Bills-Lions 2026 Week 2 TNF Recap: Josh Allen is in The Matrix

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1:58Hurry in before this limited time offer is gone. Tax, gratuity, beverage, and dessert not included. Knox is the lead back. Cook behind him.

2:09Nick Shook:There's a snap. Takes the handoff to Cook. Allen rolling right, and he's going to run it into the near pylon for the touchdown as Josh Allen, for the second week in a row, has gone for two rushing and two passing. But that's not all. He went for three passing in the end. Five touchdowns total on the opening night for Highmark Stadium. We should have known that the Lions were walking into a buzzsaw. 41 to 31. The Buffalo Bills roll over Detroit on a really exciting night in Buffalo. Nick Shook is with me. Thank you to everyone joining us live, listening to us as a podcast. We shouldn't be surprised at this point, but man, Josh Allen to start this season fillets the Houston Texans and then puts a 40-burger up.

3:04What stood out to you, Mo Shook, from this performance?

3:07Nick Shook:It was the pace with which the Bills started this game. They came out red hot. It was like they sprinted out of the gate, and no team would have been able to keep pace with them. That's how energized they were. That's how successful they were. They didn't have a third down on their first scoring drive. And then by halftime, after their first four drives, it was touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. They had, what, six total touchdown drives, eight total drives. Six touchdowns, two punts. That's the game. That's a really tough team to beat. And that's a team that played inspired football tonight.

3:38Yeah. Look, the Lions defense has problems. We will get into it. The great offenses will take advantage. The fact that the Bills did this not as aggressively, but close to the Houston Texans, puts it in a different light. But yes, the Detroit Lions have given up, what, 30 points in the second half in overtime last week and 41 here. That's 71. Not many stops tonight. There were two punts, and one of them happened when there was a drop by the Buffalo Bills. We're seeing a lot of these great highlights, and the running game from Josh Allen was fantastic. But what stands out to me, partly, Shook, is the 12 personnel, the heavy packages.

4:24I know Jordan Rodrigue is at home watching this and enjoying it. And the aggression with like how they are getting heavy is really next level. You remember when they drafted Dalton Kincaid, they said, oh, we're calling it 11 and a half personnel because he's kind of a receiver, kind of a tight end. It was before it got super trendy. Tonight, you know, before the kneel down drive, they were playing more than half the time in either 12 personnel with two tight ends on the field or 13 personnel with three tight ends on the field. And they were effective when they had three receivers as well. DJ Moore's injury might have played into that, but it is really opening up my guy, Dalton Kincaid.

5:04What the heck? Let's listen to Chris Brown and Bill's radio call that Dalton Kincaid touchdown.

5:09Nick Shook:Allen in the shotgun, takes the snap, back to pass, looking over the middle, rips it, and it's complete for the touchdown to Dalton Kincaid. a 16-yard touchdown pass Allen ripped a laser right over the middle that throw was on a rope to Kincaid and they are just completely kicking on that linebacking core and safeties across the field for the lines that was awesome and that play I think shows what this offense wants to do and just how in the matrix Josh Allen is right now we can get to the running but he's really seen the field really well what did you see out of this heavy personnel two tight end three tight ends and then how Josh Allen is orchestrating it all.

5:50Nick Shook:Well, I saw how it gives so many teams so many problems. I mean, if you look at the distribution between groupings tonight, it was 23 plays in 11, 21 and 12, and 20 and 13. And 13 really showed up in the fourth quarter when they needed to put the game away on the ground. But what it does is it makes them incredibly multiple and difficult to predict because you have such a rushing threat in the backfield in James Cook, who was over 100 yards by halftime tonight, by the way. And then you have the two tight ends who can both make plays. obviously Kincaid has been off to the better start of the two, but Dawson Knox makes a cameo appearance in this game as well when it comes to catching passes for touchdowns.

6:21Nick Shook:So everything works because they can attack you in so many different ways to the point that you didn't even really notice that DJ Moore left the game with an injury. You didn't really notice that Keon Coleman left the game with an injury because it was guys like Josh Cole getting opened downfield. It was great. It was great. Look, Keon Coleman had one of his— Okay, I don't want to exaggerate. He had a pretty good rookie season, But just the fact that you mentioned DJ Moore goes out with a shoulder injury. They called it a stinger and a shoulder injury at first, and then it just appeared to be a shoulder injury.

6:52They got x-rays. They ruled them out. So we will see. Yeah, you're a little worried about him, at least in the near term. But Keon Coleman made some catches early, but the one that stands out to me was a contested catch, wasn't opened by much on the sideline, third and long. The Lions actually got this game to within 10 points. They got the ball with only down 10 points in the fourth quarter. And for a game that felt like it was just going to be a laugher when it was 21-0, it felt tight. But when the Bills got the ball back and they had one of their rare third and longs on the night, Keon Coleman made it happen.

7:29And so I think you've got to feel pretty good about the diversity. Do you think they can survive without DJ Moore for a little while? if that turns out to be you don't want to be a doctor from the sideline but sometimes you know when you fall hard on it it's like an ac joint sprain and and that's a multi-week type of injury

7:48Nick Shook:yeah it's um i was concerned about collarbone when he first fell on the side of his shoulder and grabbed right here because that's usually like a telltale sign so we still he wasn't like holding it when he came off the field so i think in the end that probably usually when you break collarbone you'll see somebody holding their arm too and he was not holding his arm so that's a good sign um but i the concern level is not super high with can they weather this because their ability to roll with the heavy tight end personnel is and because james cook is in that backfield it allows them to still be a great threat not to mention the fact that you have josh allen like you can you know kind of establish the run boot action out of that and because you have allen he is a threat and they can still move the ball that way.

8:33Nick Shook:Does it limit them a little bit? Yes. But as we saw tonight, it wasn't really about D.J. Moore. It wasn't about Keon Coleman. And yes, they got an early lead, so it wasn't a great example of how they would approach a four-quarter game. But as it stands right now, I still feel very good about this offense. I mean, they've been incredibly explosive. The Lions defense has problems, like we said, but they were explosive against the Texans. And two games in, they look, I mean, the Joe Brady offense is flying about as high as they did at LSU in 2019. Why are they so different? It's the same guy calling the offense and yet it is really different it's it's a healthy Kincaid number one it's DJ Moore you know for the time that he's been on the field number two but they are throwing the ball so much deeper down the field they were dinking Doug and Josh Allen it was like they had done you know they kind of made our our beautiful big boy a little boring you know like like Josh Allen was just dinking and dunking down the field the last couple of seasons low average depth of target and now he's ripping it I think Kincaid is is kind of the key to all of it and you look at the snap distribution Jackson Haas their third tight end played 34 snaps tonight that's the same as as Khalil Shakir Dawson Knox plays 51 Kincaid plays 47 so everything that Dalton Kincaid fantasy owners were hoping for he goes seven for 95 in a touchdown in this game my prediction that he finishes you know top three among tight ends and goes over a thousand yards I mean he's practically a quarter of the way there.

9:58I went and looked it up, Shook. I would give you my entire life savings if you can name me the all-time leader in Bill's season for a tight end yardage, if you can name that man in the next three seconds. You can't cheat in his podcast. I'm drawing a blank. It's Paul Costa from the 1967. Yeah, I'm not giving you a chance to take my life for it. I've worked hard. But Kincaid's like, you know, a third of the way there already after just a couple weeks. Let's talk about that running game. James Cook goes for 135 yards on the ground. They were moving people. And then there's Josh Allen, who threw 11 carries before the kneel downs.

10:46Can you guess his success rate if we're just playing games here? I'd like to put you on the spot. 100%. 100 % success rate. You don't see that. Every time they got in third and short, second and short, fourth and short, it's Josh Allen. It's on the goal line. He got a couple touchdowns. He runs for 69 yards. I've long said it is the most successful play in football. And now it's a historical play because Josh Allen scored the very first touchdown in Highmark Stadium on the ground.

11:17Nick Shook:James Cook right behind Allen under center. First and goal from the one. They push it over the left side. And he looks to be over the goal line. And he is! Josh Allen in for a one-yard touchdown run, and the Bills are on the board first in the debut regular season game here at Highmark. It is so funny how their sneak has evolved to the point where they're still going over the left side, just like they did a couple of years ago and got stuffed by the Chiefs, arguably. And yet now, instead of just doing the regular sneak where you take the snap and immediately lunge forward, Allen's doing a little bit more of a shuffle, a pronounced hop-skip to the left.

11:54Nick Shook:a gather of sorts, and then pushing forward. And of course, it worked on a night like tonight. He is in the zone right now where he's obviously got all of his physical traits. And I thought there was a couple throws he was a little inaccurate on tonight, if you wanted to pick this. I mean, he was incredible, but his accuracy is so improved that you're surprised when he misses a throw or two. And he missed a couple. That's going to happen. But mentally right now, I think he's really seen the field. Before we kind of hit the Lions struggling defensive at all and talk a little bit about the other side of the ball, just give me any thoughts on this Bills running attack and kind of how the Lions struggled and maybe where you finished this game thinking about where the Lions are at right now.

12:45They do not have Brian Branch. They do not have Kirby Joseph. You know, for the most part, they're healthy on defense otherwise. That's a big, you know, but it's their two key safeties. Like, what do you think their problem is? Because everyone's saying, oh, you can't just play man coverage all the time. They really haven't the last couple weeks. They didn't blitz like crazy or anything tonight. Anything they tried basically didn't work. So it's hard to really just blame it on the scheme.

13:09Nick Shook:Well, two of the players you just mentioned are crucial to their back end of their defense, Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph. And so I think you kind of give them a little bit of a break in that regard. But like, you know, you could look at last week's game and be like, well, they were solid until everything kind of fell apart and they got hit by an avalanche of offense in the third and fourth quarter against the Saints. And the Saints threw for 378 in that game. That's a big number. And tonight the Bills threw for what, 243. So not quite as big of a number, but they rushed for 200 yards. So what I'm seeing right now is bad all over the place.

13:40Nick Shook:and no matter how much I kind of like a little bit of their front, I don't like the product of this defense overall, whether it's Rokustin getting hit for a holding call on a play that should have been an interception in this game in the first half or just the inability to respond and to cover well enough. I mean, we're talking like quick fires. This is not plays breaking down because of extended dropbacks and scrambles and improvisation. This is stuff that they're just not covering. So there's a lot of concern right now with this team. And the offense wasn't good enough to keep up in the first half.

14:15Nick Shook:Jared Goff was very good in the second half. And one of my notes that I had written about around halftime, maybe early third quarter, was that they're really going to need Jamison Williams to take the next step at some point because it can't be Jameer Gibbs getting a billion touches, which he didn't get as many tonight. That's an improvement, but they still rely on him heavily. It can't be Amon Ross, St. Brown, you know, trying to get open all the time in the receiving core and then Sam Laporta. You're going to need a fourth option if you're going to have to put up the number of points that this defense is requiring you to put up right now.

14:43Nick Shook:So, yeah, they're one and one. It's early. Don't want to overreact or anything. But this is like the Lions of, what, two years ago where we thought, yeah, they're really good offensively, but we don't really know if their defense is going to hold up. And they got hit by injuries late, except it's week two and their defense isn't holding up. They're awful. And they were awful down the stretch. And I think it comes down to personnel. you get Branch and Joseph back at some point, but the way they've talked about Kirby Joseph's injury, if you're not familiar with him, he really emerged in Detroit as like an all pro caliber, deep safety, but has not been healthy whatsoever.

15:18I think they're hopeful. Maybe Brian Branch comes off his Achilles a little sooner than expected, but either way, they're both on injured reserve right now, but that's not going to change their cornerback situation. It's, it's rock. Yes. And it's DJ Reed who hasn't, really lived up to the contract that they gave him. And then Avanti Maddox, who's kind of a journeyman at slot, got hurt tonight and carted off. And at safety, they've just got guys that haven't played a lot in the NFL. And then I look at their linebacker position. It's been a rough couple of weeks for Jack Campbell, who they gave a huge contract to, and they need him to be a pillar.

15:52And maybe he's suffering from the players around him, you know, having to do too much. Like he's starting next to Devin White, who wasn't signed for most of the offseason. But Jack Campbell's struggled a little bit in coverage this season. He has missed some run fits, missed some tackles, and they just have a lot of problems that I don't know if scheme and just one or two safeties is going to help it. And I agreed with – I was thinking about throwing out a take, Shook. It's like this offense needs to be capital E elite to survive how bad this defense is. But the offense played great tonight. I really don't even think – I know they had a couple – Actually, they woke up.

16:28Nick Shook:Initially, they did not. Initially, they were very slow. It was like two drives. I hear that. The offensive line was missing three starters total. Cade Mays is out for half the season, so we're not expecting the center back soon. But Blake Miller, their starting right tackle, was out. That was a surprise. Christian Mahogany, their guard, was also out. They both got hurt in week one. There was some reporting that indicated both of those guys might have played if this game was on Sunday. It is brutal going on the road in week two for Thursday night football after you haven't played any tackle football all year.

17:02So I'll give him a little bit of a pass. But Goff played awesome in this game. Gibbs was awesome. Amon Ra was awesome. Like Laporta looks so good this year. He's moving well in blocking. Maybe you're right. They're not like top five offense, but they're the least of my problems. They'll get healthier on the offensive line. They just need this defense to wake up.

17:20Nick Shook:Yeah, I just worry about like competitiveness. and if this defense can't find a way to put it together, even if they get those two safeties back, you're just going to have to score. I think it is going to need to be capital E elite to be able to be competitive against the best teams in the NFL. Now, on a week-to-week basis, you can still win games like this. You can withstand a massive comeback in week one against the Saints because you're at home and because you have an offense that can still go down the field and score a touchdown when you need it most. But against these best teams, the elite tier of teams, when you're on the road, when they just drop a 28-pointer on you out of nowhere.

17:54Nick Shook:You got to be able to... One of my points on game day preview tonight was how do the Lions keep up with this Bills offense? Shorten the game, ball control, methodical drives. You cannot afford to go three and out. What did they do? They went three and out in the first possession. And they didn't really wake up until they were down double digits. And I know they got a garbage time TD to get it to 31 points, but Goff was dealing. He ends up with four touchdowns, 327 yards. Amon Ra ended up with 142 yards in two touchdowns. I actually have liked what I've seen mostly out of Drew Petsing's offense.

18:27There was a drive after halftime they really dedicated just to Amon Ra. He had four catches, 37 yards, and a touchdown. And then Jameer Gibbs was incredible in this game. I know it feels off-topic here, but, you know, our producer Eric lovingly puts together a highlight reel of the Jameer Gibbs drive, and I want to see it. I mean, this is a guy that went three catches, 31 yards and a touchdown on one drive and then also rips off two straight explosive runs. And in a game where Josh Allen goes for five touchdowns, I'm sitting here thinking like, is Jameer Gibbs the best player in this game? You said like they didn't have to use him too much.

19:09He still ends up with 22 touches total, 113 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown. And some of these moves, man, he might be RB1 right now. I know Bijan's awesome, but some of the routes that Gibbs is running, like on that touchdown and the way that he's breaking tackles, the power. This is Alabama Gibbs right now. He's just carrying the load and he's just a joy to watch right now. So I was tracking.

19:34Nick Shook:First off, I was tracking his touches going into this drive. I posted on social media that he was up to eight. By the end of this drive, I think he was over 10. And then I was tracking him on that specific play where he scored the touchdown where I watched him motion out of the backfield and I'm thinking they're going to go to him like I'm Jared Goff is definitely going to go to him I watch Gibbs motion to the right get out of the backfield and the cut that he makes to get past the first defender as he heads toward the end zone makes me think it's a Texas or as some people call it an angle route which is just like 45 it's like I don't know the point of a triangle if you flipped it on its side I'm not good at math but or geometry but instead you see the the replay from above and it's it's straight up the seam it's just that he does that little shuffle to the left to get past that defender and then the best part of that catch is he leaps up in the air to grab it and he takes a blow to the back that would have forced that football out of a lot of players for him no problem hangs on scores physical player somebody that i just need to make sure they they they keep together and don't rely on him too much over the course of an entire season because he's so fun to watch i mean he's what the highest paid running back.

20:40Nick Shook:He deserves it. And when he puts in nights like tonight and days like last week, they're getting their money's worth out of him for sure. Look, we work hard on this show. A lot of programming. We got a pick show coming up on Friday. I want to treat myself. I want to hear Dan Miller call a touchdown for the first time this season on NFL Daily. Maybe the best in the game covering the Detroit Lions. golf's gonna work out of the gun gives in motion to the right golf back and looking lofting end zone caught Tamir Gibbs touchdown Detroit Lions Gibbs what emotion right golf came back to him connection for the touchdown CJ Gardner Johnson the former lion in coverage but golf found him and the Lions are on the board for the first time tonight oh he had to calm it down because you know at that point they're they're down 21 to 7 and so He's representing the home crowd, but always good to have Dan Miller on the call.

21:38What do we think about the Bills' defense tonight, this season? Look, they've given up over 30 points in both games. Deion Walker has been outstanding. Shout out to Jordan Rodrigue, who has been talking him up forever. I mean, he is having a breakout season. He was great tonight. So was Greg Rousseau. But otherwise, not a ton of stops right now out of this Bills' defense.

21:59Nick Shook:Yeah, and I think a lot of that has to do with what's going on in their secondary. They're in a bit of a transition in the back end. Like Davison Igbenosan getting a holding call in the second half. I was like, that's not a surprise. That's what happened to him at Ohio State all the time until his final year. He kind of cleaned it up. They're relying on some guys just who don't have a ton of experience back there. But I really like most of their front seven. Guys like Walker, guys like Russo. They lost Ed Oliver in warm-ups, so he wasn't able to play, and they still were able to hold up in the front.

22:25Nick Shook:And Terrell Bernard quietly having a nice first couple of games here. You know, he recovered the fumble to close the win over the Texans, and he's kind of just in the mix pretty consistently there. They could be better. They obviously could be better. But with an offense like this, I'm not as concerned about it as I am about Detroit. Yeah, if you don't have DJ Moore for a long time and you want to win the Super Bowl in general, obviously the defense is going to need to improve. Jim Leonard, the new defensive coordinator, mixing it up tonight. I think eventually the Lions kind of figured out what they were doing despite being shorthanded on the offensive line.