The Buffalo Bills are off to a surprising 2-0 start to their 2019 season, with back-to-back wins against the New York Jets and Giants. During their latest win, a 28-14 victory over the Giants, the Bills' defense had one plan going into the game, and that was simply to make quarterback Eli Manning have to throw the ball:

“We knew that if we tried to force them to throw more,” Bills safety Micah Hyde said, via NJ.com. “They’re a totally different offense when they have to throw the ball.”

While that might come across as an insult, it’s likely more due to the fact that the Bills would rather plan for Manning than they would for Saquon Barkley, who is quickly proving to be one of the better running backs in the league. Hyde’s comments were later clarified, where he said the goal is to make any team as one dimensional as possible:

“Once you make a team one dimensional in this league, not a lot of teams can operate like that,” Hyde said. “We were able to get up on them a little bit today. You saw last week that the Cowboys got up on them and the defenses were able to be a little more successful.”

After jumping out to a 21-7 lead, the Bills were able to force the Giants into passing, and it worked out to their advantage. Against a tough Bills defense, Manning was held to just 26-for-45 passing for 250 yards and a touchdown, but was also intercepted twice and finished the game with a 62.3 passer rating:

“I think Eli’s great at what he does,” Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander said. “Today, I thought he did a good job getting the ball out. Once they got out of the quick-count, sped us up in the first 15 minutes, we were able to make them dink and dunk and not give up any big shots.”

While Saquon Barkley did finish the game with 107 yards and a touchdown, the game was never really close thanks to the Bills planning properly. If more teams are able to do this against the Giants going forward, it might be tough sledding for a team that’s already 0-2 and in need of a win.