Joey Bosa has a busy debut for Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills gave Joey Bosa plenty of run in his debut with the team Sunday.

Bosa played 35 of 51 defensive snaps (69%) in the team’s 41-40 victory over the Baltimore Ravens at Highmark Stadium. Bosa joined fellow edge rusher Greg Rousseau in playing 35 defensive snaps, the same number as starting defensive tackles Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones.

That was bit more of a reliance on the starting unit than the Bills have desired to use in the past. The second defensive line of edge rushers Javon Solomon and A.J. Epenesa and rookie tackles T.J. Sanders and Deone Walker played an almost identical snap count. Solomon, Epenesa and Sanders played 16 snaps, while Walker played 13.

Here are four more observations from the snap counts following the Bills’ Week 1 win:

1. James Cook topped 50% of the offensive snaps. The team’s No. 1 running back played 48 offensive snaps, which was 56% of the team’s total of 85 offensive snaps. Plenty was made of Cook’s snap count heading into the season, so it will be interesting to monitor that number on a weekly basis.

2. Tyrell Shavers carved out a role. The receiver was not targeted in playing 17 offensive snaps (20%), but he played 22 snaps on special teams (63%), including every one on punt coverage, punt return, kick coverage and kick return.

3. Dawson Knox played more than Dalton Kincaid. The Bills’ top two tight ends saw their snaps distributed this way: Knox played 48 snaps (56%) to 43 snaps for Kincaid (51%).

4. Dorian Williams had a busy night. In addition to playing 17 defensive snaps (33%), Williams tied for the team lead with fellow linebacker Joe Andreessen by playing 28 snaps on special teams (80%).

Player of the game: Josh Allen​

Could there be any other choice? Offensive coordinator Joe Brady raved Monday afternoon about Allen’s performance against the Ravens. Brady sounded just as impressed with Allen’s mental processing of the game than anything he did physically – which should be terrifying to defenses across the NFL. Allen threw for 251 yards … in the fourth quarter! It feels like every week, he’s setting another NFL record.

Stat of the game: 277-1​

That is now the record of teams who have rushed for 235 yards and scored 40 points. The Ravens became the first team in NFL history to lose a game doing so.

Quote of the game​

“It took everybody there. I'm just proud of our team for staying in it. No one on the sideline blinked. I mean, down 15 points … fans leaving the stadium, you got to play this game for 60 minutes, and that's a really good outfit that we just played.” – Bills quarterback Josh Allen
 
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