Unfortunately, a full-game film review of the Buffalo Bills’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams wasn’t in the cards this week. That doesn’t mean I can’t make you deal with my shenanigans in some other manner, however.
One of my favorite things to do after a game is look at the stats and compare them to my perception of the game. Well... time around, I have to say there were a few surprises. Let’s dive in!
Bills at Rams: Glaring differences in run games
Concerning the Buffalo Bills’ side of things here, there’s no surprise, if I’m being honest. We all realize the run game was Josh Allen with James Cook bottled up. The shocker to me is on the Los Angeles Rams’ side of things.
It didn’t feel like the Rams ran 42 times. That’s right, 42 rushes in a single game. That’s absurd. Even more wild is while they were overall successful running the ball, it wasn’t a clear weakness for the Bills’ defense either.
Los Angeles’ longest run was 12 yards by Kyren Williams. Those 42 rushes only accounted for 137 yards too, which is terrible efficiency. Being fair to LA, a lot of football is timing — so while the overall efficiency was surprising to me along with the sheer volume, they did score three rushing touchdowns and move the chains a few times.
I was a little surprised that the narrative was so focused on Josh Allen’s superhuman game when the Rams scored even more points than the Bills, and this helps explain it. It was a team effort for Los Angeles, while less-so the case for Buffalo.
Bills at Rams time of possession battle
This goes hand-in-hand with the above but even in consideration of the run game this was still ludicrously lopsided. The Bills only held the ball for 21:30. Having a five-minute edge in a single game is significant. The Rams had a 17-minute advantage.
I wasn’t planning on doing much hype this week what with the loss and all, but that places the offensive feats that Buffalo put on display on a much higher pedestal. The Buffalo’s offense effectively had only about two-thirds of a game at their disposal and still managed to put up nearly three touchdowns higher than the league’s scoring average.
Bills at Rams: A game defined by third down
The Bills had an excellent third-down conversion rate of 55.6% that was eclipsed by the Rams’ 73.3% — which isn’t the thing that surprised me. No, the thing that surprises me is that Buffalo forced the Rams into 15 different third-down situations.
Now clearly I knew there were enough third downs to warrant a conversation on conversion rate, but I still found it surprising that there were 15 times Buffalo’s defense created a situation where they had a shot at stopping LA. They didn’t. That sucks. I’m just surprised to see how often they were close to getting off the field.
Bills at Rams: The “sexy” stats (turnovers, sacks, QB hits, TFLs)
I’ll wrap up with some quick hitters, starting with the zero sacks and turnovers stat line. This is actually more of an “I’m still in shock” moment. Neither team recorded a turnover or a sack. That’s crazy to me.
There were a few close calls with a total of four QB hits in the game. Three were from Buffalo with defensive tackle Ed Oliver leading the team, totaling two. Oh what could have been if one of these hits was just a tiny bit faster.
Looking through the stats after the game I noted that the Bills had four tackles for a loss. That’s not the surprise: I remember a few negative plays even though the Rams were able to overcome them. The surprise is on the other side of the ledger, with the Rams having zero TFLs.
This means that while there were plays of zero from Buffalo, they had no plays that went for negative yards. Yet another stat that’s just wacky.
That’s all I have for now, but feel free to toss in your own surprises in the comments.