Buffalo Bills: Top 3 takeaways from primetime win over San Fransisco

Linebacker step up against 49ers

For the first time in what seems like ages, the Buffalo Bills had their complete linebacking core together, and what a difference it made.

When Matt Milano went down with an injury, former New Orleans Saint, A.J. Klein was forced to step up. To some fault of his own, Klein received a tremendous amount of criticism for his play as he was always a step behind while in pursuit and lacked the football I.Q. that made him so successful in New Orleans.

Though just like a light switch, Klein was able to flip his play completely around and in recent weeks has become a very productive part of the Bills defense. Combine his new level of play with a healthy Tremaine Edmunds and the Bills linebacking core has been seeing better weeks. Throw in a healthy Matt Milano like they had last night and the production of the group seems night and day from what it was at the beginning of the season.

Of the three players that make up the Bills core, Tremaine Edmunds and A.J. Klein were most notable. For Edmunds, it was his fourth-down goal-line stop early in the game that set the defensive tone for all four quarters. For Klein, it was his surprising ability to drop back in pass coverage. Breaking up a pass or two while adding an ‘assist’, having the ball bounce off his elbow and land in the arms of Micah Hyde who ran the ball into 49ers territory.

What was once a weak point of the defense has transformed into one of their strongest.