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According to coach Chan Gailey, the Bills’ braintrust spent the bye week breaking down the defense in the team’s first 6 games, and were determined to do whatever was necessary to improve on that side of the ball. Apparently, judging by the Bills’ 23-0 shutout of the undermanned Washington Redskins on Sunday, the tinkering went well. After racking up only 4 sacks and very little pressure on opposing quarterbacks in those previous 6 games, the Bills sacked John Beck 9 times on Sunday, and made his day pretty miserable overall. Granted, the ‘Skins were missing at least 5 starters from their offensive unit, and they looked like a team full of players who weren’t used to playing with each other. But Buffalo was forced to play without starters Shawne Merriman and Kyle Williams. With Williams out and Torrell Troup not fully healthy, the Bills moved rookie Marcell Dareus inside to nose tackle and he responded with a monster game, recording 2 1/2 of the team’s sacks and spending a lot of time in the backfield disrupting Washington plays. Arthur Moats got a bulk of the playing time in Merriman’s spot and was active all day also, getting credit for a half sack but getting lots of pressure off the edge on Beck. The Bills’ starting safeties continued their stellar play, as Jairus Byrd got a sack and a pick, and George Wilson had an interception to go along with a team-high 8 tackles.

The offensive effort was workmanlike, with Ryan Fitzpatrick guiding a steady attack, spreading the ball around and hitting tight end Scott Chandler for a pair of touchdowns. Fred Jackson, who is now having his name mentioned in league MVP conversations, helped his cause by rushing for 120 yards and catching passes for 74 more. For really the first time all season, the Bills were held to field goal attempts on some of their drives instead of touchdowns, but with the defense playing so well the urgency to pile up points wasn’t really there and the team never seemed in jeopardy of losing control of the game. The win sets up a huge AFC East matchup next week against the New York Jets, who’ll be rested coming out of their bye week. It’ll be a big test for the Bills – but they now have 2 things going for them. One, they’ve passed all the big tests they’ve faced so far this year, and two, they’ll be back at their real home at Ralph Wilson Stadium, feeding off the energy of their real home fans.