The Bills Blog

The Buffalo Bills look to right the ship in week 7 against the Carolina Panthers.

Buffalo is coming off of two uncharacteristic losses that have fans and the media concerned with the team’s ceiling and ability to make another deep playoff run.

Buffalo absolutely needs to get back on track in week 7 against the 4-3 Carolina Panthers. It won’t necessarily be easy, but this is a game the Bills should win by all accounts.

It sounds like a broken record in Buffalo at this point, but as Sean McDermott preaches, the Bills need to play complimentary football on Sunday. That means taking advantage of short fields, forced turnovers, early offensive scores and time of possession. They need to take control of the game early and ride their momentum on both sides of the ball. Outside of the Jets game, Buffalo has yet to play well in all 3 phases and I’d expect them to come out on Sunday and make it a point of emphasis to do so.

Offensively, Buffalo needs to have a more balanced gameplan. They need to run the ball effectively and more often, keeping Carolina’s D guessing and opening up the field for some big play potential. The offensive line needs to do a better job in pass protection and Josh Allen needs to do a better job of avoiding sacks. The receivers need to create separation and make Josh’s life easier as he looks to move the ball downfield.

Defensively, The Bills need to stop the run. They’ve had serious issues this year against teams that run the ball effectively. Panthers backs Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard will look to set the tone early and often on the ground. Buffalo needs to establish themselves in the trenches and generate negative plays in the backfield. I’d like to see the Bills secondary play with more intensity, be more aggressive rather than reactive and hit with some real energy. The D-Line and the Secondary have yet to play in unison this year, I’d love to see them work together as a cohesive unit to cause havoc for Bryce Young and Carolina’s passing game.