The Buffalo Bills were already at the top of the NFL power rankings last week. With another road victory under their belt, this one a 24-20 comeback win over the Kansas City Chiefs, their place in the polls is more consistent.
Buffalo is now a near-universal No. 1 team, and while some polls previously had them trailing the Chiefs, a win over Kansas City left only one team ahead of the Bills, if there are any. That makes for an easy roundup, as Buffalo is either atop — or one spot behind the Philadelphia Eagles — in six games.
We start with Dan Hanzus at NFL Network, who ranked the Bills No. 1 in his poll this week. He wrote that Kansas City didn’t impact quarterback Josh Allen with the blitz, and he’s generally correct in that assessment. At first, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was able to knock Allen out of rhythm, but as the game progressed and the Bills adjusted, Allen found his rhythm. Allen’s touchdown passes to wides Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs were blitz-beaters, and Hanzus ranked the Bills No. 1 thanks to their “revenge win” over the Chiefs.
Next is Professional Football Discussion and Mike Florio, who ranks the Bills No. 2 heading into their bye week. As is his style, Florio provides a short description for each team, and for the Bills, he acknowledges that this is the second straight year they have beaten the Chiefs at Arrowhead. “This year,” he wrote,[The Bills] really need their regular season win at KC to lead to a rematch at Buffalo.
The binders to ESPN have the Bills at No. 1 this week, and Alaina Getzenberg has been assigned to write about preseason predictions for the club. She wrote that the Bills proved they could be the best team in the league, even with the exorbitant expectations they faced at the start of the season. While the prompt for the week seemed to be to discuss the predictions the Crew made in the preseason that aren’t correct as of this writing, Getzenberg instead focused on the talent of this Buffalo team.
Pete Prisco at CBS Sports has Buffalo at No. 2 this week. He acknowledged how important this week’s win was to the playoff standings, as Buffalo now sits atop the AFC standings with wins over each of the other three division leaders within their conference. . Prisco notes that rusher Von Miller was “the closest” in the game, and that’s exactly why they gave him the contract they signed this offseason.
Conor Orr at Sports Illustrated a Buffalo ranked No. 1 this week. He called Buffalo’s win over the Chiefs this week a “thorough and masterful performance” that leaves no doubt as to which team is the best in the NFL right now. Orr calls Kansas City Buffalo’s only real rival, suggesting it would take “some kind of weird weather game or an injury could always bring this team down to earth a bit.”
Continuing its trend of recent weeks, Professional Football Network’s Dalton Miller has Buffalo in the “elite” level of teams. He didn’t do a traditional power ranking by the numbers. He compared Allen to a hack in a mad video game, suggesting player-creating quarterbacks would be what happens with a 6’5″, 245-pound quarterback like Allen. Orr was clearly impressed with Buffalo’s win, although he wasn’t ready to crown Allen the best in the league at his position.
Vinnie Iyer at Sports News has the Bills ranked No. 2 heading into their bye this week. He noted that Buffalo made a few errors on offense against Kansas City – a fumble in the red zone on an optional field and an abandoned touchdown at 4th and on base – but he also wrote that Buffalo’s defense was able to seal. the deal against a great Chiefs team. . He wrote that “an active secondary” and Von Miller made the difference.
Nate Davis at USA today also has the Bills at No. 1, and this week he’s got a lot more praise for the team than he normally does. Davis begins with a rhetorical question, asking if anyone would choose against Buffalo in a game played on neutral ground. Right now, it seems pretty clear that the answer to that question would be no, the Bills would be favored pretty much anytime and anywhere they played. Davis mentions a few rumors that reinforcements may be on the way in the form of Odell Beckham Jr. or running back Christian McCaffrey as well.
Finally, Frank Schwab at Yahoo! Sports also has Buffalo in first place. He notes that with last week’s win, Buffalo has “no excuse” not to be the top seed in the conference. While he correctly writes that this same situation unfolded last year, he writes that Bills should be able to finish the job this time around. They are the only single-loss team in the AFC and they have wins over all current division leaders.
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