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Buffalo Bills 20, Tennessee Titans 17: Second-half open thread

It’s another challenging game in Nashville

Through the first two quarters of this Monday Night Football game, the Buffalo Bills lead the Tennessee Titans 20-17. The Bills have seen a trend of red zone issues continue, with two promising drives stalled and finishing with short field goals. For the other side of scoring, a 76-yard Derrick Henry touchdown run gave Tennessee their first lead of the game, and a tipped Josh Allen interception set up the Titans with perfect field position for one more TD.

All in all, Allen has been playing a good game today. He hasn’t made any glaring mistakes, and his passes are on-target. But the Bills’ offensive line has been beaten time and again by the Titans’ defensive line, and it’s led to a ton of pressure in the backfield. That’s preventing Allen from taking advantage of the shorthanded Titans secondary.

Defensively, the Bills’ defense has mostly played up to their usual standard, but a small number of plays have tarnished the record. One was Henry’s run—he broke through to the second level, Micah Hyde took a bad angle, and then he outran the whole defense. Another was a defensive pass interference penalty. Ryan Tannehill underthrew a deep pass, forcing Micah Hyde to ram right into Julio Jones. Jones actually made a fluky reception on the play, but either way, it was a 48-yard gain that set up a field goal for the Titans. The last was Allen’s interception, which set up the Titans at the 11-yard line. It only took two plays for them to score another touchdown from there.

Much like last year’s Titans game, the team has seen several key plays go against them. At least for now, they’ve played well enough that those plays haven’t buried them like they did in 2020.

The Bills will receive the opening kickoff of the second half. They can’t lapse for a second if they want to come out of Nashville with the win. Here’s your discussion thread for the second half of the game. Go Bills!