Bills expert talks Josh Allen, Tre’Davious White, and facing the Chiefs

We talked to a Buffalo Bills expert about Josh Allen, Tre’Davious White and Week 6.

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills were both 4-0 just a week ago with hopes of claiming the top overall seed in the AFC for the postseason. Now both are just hoping to avoid losing consecutive games and their division lead as they head into Week 6.

In anticipation of the AFC showdown on Monday afternoon, we asked Brandon Croce of BuffaLowDown—Fansided’s blog about the Bills—to tell us more about Josh Allen’s improvement, the defense’s deterioration and what he expects to see on the field.

Josh Allen looks like he’s turned a corner this year—the completion percentage, TDs, wins—but the competition hasn’t been great. How much is Buffalo believing in Josh Allen the franchise face? Or are there still concerns/questions?

I think the people within the organization always believed that Josh Allen was going to be the face of the franchise. Their commitment to him has been unwavering and general manager Brandon Beane has made it a point to find weapons that highlight his strengths. I think they have in essence ignored the “noise” (or the criticism of Allen) outside of their facility. While it is a small sample size to see what Josh Allen is capable of, there is no doubt they are very happy with the development he has made.

The defense has a lot of bark, but looking at this year’s results, there’s little bite behind it. What’s the primary issue at fault with some of these poor(er) defensive performances?

I think part of it has been the game script from last year to this year. The Bills offense wasn’t very good and they were forced to play a lot of grind it out type contests. Their opposition would play into this gameplans and the Bills defense could play a bend but not break type defense. However, with the way the offense has been putting up points and building these big leads, opposing teams are forced to air it out playing catchup and the Bills defense has not been able to answer the call.

While the pass defense has struggled for most of the year, there have been different issues that have added to these struggles. This past week it was penalities and red zone defense as they allowed the Titans to score on all six trips to the red zone. The Bills absolutely have to tighten this up if they hope to have any kind of chance against the Chiefs.

How surprising was the Titans loss for this team? And what are you hearing in response through press conferences, etc?

It was certainly surprising but considering the circumstances, it shouldn’t have been. The absence of Matt Milano and Tre’Davious White was really big losses, especially White as the team already lost Levi Wallace the week prior and Josh Norman really was outmatched against A.J. Brown. In terms of the response, it feels like the Bills are trying to use it to learn from their mistakes but also in a way just chalking it up to a bad night. Sean McDermott has started fielding questions about play-calling and if Leslie Frazier will continue to call them for this defense. He did say that he has confidence in Frazier but is going to keep those conversations “in house”.

To beat the Chiefs, the front line has to get pressure on their own. How good have those guys up front been at pressuring the quarterback beyond the obvious stats we can read?

If you asked this question prior to the Titans game I would say they have been doing a pretty good job with nine players already registering a sack this year. However, that all gets thrown out of the window after Tuesday night’s performance. The pass rush was almost non-existent as the Bills didn’t sack Ryan Tannehill once and only had two QB hits all game.

One thing that they will need to fix fast and if not Patrick Mahomes can certainly exploit, is setting the edge and not allowing the quarterback to escape the pocket. In the game against the Titans, any time the Bills did get close to getting pressure Tannehill was able to roll out and pick up large chunks of yards (he had the longest run of the night for the Titans at 23 yards). This will likely be a point of emphasis for the Bills this week in practice.

What’s your read on the availability of Tre White?

The Buffalo Bills were back at practice on Thursday and White was able to get a limited practice in. This is a step in the right direction since he didn’t practice at all the prior week. The injury was a bit of a surprise because he didn’t miss any time in Week 4 against the Las Vegas Raiders so it is hard to really get a gauge on the severity or when exactly the injury took place. The fact that he got in a limited practice on Thursday is a great sign but the next two days will be the real indicator.

Final predictions?

Prior to the Titans game, I thought this game was going to be very close, and the way Josh Allen was playing thought there was a chance for a great showdown between the two quarterbacks and a high scoring affair. I still believe the Chiefs are going to be able to put up points but wonder if the Bills have enough to match them in terms of firepower. If the Buffalo Bills can get the run game going (which is not something they have been able to do) enough to be at least a threat the Chiefs have to acknowledge, it could open up the Bills offense. However, with so many question marks, including the health of Matt Milano and Tre’Davious White, I think this ends up being 35-24 Chiefs.