Buffalo Bills need to attack major Arizona Cardinals weakness in Week 1

We have overcome the long wait in the offseason and there will finally be some real football this coming week. The Buffalo Bills kick off their season in front of their home crowd for a 1PM showdown with the slowly rising Arizona Cardinals. It is going to be electric at Highmark Stadium as it is the first time in two years since the Bills started their season at home.

The Cardinals are a good first test to see how this new look Bills performs. They aren’t a powerhouse team but they had some of the biggest improvements out of all 32 teams this offseason. After back-to-back bad seasons, the Cardinals attacked the offseason in various stages to improve their roster.

Despite having a solid offseason on paper, nothing matters until we see what happens on the field. Last season, the Cardinals were near the bottom of the league in terms of defending the run. They gave up 143 yards on the ground per game last season (2,434 yards total on the ground).

Arizona only had three games where they didn’t give up 100+ rushing yards (no less than 91 yards in every single game).

The Bills have to take advantage of this weakness

The Bills had one of the better rushing attacks last season, especially when Joe Brady took over as the interim offensive coordinator. From Week 10 and on, the Bills averaged 154 yards per game on the ground (and had 180 rushing yards per game throughout the playoffs). Brady showed Bills fans that rather than revolving the offense around one particular player, he will get the ball to all of the playmakers. Buffalo's offense was unpredictable at certain points under Brady.

With a trio of James Cook, Ty Johnson, and Ray Davis, the Bills have to attack the Cardinals’ run defense. Ever since Buffalo discovered that they had one of the best passing attacks going back to 2020, they had a very inconsistent rushing attack. Last season showed us that the Bills can control the clock and build up for the pass if they can establish the run.

Even though the Cardinals addressed their defensive line in free agency with Justin Jones and Bilal Nichols, the Bills still need to make running the ball their main priority until it gets stopped.