even needed its only timeout.
Bass had already missed a long extra point earlier in the night, the kind of miss that has worn on Bills fans before. None of that mattered in overtime. When Buffalo needed the kick most, Bass drove the 45-yarder straight through the middle, and the Bills carried him off in celebration.
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Bills Fans Are Suddenly Watching One Postgame Incident Very Closely
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Alaric Jacksons role in the altercation has put the NFL in position to review the matter, and the league is expected to address it soon. For Bills fans, it is the sort of aftermath that can feel bigger than the box score, especially when a physical game spills into a scene that may bring discipline and more attention than anyone expected once play was over. [Read more 🡒]