Billieve: James Cook Breaks Out, Defensive Line Responds and Other Thoughts From Win Over New England

Buffalo Rumblings: for Buffalo Bills fans

On this week’s episode of the Billieve Podcast, host John Boccacino offers up a quick recap of the Buffalo Bills' 24-10 win over the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football, then discusses two key takeaways from the victory: whether RB James Cook has done enough to supplant Devin Singletary as RB1, and how Buffalo's defensive line passed its first test without talented edge rusher Von Miller.

The win was Buffalo's third straight road win over New England, and the last time the Bills won three straight in Foxboro was the 1992-1994 seasons, during the team's Super Bowl days.

Among the topics discussed:

• We saw a return of precise and accurate Josh Allen, whose numbers won't overwhelm you, but who also limited mistakes while guiding an effective and efficient offense that scored touchdowns on all three trips into the red zone.
• The Bills just played three games in 12 days on the road with a banged-up roster and went 3-0. No NFL team ever has been scheduled to play three road games in 12 days. Going back to the 1990 season, NFL teams have endured three-game road trips 144 times, and only 14 of those teams managed to win all three of their games (nine percent).
• The Bills could not only find themselves atop the AFC East heading into Sunday, they could reclaim the No. 1 seed in the AFC if the San Francisco 49ers defeat the Miami Dolphins, and the Cincinnati Bengals knock off the Kansas City Chiefs.
• Cook finished with more than 100 all-purpose yards, rushing 14 times for 64 yards (4.6 yards per carry) while catching five passes for 41 yards. Many Bills fans wanted to see what Cook could do with a larger share of the touches in the backfield, and based on what we saw on Thursday, Cook deserves to get more touches in this offense.
• But he hasn't surpassed Singletary as the top running back. Singletary is still a critical part of the offense, and hasn’t done anything to see his role diminished.
• In its first game without Von Miller, the unquestioned leader of the defensive line, A.J. Epenesa, Greg Rousseau, Shaq Lawson and Boogie Basham responded to the challenge.
• While it is far too early to say how well Buffalo’s defensive line will perform without Miller, this was a great night for the defense, and for Epenesa, Lawson, Rousseau and Basham.

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