Josh Allen threw 19 passes and won a game in which Matthew Stafford threw 54. That's the shape of Buffalo's 37-34 overtime win, and it wasn't a fluke of the scoreboard.
Allen went 12 of 19 for 210 yards, a touchdown and an interception, at 11.1 yards per attempt. He ran 10 times for 121 yards and a score, 12.1 a carry, with a long of 22. Buffalo never asked him to pile up completions because it didn't need to. Stafford went 40 of 54 for 383 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, and his 7.1 yards per attempt tells you what all that volume was worth. His passer rating was 111.9. His adjusted QBR was 76.3. The distance between those two numbers is the game in one line: plenty of completions, not much damage.
Puka Nacua caught 17 of his 24 targets for 138 yards and a touchdown. Eight point one yards per reception. Seventeen catches is a lot of catches for 8.1 yards each. Kyren Williams carried 16 times for 49 yards and a touchdown, 3.1 a carry. Stafford threw 54 passes and got 383 yards. Allen threw 19 and got 210.
That's the trade Buffalo made all night. James Cook III carried 25 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and he also put the ball on the ground twice, losing one. Khalil Shakir caught all three of his targets for 80 yards, including a 57-yarder. Ty Johnson caught four for 72 with a long of 40. Ray Davis returned three kicks for 114 yards, a 38.0 average with a 70-yard long. The Bills' offense was short and efficient. The Rams' was long and grindy, and it produced the same kind of afternoon either way.
Overtime settled it in the least likely way. Cook fumbled going up the middle, Nate Landman forced it, and Aaron Donald recovered at the LA 20 with 8:00 left in the extra period. The Rams' answer was a 48-yard Harrison Mevis field goal attempt at 4:16 that Greg Rousseau blocked. A takeaway at the 20 and the best Los Angeles got out of it was a long kick into a wall.
Cole Bishop made 11 tackles and Christian Benford 10 for a Buffalo defense that spent the night tackling receivers who had already caught the ball.
Here's the claim: this was the least valuable 383 yards Stafford will throw this season. When a quarterback throws 54 times at 7.1 an attempt, the defense has decided the underneath stuff is free, and the Rams took every yard of it. Allen's 12 completions did more than Stafford's 40. If Los Angeles keeps winning the box score and losing the game, 2-3 turns into something worse fast. Buffalo's 4-1 is built on the opposite principle, and that travels.
