ORCHARD PARK — No matter how maddening it became, no one should have been surprised Baker Mayfield was scrambling around. It’s what he does.
But the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gashing the Buffalo Bills run defense should have been a surprise, even for the 31st-ranked run defense in the NFL. The Buccaneers entered the game with one of the worst running games in the league, averaging 99.8 yards per game.
They gained 202.
Most of the damage was done by Sean Tucker, who started the season as Tampa Bay’s third-string running back. His season-high was 53 yards and he ran for 106 — 140 from scrimmage — and three total touchdowns.
The Bills got better at defending the run as the game progressed — they usually do — but late enough to keep the Buccaneers alive late into the fourth quarter before securing a 44-32 win. After two solid performances against the run following the bye against top-10 rushing offenses, they have given up 399 yards over the last two weeks to teams in the bottom-10 in rushing.
“We have to do our jobs at a high level,” Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said. “What we’re doing in practice we have to take to the game. We have to keep the simple things simple, like reading my keys, like tackling. … We have got to put our foot down and say enough is enough.”
One area of struggle seemed to be that the Buccaneers were offering some un-scouted looks in the run game. Tampa Bay used motion on 24 of 29 carries by Tucker and Rachaad White, averaging 5.9 yards per carry with motion and 3.2 without.
The Bills seemed to be taking their keys based on motion early in the game and the Buccaneers ran counters and misdirection plays to the opposite side of the field when the Bills overpursued. It just wasn’t with running backs, as receivers Tez Johnson and Sterling Shepard on four carries, almost all on jet sweeps.
Tucker’s 43-yard touchdown run in the second quarter was a snapshot. When Kameron Johnson motioned from right to left, the second level of Buffalo’s defense shifted to be in position if Mayfield gave Johnson the ball.
But nickelback Taron Johnson latched onto the motion and Mayfield faked the handoff. Linebacker Terrel Bernard had his eyes in the right direction, but Johnson bit on the fake and they collided, allowing tight end Cade Otton to get to the second level and seal off Bernard.
“Every week there’s little wrinkles here and there of what someone’s going to do and how they want to attack us,” Bernard said. “… I think our adjustments and figuring out what they were doing helped us a little bit there in the second half to quiet the running game down a little bit.”
The Bills indeed did much better against the run in the second half. After giving up 136 yards on 5.9 yards per carry in the first half, the Bills gave up 60 yards —16 on Mayfield scrambles — on 4.1 yards per carry in the second half.
Not only did the Bills start using three defensive tackles on early run downs late in the first quarter, but they played three linebackers on 28% of the snaps to match when the Buccaneers had two tight ends on the field. But the Bills started stopping the run when their eyes were in the right spots.
A perfect example came late in the third quarter when receiver Ryan Miller went in motion from right to left. The Bills shifted to be more balanced, but as soon as the ball was snapped, all three linebackers — Bernard, Matt Milano and Dorian Williams — fixed their eyes on the opposite side of the field.
That’s where Tucker went and he was limited to 2 yards before being stopped by defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi, who played six snaps at defensive end, while rookie defensive tackle T.J. Sanders got all 19 of his snaps on the edge on running downs.
“A lot of it is a mentality,” Babich said. “A lot of it’s a mentality to the point where you get pissed off, where you’re not going to run the ball on us. And that’s the mindset we’ve got to have.”
NOTES: WR Mecole Hardman (calf), TE Dalton Kincaid (hamstring), DT Phidarian Mathis (shoulder), WR Curtis Samuel (elbow/neck) and WR Khalil Shakir (personal) did not participate in Monday’s walkthrough. … CB Christian Benford (groin), LB Terrel Bernard (ankle), NCB Tarn Johnson (groin), DT DaQuan Jones (vet rest), C Connor McGovern (ankle), WR Joshua Palmer (ankle/knee), DT Jordan Phillips (wrist), S Jordan Poyer (vet rest) and LB Dorian Williams (groin) were limited.