2024 Week 1: Cardinals 28, Bills 34
The score of this game isn’t indicative of what I just watched. The Bills were dominant throughout. When evaluating a game, I first look at the box score for possible outliers, then review the play-by-play to understand the game’s flow. The Bills scored on 6 of their 9 drives (with the 10th being the game-winning knee) and reached the red zone three times, only to be derailed by turnovers or penalties. Additionally, a touchdown run by Josh Allen was called back, resulting in a field goal instead.
I'm unsure how to grade this game for the Bills, considering the Cardinals are simply a bad team. Kyler Murray is a bottom-half quarterback, James Conner is a forced lead over a promising rookie running back, and Marvin Harrison Jr. wouldn’t have been a first-round pick if his last name were Smith.
This game has lowered my expectations for Buffalo, as they allowed Arizona to hang around and even have a chance to win late. However, Arizona remains a bottom-five team in the league.
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Let’s start with Marvin Harrison Jr. (1-4-0/3), as he’s the big name and the new kid on the block. His first real game in the NFL was, to put it mildly, disappointing. I haven’t published my scouting report on him yet, but I’ll cover the broader topics here.
The Bills' cornerbacks aren’t the best in the league. Rasul Douglas and maybe Kaiir Elam are the two most people would recognize. Christian Benford, the CB2 in Buffalo with Taron Johnson out, had no trouble handling MHJ. Benford looked like a top corner in the league, largely thanks to MHJ’s underwhelming performance in this game.
Specifically, Marv looked slow, unenergized, and honestly like he didn’t want to be on the field. The biggest concern for me was that after his one and only reception, he didn’t play with more energy; in fact, his next route might have been one of his laziest of the day. You’d expect his first NFL catch to lift his spirits and make him want to play harder, but it had the opposite effect.
The play prior, he dropped a 10-15 yard pass while uncovered in-between zones. The worst part of this debut was that Kyler never looked his way again. All of MHJ’s targets came in the first half, and that was it for his contribution in this game.
I’m not going to say MHJ is a total Kadarius-Toney-level bust because he’s not, but the entirety of football scouting/media/etc. seems to have gotten this one wrong.
QB Report:
- Josh Allen (18/23 for 232 yards, 2 TDs, 9 rushes for 39 yards, 2 TDs) played a typical Josh Allen game, succeeding through both the air and the ground. He also had one turnover, which is expected—Josh Allen has never gone back-to-back games without a turnover. The Bills coaching staff has repeatedly said they don’t want Allen to run much this year to protect their investment, but Allen keeps running and keeps taking them to the playoffs. The coaches can say what they want, but Allen wants to run and will continue to do so.
- Kyler Murray (21/31 for 162 yards, 1 TD, 5 rushes for 57 yards) continues to be the downfall of the Cardinals. He has very limited passing skills and doesn’t read defenses well. He’s better than Caleb Williams at this point, as he should be given his experience, but Kyler plays football like it’s 5th-grade recess.
RB Report:
- James Conner (16-50-1, 3 catches for 33-0/4) is simply a boring running back to watch. He’s slow and runs into defenders like Marshawn Lynch used to, except he doesn’t break the tackle—he just gets tackled. He and Najee Harris are in the same boat, but they both get a lot of touches, so they work, especially against bad defenses. Trey Benson (3-13-0, 1 catch for 5-0/1) will eventually win the starting job, but I imagine the Cardinals will need to be eliminated from playoff contention before that happens.
- James Cook (19-71-0, 3 catches for 32-0/3) was the bell cow for the Bills here. He ran well against a weaker Cardinals defense. Josh Allen steals all of the rushing touchdowns in this offense, as he should, being the better talent.
WR Report:
- Michael Wilson (1-5-1/2) and Greg Dortch (6-47-0/8) are clearly better than MHJ and play with more fire. They will remain the main targets, along with Trey McBride.
- Keon Coleman (4-51-0/5) is Josh Allen’s go-to guy. Whenever Allen was in trouble, he looked for Coleman.
- Dalton Kincaid (1-11-0/2) is an enigma in this offense. For some inexplicable reason, the Bills drafted the best TE talent since Kyle Pitts and refuse to use him. They let Travis Kelce torch them in the playoffs every year and never think to use Kincaid in the same role. This might be the only time a team doesn’t force the ball to a first-round draft pick.
D/ST Notes:
- Just one note: Gregory Rousseau is playing for a new contract, and it shows—6 tackles, 3 sacks, 3 TFLs. All 6 of his tackles were behind the line of scrimmage. A very strong showing from him.
