Neither snow nor the San Francisco 49ers posed any problems for the Buffalo Bills in Sunday night’s NFL game.
Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes, plus a running and receiving touchdown, leading the Bills to a 35-10 victory over the Niners in heavy snow at Highmark Stadium. .
The Bills (10-2) are off to their best start since 1992. They remain in contention for first place in the American Association behind the Kansas City Chiefs (11-1), whom they defeated in their last outing, the November 17.
It was only a matter of time, but Sean McDermott’s men won their fifth consecutive Eastern Division title with this other victory.
Since two straight losses to Baltimore and Houston, the Bills have won seven straight games and scored at least 30 points in each of their last six outings.
The situation is more complicated among the 49ers; Authors of a poor record of 5-7 after this third loss in a row, they are still two games from the lead in their division, occupied by the Seattle Seahawks (7-5).
After allowing the Niners to score the first points of the evening on a 33-yard field goal from Jake Moody, the Bills gradually took full control in the first half.
The efficiency of the ground game was crucial for the Bills, who took the lead on a five-yard run from Ray Davis at the very end of the first quarter.
After a failed attempt by Moody, Buffalo immediately made the visitors pay on the first play of the subsequent offensive series.
The other Bills running back, starter James Cook, overwhelmed the 49ers defense on the right before rushing 70 yards for his 11th major of the campaign.
Cook finished the first half with an impressive 101 yards rushing.
Buffalo’s last offensive sequence before halftime ended once again with a touchdown, that of Mack Hollins, which Josh Allen spotted in the corner of the end zone, with 41 seconds to go.
It must be said that the morale of the visitors took a big hit when Christian McCaffrey, who was enjoying the powder snow at Highmark Stadium, suffered an apparently serious knee injury.
While he had the ball in the backfield, McCaffrey threw himself to the ground, immediately raising concerns.
The 49ers’ star running back may well have been injured in the preceding moments, while a Bills rival made a play preventing ” CMC » to run to the end zone.
From Allen to…Allen for the touchdown
Despite the extent of its domination in the second quarter, Buffalo had even more in store for us after the break.
In a first down and goals situation, Allen connected with Amari Cooper on short distance, and after lightly juggling the ball with his back to the end zone, the latter made a lateral pass towards his quarterback, who broke a tackle before diving into the orange post for the Bills’ fourth touchdown.
Allen became only the fourth quarterback in history to catch a touchdown on a play on which he also threw the ball.
Rookie Isaac Guerendo, a fourth-round pick of the 49ers in the last draft, tightened the score by scoring the second major of his career, before the end of the third quarter.
San Francisco could have increased the pressure even more after a short offensive sequence from Buffalo, but Brock Purdy blundered by dropping the ball before it even left his hand, providing excellent positioning for the crowd favorites.
The general of the Bills didn’t ask for that much: Allen scored his fourth major of the evening, this time by running, putting the duel definitively out of the reach of the Niners by increasing the lead to 25 points (35 to 10).
A sign that the Niners were already thinking about their flight back to California, Deebo Samuel Sr. committed a fumble in his turn, on his club’s next offensive play.
The Bills will continue with a trip to Los Angeles to face the Rams next Sunday, while the Niners will host the Chicago Bears the same day.
