Defense rebounds and carries Buffalo Bills to victory over Oakland Raiders

After a lackluster performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier’s Buffalo Bills defense rebounded in a huge way against the Oakland Raiders. The biggest sign of that was the four turnovers they caused. They didn’t just stop the Raiders offense, they set up the Bills offense for points or scored themselves. Matt Milano’s fumble recovery and return was worth seven points itself. The next two turnovers led to Stephen Hauschka field goals. The last one sealed the victory.

In the history of the Bills franchise, the team has won the turnover battle by four or more a total of 48 times. In those 48 games, the Bills are 46-2. The first time they lost occurred in 1968 against the San Diego Chargers. The much more recent occasion was in the 2007 home Monday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys.

After that downer, here’s some more pleasant history. The Bills currently sit at +14 turnover margin on the year. Since 2000, there have been 48 teams that have finished the season with at least +14 in turnover margin. Of those 48 teams only 5 of them have failed to make the playoffs. If the Bills continue to take care of the ball on offense and create turnovers on defense the odds say they’ll get to that magical place we all want them to get to.