Behind Josh Allen, Bills Take Rams in Hand

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The N.F.L.’s season opener is always a hyped affair, but the Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams’ game against the Buffalo Bills, a preseason favorite of football pundits, came down to a number of quieter dramas.

One such conflict came to a head midway through the fourth quarter Thursday night. With the Bills ahead 24-10, Josh Allen threw a lofting ball to Stefon Diggs, who outpaced the Rams’ star defensive back Jalen Ramsey for a 53-yard touchdown.

Ramsey, who brashly downplayed Diggs’s skill set to the media ahead of the game, stood and watched as Diggs taunted him by tapped his head to show he had beaten the defender over the top.

Both the Rams and Bills entered Thursday’s game with enormous expectations for this season despite changes across their rosters and coaching staffs. The Bills proved more adaptive to them in a resounding 31-10 win, in which Allen threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed for 57 yards and a score.

It was the quarterback’s first game without Brian Daboll, the offensive coordinator who had been Allen’s primary mentor since his rookie season in 2018, who was hired in January as head coach of the Giants.

Linebacker Von Miller, who joined the Bills in free agency this off-season from the Rams, secured two of Buffalo’s seven sacks of Matthew Stafford who struggled to recapture the big play energy of last season.

Stafford threw for 240 yards on 29 of 41 passing, with three interceptions and looked out of sync with Rams receivers not named Cooper Kupp. Los Angeles ranked fifth in total passing yards in 2021 but on Thursday struggled to convert on third down, succeeding on 6 of 13 attempts, and missed the receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who remains a free agent after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in the second quarter of the Rams’ Super Bowl win.

Los Angeles was also haunted by Miller, whose fearsome presence on its defense last season was a factor in Aaron Donald’s success in the pass rush. Against his former team, Miller dissected Rams offensive tackle Joe Noteboom on a number of plays.

The Bills’ pressure kept Stafford from finding his footing until later in the second quarter, when he punctuated an 11-play drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Kupp, who finished with 13 catches for 128 yards. No other Rams player had more than 50 yards receiving.

Allen, in contrast, found Gabriel Davis for a 28-yard score on the Bills opening drive of the game and controlled the clock with a deft mix of accurate touch passes and the quarterback’s occasional powerful runs.

With the score tied, 10-10 in the third quarter, Allen took the snap on third-and-7 from near midfield and scrambled eight yards up the middle, delivering a stiff-arm to Rams safety Nick Scott that pushed him off his feet and backward into the sideline.

Three plays later, Allen fired a 7-yard dart to Isaiah McKenzie for a touchdown, then confidently walked over to congratulate him.

The Rams ended two of their final four possessions with interceptions as Stafford tried to force balls to Kupp and tight end Tyler Higbee.