The losing streak is officially over for the Buffalo Bills as they walked into Carolina and completely dominated the Panthers. Buffalo put up their second 40+ point performance of the season in a 40-9 win on the road. They are now up to 5-2 on the season going into next Sunday’s contest against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Bills remain undefeated after the bye week under Sean McDermott and this was by fair their best performance of the season so far. After a rough stretch at the end of September and early October, the Bills get a statement win and are letting the league know that they aren’t out.
There really wasn’t a ton of disappointment from the Bills. Sure, maybe they would have wanted to avoid two field goals to open up the game, but they still got to 40 points and brought in the backups to end the game. However, there were a good amount of players to recognize for their success in this win.
4 winners and 1 loser from Bills' Week 8 win vs. Panthers
Winners:
RB James Cook
Starting off with the most obvious choice, it’s James Cook, who rushed for 216 yards and 2 touchdowns. He averaged 11.4 yards per carry and both of his touchdowns went for 20+ yards. This is Cook’s fourth game with over 100+ yards on the ground and he was the clear cut MVP of this game.
Cook has been a star for the Bills and has arguably been the best player on offense, even ahead of Josh Allen outside of Week 1 against the Ravens.
DE A.J. Epenesa
Epenesa had himself a day against Carolina with four total tackles, a sack, and an interception that he came up one yard shy of getting into the endzone. He really shined for this Buffalo defense and has proven to be a great rotational player for the defensive line.
DE Michael Hoecht
Michael Hoecht made his season debut with the Bills after serving a six-game suspension and he didn’t miss a beat. He was constantly creating pressure and he had 1.5 sacks. A lot of fans were curious to see how he would perform and he showed Bills Mafia just why the Bills gave him a three-year deal despite the suspension that he was getting.
WR Khalil Shakir
After a rough start to this season, Josh Allen’s true No. 1 target in Khalil Shakir had a phenomenal day with 6 catches for 88 yards and a touchdown that he took to the endzone 54 yards out. Shakir hasn’t been the greatest that we have seen him to be and part of it is because of the way he is being utilized.
Well, that was not the case this time around as he was solid for Buffalo and helped them move the chains.
Loser:
TE Dalton Kincaid
After coming so close to playing in Week 6 against the Falcons, Dalton Kincaid came back from his oblique injury but he had a quiet afternoon for the Bills. He was targeted only 3 times and had just 1 catch for 23 yards. While it’s not the worst thing that we have ever seen, not seeing Kincaid involved more puts him in a tough spot to praise.