Kwity Paye, Buffalo Bills, Rock Ya-Sin And More

JJ Stankevitz: I love this question, since it’s easy to forget that Jonathan Taylor – now the NFL’s leading rusher – averaged 3.8 yards per carry over his first nine games in the NFL. In Taylor’s last 16 games, he has 280 carries for 1,678 yards with 16 rushing touchdowns.

As a quick aside, a running back has hit those numbers in a 16-game season just 13 times in NFL history.

Anyways, back to the part of your question about Kwity Paye. Per Pro Football Focus, Paye’s game-by-game total pressures this year:

• Week 1: 2
• Week 2: 0
• Week 3: 0
• Week 6: 1
• Week 7: 4
• Week 8: 2
• Week 9: 9
• Week 10: 7

So 16 of Paye’s 25 total pressures have come in the last two games; 22 of his 25 have come in the last four weeks. And he notched his first career sack against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, a moment he had been building toward for a little while with all those pressures.

“I think that really with any pro player you have to be in the game to figure it out, meaning that you can have all the practice you want and all of a sudden the game starts, man it’s faster than you think,” defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus said. “Divisional games are faster, playoff games are even faster. It just hits you really fast, and to be able to figure out what works for you and the experience of that. So, I’ve seen that with a lot of rookies. … I would say that with a pass rusher, it’s really what works for them and then figuring out what works against the opponent because you have to adjust your game and have to set up the rushes, and I think that’s what’s slowing down for those guys and certainly for Kwity, to figure out what works for him and what he has to do with the guy he’s going against and how does he set those things up.”

As for the question about disrupting Josh Allen, that’s absolutely a goal for this week. Allen was pressured on 22 drop-backs against the Jaguars and completed just seven passes for 90 yards with one interception on those, and the Bills scored just six points. Allen was sacked a season-high four times against Jacksonville.

Every quarterback struggles to some extent under pressure and Allen is no different:

• Allen passer rating when pressured: 85.8, 47 percent completion rate
• Allen passer rating when not pressured: 100.9, 73 percent completion rate

Something to keep in mind, though, is Allen’s ability to escape pressure and make plays with his legs. Per PFF, Allen has 17 scrambles for 105 yards after he was pressured – and 95 of those yards have come after contact.

But also notable, perhaps: Of the 15 times Allen has been sacked this season, 10 have been in the last four weeks.