Carucci Take 2: Offensive balance shines in Bills’ dominant wild-card playoff win vs. Broncos

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y.

Here are my five takeaways from the Buffalo Bills 31-7 wild-card playoff victory against the Denver Broncos on Sunday at Highmark Stadium: 1.

It took a while, but the Bills patented offensive balance steadily did enough to get the better of the Broncos vaunted defense.

There wasnt a spectacular performance by any individual, including Josh Allen.

He threw for 272 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

James Cooks 120 yards and 5.2 yards per attempt led a rushing attack that produced 210 yards and a TD.

Allen accounted for 46 yards on the ground, averaging 5.8 yards per carry.

It was just a plodding effort, with the Bills dominating time of possession 41:43 to 18:17, and only punting once to four times by the Broncos.

That ultimately sucked the life out of Denvers D.

Equally important was the fact the Broncos pass rush, which led the NFL with 63 sacks in the regular season, was unable to affect Allens throwing all that much.

The Bills offensive line, which allowed a league-low 14 sacks, gave up two sacks Sunday and generally gave Allen time in the pocket to find open targets.

Allens most impressive moment came late in the third quarter, when, on fourth-and-1 from the Denver 24, he danced around the pocket forever before throwing a pass that Ty Johnson barely seemed to legally catch in the back of the end zone.

Officials only ruled it a touchdown after a lengthy review of whether Johnson gained enough control of the low throw while keeping his feet in bounds.

The score, plus Allens two-point conversion pass to Keon Coleman, gave the Bills a commanding 21-7 lead.

It also gave Allen the 22nd playoff passing touchdown of his career, which surpassed Jim Kellys 21 for most in franchise history.

Fourth down, just needed to make a play there, said Allen, whose most explosive throw was for a 55-yard touchdown to Curtis Samuel to make it 28-7 in the fourth quarter.

Man-to-man.

They played pretty good coverage on some of our underneath routes.

I just extended, Ty did what Ty does and made a heck of a play for us.

This was a good team win offensively, defensively and special teams, Sean McDermott said.

All three had their moments that they want back and all three, I thought, really played at a high level when they needed do.

2.

The Bills defense did a terrific job of shutting down rookie quarterback Bo Nix and the rest of the Broncos offense.

After connecting with Troy Franklin for a 43-yard touchdown on the games fifth play from scrimmage, Nix did little to make an impact in his first NFL postseason appearance.

He threw for only 137 yards.

The Bills also smothered the Broncos lackluster rushing attack, which generated a mere 79 yards (43 by Nix, whose biggest runs came while the game was out of reach).

Youve got to have it up front and it starts at the line of scrimmage in the run game, and then you go from there, McDermott said.

The Bills defensive struggles on third down (they ranked 29th in the NFL in that category) only showed up on the Broncos opening drive.

For the game, Denver converted only two of nine third downs (22.2%).

Youve got to get off the field on third down, McDermott said.

I thought we were pretty darn good at it.

3.

The Bills had the ideal antidote for the Broncos blitz-happy defense: A strong running game.

The offensive line imposed its will on Denvers smallish defensive front, consistently opening big holes for James Cook, who became the first Bills player to rush for 100-plus yards in the playoffs since Thurman Thomas in 1995.

Ty Johnson also chipped in with 44 yards on nine carries, an average of 4.9 yards per rush.

The offensive line did a great job of getting looks that we liked and taking advantage of it, and they moved guys off the ball, Allen said.

Jimbo ran the ball hard, all of our backs run the ball hard.

And then you incorporate some of the quarterback run stuff, and I think that really messes with the defense.

They were in really good position sometimes and our guys just made plays.

Thats why weve got so much faith in everybody in this room.

Even with a strong NFL MVP candidate at quarterback, the Bills will need to continue to run well if they are to make a deep postseason run.

Yeah, I mean, again, just the line of scrimmage is huge every week, McDermott said.

And I thought (offensive line) Coach (Aaron) Kromer, (assistant offensive line) Coach (Austin) Gund, and (offensive coordinator) Joe (Brady) put their collective heads together.

(tight ends) Coach (Rob) Boras is involved in that as well, and Skip (running backs coach Kelly Skipper).

They came up with a good plan, and when youre able to do that, it certainly helps the entire offense.

4.

That leads us to a conversation about coaching, which, as with everything else in the postseason, receives considerable scrutiny.

The matching of X-and-O wits between McDermott and his staff and Sean Payton and his assistants figured to play a significant role in the games outcome.

It did.

Things were looking a bit dicey in the second quarter when the Broncos pulled off a fake punt on fourth-and-8 from the Denver 43.

Riley Dixon caught the snap and initially showed the motion that he was about to kick before stopping and turning to his left to loft a 15-yard throw that Marvin Mims Jr., caught at the Buffalo 42.

That Broncos still ended up punting on the drive, but being fooled by the fake was a bad look.

Nevertheless, the Bills were on point with an offensive scheme that enlisted practically everyone, including receivers, to deliver meaningful blocks.

Mack Hollins was particularly effective in that regard.

The Bills defense also did a nice job of containing the mobile Nix and minimizing big plays.

5.

Now comes the long-awaited rematch between the Bills and Baltimore Ravens in next weekends divisional-round matchup at Highmark.

This shapes up as the Bills greatest challenge to date.

On the way to winning the AFC North with a 12-5 record, the Ravens pummeled the Bills, 35-10 on Sept.

29 at Baltimore.

Derrick Henry ran for 199 yards and a touchdown.

Lamar Jackson added 54 yards and a TD rushing, and also had two scoring throws.

The same duo led the Ravens to a 28-14 wild-card win against Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

This is what everyones been waiting for, right? McDermott said.

So, itll be a nice week, and everyone will be looking forward to it.

And, you know, theyre a great football team, right? I mean they handled us pretty good the first go around.

Theyre certainly playing well and are well coached.

John (Harbaugh) has won a Super Bowl and comes from a great pedigree, so itll be a big challenge for us..

This article has been shared from the original article on wgrz, here is the link to the original article.