What an absolute stunning finish to cap off Week 5 of the NFL season. The Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams clashed and it took them into overtime to decide a win. In the end, with the offense coming alive (along with a bit of luck), the Bills took down the Rams with a 37-34 win to improve to 4-1.
The Bills' offense came alive in the second half and they did just enough to overcome the obstacles that the defense fell into once the third quarter started. This is a dynamic win for the Bills because with the way this game was going at one point, it felt like this was going to be another heartbreaker for Buffalo. Instead, they came out on the winning side.
The Bills can now take a deep breath as they survive Week 5 with a win, and there are plenty of takeaways from this game, both good and bad.
7 immediate takeaways from Bills' close OT win over Rams
Davison Igbinosun is a better fit than Maxwell Hairston for Bills' defense
After a horrendous game last week against the New England Patriots (and not speaking to the media after), Maxwell Hairston began Week 5 on the bench behind Christian Benford and Davison Igbinosun. Even though Joe Brady had mentioned earlier this week that Hairston would start, that wasn't the case.
Igbinosun started across from Christian Benford and it just felt like the much better fit. The Bills need to strongly consider making this the permanent move where Igbinosun starts over Hairston. He's a better fit for Jim Leonhard's defense and going up against a tough duo like Davante Adams and Puka Nacua, he was pretty good for most of the game.
T.J. Sanders has solid debut in the trenches
Defensive tackle T.J. Sanders made his 2026 debut after missing time with an appendectomy a few weeks ago, and he provided surprising value in the trenches. He was creating pressure up the middle, which is something that fans had not seen from him at all going back to last season. With Ed Oliver being out, this was an opportunity for Sanders and he took advantage of it.
James Cook's fumble issues continue on
Heading into this game, Cook had two fumbles on the season (losing one of them) and he fumbled twice again against the Rams. Now granted, he had a solid overall performance, but one of the biggest cons of Cook's game is his ball security. He had 6 fumbles last season, and now he's got over half of that through five games this season.
His fumble in overtime would have been the back-breaker for the Bills, but with Greg Rousseau coming up clutch on special teams, Cook's mistake wasn't the final blow to the Bills.
Where is Dalton Kincaid?
Remember when Dalton Kincaid was playing like the best tight end the first two weeks of the season? That seems like a distant memory now considering what the last three games have been for him. In Weeks 3 & 4, Kincaid has had just 45 combined receiving yards. Against the Rams, he finished with just 1 catch for 7 yards.
In a game where there was no DJ Moore and Joshua Palmer, and Skyler Bell's debut being a complete bust, you would think that the offense would see more involvement from Kincaid. Instead, it's now three straight weeks of underachieving showings from Kincaid.
Joe Brady is failing miserably in the penalty department
Coming into this game, the Bills had 30 accepted penalties on them for a combined 250 yards. That was horrendous itself, and this game against the Rams was unfortunately no different. Buffalo had 13 accepted penalties called against them for 112 yards. Even with the win, this is completely undisciplined football by the Bills, and it falls under Brady to fix it.
For as well as Brady has been as a playcaller this season, he's got to fix this penalty issue because it's getting out of hand.
It's all about how you finish, not how you start
The Bills struggled in the first half, yet they had a 13-7 lead going into halftime. The offense couldn't get into the endzone consistently, and the defense was playing bend but don't break defense. Then the script flipped as Buffalo's offense came alive in the second half, but the defense started to fall apart.
At the end of the day, you can get off to any kind of start but we all know that it's all about how you finish. The Bills had a great fourth quarter and their defense and special teams came up with a big blocked field goal in overtime to give the ball back to Josh Allen, who led the offense down into field goal range for Tyler Bass to win it.
Bills remain in control of the AFC East
With this win, the Bills remain in front of the Patriots in the AFC East and will stay on top for atleast another week. Since the Patriots beat the Bills in Week 4, they own the tiebreaker over them. With New England beating the Las Vegas Raiders, the pressure was on the Bills to beat the Rams more than it was before.
If the Bills had lost to the Rams, they would be looking up to the Patriots. That's not the case this week as the Bills get the thriller win over the Rams.
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