Josh Allen took over this game in the first quarter, and even with the Lions scoring a respectable amount of points, it was clear the Buffalo Bills QB would never let Detroit back in the game. If the Lions scored, Allen would respond with one of his own. Just for good measure. Just to show who was in control. I didn\u2019t expect a blowout, with both these teams looking like playoff candidates \u2014 and perhaps division winners. But that\u2019s what we got, with the Bills humbling the Lions, 41-31, on Thursday night. Here are my takeaways: We keep asking: Is it their year? There\u2019s reason to believe, now more than ever. This could be their year to make a Super Bowl run. And it\u2019s about what\u2019s new. Josh Allen is the best player on the planet, but there were times when former Bills coach Sean McDermott seemed to be holding back the organization, whether it was with his conservative (and errant) game management or his sometimes unimaginative defense. So coach Joe Brady\u2019s promotion (from offensive coordinator last year) seems to be marking a truly new era. His offense has been incredible, pulling off a great win in Houston last week and absolutely racking up huge numbers this week. But it wasn\u2019t really the offense that was the big story this week. It was the defense, where coordinator Jim Leonhard has the unit humming \u2014 immediately. It\u2019s hard sometimes for a defensive coordinator to come in and change a scheme on the players, who might\u2019ve fit better in the previous scheme. That wasn\u2019t the case here. The returners have been great. And the newcomers \u2014 edge Bradley Chubb, safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson and cornerback Dee Alford \u2014 have plugged holes from last year. This is a tough game to go around heaping praise on Detroit. The Lions just didn\u2019t have it on this particular night. Maybe it\u2019s because they\u2019re still a young roster, ranking\u00a0as the 11th-youngest in the NFL. Maybe it\u2019s that the offensive line needs a little time to mesh after replacing two of their starters. Maybe it\u2019s that the secondary needs to mesh after\u00a0also replacing two of their starters. But most likely, it\u2019s all of that. That\u2019s a lot of work for coach Dan Campbell, offensive coordinator Drew Petzing and defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard. But I still like this core, with huge talents at premium positions: quarterback Jared Goff, receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams, tight end Sam LaPorta, left tackle Penei Sewell and edge Aidan Hutchinson. That\u2019s an incredible amount of talent. It\u2019s an issue that those guys didn\u2019t show up in the ways they should have. But don\u2019t count them out. They\u2019ll fix this. (And maybe they\u2019ll pick up the phone and give the Steelers a ring about cornerback Joey Porter Jr.) Josh Allen just scored five total touchdowns to add to the four total he scored last week. And if the season were to end at the end of this week, he\u2019d almost definitely be the MVP. But we have\u00a0plenty of football left to play. It\u2019s going to get more interesting every week. In Week 1, Lamar Jackson had two total touchdowns, 324 passing yards and 40 rushing yards in the Baltimore Ravens’ blowout win over the Indianapolis Colts. And Caleb Williams looks dangerous \u2014 like a legitimate third contender. He scored four total touchdowns as part of the Bears\u2019 59 points scored last week in their victory over the Panthers. It\u2019s hard to count out Matthew Stafford, even with a dud in Week 1. It\u2019s hard to count out Joe Burrow, with a solid start \u2014 and a very favorable schedule. Heck, it\u2019s foolish to completely discount Patrick Mahomes. This is going to be fun, folks. Buckle up. The Bills will host the Chargers in Week 3, and you have to think L.A. will be quaking heading into (new) Highmark Stadium. There\u2019s nothing this offense can\u2019t do, particularly after seeing Allen spreading the ball around to his deep crop of pass-catchers in Dalton Kincaid, Joshua Palmer, Keon Coleman, Khalil Shakir and basically whoever else steps on the field. It\u2019s never a good thing to lose DJ Moore to an injury, but this performance has to make them feel like they\u2019ll be just fine if he misses time. We certainly know James Cook will produce. The Chargers might feel better about themselves if they can pull off a win over the Raiders on Sunday. But all those good vibes are gonna get negative real fast after taking a look at this box score \u2014 let alone the film. The Lions host the Jets next week, and I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s as easy as beating up on Gang Green. I don\u2019t want to pump them up too much for a win over the lowly Titans. But I\u2019ll admit, quarterback Geno Smith looked poised last week. And yes, the Jets had weapons. They even looked like they had a half-decent offensive line. But the biggest issue is that Jets coach Aaron Glenn is a Lions defector. When a coordinator leaves for a coaching gig, he often causes problems in a matchup against his former team. So Glenn could give Campbell and Goff a real headache. I suspect the Lions will win. But not easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Josh Allen took over this game in the first quarter, and even with the Lions scoring a respectable amount of points, it was clear the Buffalo Bills QB would never let Detroit back in the game. If the Lions scored, Allen would respond with one of his own. Just for good measure. Just to show<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}