Week three sees the Bills in Orchard Park to take on the LA Rams in a battle of the unbeatens. After finding themselves alone leading the division, the Bills can guarantee holding that top spot with a win on Sunday. This is a litmus test game of sorts for the Bills. So far, they’ve beaten the Jets and Dolphins who most consider non-playoff caliber teams this season. While getting a win versus any team proves difficult in today’s NFL, some games make more of a statement of who you are as a team than others. The Rams are just two years removed from a Super Bowl appearance, so a Bills win garners raised eyebrows as a team to watch. A loss? Nothing but eye rolls and head shakes. I live in LA county. Local sports personalities here don’t see Sunday’s game as a very challenging one for the Rams. A Bills win will be a little extra sweet for me listening to their explanations on a Rams loss.
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How We Got Here
Third year quarterback Josh Allen has forcefully taken the reigns of the Bills lead wagon and seized control. He tops the league in passing yards with 727, has six touchdowns to zero interceptions and also a rushing score. The offensive line is giving him great protection and he’s making accurate throws downfield to receivers in stride. All this with a limited running game compliment. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has cleared Allen to utilize every play in his playbook and turned the Bills into a pass heavy team thus far.
How They Got Here
Young, offensive minded head coach Sean McVay’s Rams seem to have an improving steady balance so far this year. In their opener, the Rams christened their new palace, SoFi Stadium with a victory over the Dallas Cowboys. While quarterback Jared Goff had a pedestrian day with no touchdowns and an interception, the running game picked up the slack on offense with 153 yards on the ground and 2 scores by Malcolm Brown. They controlled the clock and the defense held Dallas to just 17 points. Last week saw them travel to Philadelphia and look dominant over the Eagles. Jumping out to a 21-3 first half lead, the Rams made Carson Wentz play catch up. The defense held the signal caller to under 250 yards, no touchdowns and two picks while also getting a takeaway on a fumble recovery. Jared Goff had a very efficient day finishing with three touchdown tosses and 20 completions on 27 attempts. The running game gained almost 200 yards and added two more touchdowns for a lopsided 37-19 final score.
What to Watch For
The Rams secondary held Dak Prescott and Carson Wentz to just one touchdown against two interceptions combined. Three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jalen Ramsey will be shadowing Bills number one receiver Stefon Diggs. In 2018 Ramsey was quoted in GQ magazine saying Josh Allen was “trash”. An ignorant statement, as Allen had not yet thrown a pass in the NFL and I’m betting Jalen hadn’t watched one minute of his college career at Wyoming. They did face off that season with the Bills winning over Ramsey and the Jaguars. Allen didn’t have much in the way of passing stats, but he didn’t have much in the way of receivers either in Kelvin Benjamin and Zay Jones. It will be interesting to see if Allen takes some shots downfield to Diggs against Ramsey after two years of experience and improvement.
Bills running back Zack Moss has been ruled out of tomorrow’s contest with a toe injury. He and Devin Singletary have been splitting reps evenly the first two games. As a result, look for Singletary getting the vast majority of carries with TJ Yeldon coming in for light duty. With a chance to get into more of a rhythm, Singletary may have a very good day as he’s averaging 4.5 yards per carry on limited attempts. The Moss effect may also have Brian Daboll calling up more run plays for Josh Allen as he did against the Jets when he ran the ball 14 times. This also makes Allen a more difficult moving target for Aaron Donald who can disrupt whole game plans by himself and is already being talked about as one of the best defensive tackles to ever play the game.
Predictions
This has the potential to be an entertaining meeting of two teams with hopes of making a deep playoff run. With a few side stories, there will be individual games within the game to watch for. There’s been no trick plays yet from the Bills so this may be the time to catch the Rams off-guard.
My spotlight player prediction: Devin Singletary rushes for over 100 yards with two going for more than 20 yards.
My final score prediction: Josh Allen and the offense continue to impress. The defense forces some takeaways and the Bills remain undefeated.
