6 final thoughts on the Buffalo Bills week 8 win over the Bucs

The Buffalo Bills came away with a much-needed win and the offense looked better, as did the defense. But there were still a few things to clean up and we'll get into those shortly. The Bills defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24 - 18 but the game didn't feel that close, even though the Bucs had a shot with a hail mary at the end. Honestly, the score was much closer than it should have been.

The Buffalo Bills now sit at 5 - 3 and a half-game behind the Miami Dolphins, who play the New England Patriots. Never thought I'd be rooting for the Patriots but in this case, we need New England to win and that will put the Bills in first place in the division.

The Bills will have the luxury of a mini-bye and it is much needed. This gives Buffalo a little extra time to get healthier and begin to develop a game plan against the Cincinnati Bengals, which will be needed. Buffalo struggled with the Bengals a season ago and likely this game will be one of the most viewed games of the season, given the developments from last year.

As the season moves forward, Buffalo will be entering the meat of the schedule with the likes of the Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia Eagles, among others. It will be imperative for the Bills to come away victorious in most of these games. They have nine games remaining and it's going to get tough.

Josh Allen found his legs again

Josh Allen had seven total carries for 41 yards and added a rushing touchdown as well. He averaged just under six yards per carry but it was the timeliness of the runs that were important. We've been saying for the last couple of weeks now that he's completely stopped running. There were several times he could have picked up first downs with his legs but instead, elected to throw the ball, resulting in incompletions and a punt.

Last night, he chose to run for the easy first downs or to set up short downs and distances, rather than making an unnecessary throw. He added to his career rushing touchdowns too and is now tied with Steve Young for second all-time. Allen, currently with 43 rushing touchdowns is 32 touchdowns from the record, held by Cam Newton. At only 27 years old, Allen has a good shot at the record, as long as health remains.

Khalil Shakir had himself a career day

I called it earlier in the week to start using Khalil Shakir in the slot on a full-time basis, rather than a rotation of him, Deonte Harty, and Trent Sherfield. Guess what, the Buffalo Bills clearly read my article because they did just that. Shakir was in on 45 offensive snaps and a solid 65% of the snap share. I talked about his increase in snaps week-after-week and this one was his highest yet.

He did not disappoint either, delivering a career day and rewarding the team with six receptions on six targets and 92 yards. The hope now is that this trend continues. Dawson Knox was placed on IR, which means he's out at least four weeks, so it's likely the team leans into 11-personnel more frequently and this gives Shakir more opportunities to show the team why they should not go back to 12-personnel even when Knox is healthy again.

Dalton Kincaid's first career touchdown

Dalton Kincaid was targeted seven times this week, giving him 15 total targets over the last two weeks. He's turned those opportunities into 13 receptions for 140 yards and a touchdown. The team must keep him on the field at all times going forward. Again, going back to what we were just talking about with Shakir, Knox is out for a few weeks and Kincaid needs to continue to take advantage of his situation and force the coaching staff to keep him as the number one tight end for the remainder of the season.

I was one of those who was excited about the team utilizing 12-personnel this season; however, Knox is simply not consistent enough to keep this attack efficient. He has too many drops and Kincaid has not recorded a single drop this season and has the highest catch percentage of any player in the league. The Bills offense must continue to go through Diggs and Kincaid.

Are we seeing the return of some version of the K-Gun

First of all, for those that aren't aware, the K-Gun was not named after superstar quarterback Jim Kelly. It was named after Bills tight end Keith McKellar. But we have a new tight end with the letter K initial but let's change it up a bit and call it the DK-Gun. Ok, that was lame and I apologize. Anyways, seeing the Bills come out in a no-huddle attack was just what we were hoping for heading into this game.

The worry is, will the Bills continue to utilize this attack going forward or was this simply a matchup based gameplan specific to the opponent? I hope not but we won't know until we see the Buffalo Bills in Week Nine against the Cincinnati Bengals. For the record, the Bengals have a solid pass rush and I think tiring them out with no-huddle can be just as effective. Just need the Bills offense to be a little better about finishing drives. More on that later.

Bills defense was solid but.....

The Buffalo defense was solid against the Bucs but they had some issues with penalties and their pass rush seemed to disappear at times. Still, they made some plays against Baker Mayfield but he also did a good job avoiding pressure and getting out of sacks. As a unit, the Bills recorded three sacks, three tackles for a loss, and an impressive ten quarterback hits. Despite the stat line, there were moments when they couldn't seem to get to Mayfield and they needed to turn some of those QB hits into sacks.

Christian Benford played a great game too, as did the Bills secondary as a whole. They largely kept the impressive due of Chris Godwin and Mike Evans in check. They did give up a touchdown to each but neither racked up a lot of receptions or yards. My only other complaint with the performance of the defense was the penalties, specifically on that Bucs final touchdown drive. Twice the Bills' defense made stops to end the drive and twice they gave it away with penalties that resulted in first downs. They play a little more disciplined and the game never comes close to that hail mary.

Buffalo needs to finish drives with points

Buffalo scored 17 first-half points, which is great, but they had a chance to put this game away at the start of the second half. Their first two drives totaled 136 yards on offense, yet they managed only three points. The two drives ended in a field goal and turnover on downs, respectively. The Bills left potentially 11 points on the field just in the first half. They convert those drives to touchdowns when in the red zone, they are up 28 - 10 at the half.

In the second half, Buffalo came out firing again and put together a nine-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, in what could have been a 35 - 10 win and the Bucs' souls would belong to the Bills. Instead, that was not the case, and this came down to a final hail mary pass, that was far too close to being converted. In addition, the Bills have two second-half drives that stalled out as well when they were in Bucs territory, and instead of going for it on fourth and short, both times, the Bills punted. I don't like the conservative calls there. You're offense is playing well and you had a chance to smash the nail in the coffin and they punted. I would like to see Coach McDermott in that situation be a little more aggressive.

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