Murphy: Bills new-look offense finally comes to life after surviving slow start vs. Titans

We’re seven games into the season. So it’s getting kind of late to be figuring out your team.

But maybe the Bills coaching staff is still learning how to manage this year’s squad. Maybe that’s why the Bills sleep-walked through the first half before steamrolling the Tennessee Titans 34-10.

The Bills got no first downs in the first quarter. They trailed 10-0 in the game before they showed a pulse. Like the win over Arizona and the losses to Baltimore and Houston they trailed at halftime and showed very little.

“When they run for 71 yards in the first half and throw for 146, they’re a two-dimensional team,” Sean McDermott said. ”That’s tough because you don’t know how to call the game.”

Josh Allen agreed. “It’s not ideal to start the way we did. Our defense kept us in it until we figured it out.”

But figure it out they did. And the Bills scored 34 unanswered points en route to an easy victory.

To say the Bills started sluggishly would be an understatement. “I think first and second down efficiency was really poor,” Allen said afterwards. The Bills took advantage of man-to-man coverage on their receivers in the second half, scoring on all five of their possessions.

Keon Coleman recorded 3 of his 4 catches in the second half for 125 yards. Newcomer Amari Cooper caught all four passes thrown to him in the second half. And after completing just four passes in the first half, Josh Allen went 17-for-22 in the second half and wound up with 323 passing yards, his first 300-yard game this year.

And it wasn’t just the offense that woke up.

The Titans got just 72 yards offensively after halftime. They were only 1 of 8 on third down conversions in the second half after going 5 of 8 in the first half. Mason Rudolph completed just 7 of 17 passing in the second half.

The play that started the Bills off in the second half was the Titans fourth down try at their own 44 when rookie DeWayne Carter teamed up with Taylor Rapp to drop Tony Pollard for a three-yard loss. Six plays later, the Bills took the lead.

That happened early in the third quarter on the Titans opening possession after the first half was filled with Tennessee big plays. The Bills adjusted at halftime and the coaching staff began to trust the players.

“I thought the coaches did a really good job at halftime, the players did as well, in settling down and communicating,” McDermott said.

Maybe it took the Bills a little extra time to determine how to beat the Titans. Once they had it solved, they were almost unstoppable.

Maybe Sean McDermott is onto something when he was asked how to build on this win.

“Stay humble. Get back to work. Do your job,” he says. Simple.