Bills vs. Eagles: Top 5 Storylines to Watch in NFL Week 12
The Buffalo Bills climbed back over .500 with a definitive 32-6 win over the New York Jets last Sunday. The win not only kept them right on the playoff bubble, but it also kept their head above water with the meat of their schedule coming up. The Bills’ next three games are against the 9-1 Eagles, 7-3 Chiefs, and 7-3 Cowboys. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and focus squarely on Philly, who enters Sunday’s game as 3.5-point favorites over Buffalo. The current over/under is 48, giving us an implied score of roughly 26-22 for the Eagles. That would be one hell of a nail-biter. As we’ve learned the last few weeks, the Vegas spread doesn’t seem to apply much to the Bills. Without further ado, here are my top five storylines to watch as the Bills visit Philadelphia in another 4:25 kickoff, this time in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
Is This Real Life?
For the first time since October 1st, a six-game span, the Bills went over 25 points for a game. The team was averaging over two turnovers per game and had just one in the win over the Jets. It was also their second-most yards in a game during that stretch. That’s the pure data side of things; on the subjective side, the Bills looked like they were having fun again. The offense had a rhythm and flow we hadn’t seen in months. As a viewer, it was the most enjoyable game since the Miami win. Now, we wait until Sunday to see if they can do it again.
Not so Road Warriors
Buffalo enters this road game at Philly with just a 1-4 record away from Orchard Park. That counts the “home” loss to the Jaguars in London. The offense wasn’t great in any of those losses, scoring 16, 20, 25, and 18. If the Bills don’t want to fall back to .500 on the year, they will need to cure the road ills on Sunday.
One Up Kansas City
The Chiefs, the team Buffalo has been looking up to for three years, just lost to the Eagles at home 21-17. In that game, KC had more total yards, passing yards, and rushing yards. They looked to be in control for most of the 60 minutes. They even sacked Jalen Hurts five times vs. Mahomes being taken down once. The difference was the Eagles making one more ‘bend but don’t break’ stand allowing a field goal where they scored a touchdown. The Bills need to look at this two ways: finish drives with a PAT, and don’t let the Eagles get close enough to do the tush push.
Who is Gabe Davis?
Gabe Davis has slowly transformed from the Bills’ deep threat to the Bills’ best blocking WR. Over the last three games, he has eight targets for two receptions with zero passes going his way against the Jets. Your first thought might be, “Well, he isn’t getting as many reps.” that isn’t correct. Davis has the most snaps for Bills’ WRs over that span. He went 54, 53, and 67 in snaps in those three games. The Bills are going to need all hands on deck to win these next three games, so how they deploy Davis has me very intrigued.
Rooting Interest
This one won’t hit home for most Bills fans, but it does for me. I’ve spent a lot of time around the Sirianni family. I covered Jay Sirianni (Nick’s brother) when he won multiple New York state football championships at Southwestern Central School. I covered Nick Sirianni (the Eagled head coach) when he ran camps at Southwestern. He would have yearly camps down in Jamestown during his time with the Chargers and Colts. I know most of us wanted the Eagles to win last year’s Super Bowl, mainly because but I had an extra rooting interest in seeing a guy who grew up down the road from my current home getting a Lombardi would be pretty neat.
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