The Buffalo Bills are easily one of the top teams in the AFC — arguably the best after handing the Kansas City Chiefs their lone loss of the year a couple weeks back. The Detroit Lions are undoubtedly the top team in the NFC, it's easy to look ahead to the matchup between these two juggernauts in Week 15 and see it as a possible Super Bowl preview.
But the Bills have some business to tend to before then.
While the Lions have already taken care of their business in Week 14, notching their franchise-record 11th consecutive win with a 34-31 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Thursday Night Football, the Bills are hoping to do the same by avoiding the "trap game" situation they've got going with the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon at SoFi Stadium.
While Buffalo has rolled to seven straight victories, winning those seven games by an average of 13.6 points, Los Angeles has been up and down in recent weeks. Actually, Sean McVay & Co. have been up and down all season long.
After dropping four of their first five, the Rams won three straight to get to .500 at 4-4. And since then, it's been loss-win-loss-win in their last four, their most recent game resulting in a 21-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints.
So, it's difficult to know which version of this team will show up on Sunday.
That said, we think we've got a handle on how things are going to go, so let's roll right into our predictions for the AFC East champion Bills in their Week 14 matchup with the 6-6 Rams.
Josh Allen will have his second 300-yard game of the season
We were going to go really bold here and predict that Josh Allen would magically throw a touchdown pass to himself for the second straight week, but we know that's not going to happen. But if anyone were going to accomplish that rare feat two weeks in a row, it'd be him. Seriously, how wild was that play?
But moving past that, we're calling for the NFL MVP frontrunner to strengthen his case with a big day through the air against the Rams.
Given the snowy conditions at Highmark Stadium this past Sunday, Allen only threw 17 passes in the Bills' 35-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers, completing 13 of them for 148 yards, his third-lowest yardage total of the season.
But with zero weather issues to worry about at SoFi, Allen is going to light Los Angeles up. In fact, we'll go as far as to say that he'll hit the 300-yard mark for just the second time this season, especially if he's got tight end Dalton Kincaid and rookie wideout Keon Coleman back in the mix, as both are trending in the right direction after missing multiple games each with injuries. But even if neither suits up, No. 17 has plenty of other weapons.
The first and only time he's crossed the mark this year was a 323-yard effort against the Tennessee Titans' top-ranked pass defense back in Week 7.
James Cook will have his second straight 100-yard game
A week ago, we predicted that Bills running back James Cook would notch his second 100-yard game of the season.
And he went out and did just that, rushing for 107 yards on just 14 carries, the highlight, of course, being his 65-yard touchdown run, marking the longest play of his young career.
So, we'll just attempt to keep the trend going here and predict that Cook will hit the century mark for the second straight game, as he's facing a Rams defense that has allowed 144.2 rushing yards per game this year, the fifth-most in the league.
Over the last three weeks, LA has given up 582 yards on the ground. To be fair, though, 255 of those came from Saquon Barkley in the Rams' Week 12 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. But even taking Barkley out of the equation, that's still an average of 109 yards the Rams have allowed. So, Cook is in for a lovely afternoon.
The Bills' defense will sack Matthew Stafford at least four times and intercept him at least once
From an overall standpoint, the Buffalo defense has looked fantastic during this seven-game winning streak.
Bobby Babich's unit is still giving up a few too many yards but has been able to offset some of that damage by being one of the best in the NFL in the red zone, giving up touchdowns just 50 percent of the time.
The Bills are also one of the best at creating turnovers, generating 24 thus far, which ties them for the second-most in the NFL. And we're calling for them to add at least one to that total via the interception.
Matthew Stafford had a little pick problem in the middle of the season, throwing one in six straight games starting in Week 4. In his last three outings, however, he's been interception-free. But the Bills will change that on Sunday.
We're also calling for Stafford to take at least four sacks. This is one area where the Bills haven't been overly strong, as they're tied for 19th in this department with only 29 for the year. But eight of those have come in their last three games, and the Rams have allowed seven in the last two weeks alone.
So, go ahead and expect Stafford to see plenty of turf as the Bills waltz to yet another double-digit win.