Snap count notes: Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The Buffalo Bills took a trip to visit the New England Patriots in second place in the AFC East. They left in first. That’s all the necessary chatter this week, let’s dissect the playing time!

Offense (79 snaps)

Another week, another new lineup for the offensive line. Five of the six players hit the 100-percent-club mark. Daryl Williams, Ryan Bates, Spencer Brown, and Mitch Morse all made the mark protecting Josh Allen. Ike Boettger was hurt in the second quarter, replaced by Dion Dawkins. Bobby Hart came in as an extra lineman for one snap, as did Tommy Doyle.

Dawson Knox hit the 100 percent mark, with the Buffalo Bills clearly showing their faith in the tight end. No other tight ends received playing time. Reggie Gilliam added nine snaps at fullback.

The wide receiver with the most snaps was Isaiah McKenzie. Just like we all predicted. McKenzie took Cole Beasley’s snaps and some of his own apparently. Stefon Diggs was a close second and tied with Emmanuel Sanders. Jake Kumerow and Isaiah Hodgins round out the group, with Hodgins receiving his first snaps in the regular season.

There’s a small oddity in the running back numbers. Devin Singletary and Zack Moss split time with Singletary being featured. The oddity is that there’s an “extra” snap, meaning Buffalo had two backs on the field at the same time for one play. It’s only one, but that’s still pretty unusual for Buffalo.

Defense (64 snaps)

Only four members hit the 100 percent threshold this week. Jordan Poyer, Micah Hyde, Tremaine Edmunds, and Matt Milano all made it. Levi Wallace was dinged up but didn’t exit for very long.

There’s quite a bit of shakeup as the Bills focused on the run game this week. Dane Jackson and Siran Neal held down the boundary corner opposite Levi Wallce. Taron Johnson was only on the field 70 percent, which is roughly how much time the Bills spent in nickel (67 percent).

A.J. Klein joined the linebacker group to land at 30 percent of the time in a 4-3 defense. Though some of that was likely not in a traditional 4-3.

Ed Oliver, Harrison Phillips, Vernon Butler, and Eli Ankou were the four rotating tackles this week. They were 17 snaps short of hitting a full two-position rotation. The defensive ends had 19 extra snaps, meaning the rotation of Efe Obada, Mario Addison, Gregory Rousseau, Jerry Hughes, and Carlos Basham rotated inside quite frequently and had two snaps from the defensive back group as well.

Also, take a look at the order of the ends. It’s overall a fairly tight cluster, but it’s odd seeing Hughes and Addison both beat out by Efe Obada—and Hughes is way down the list.

Special Teams (22 snaps)

Tyler Matakevich reclaims his spot at the top! And it’s not a tie either. Usually your kicker doesn’t break the 50 percent mark. When you cut punts to zero and score a whole bunch though, Tyler Bass makes the list.