By CHUCK POLLOCK, Sun Senior Sports Columnist
Bills fans knew that they still had their shot.
After all, Buffalo had won the AFC East title six straight times and, following a slow start, they had positioned themselves to make it seven.
Of course, the Bills, this season, had some unexpected competition.
Behind new coach Mike Vrabel, a former Patriot linebacker, and aspiring franchise quarterback Drake Maye, the Patriots took early control of the division.
New England dropped two of its first three games then won 10 in a row.
The Bills, after a 4-0 start, struggled at midseason then won five of six down the stretch to put some pressure on the Patriots.
Now, with two games to go, Buffalo (11-4) hosts the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (10-5) then ends the season entertaining the struggling Jets.
Meanwhile, New England (12-3) is at the Jets (3-12), then finishes at home against the Dolphins (6-9).
If Buffalo wins out and New England loses out, the Bills will claim the division title … again.
AT COACH SEAN McDERMOTT’S press conference, he said of the Eagles, “You want to have continuity This will be a good challenge for us and we don’t want to make one game bigger than another.
“Their players are almost the same as last year when they won the Super Bowl. And they want to get that run game going. We’ve got to come out and play with a chip on our shoulder.”
BUT MOST critically, Sunday afternoon’s game (4:25 FOX-TV, Bills Radio Network) will likely come down to each team’s running game.
“We know who Saquon (Barkley) is. I mean, he’s a Hall of Fame player,” McDermott said. “Their offensive line, very talented, as well. Done a great job with the coaching that goes along there.
“And then the offense, overall, extremely talented on the perimeter, as well as a tight end position. It’s a tough unit to stop. The run game, in particular, is real. I know what the numbers say, and I’m not buying the numbers.”
The Bills’ run defense has been giving up 144 yards per game, which is 29th in the league. The Bills have given up 100 or more rushing yards in all but four games this season. And they’ve given up 200-plus rushing yards in four games. Buffalo is coming off a game in which the defense allowed the Cleveland Browns 160 yards on the ground.
Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said Monday that he liked how the Bills tended to Cleveland’s running backs, but the quarterback scrambles last week did some damage. “But if you look at it, we’ve got to be better on the perimeter with the wide receiver runs,” Babich said. “We’ve got to be able to handle the quarterback in the pass game with his legs. Every week is different in this league, and we just got to continue to find ways to win and improve where we know we need to improve.”
Barkley put up 2,005 rushing yards last season on 345 carries. While his numbers this year are understandably down, he’s still a threat to the Bills’ defense.
“Saquon is kind of one of one in the way he changed the running back position because of his level of play and the things that he’s able to do,” McDermott said.
But the run game doesn’t end with Barkley. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has 427 rushing yards this season, which, among quarterbacks, is fourth in the league. Buffalo’s Josh Allen leads the position, followed by the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes.
“Jalen has won a Super Bowl and has had his hand in both the run and the pass game, for them,” McDermott said. “So, it’ll be a challenge for our defense. But I’m looking forward to watching our defense perform and move forward as a defense and improving each week as we go down the stretch. That’s the goal.”
Babich pointed out: “They can throw it. They can run it. They can do it all. So, you guys know, they have some pretty dang good players over there and we’ve got to get ready to prepare ourselves to play a good game, to make sure we’re trying every week to play our best game. And that’s what we’re going to do.”
I’m sure that they feel like that’s a big goal of theirs is to get that run game again,” McDermott said. “That’s not something that we’re going to ignore, I can promise you that. But when you do that, you’ve got to also contend with the receivers and the tight end group that they have. Like I said before, a very, very talented group.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
