Plays That Defined 2023: Bills at Commanders, Week 3

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

It makes sense ? I hope so because we’re about to take a look at some pieces and vote. Remember that it’s not necessarily the best piece you want, it’s the one that best illustrates…

Chapter 3: Buffalo Bills at Washington Commanders

After decimating the Las Vegas Raiders, the Bills looked to continue their momentum by visiting the nation’s capital to take on the Washington Commanders. A stifling defensive performance yielded a meager field goal in the final minute of the game. A constant drip of offensive points and defensive scoring made this the most lopsided game of the season.

Bag by DaQuan Jones/Ed Oliver (Q1; 6:13)

It was very difficult to choose which bag to go with because Buffalo had nine during the game, so I went with the first one. Fun fact, the last game I remember that had a similar performance was Buffalo’s only win in the ill-fated Toronto series. In that game, they counted nine live sacks, with a 10th credited after the game when stats are sometimes corrected. Their opponent? Washington.

A major factor in the Commanders’ futility was the defense’s insane performance in bringing down Sam Howell.

Long field goal by Tyler Bass (Q2; 2:00)

The Bills offense provided a steady stream of points. Although there were some highlights, Buffalo only scored 16 of its points in the first half. All 21 points scored in the second half came in the fourth quarter, when Washington’s spirit was already broken.

I’m not saying the offense had a bad day. Far from there. But three early field goals from Tyler Bass allowed Buffalo to put some pressure on the Commanders to follow, which helped the defense take over.

AJ Epenesa picks six (Q4; 10:12)

Have I already mentioned the turnovers? Buffalo generated five takeaways. When in doubt, go with the defensive score to represent a day like this.

If you had Sam Howell curl up on every passing play and just wait it out, there’s a legitimate argument that he would have had a more successful day.

Commanders field goal (Q4; 0:50)

Wait what? Why only the commanders score? As we sometimes do in this series, let’s offer the contrasting image of the game as a suitable candidate for illustration.

As stated in the introduction, imagine that we are illustrating a chapter of a book. A solitary basket in the final moments of a futile performance is a poetic exclamation point on this day.