Bills vs. Vikings Monday Night Football Week 9 result, Digi Mart USA News: The league’s No. 1 scoring offense faced the No. 1 scoring defense on Monday night, and for most of the first half, the defense won soundly. Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores sent blitzers at Josh Allen with reckless abandon, and the strategy worked well.
Through Buffalo’s first six drives, which netted the Bills 63 yards, three points and an interception, Allen went 4 of 9 for 31 yards, with an interception and a 13.9 passer rating against the blitz. He was pressured on seven of those dropbacks against a blitz and sacked three times.
At times he seemed capable only of throwing deep under a relentless rush.
As time went on, however, the Bills began to get to the Vikings through a shorter-hitting offense and, perhaps mentally, by dominating Minnesota’s offense. Buffalo gutted out an eight-play, 80-yard drive on its seventh possession.
Allen finished it by scrambling for 6.07 seconds, according to Next Gen Stats, before throwing a 25-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Keleki Latu, the tight end’s first target of the season and first score of his career.
In a sense, that is how the Bills won. They wore out the Vikings’ defense during a grueling night, winning the time-of-possession battle 42:32 to 17:28.
James Cook rushed for 33 yards on 15 carries at halftime and finished with 107 yards and a score on 31 totes. Allen added 112 yards on 11 second-half throws after managing only 122 over his first 20.
The Vikings’ defense did not do much wrong, but it could not do everything right all night without help from its offense.
Carson Wentz had a difficult night for Minnesota. With Kyler Murray sidelined by a hamstring injury, Wentz had an opportunity to prove himself in prime time, but he missed pass catchers short, high and wide.
He threw one interception deep to T.J. Hockenson that only Bills linebacker Dorian Williams could catch, and another directly to linebacker Terrel Bernard while trying to hit Justin Jefferson.
Wentz finished 8 of 25 for 81 yards with an 8.9 passer rating, the lowest by any quarterback to attempt at least 25 passes in a game since Sam Darnold’s 3.6 rating in 2019, according to NFL Research. Despite that, Minnesota’s defense kept the game to one possession until 6:17 remained.
Early in the first quarter, Byron Murphy made a stellar interception to end Buffalo’s second drive, but Wentz then threw a wide receiver screen to Jefferson that went backward and too high, and Buffalo recovered the fumble.
The Bills’ defense was the main reason for the result. Minnesota ranked 29th in yards entering Week 9, yet Buffalo held the Vikings to their fewest yards of the season, 178, and allowed only nine first downs.
Buffalo also limited Minnesota to five or fewer plays on 10 separate possessions and did not allow a third-down conversion.
The win gives Buffalo its fourth straight victory and a 7-1 record, its best start since 1993. The Bills still face a tough stretch in Weeks 12-16 against the Chiefs, Patriots, Packers, Bears and Broncos, but they also have four remaining games against the Jets and Dolphins.
The rest of the AFC East lost in Week 9, with the Dolphins at 1-7 and the Jets at 2-7.
Minnesota entered Week 8 as the league’s only unbeaten team, but after two straight losses it has fallen to third place in the NFC North. The Vikings, now 6-2, face the Packers at Lambeau Field next Sunday and then the 49ers on the road.
The NFC North is the only division in which every team is above .500.
