1. Tre'Davious White earns All-Pro recognition from these media outlets
Tre'Davious White is having a career season in many ways with six interceptions and the league's most targets in coverage without giving up a touchdown. Due to the success, White is receiving national praise landing on three All-Pro teams so far including NFL.com, Bleacher Report and Pro Football Talk
CB2: Tre'Davious White, Buffalo Bills (4 votes)
Scoring touchdowns is the entire point of football.
If a Buffalo Bills opponent wants to score six points, it shouldn't target cornerback Tre'Davious White. According to Pro Football Focus, he recorded 599 coverage snaps without allowing a single touchdown.
Wesseling: Stephon Gilmore, New England Patriots; Tre'Davious White, Buffalo Bills. Gilmore finally allowed a touchdown in coverage on John Brown's 53-yard bomb in Week 16, leaving White as the cornerback with the most targets (83) without surrendering a score, per NFL Research. It's not every year that the interception leaderboard is headlined by the stingiest cover corners, but Gilmore and White sit atop the charts with six apiece while also ranking first (26) and second (23) in passes defensed, respectively. Gilmore ranked among the top three corners with an opposing passer rating of 47.4. Those numbers are all the more impressive considering New England's secondary lines up in man-to-man coverage as frequently as any team in the league. Gilmore is the key chess piece on a defense that is only the third since 2002 to amass 25 or more interceptions while holding opposing passers to a rating under 63.0. Capable of taking over games by erasing No. 1 wideouts and forcing timely turnovers, White is perhaps the lone week-to-week difference-maker on a Bills squad that reached double-digit victories for the first time this century.
CB: Tre'Davious White: As important as anyone to the Bills making the playoffs.
2. Tre'Davious White on Texans WRs: Those guys are explosive
Tre'Davious White and his teammates in the secondary will have their hands full with a few talented receivers in Houston including DeAndre Hopkins. When asked about the much anticipated matchup between he and Hopkins, White said he doesn't see it as just a one-on-one matchup.
"I don't think it's going to be a one-on-one matchup because there are 11 guys on the field," White said. "Whenever he aligns to the left side, I've got to be on my best game. When he aligns to the right side, Kevin [Johnson] has to be on his best game. It's going to take all 11 of us to limit him because we know he is one of the best in the league. If we play team total defense and everybody runs to the ball, whenever he lines up to either side and we are on our A game, we will be fine."
White understands it's not just Hopkins, the defense needs to limit Kenny Stills and Will Fuller who will be a game-time decision.
"Those guys are explosive. It's going to be tough, but I feel like with our preparation we will be fine."
With how skilled Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson can be outside of the pocket, it will be important to keep him contained.
"He puts his team in a position to make plays," White explained. "He has been explosive the last three years in the league. He has a big time arm, he's accurate too. He can escape the pocket, so we have to have a little bit of luck going in there because that guy is tough."
3. How the Bills can make it to the Super Bowl according to ESPN
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell went into detail on how each NFL team left made it into the playoffs and what they need to do to keep winning. The list was organized by ESPN's FPI to win the Super Bowl, which meant the Bills were No. 12. Barnwell explains it's Buffalo's defense that got them to the postseason.
How they got here: With a defense that won a few games outright and kept the team close in just about every other contest. The Bills allowed 24 points or fewer in 15 of 16 games, a figure no defense has topped since the Eagles went 16-for-16 in 2001. Over the past five years, teams that held their opponents below 25 points have won 74.2% of the time, which is roughly the pace of a 12-win season. Josh Allen and the offense have chipped in with four fourth-quarter comeback victories, tying the second-year quarterback for the league lead.
To keep the season alive, Barnwell says the Bills need to improve in the red zone.
Where they need to get hot in January: In the red zone on offense. Allen's running ability gives the Bills a valuable weapon, but Buffalo is just above league average at 14th in red zone efficiency this season. That's fine, but against the league's best teams, they need to turn their goal-line opportunities into touchdowns, because they might get only two or three shots there per game.
Comparing the Bills to previous Super Bowl winners, ESPN thinks they are similar to the 2001 Patriots.
Past Super Bowl comp: 2001 Patriots. Bills fans might not be enthused about being compared to their archrivals, but that Patriots team was built around a strong defense that slowed down offenses in the red zone and a second-year quarterback whose job was mostly to avoid turnovers. Tom Brady didn't have Allen's rushing ability, and the Bills' defense is better than that Patriots defense was by DVOA, but they win games with the same style of play.
