'We Got Our Ass Kicked': Buffalo Bills Dominate Titans In Blowout
If defense wins championships, the Buffalo Bills’ certainly looked the part with their 41-7 shellacking of the Tennessee Titans at home on Monday Night Football. Of course, the Bills offense looks championship-level, too.
“We got our ass kicked, plain and simple,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “They outcoached us. They outplayed us.”
The Bills’ defense held Tennessee to just 187 total yards and forced three turnovers. Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill completed just 11 of his 20 passes for 117 yards and two interceptions. Running back Derrick Henry was held to just 25 yards on 13 carries and one touchdown.
Safety Jordan Poyer tallied one interception and linebacker Matt Milano took a Tannehill pass for a pick-six. Boogie Basham had the lone fumble recovery of the game for Buffalo.
“We were ready and understood what they were gonna try to do, and how they were trying to attack us,” safety Poyer said.
Tennessee scored on its opening drive when Henry rushed for a two-yard touchdown to tie the game 7-7 with 5:23 left in the first quarter.
The Bills’ defense responded by holding the Titans scoreless for their next seven drives before they replaced Tannehill with Malik Willis.
Tannehill‘s first interception of the game came with 6:53 left in the third quarter when a tipped pass found its way into Poyer’s grasp as he slid across the turf. The turnover led t a 14-yard touchdown from Josh Allen to Stefon Diggs, extending Buffalo’s lead to 34-7.
On the ensuing possession, Tannehill hit a leaping Milano right in the chest. Milano ran the interception back 43 yards to put Buffalo up by the final score.
Through two games, the Bills' defense is allowing an average of 9.5 points a game. They’ve also forced seven turnovers and have nine sacks.
The only negative to come out of Buffalo’s win was the injuries suffered by cornerback Dane Jackson and safety Micah Hyde. Jackson was forced to leave in an ambulance in the second quarter due to a head and neck injury. Hyde left in the third quarter due to a head injury.
The health of the Bills’ All-Pro safety and Jackson will be a huge talking point. With a short week to prepare and the Miami Dolphins on the horizon, losing Hyde and Jackson would be a huge blow to Buffalo’s defense.
The Bills will look to keep their dominant start rolling when they head to South Beach to face the Dolphins on Sunday at 1 p.m. in a matchup of unbeaten teams. That's a rivalry, as this one is - though the Bills insist they were not especially inspired by the fact they'd lost two straight years to the Titans.
“Not at all,” Allen said. “When you can play a game like that, it doesn’t matter who it’s against. That’s a good team that we played. For us to go do that was great. But we turn our attention toward the Dolphins. We’ll learn from it and turn the page and look forward to Miami next week.”
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