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Prior to kicking off against the Chiefs at all, the Bills made some surprising news. Defensive end Trent Murphy and defensive tackle Harrison Phillips would be watch this one from the sideline … or where ever healthy scratches do so during a COVID-19 NFL season.
Both veterans were exactly that, healthy scratches, in Week 6’s 26-17 loss for Buffalo. In turn, the Bills elevated defensive end Bryan Cox Jr. and defensive tackle Justin Zimmer to the active roster from the practice squad just before kickoff.
But the question still remained… why?
Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott explained just that following the game via video conference:
“Just, those two are good players, just wanted to get some looks at other guys who’ve practiced well and see if we can change things up a little bit. We may come back to those guys next week, we’ll see what the week holds here.”
McDermott never gives much away with his words, so regardless, we’ll let the actions speaking louder than words route here. The Bills clearly didn’t like what those two were providing them.
The idea could’ve been to get guys out on the field that were better against the pass. But unfortunately for the Bills, that didn’t pay dividends because Buffalo needed run stoppers, not pass rushers in this one.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was sacked once by Mario Addison, but KC put up 245 rushing yards on the Bills defense. Led by rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s 161 yards on the ground, it was the first time in Mahomes’ career that his team had more rushing yards than passing yards in a game… a very telling stat. The Bills need to focus on fixing this very leaky run defense and in a hurry.
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