ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Bills fans have been awaiting this night for eight months.
It was back in mid-January when Buffalo eviscerated the Patriots, 47-17, at Highmark Stadium in the opening round of the National Football League playoffs, earning a fateful trip to Kansas City in the divisional round.
That game against the Chiefs has taken its place in Bills football nightmare lore, known merely as “13 seconds,” but its offensive performance, particularly the four touchdown connections between quarterback Josh Allen and wide receiver Gabriel Davis in that 42-36 overtime defeat, got Las Vegas’ attention.
Hence, it made Buffalo an odds-on favorite to win this year’s Super Bowl and left its faithful salivating for the next home game.
Then, in the season-opener, the Bills verified that early prediction by hammering the defending NFL champion Rams, 31-10, in Los Angeles, and tonight (7:15, WGR-TV, ESPN, 95.7 FM, 100.1 FM, 550 AM) they play another contender, Tennessee (0-1).
However, the Titans come in as surprising 10-point underdogs mostly because they blew a 13-point second-half lead in their home-opener and lost a 21-20 decision to the Giants behind their rookie head coach, Brian Daboll, the former Buffalo offensive coordinator.
TONIGHT’S scenario is an interesting offensive contrast; Allen’s passing skills and Titans running back Derrick Henry’s rushing acumen.
Then, too, these two teams have unusual familiarity for non-divisional foes. They’ve now met for five straight seasons, the last three in prime time with Tennessee winning the last two.
Henry, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound battering ram, adds speed to his resume, and has pounded the Bills the past two meetings — 42-16 and 34-31 in wins at Nashville.
In those games, the former Alabama star totaled 200 rushing yards and five touchdowns, including a spectacular 76-yard scoring sprint last October.
Allen, over those same two games, is 61-for-88 passing for five TDs with three interceptions. However, Tennessee has also held one of the league’s top-running QBs to a mere 13 carries for 44 yards in those meetings.
BUT THERE are other factors in the first of this evening’s two primetime games.
One is the weather. The forecast calls for rain and thunderstorms into the late afternoon, though it’s supposed to clear by game time. If it doesn’t, conditions could affect the game and favor a ground attack.
The other issue is injuries.
Tennessee will be without starting cornerback Kristian Fulton and backup running back Dontrell Hilliard, who caught two TD passes against the Giants, both with hamstring injuries.
Fulton’s absence is not good news for head coach Mike Vrabel’s defense facing Buffalo wideouts Stefon Diggs, Davis and Isaiah McKenzie.
But Buffalo has injury concerns of its own.
Defensive tackles Ed Oliver (ankle) and Tim Settle (calf) are out and doubtful, respectively. But of even more concern is that Davis is suddenly on the injury report with an ankle problem and is listed as questionable, as is cornerback Dane Jackson (knee), though he practiced fully Saturday.
If Jackson has a setback, the Bills would end up starting two rookie draft choices at corner, first-rounder Kaiir Elam and sixth-round pick Christian Benford.
THE REALITY is, though, facing the Titans, the concern isn’t so much quarterback Ryan Tannehill, but rather the bulldozing Henry.
“It always helps if you have a good idea of what an opponent does but it’s another thing to go out and stop it,” Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said. “We have an idea what Tennessee is going to do but to go out and stop and contain that run game along with their play-action pass and their (bootleg) game, their shots down the field, you’ve got to go out and play the game and execute the plays.”
To which head coach Sean McDermott added, “Derrick is a once-in-a-lifetime back and the traits he has you don’t see (often) and you have to honor that and how you do things across the board defensively. It’s a tough dynamic. What they have offensively is the ability to run it with his special qualities and throw it with Tannehill, who’s also a very good player. It makes for a tough challenge for any defense.”
ALLEN didn’t disagree.
“They’re as good as anyone in their interior ‘D’ line, they have one of the better safety duos in the league and they do a great job of disguising things,” he said. “They do so many different things and throw so many different looks at you. Going back and looking at last year, too many times my eyes were in the wrong spots and I can clean that up with eyes and ball-placement.
“They’re as tough as anybody and they’ve given us problems the last couple of years.”
Allen added, “We know what happened last week and they’re going to be a motivated team coming in, plus they’ve got one of the best coaches in the league in Vrabel.
“We’ve got to be ready for whatever punch they throw our way. Coach Vrabel can motivate those guys to play at a higher level … it’s Monday night and coming off the game they just had, they’re going to be really ticked off.”
