Duds
Field position
The Bills had a ridiculous battle with field position throughout the game. In the first half, Buffalo’s average drive start was their own eight-yard line. That limits what an offense can do, not to mention, they got a long way to go from there. Throughout the game, it barely improved. By the end, the Bills’ average drive start was their 15. The Colts’ final number here was their own 30.
Assisting on this tough field position situation was third downs. On offense, the Bills were only 2-for-9 on third down and didn’t convert a single one in the first half. On the flip side, the Colts offense was very good on third down, 9-for-17.
LB Matt Milano
Linebacker Matt Milano wasn’t completely terrible, he did have a few good plays against Colts running backs. Indy’s tight ends were a different story, though.
Jack Doyle, Mo Alie-Cox, and Trey Burton combined for 14 catches for 136 yards, a touchdown, and a two-point conversion catch. Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds did give up his fair shake as well, but Milano is the usual reliable player in coverage.
WR John Brown
Four targets, no catches, and some drops. Wide receiver John Brown scored in his return from injury and the COVID-19 list in Buffalo’s season finale vs. the Miami Dolphins…. but he looked … not good… against the Colts.
C Mitch Morse
The Colts have a good team in the trenches on both sides and defensively that starts with DeForest Buckner in the middle. Center Mitch More was directly involved in allowing Buckner to shut down one drive and he beat Morse on back-to-back plays, leading to a three-and-out.
It wasn’t all on Morse the entire way… but he was the No. 1 guy with anchoring this Bills offensive line against Buckner. He didn’t win that battle.
Run defense
The Bills’ front-seven had a huge goal-line stop. Cornerback Taron Johnson had a big third-down tackle in that sequence, too. But the Colts’ rushing attack led by Jonathan Taylor gashed the Bills. Overall, the Colts had 163 rushing yards, a 5.4 yards per carry average. Nyheim Hines was an excellent change-of-pace rusher, too.
The Bills offense bailed out the defense in this area a lot during the regular season. In the playoffs, that’ll be harder to count on.
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