Kirk Cousins gave the Allegiant Stadium crowd exactly the kind of fourth quarter they came to see on Sunday. The 38-year-old quarterback drove Las Vegas 91 yards to a game-tying touchdown with 8:07 remaining, then hit Tre Tucker on a 44-yard diving score with 1:32 left to pull the Raiders back within a field goal. It still was not enough. The Buffalo Bills left Paradise, Nevada with a 33-30 win, and the difference was a third-quarter moment nobody in the building will forget: Josh Allen evading a sack and flipping a backhanded touchdown pass to Keon Coleman that tied Jim Kelly for the most touchdown passes in franchise history.
The final score: Bills 33, Raiders 30
The game aired on CBS and finished with the Bills at 5-1, alone in first place in the AFC East, one game ahead of the Patriots. Buffalo now heads into its Week 7 bye and returns on Nov. 1 with a home game against the Ravens.
Allen finished 23-of-33 for 255 yards and two touchdowns. He did almost nothing on the ground — one yard on five carries — because the Raiders committed to keeping him in the pocket. It barely mattered. Buffalo punted just twice, scored on its first three drives, and has now put up 30-plus points in four of its first six games.
Cousins, for his part, broke the 200-yard passing mark and kept coming even after the game appeared to slip away. The problem for Las Vegas was the turnover that came in between his best stretches.
How the first half unfolded
Buffalo opened the scoring the way it has so often this season: a big kick return by Ray Davis, a drive that stalled in the red zone, and a field goal. The Raiders answered with a 70-yard touchdown drive, and the Bills again settled for three inside the 20 before taking the lead on a Khalil Shakir touchdown — a nine-yard screen pass, Allen’s first scoring throw of the day.
Las Vegas kicked two field goals to send the teams into the break tied at 13-13, and the half ended on a sour note for Buffalo’s offense. Josh Palmer dropped a sideline pass, Kwity Paye sacked Allen on third down, and the Raiders took over with 100 seconds left. Cousins hit Michael Mayer three times in four plays to move Las Vegas to the Bills’ 33, and a CJ Gardner-Johnson unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the Raiders even more field position. Matt Gay’s 27-yard field goal as time expired made it 13-13.
Allen was sharp anyway — 12-of-16 for 144 yards and a score in the first half — but two third-down sacks had killed drives, and the drop by Palmer loomed large at the break.
The pick that flipped the game
The third quarter began with Buffalo’s defense forcing a three-and-out, three straight incompletions from Cousins. James Cook then ripped off a 13-yard run on the first play of the Bills’ next possession and kept churning. Buffalo drove to the edge of the red zone, where Allen bought time and found Dalton Kincaid wide open for what looked like an 18-yard touchdown — only to have it wiped out by an O’Cyrus Torrence holding penalty. Tyler Bass came on and drilled a 47-yarder, staying perfect on the season, and Buffalo led 16-13.
Then came the swing that decided the afternoon. On a throw intended for Mayer on a crossing route, Cousins was picked off by Dorian Williams, who was standing directly in the throwing lane. The Bills took over at the Raiders’ 32 and needed four plays to cash in.
That is where the Coleman play happened. Facing third-and-8 from the Raiders’ 12, Allen scrambled as rushers closed in, slipped the pressure, and — rather than going down — flipped the ball backhanded toward the end zone. Coleman was there for the catch, and the Bills had a 23-13 lead and a piece of franchise history. CBS Sports called it a potential play of the year and drew the obvious comparison: Brett Favre’s famous backhanded completion against the Rams 30 years earlier, made during the second of Favre’s three straight MVP seasons.
The touchdown pass was Allen’s 237th? No — the record itself is the point: it tied Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the most touchdown passes in Bills history. Allen, the 2024 league MVP and the early front-runner to win the award again this year, came into the weekend with 15 touchdowns through five games, including eight on the ground, and his 87 career rushing scores already lead all quarterbacks in NFL history, 12 more than Cam Newton.
Cousins’ answer — twice
To his credit, Cousins did not let the interception end the Raiders’ afternoon. Las Vegas put together a 15-play, 70-yard drive that ate seven minutes and 40 seconds, only to stall at the goal line when Greg Gaines stopped Ashton Jeanty on second down and Cousins could not connect with Cody White in the end zone on third. Gay’s short field goal made it 23-16.
After a Buffalo three-and-out, Cousins turned in the drive of the game. Ninety-one yards, nearly eight minutes off the clock, repeated chunk plays to Brock Bowers against zone coverage, and a gorgeous throw to Tre Tucker in the corner of the end zone for the tying touchdown with 8:07 left. Bowers, who had been quiet for most of the afternoon with Christian Benford doing well against him, finished with 70 yards. Mayer was the more consistent target all day with seven catches for 95 yards.
The Raiders even got one more highlight from the connection. After James Cook put Buffalo back in front, Dee Alford’s pass interference penalty in Raiders territory gave Las Vegas one last life, and Cousins found Tucker on a diving 44-yard touchdown to make it 33-30 with 1:32 remaining. Earlier in the game, a 15-yard dart from Cousins to Bowers had moved the Raiders inside the Bills’ 5-yard line — the kind of throw that kept Las Vegas in it all day.
But the Raiders had no timeouts left, and the onsides kick never gave them the ball back.
James Cook closes it out
With the game tied at 23, Cook took over. The Bills’ running back converted a third down with a 26-yard reception, then scored on the next play to cap a 66-yard, seven-play drive that took just over three minutes. He finished with 95 rushing yards and 58 receiving yards — and, just as importantly for a player who had fumble concerns earlier in the season, he did not put the ball on the ground.
Buffalo’s defense also made sure Jeanty never got going, holding the Raiders’ running back to 22 yards on 10 carries. Rookie cornerback Jalon Kilgore, a fifth-round pick out of South Carolina, delivered one of the game’s hidden turning points when he broke up a third-and-10 pass from Cousins to end a Raiders drive, forcing a punt that Las Vegas’ Segun Olubi then wiped out with a facemask penalty — starting the Bills at midfield with 4:08 to play. Bass iced the win from 38 yards.
What it means for both teams
For Buffalo, the win caps a two-game West Coast sweep and sends the Bills into their bye at 5-1 with the offense, in the words of NBC Sports’ game report, clicking on all cylinders even with DJ Moore sidelined by a shoulder injury. The defense remains the open question — the Raiders moved the ball at 6.1 yards per play for much of the day — but Allen and company have scored 30 or more points in four of six games, and Allen has accounted for four touchdowns over his last two outings.
For Las Vegas, the loss is a hard one to process because Cousins played well enough to win. He beat the blitz with Mayer, found Bowers when the game was on the line, and twice erased deficits in the fourth quarter. The interception, the red-zone stall that ended in a field goal instead of a touchdown, and a Jeanty run game that produced 22 yards were the margins. The Raiders will have to regroup quickly, because the schedule does not soften after a division rival’s bye week.
Buffalo, meanwhile, gets two weeks to heal before hosting Lamar Jackson and the Ravens on Nov. 1 — a game that suddenly looks like an early AFC playoff preview.
FAQ
Who won the Raiders vs Bills game?
The Buffalo Bills beat the Las Vegas Raiders 33-30 on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, improving to 5-1 and first place in the AFC East heading into their Week 7 bye.
How did Kirk Cousins play against the Bills?
Cousins threw for more than 200 yards, led a 91-yard game-tying touchdown drive to Tre Tucker with 8:07 left, and hit Tucker again on a 44-yard diving score with 1:32 remaining. His third-quarter interception by Dorian Williams set up the touchdown that put Buffalo in control.
What record did Josh Allen tie against the Raiders?
Allen’s backhanded touchdown flip to Keon Coleman in the third quarter tied Hall of Famer Jim Kelly for the most touchdown passes in Buffalo Bills franchise history.
Who scored the go-ahead touchdown for the Bills?
James Cook, who converted a third down with a 26-yard catch and then scored on the next play to cap a 66-yard drive, finishing with 95 rushing yards and 58 receiving yards.