Plays That Defined 2023: Cowboys at Bills, Week 15

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The Buffalo Bills’ 2023 season is in the books but there’s one little thing missing. Illustrations. Let’s pretend last year is an actual book, with each game a chapter. It’s up to us to find one play or “illustration” that best shows us the theme of that chapter.

Make sense? I hope so because we’re about to take a look at some plays and vote. Remember, it’s not necessarily the best play we want, it’s the one that best illustrates...

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Chapter 15: Dallas Cowboys at Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills were uncomfortably navigating the waters of “in the hunt” for the first time in what felt like forever. After a thrilling victory over the Kansas City Chiefs to spark some hope, Bills Mafia were asked to cross their fingers Buffalo could pull off another upset to stay afloat.

Upset? Yeah, that’s right. The Dallas Cowboys were coming to town with a 10-3 record and one of the hottest offenses in the game. The Cowboys had hit or broken 30 points in nine of their games, with five of those at 40 or higher.

Buffalo kept them to 10. Seven of those were in garbage time.

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Leonard Floyd’s sack (Q1; 4:50)

If you’re like me, the stats above about how good Dallas’ offense was last year are pretty compelling. That said, if you’re like me hearing “second-most-efficient offense when it comes to points per drive” is even more compelling. The Bills found ways to shut drives down such as this sack by edge rusher Leonard Floyd. It was one of three and part of seven QB hits. Add in a turnover, four TFLs, and seven passes defended. There wasn’t a single path to stopping the Cowboys as the Bills managed it pretty much every way.

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Incomplete pass (Q1; 3:16)

A quick scan might suggest that Josh Allen lit Dallas up, but that was nowhere near the case. Early passing woes courtesy of a solid Cowboys pass defense and miscues led to Buffalo leaning into the running game. On Buffalo’s first three drives Allen was 4-of-9 passing (44%). That was barely past the first quarter. Allen would only throw six more times all game. It wasn’t needed though, as Buffalo found a way past the obstacles and piled up 21 points before the half. That included touchdowns on two of those early drives where the passing game struggled.

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James Cook’s touchdown (Q4; 12:36)

The star of the running game was James Cook. Dallas didn’t have a consistent answer for Cook who had 25 carries for 179 yards and this touchdown. This was also his longest carry of the game. Cook’s stats weren’t skewed by massively long runs.

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Joseph/Matakevich tackle (Q4; 3:20)

While Linval Joseph’s situation was a bit more complicated, Tyler Matakevich is very straightforward. Only seeing defensive snaps in two regular-season games in 2023, he’s firmly in the backup territory. This was near the end of Dallas’ best drive of the game, culminating in a late touchdown. No disrespect intended to Matakevich or anyone labeled as a “backup” in the league, but this shows where the game was at... quite succinctly.

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Latavius Murray’s run (Q4; 2:45)

Dallas had just squib-kicked it to Buffalo after their touchdown. The Cowboys retained all of their timeouts and there was a decent chunk of time left on the clock, which included the two-minute warning. Buffalo needed a first down to close out the game even assuming Dallas was willing to let the Bills call it a night with possession. Perhaps there was a desire on the Cowboys’ side to let that happen too, or perhaps the running game was still too much to handle. The eight yards here, all of which came after contact, pretty much ensured the first down needed to wrap things up.

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