Khalil Shakir is the Bills’ Secret Weapon! An Explosive Week 1 Performance

we we truly did see everybody eat Keon Coleman four catches on five targets 51 yards khil Shakir three for three 42 yards and a touchdown James Cook involved with the passing game three catches for 32 yards Mt Collins two catches 25 yards and a touchdown Bela scantling with a big 19 yard grab Curtis Samuel two for 15 Ray Davis one for 14 and the the ball's just all over the place as a defense it just makes it so much harder to you know key in on what you want to stop oh and don't forget Josh alen running the ball nine carries for 39 yards and two touchdowns one of them jumping over Buddha Baker who is a very good safety which makes that play all the more impressive James Cook on the ground 19 carries for 71 yards I made a prediction in the off season that Ray Davis would overtake James Cook for kind of that running back one roll don't look like it after week one I I stand by that prediction but James Cook looked good week one he was blasting through holes he was making people miss you know in in real tight spaces for a while there he was averaging something like nine yards a carry obviously came back down to earth as the game you know wore on here but a good day from James Cook and kind of didn't see a ton from TY Johnson or Ray Davis in this game a total of five five carries between them for 20 yards so I I feel like we were able to kind of learn a lot about this offense in this game and what it would look like and I think it becomes kind of all the more impressive that the bills were able to kind of get through this adversity in the first game of going down at 1 point7 to three and you have a quarterback with whole new set of receivers not very much continuity and very quickly in the first game of the season it becomes you know back to the we got to go start making plays I will kind of include in here yes it's week one weird things happen all over the NFL I don't think the Cardinals are going to be some you know Powerhouse in the NFC but you got to beat who's in front of you and you know in in a week one like I said it can be really weird we see the patriots who I don't think anybody's really expecting much from this year jacobe brassett is their starter couple of rookies waiting in the wings just a team that hasn't been very good in in recent history and hasn't really shown much to change that I'm taking down the Cincinnati Bengals who I I think most people would have at least making a playoff run if not a deep one so all things considered you know if the weird stuff is going to happen in week one I I'm glad to just be able to walk away with a one in the win column and not have the weird stuff happen and start the season with a loss you know ultimately it's a it's a long season you can bounce back from that you could win you know 101 15 games straight but when when Us's fans wait all off season to see what this is going to look like you know meure our expectations and all that it's it's really hard to to have stomach a loss the first week of the Season offensively Shakir absolute dog he's going to quickly become one of my favorite players on this team it it's it's such a blended skill set for him and I heard somebody say this a while back and I I can't remember who it was but they they comped him to Steve Smith and seeing that one catch and run where he absorbs the impact and just keeps going down the field I it I think that's a pretty good comparison he's not going down he's fighting for yards he's getting open he catches every Target thrown his way I think a lot of people you know nationally kind of look at the bills receiving core and hear us talking about expecting big things from Shakir and you know he's not a household name yet and we saw what he looked like last year down the stretch and like we know why we got excited for it I think he's going to start putting the rest of the league on notice and then the the other standout it has to be Josh Allen here this was just classic Josh Allen game you know putting the te on his back offense running through him he did get a little bit more help in the Run game but I believe he had five pass attempts in the first half just the way it went with the fumble that he lost the points being taken off the board just the first half was time of possession was just dominated by the Cardinals and then we see him come back he accounts for four touchdowns two of them rushing you know what's kind of lost just looking at the stat boxes is you know some of the second and third and Longs they end up in due to penalties which that's a whole another thing year overy year with McDermot being this super disciplined noons coach and we continue to get flagged all over the place and I get it the reg refs are flag happy but a lot of the stuff that was being called in this game was procedural stuff something to clean up as you know again a lot more fun cleaning that up with a win under under the belt but Josh Allen hell of a game for the most overrated player in the league I mean five in completions on the day 232 yards like I said four touchdowns and what I think is all the more impressive about that is kind of what I've already talked about you're doing this with guys that you've never really played live game reps with there wasn't a ton of action in the preseason there wasn't you know players carrying over from last year it's it's really just shakure and to kind of have their backs to the wall and be able to make these plays and talked about the the long one to Val disc scantling how about the U long pass to Dion Coleman of alen just having faith in his rookie receiver and giving him that 5050 ball and him coming down with it Con converting a her huge third down there to keep the drive alive you know not not a crazy eye popping stat day for Keon Coleman but he led the team in targets and receptions and yards and and this is a player that I thought maybe would be kind of brought along a little bit slower and wasn't necessarily expecting you know an absolutely monster rookie season from him and again it's one game but encouraging that you know when all the dust settles that he's able to lead the team in all those categories