Buffalo Bills 2023 Game Reviews Week 8: Bills get much needed win against the Buccaneers

 

                   The Bills got a much needed win tonight on Thursday Night Football against the Buccaneers. I wish the game has ended up being close, but a win is a win at this point. The Bills offense looked like themselves in the 1st half which we haven't seen in 3 weeks, but only 7 points in the 2nd half. We need to start playing a 60-minute game if we are going to beat teams like the Bengals, Eagles, Chiefs, Cowboys, Chargers and Dolphins. 

                       Positives 

                       Bills offense got going early 

                       The Bills had started out slow in the 3 games. Tonight the Bills offense looked like the Bills offense we saw through the 3 straight games from Week 2 to 4. Josh Allen ran the football for us which we really needed in this game. He had 7 rushes for 41 yards and touchdown in this game. The Bills had 427 yards on offense in this game which is a most for our team since the Miami game in Week 4. We got a 10-0 early which really relaxed the team in this game tonight. 

                      Khali Shakir's breakout game 

                      Khali Shakir had just 8 catches coming into this game tonight and just 18 catches in his 1st 21 games in the NFL. Tonight he had 6 catches for 92 yards which gives us another wide-receiver for Josh Allen to throw the ball too. If the Bills can get him going for the rest of the season we will have a dangerous pass attack like we did in 2020.   

                       Dalton Kincaid is our No.2 target behind Stefon Diggs 

                       This is the 2nd good game in a row for Dalton Kincaid. He had 5 catches for 65 yards and a touchdown. Dalton Kincaid is starting to get targets now in the passing game which will help us going forward. We know Stefon Diggs is going to be great, but getting Dalton Kincaid going helps our offense. 

                      Bills pass rush was back tonight 

                      The Bills got a pass rush for the 1st time since the Miami game in Week 4. We had 3 sacks on Baker Mayfield in this game. Taron Johnson and Ed Oliver had a sack each. A.J Epensea got a key sack at the end of the game. Von Miller got a Quarter-Back hit in this game which is encouraging because he hadn't done anything since coming back.  

                      Negatives 

                      Just 7 points in the 2nd half 

                      I wish we would play a 60 minute game because we're not beat the Bengals, Eagles, Chiefs, Cowboys, Chargers and Dolphins if we don't. We had 2 different chances to go for at mid-field and decided to punt both times and it nearly cost us at the end. I like to see a 60-minute effort for us going forward. The last time we had a 60-minute effort was against Miami in Week 4. 

                    Penalties   

                   We need to stop with the Penalties. We had 9 penalties in this game including 2 costly penalties that kept the Buccaneers drive alive late in the 4th Quarter. This team has had 36 penalties in the last 4 games. The penalties need to stop if we are going to do anything this year. We're lucky to be 2-2 in the last 4 games with all of these penalties lately.  

                   Perspective 

                   This was a much needed win for the Bills in this game. This game was too close at the end and I don't why we are going to this conservative approach, but it needs to stop. We got up 24-10 and then we played conservative. We need to stay aggressive even when we are up 24-10 on a team. We are 5-3 on the year despite our problems right now and still have a chance to win the AFC East division.