Winners and losers: 5 takeaways from Bills big win over Lions in Week 15

For the second straight week, the Buffalo Bills found themselves in a shootout on the road.

But unlike a week ago, when their seven-game winning streak came to an end in a 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the Bills walked away in triumph this time around as they ended the Detroit Lions franchise-record 11-game winning streak with a 48-42 victory.

Buffalo is now just the second team in NFL history to score 40-plus points while also allowing 40-plus points in back-to-back weeks, joining the 1966 New York Giants.

Unlike the Bills, however, those Giants actually lost both contests, first taking a 72-41 defeat to the team now known as the Washington Commanders in Week 12 and then a 49-40 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 13.

With the win, Buffalo improved to 11-3 on the year but couldn't gain any ground on the Kansas City Chiefs, who improved to an AFC- and now NFL-best 13-1 with a 21-7 win over the Browns.

The saving grace here is that the Bills have one of the easiest remaining schedules in the league as they play the New England Patriots in Week 16, the New York Jets in Week 17, and then the Patriots again in Week 18.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs have one of the most difficult slates down the stretch with remaining games against the Houston Texans, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Denver Broncos. And with Patrick Mahomes suffering a high ankle sprain late in Sunday's win, things may be even more challenging.

But let's not look too far ahead just yet. For now, let's look at the winners and losers for the Bills in their big Week 15 win over the Lions. Can you guess with whom we'll kick things off?

Winner: Josh Allen

The NFL MVP race is over, folks.

A week after accounting for six total touchdowns in the loss to the Rams, Josh Allen (as we predicted he would) accounted for four more on Sunday against the Lions.

After rushing for two scores in the first quarter to help Buffalo to an early 14-0 lead — scores that moved him into the top 50 on the NFL's all-time rushing TDs list, by the way — the two-time Pro Bowler added a pair of touchdown passes in the second half.

He now has six career games with at least two TD passes and at least two rushing scores, extending his league record. The seventh-year signal-caller has now recorded at least 35 combined passing and rushing touchdowns in five consecutive seasons, which is also an NFL record.

Allen first hit Khalir Shakir with a 3-yard score in the third quarter and then connected with Ray Davis for a 5-yard touchdown in the final frame.

Allen ultimately finished his afternoon having completed 23 of 34 passes for a season-high 362 yards and added another 68 yards on 11 carries on the ground.

Winner: James Cook

After carrying the ball a season-low six times against Los Angeles last Sunday and tying a season-low with just 20 yards on the ground, James Cook (just as we predicted he would) bounced back beautifully against Detroit.

With Sean McDermott emphasizing the running game a bit more this week, Cook more than doubled his touches from a week ago, carrying the ball 14 times for 105 yards and scoring a pair of touchdowns. He also added a 28-yard reception.

Winner: Ty Johnson

With Allen putting on such a prolific performance through the air, one might think that Shakir, Amari Cooper, a returning Keon Coleman, a returning Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox, or Mack Hollins would be the Bills' leading receiver for the day.

But that wasn't the case, as that honor belonged to none other than Ty Johnson, the seldom-used running back who has come out of nowhere to become yet another dangerous weapon for this Buffalo offense.

A week ago against the Rams, the sixth-year veteran caught a pair of passes for 55 yards and a touchdown. On Sunday against the Lions, who actually drafted Johnson in the sixth round back in 2019, the Maryland alum caught five passes for a career-high 114 yards and added another nine yards on the ground on two carries.

Loser: Matt Milano

We probably should pick on Tyler Bass for missing a 24-yard field goal, the shortest field-goal miss in the league this season. But as he hit both a 50-yarder and a 41-yarder in the fourth quarter, we'll let him slide.

We do, however, have to apply the loser designation to linebacker Matt Milano. It's not so much for his play, but instead due to the fact that he left the game with a groin injury in the third quarter and never returned.

After missing much of last year with a fractured fibula and the first 11 games of this season after suffering a torn biceps during training camp, Milano finally returned to action just three weeks ago against the San Francisco 49ers.

The severity of this injury isn't yet known, but given his recent history, this obviously isn't great news for the veteran linebacker.

Loser: The Bills' defense

The Buffalo defense needs to be incredibly thankful that the offense has been putting up so many points, as this unit as a whole has been atrocious over the last two weeks.

After giving up 457 total yards to the Rams, the Bills allowed a season-worst 521 to the Lions, most of those coming through the air as Jared Goff threw for a season-high 494 yards and tied a career-best with five touchdown passes.

To be fair, Buffalo was without several defensive starters. Nevertheless, that's still far too many yards to be giving up to any offense, even one as high-octane as Detroit's.

One might think holding the Lions to just 48 rushing yards is impressive, but the only reason that happened is that Detroit had to play catch-up and only ran the ball 15 times. And two of those rush attempts came from Goff.

Bobby Babich's unit needs to tighten things up quickly. As they found out last week, the Bills aren't going to win every shootout. And the next one they lose because the defense can't make stops could cost them a shot at a Super Bowl.