1. Control time of possession.
The Lions are averaging 32:21 when it comes to time of possession, but with that, they鈥檝e been able to open up their playbook. 鈥淭his is an offense that you got to keep up with,鈥 Bills quarterback Josh Allen said, 鈥淵ou're going to have to score points on the offensive side of the ball.鈥 Allen knows controlling time of possession will benefit the Buffalo defense, helping in the mission to play complementary football. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not playing (Detroit鈥檚) offense on our side of the ball, but they do such a good job over there of holding onto the football and scoring points,鈥 he said.
2. Get to Goff.
Detroit's offensive line is strong. Pro Football Focus ranks it first in the NFL. With that, Lions quarterback Jared Goff is able to play to the best of his abilities. 鈥淭hey do a great job, in particular in the play-action game and screen game,鈥 Bills coach Sean McDermott said. 鈥淭hey do a great job protecting (Goff) in those two capacities. 鈥 He鈥檚 in sync with the coordinator. And they do a great job and just very creative in how they scheme things up.鈥 Goff鈥檚 completion percentage of 72.4% is second in the league among starting quarterbacks, behind only the Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa. The Lions鈥 run game and their ability to protect Goff allows him to keep opposing defenses on their toes. 聽
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3. Bounce back on defense.
Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich thinks his defense will come out Sunday with the right mindset to make corrections after last week鈥檚 poor showing. They鈥檒l need to. 鈥淒on't flinch,鈥 Babich said Monday on the team鈥檚 approach. 鈥淲e didn't play well enough. I think the guys would tell you the biggest thing for us is our offense was scoring and getting us back on the field and we couldn't get a stop. 鈥 So, our response, I expect our guys' response to be exactly what we all think it is. They know what our standard is here in Buffalo. We need to live up to that standard.鈥
4. Stick to your identity.
McDermott said multiple times on Wednesday that while the Bills need to improve, they can鈥檛 get away from the things that have brought them success all season long. Babich echoed that the defense needs to be themselves, despite what Detroit shows. 鈥淭his will be our fifth game in a sense against that style of offense,鈥 Babich said. 鈥淪o, it obviously provides a little comfortability in the fact you can anticipate some of the things. But everybody's a little bit different. So, what we got to worry about is ourselves. We got to worry about ourselves and have a high awareness of who we're going against, how they like to play, how they like to attack.鈥
