The Buffalo Bills face long odds of victory today against the Minnesota Vikings. Right around 60% of users on the officefootballpool.com website selected the Vikings in their knockout pools, and the Bills come into the game a 16.5-point underdog. Of course, all that indicates is a lack of confidence in the Bills. There’s a reason why the games are played, and we’re about to find out if the Bills are going to be able to buck those odds. Josh Allen makes his second career start today, and his first start on the road. He was what we thought he was last weekend against the Los Angeles Chargers—he flashed some solid moments, but looked largely raw in a 31-20 defeat. He was able to complete 54.5% of his passes, totaling 245 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions on the afternoon. Buffalo is without it top offensive player, running back LeSean McCoy. Shady suffered a rib injury last weekend against the Los Angeles Chargers. His absence is huge, as the Bills likely would have leaned on him and the running game to help relieve pressure on Allen in his first road start. Veterans Chris Ivory and Marcus Murphy should share duties in the backfield in McCoy’s stead. If the Bills are going to slow the Vikings’ excellent passing offense, they’ll need to pressure quarterback Kirk Cousins early and often. Minnesota’s starting right tackle Rashod Hill is back in the lineup after recovering from a foot injury. His presence will make Buffalo’s pass rushers work harder to achieve their goal. Chat about the first half of the game with us here, Bills fans. Let’s hope it’s a better first half than the other two we’ve had thus far!<doc-sep>In a result that absolutely nobody saw coming, the Buffalo Bills traveled to Minnesota (not Wisconsin) and crushed the Vikings on their home turf, 27-6. The Bills (1-2) jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter on the back of some impressive play from Josh Allen and short fields from a pair of Kirk Cousins fumbles, and never looked back. By halftime, the team was ahead by four scores, and they hit cruise control midway through the fourth quarter. Allen did a phenomenal job managing the game early on, going 4-for-5 on the opening drive and running in a touchdown to give the Bills their first lead of the 2018 season. His only incompletion was a Kelvin Benjamin drop. He stayed efficient throughout the game, going 15-of-22 for 196 yards, a passing touchdown, and 39 rushing yards with two rushing touchdowns. He only took three sacks against a well-regarded Vikings defense, and looked comfortable progressing through his reads. Marcus Murphy and Chris Ivory did a fine job filling in for the injured LeSean McCoy, with 27 rushes for 91 yards and four receptions for 71 yards. The defense was equally impressive. They got to Cousins early for two turnovers, kept him uncomfortable in forcing the next several drives to amount to nothing, and didn’t surrender a score until the last three minutes of the game. The Bills benefited from some lucky bounces, but landed four sacks and three turnovers. Their tackling was exceptional. The Bills head to Green Bay next week to face a beleaguered 1-1-1 team looking to find its direction. While today’s result shouldn’t be counted on for the future, it’s a nice sign that the team responded well to some early season adversity. Notes:<doc-sep>Running off the field and to the locker room after Sunday’s game at U.S. Bank Stadium, Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White commandeered Kirk Cousins’ catchphrase and yelled “You like that?” several times. There was plenty to like from the Bills in their 27-6 rout of the Vikings. Coming in as a 16 1/2-point underdog, they took a 27-0 halftime lead and cruised to a stunning victory. Minnesota fans let their feelings be known by booing throughout the game. “We didn’t give them much to cheer for,” Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph said. “So it’s embarrassing on our part, the performance that we put forth today, and it’s a shame it was here at home in front of our fans. They deserve better than that.” Wide receiver Adam Thielen called it “butt-whooping.” Running back Latavius Murray said the Vikings were “punched in the mouth” and ranked it one of the worst losses of his six-year NFL career. Told about White using his catchphrase, Cousins shrugged and said that is “pretty much the most common thing I hear on the field.” What wasn’t common was the Vikings quarterback being outplayed by Buffalo’s Josh Allen, a rookie making his second start. Allen completed 15 of 22 passes for 196 yards and a touchdown and ran for two TDs as the Bills pulled off the NFL’s biggest upset in 23 years. “It’s a tough place to play, that’s a really good Vikings defense,” Allen said. “It just solidifies the trust that I have in my teammates and trust in what’s called.” Never mind that Cousins completed 40 of 55 passes for 296 yards and a touchdown. He threw for just 44 yards in the first half before piling up meaningless stats when the game was no longer in doubt. Cousins especially hurt the Vikings (1-1-1) by losing fumbles on consecutive first-half possessions. With Buffalo (1-2) leading 7-0, Cousins lost the ball on a sack by Trent Murphy at the Minnesota 15. That led to a field goal and a 10-0 Bills lead. Cousins fumbled again on a sack by Jerry Hughes, and Buffalo took over at the Vikings’ 25. Two plays later, Allen threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Jason Croom for a 17-0 lead. “Obviously, you can’t turn the ball over and give their offense a short field,” Cousins said. The Vikings never were able to recover from the two fumbles. “Turnovers never help, and where they turned them over was not good,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “But the defense has to come out and stop them.” The defense didn’t do much of that in the first half. Allen, who opened the scoring with a 10-yard touchdown run, added a 1-yard run in the second quarter for a 24-0 lead. Later in the quarter, Stephen Hauschka made his second field goal, a 50-yarder, for a 27-0 lead. The Vikings needed a 4-yard touchdown pass from Cousins to Rudolph with 2:59 left in the game to avoid their first shutout since 2007. And this was against a team that had given up an average of 39 points in its first two games. “We saw a significant amount of progress,” said Bills coach Sean McDermott. The Vikings almost made history with their futility running the ball. Minnesota, with starting running back Dalvin Cook sidelined with a hamstring injury, had just 14 yards rushing. The team record for fewest in a game is 11, set in 1996 against Chicago. “Obviously, that was a poor performance by us,” Zimmer said. “I obviously didn’t do a well enough job preparing this football team for this game. It was probably as poor a first half as I’ve seen in quite a while.” In addition to Cook, the Vikings played without defensive end Everson Griffen (knee), punt returner Marcus Sherels (rib) and tight end David Morgan (knee). Zimmer said Griffen did not attend the game to take care of a personal matter. Related Articles Vikings’ Dalvin Cook prepares for 17-game grind with offseason body of work DE Danielle Hunter among five Vikings absent Wednesday from OTAs Anthony Barr took pay cut so 2020 injury wouldn’t be his ‘last memory’ with Vikings Vikings linebackers Anthony Barr, Cameron Smith finally back on the field for OTAs Vikings claim center Cohl Cabral off waivers from Texans In the first half Sunday, the Vikings lost cornerback Trae Waynes and tackle Rashod Hill to ankle injuries. While Hill’s injury is not believed to be serious, Zimmer said Waynes will have an MRI. The Vikings have a big game Thursday against the Rams in Los Angeles. Players insisted they weren’t taking the Bills lightly while looking ahead to the next game. “It is the NFL, so all teams are capable of coming out and playing at a high level and being successful,” said linebacker Anthony Barr. “It wasn’t anything like that. It was just a lot of mental mistakes, physical mistakes.” The Vikings had a number of penalties in the first half, including Barr’s horse-collar tackle of Allen as he was going out of bounds on second-and-18 on the second play of the second quarter. That led to Allen’s 1-yard run. No, there wasn’t much to like from a Vikings standpoint. But there certainly was on the Bills side. “It’s the first win of 2018 for the Buffalo Bills,” White said. “So, of course it is a big deal. Ya’ll like that?”<doc-sep>
Week 3 of NFL action at U.S. Bank Stadium began with the Minnesota Vikings winning the coin toss and deferring to the second half, meaning that the Buffalo Bills got the football first. The first kickoff of Dan Bailey’s career as a Viking went into the end zone for a touchback, giving Josh Allen and company the football at their own 25-yard line to start things off. It appeared that the Vikings had a three-and-out following a sack by Eric Wilson, but Linval Joseph was called for lowering the head to initiate contact to negate the stop and allow Buffalo to continue their drive. Allen got off to a nice start for the Bills, completed three of his first four passes, and the Bills pushed down to the edge of the Minnesota red zone. Anthony Barr was then flagged for tacking Chris Ivory by the face mask, and suddenly the Bills were near the Minnesota goal line. Then, on second-and-9 from the Minnesota 10, Allen escaped from the pocked and dove for the pylon, crossing the goal line for a 10-yard touchdown run. Steven Hauschka added the extra point, and five minutes into the game the Bills had a 7-0 lead. The Vikings followed up their sloppy defensive start by being penalized on Mike Hughes’ kickoff return as well, putting them at their own 7-yard line to start things out. On third down, Kirk Cousins was flushed out of the pocket, and Trent Murphy knocked the ball out of his hands from behind, with the Bills recovering at the Minnesota 15-yard line. Just a nightmare start for the Vikings. Minnesota’s defense caught a break on Buffalo’s next drive, as Allen hit Kelvin Benjamin for what probably would have been a touchdown, but Benjamin dropped it. Hauschka converted on a 30-yard field goal, and Buffalo extended their lead to 10-0. Things got no better for the Vikings on the next drive, as it turned out to be a repeat of the first drive. Minnesota found themselves looking a third-and-long, and once again Cousins got hit from behind and fumbled the football. Buffalo recovered it again, and were once again set up deep in Minnesota territory. It didn’t take the Bills long to convert, as on second down Allen found Jason Croom, and there wasn’t a Viking within ten yards of him when he caught the football. Croom cruised into the end zone for a 26-yard score, and the Vikings found themselves down 17-0 less than ten minutes into the football game. After another touchback, the Vikings actually managed to generate a first down thanks to a carry by Mike Boone. However, that was all they could get, as Cousins overthrew Adam Thielen to end the drive. Matt Wile came in to punt, and the Bills took over at their own 35-yard line after a holding penalty on Kevin McDermott. The Vikings nearly got a spark on what should have been an interception by Trae Waynes on Buffalo’s first play, but he couldn’t hold on to it. After Buffalo converted a third down on a Josh Allen run, Danielle Hunter wrapped him up for a sack. Allen then found a wide open Chris Ivory for a 55-yard catch-and-run, and as we move to the second quarter, the Bills have a first-and-goal at the Minnesota 5-yard line. It would be hard to envision a worse start for the Minnesota Vikings than we’ve seen today. This is absolutely unbelievable and disturbing for a team that’s supposed to be a Super Bowl contender. As we move to the second quarter of play, the Minnesota Vikings trail the Buffalo Bills by a score of 17-0, and Buffalo is on the verge of adding more. Let’s see if it gets any better, or if it possibly gets any worse.