Bills offensive line looks to carry momentum against Commanders front coming off seven-sack game

ORCHARD PARK — Dion Dawkins doesn’t have much use for the past, even if the circumstances are oddly similar.

In 2021, the Buffalo Bills entered the season as popular Super Bowl picks, only to be harassed by a pass rush that powered the Pittsburgh Steelers to a season-opening upset. Then, the Bills traveled to Miami for a resounding win before squaring off the Washington Commanders in Week 3.

Sound familiar?

How the Bills would neutralize a gifted Washington defensive line after being picked apart by the Steelers was the chatter all week, only for Buffalo to roll to a 43-21 win without surrendering a sack. But that was two years ago.

Only Dawkins and center Mitch Morse remain from that offensive line, but the same four starters for the Commanders return, all of whom are former first-round picks. The difference between 2021 and this season is that Washington had six sacks in the first two games then, while recording seven alone in a 35-33 win over the Denver Broncos Sunday.

The Commanders have 10 sacks in two games, with three from defensive end Montez Sweat. On the other side, former No. 2 overall pick Chase Young registered 1.5 sacks in his first game of the year after injuries limited him to 12 over the previous two seasons.

Defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Daron Payne have also gotten to the quarterback this year, but Washington goes deeper than four linemen, with seven getting at least a half a sack in the first two games.

“It’s one of the best groups, if not the best group in the league,” said Bills quarterback Josh Allen, who was named AFC offensive player of the week Wednesday for the 11th time in his career. “... Just making sure that we don’t let them take over the game because they have the ability to do that. Just making sure we’re dialed in, communicating well and ultimately the team that best executes on Sunday is going to win the game.”

When it comes to preparing for Washington’s defensive front, players said they might glance at the 2021 film, but won’t spend a long time with it because so much has changed since then. Young was in his second season at the time, as were head coach Ron Rivera and defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio.

But the core of the unit has now been together for several years, with Allen, Payne and Sweat playing together since 2019. Both Dawkins and guard O’Cyrus Torrence said tendencies can also change over time.

“I tend to look at the facts,” Dawkins said. “I tend to like look at recent film more recent film because every year player changes. Something might click this year that didn’t click last year.”

The Bills have already faced one of the top defensive lines in the NFL and it didn’t go well, as the New York Jets recorded five sacks. They don’t see many similarities there either, but it was Torrence’s first game and he got a taste of playing against a superb front.

Washington’s defensive tackle tandem is better than New York’s, but neither Allen nor Payne are as explosive as Jets tackle Quinnen Williams. Allen and Payne don’t often flip sides during games, but they do alternate between which player is the 1 technique (shading over the cneter) and 3 technique (outside shoulder of the guard).

Allen (17th) and Payne (14th) rank in the top-20 of Pro Football Focus’ pass rush grades among interior defensive linemen, as both are typically the catalysts of the pass rush. But they don’t have range to track down runners.

“(Payne) is good with his hands, he like to go inside a lot so I just need to make sure my feet are on the ground and make sure I’m ready to counter on when he goes inside and just have my base ready to follow and him,” Torrence said. “(Allen’s) a little bit different, he’s got different hand moves he trying to work the hunt move, so it’s just a different type of guys and they both pretty good at what they do. So it’s just about being ready.”

Although the Commanders are coming off a big outing — particularly in the second half — the Bills offensive line bounced back to shut out the Las Vegas Raiders defensive line, not allowing a sack on 37 dropbacks.

While Dawkins has been sturdy in two games, right tackle Spencer Brown had a big bounce-back game after being maligned following his performance against the Jets. Brown helped hold Raiders star Maxx Crosby without a sack and he’ll have to carry that momentum against Sweat and Young, who was ranked the No. 8 pass rusher in Week 2 by PFF.

“I mean we just put together a good work week last week,” Brown said. “(Bills offensive line coach Aaron Kromer) had a good plan. We had a good plan with our jams and chips protection-wise, Josh got the ball out, had some good play-action stuff going, run game was working well, so the play-action was obviously working off of that and we all played together really well.”

NOTES: Leonard Floyd (ankle), Micah Hyde (back), Dawson Knox (back) and Jordan Phillips (illness) did not practice Wednesday, while Terrel Bernard (lower leg) was limited.