Buffalo commands Washington as defense continues stellar start to season
The Buffalo Bills came into week three of the National Football League (NFL) season feeling energized after their dominant performance against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, Sept. 17, in which they won by four touchdowns. The bounce-back game was a necessity after the Bills’ week-one loss against the lowly Zach Wilson-led Jets.
The next opponent on their 2023 schedule was the Washington Commanders—a team many did not predict would go 2-0 during the opening two weeks of the season. Washington proved those people wrong, however, and went on to beat the Arizona Cardinals and Denver Broncos in back-to-back games. The caveat to their success, though, is that they were going up against possibly the two worst teams in the league, and the Bills aimed to become their first real challenge of the young season on Sunday, Sept. 24.
Buffalo did just that, scoring early in the first quarter. They received the ball first and began an 11-play drive that culminated in a successful 36-yard field goal by kicker Tyler Bass. The defense allowed Washington to gain 39 yards before linebacker Terrel Bernard intercepted Commanders’ quarterback Sam Howell at Buffalo’s 16-yard line. This marked Bernard’s second pick of his career, with his first coming just one week prior against the Raiders.
The next two drives were relatively uneventful as each team punted the ball back to the other. Washington’s punt ended with an offensive holding call, however, and the Bills began their next drive with great field position at the Commanders’ 35-yard line. “Drive” may be a bit of an overstatement, though, as quarterback Josh Allen heaved a pass toward the end zone and right into the hands of receiver Gabe Davis to put the Bills up by ten.
Washington’s next drive marked the end of the first quarter and their longest string of plays all game. The Commanders marched 73 yards down the field and got as far as the one-yard line before turning the ball over on downs and attempted to sneak in for a score on fourth down.
The Bills responded by keeping possession of the ball for almost ten minutes, all the way down to the two-minute warning, by putting together a series of short plays to waste the clock. They made their way into Washington’s territory before Bass connected on another field goal, this time for 54 yards, to give Buffalo a 13-0 lead.
The Commanders were unable to score or even come close to it, before the end of the first half as Howell threw his second interception of the day to give the ball right back to the Bills. Safety Micah Hyde, who played in only two games last season, tallied his first caused turnover since the 2021 campaign.
With just over one minute remaining until halftime, Buffalo worked their way to Washington’s 14-yard line before Bass put the finishing touches on a stellar first-half performance. He made a 32-yard field goal to give the Bills a 16-point advantage going into the break.
The second half started with another lengthy drive put together by the Commanders who traveled downfield and into the redzone. Howell, who was already having a rough day, tossed the ball in the direction of cornerback Tre’Davious White who grabbed the ball and brought it in for Buffalo’s third pick of the afternoon.
Josh Allen and the Bills could not convert the turnover to points and showed their only sign of weakness all game during the next drive. Allen attempted to throw up another long pass to Davis but the ball was picked off by cornerback Kendall Fuller. The deep throws have been an issue during the entirety of Allen’s career and this season has proved that it will most likely remain that way for a while.
Neither team made any impact until the beginning of the fourth quarter when Bills’ cornerback Taron Johnson caused a fumble out of the hands of Washington’s running back Antonio Gibson. The ball was recovered by newfound-star defender Bernard and Buffalo’s offense took possession deep in Commander’s territory.
Several short passes brought the Bills to within ten yards of another touchdown before Allen decided to take the game into his own hands and rushed into the endzone to put the team up by 23 points in the final quarter.
Three plays later, Buffalo’s defense made Howell look incompetent once again as lineman A.J. Epenesa exploited an awful pass and intercepted it at the 32-yard line. Epenesa didn’t stop there, though, as he returned the ball down the field for another late touchdown for the Bills.
Up by 30 points with eight minutes left, the Bills offense stormed back onto the field and let their running backs take control. Backs James Cook, Latavius Murray, and Damien Harris combined for 64 yards before Murray drove a two-yard rush into the endzone to put one last finishing touch on the team’s dominant week three performance.
A garbage-time field goal saved the Commanders from being shut-out, but the Bills proved that their game against the Raiders was no fluke and that they were still one of the few teams to beat in the AFC after their 37-3 victory.
Buffalo will face one of the AFC giants, and possibly the best offense in the entire league, next week as they take on the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, Oct. 1 at 1 p.m. The Bills’ top-tier defense will be on the hunt as the team attempts to make a huge early-season statement by taking down their division rival in week four.
Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images