Good News For Bills Mafia Upset About Bills’ Defense

One of the biggest concerns for the Buffalo Bills this year has been their defense, but there's good news on the horizon.

The Bills' defense was a concern on Thursday night

It was hard to watch the Bills take on the Miami Dolphins on Thursday night. What many people thought would be an easy blowout win for the Bills started off on the rocks right away, with the Dolphins taking the opening kick, then marching right down the field to score a touchdown. They made it look effortless.

The Bills took the ball, and it was hard not to believe that they would take over from there. They were going to pull away, right?

Nope.

The Bills would score, but it felt like the Dolphins were just hanging around. At halftime, they were tied. They just couldn't pull away from them because the Dolphins kept scoring. Why?

Is the Bills' defense really that bad?

First of all, we are only 3 games into the season, the Bills just played their second game in 5 days, and they've won them all so far. So let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. In those three games, the Bills' opponents have scored 40, 10, and 21 points. It felt a little like they had figured it out after watching the Bills blow out the Jets in week 2, but last night, a lot of Bills Mafia were scratching their heads, asking what in the heck happened to their team? The pass rush was minimal, they struggled to get off the field on 3rd down (the Dolphins were 10/15 on third down), and for a team that hasn't been able to win one yet, the Dolphins seemed to put up a bigger fight than they should have.

There's good news on the horizon

For those of you who are freaking out about the Bills' defense, don't. Sure, they have things they need to clean up, but remember, they've got some of their best players on the sidelines right now. Not only are they dealing with injuries to starting defensive tackle Ed Oliver and linebacker Matt Milano, but they've got players out on suspensions and on injured reserve, too. In the next couple of weeks, the Bills could not only have Oliver and Milano back, but also Michael Hoecht (available week 7), Larry Ogunjobi (available week 7), and first-round draft pick Max Hairston (on IR through week 4).

Many of the pieces that the Bills were counting on when they marched into camp still haven't even seen field time yet. As long as the Bills keep winning with the "next man up," this team will be in better shape in December and January.