Four Downs: Ed Oliver continues his breakout season

The Buffalo Bills returned to their winning ways with a dominant 31-6 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Thanksgiving night. Find all of my thoughts below in the latest edition of Four Downs.

Ed Oliver continues to shine

One of the true standouts for the Bills as of late has been defensive tackle Ed Oliver. The former first-round pick is in his third season, which many deem the “breakout” year for young players. Oliver has certainly looked the part as of late, making big plays against the run and pass—despite the absence of Star Lotulelei. Oliver was a menace on Thursday night, consistently beating his man to provide pressure in the Saints’ backfield.

Hopefully Oliver’s play will continue to be a bright spot for the Bills’ defense, as he positions himself to have his fifth-year option picked up this offseason.

That Stefon Diggs Touchdown

I have probably watched this clip of Stefon Diggs’s touchdown against Marshon Lattimore at least 15 times. He ran an incredible route against one of the top corners in the league, so i figured I would share the clip for everyone to enjoy.

Podcasts of the Week

The team at Buffalo Rumblings always does a great job in turning out new content each and every day. Two of the guys on the team deserve to be recognized, as they burned the midnight oil putting their shows together following the Thanksgiving night victory. Nathan Auble and Joe Miller always do a fantastic job with their postgame shows, even if dealing with tryptophan side effects after a long day. You can catch Nate’s latest episode of Circling The Wagons right here, and the latest episode of the Overreaction Show below.

What to make of the inactives

The Bills had a trio of inactive players who may have come as a surprise to fans for Thursday night’s game. Zack Moss, Vernon Butler, and Isaiah McKenzie were the most surprising names, and I wonder what this could mean for the rest of the season. It will be interesting to see if this was just meant to be a wake-up call, or the sign of a more permanent change to the line-up.

The McKenzie benching was the most surprising to me, even in spite of his disastrous fumble against the Indianapolis Colts. this will certainly be worth monitoring to see how head coach Sean McDermott handles this group in the future.