C.J. Gardner-Johnson handed the Buffalo Bills a mess to clean up over the bye. The veteran safety was ejected with 19 seconds left in the first half of Sunday’s 33-30 win over the Raiders for spitting toward tight end Brock Bowers, and the penalty set up a game-tying field goal at the horn.
A suspension looks unlikely based on recent history, though the NFL hasn’t announced anything yet. A hefty fine is the more likely outcome, and Buffalo doesn’t play again until it hosts Baltimore on Nov. 1. Josh Allen tying Jim Kelly, James Cook bouncing back and a defense that keeps letting teams hang around made the trip home, too. Here are five questions Bills fans are asking.
Will C.J. Gardner-Johnson be suspended vs. the Ravens?
Probably not, but the league hasn’t ruled yet. Referee Shawn Smith told a pool reporter that umpire Tra Blake “witnessed him spitting on the opponent.” The closest precedent is Philadelphia’s Jalen Carter, who was ejected for spitting on Dak Prescott in the 2025 opener. Carter was suspended one game and forfeited his $57,222 game check.
Gardner-Johnson has never been suspended in his career, according to The Associated Press, but this was his second 15-yard penalty in two weeks after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Tyler Higbee in Los Angeles. He owned it afterward. “I got to be a better player. Got to be a better vet,” he said. “Let my emotions get above me, and I hurt my team. They brought me here to play big games like this, so I got to do better.”
Joe Brady didn’t hide his frustration. “The team is bigger than that, the situation is bigger than that, everything is bigger. It can’t happen, and it definitely has to be addressed,” the coach said.
Did Josh Allen break Jim Kelly’s touchdown record?
Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
He matched one version of it. Allen’s 12-yard flip to Keon Coleman in the third quarter, thrown as he was being dragged down, gave him 258 career touchdown passes. The AP reported that he tied Kelly’s franchise record, and the math only works when you count the playoffs. Kelly threw 237 in the regular season and 21 in the postseason, according to Pro Football Reference. Allen now has 229 and 29.
That leaves him nine regular-season touchdown passes from passing Kelly outright. At his current pace of 1.5 per game, that lands right around the Dec. 6 trip to New England.
Allen finished 23 of 33 for 255 yards with two touchdown passes and no interceptions. His five-game streak with a rushing touchdown ended, one short of Justin Fields’ Super Bowl-era record. As for the flip, he barely saw it land. “I saw him, but once it comes out, you kind of get hit and tumble around,” Allen said.
Why can’t the Bills’ defense close out games?
Buffalo led 23-13 early in the fourth quarter and still needed to recover an onside kick. Las Vegas answered with a 15-play field goal drive and a 91-yard touchdown drive, and Kirk Cousins hit Tre Tucker for a 44-yard score with 1:32 left. Cousins threw for 313 yards, and Michael Mayer posted a career-high 95 receiving yards.
Rookie Jalon Kilgore’s third-down breakup with under five minutes left was the defense’s first fourth-quarter or overtime stop in eight series, per ESPN. The Bills are allowing 28.5 points per game, 28th in the league.
“I feel like that has been a recurrent theme, we just haven’t been able to put teams away, finish games,” linebacker Terrel Bernard told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “So we’ll go back and look at it, situational football, and get better.” That’s why we wrote the Bills need one more Brandon Beane swing before the trade deadline.
Is James Cook’s fumbling problem behind him?
For one week, yes. A week after fumbling twice against the Rams, Cook ran 22 times for 95 yards, scored the go-ahead 3-yard touchdown with 4:43 left and caught all three of his targets for 58 yards. Buffalo played its first turnover-free game after nine giveaways over the previous three weeks.
Brady delivered a blunt warning on fumbles last week, but he kept feeding Cook anyway. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna hand him the football,'” Brady told the Democrat and Chronicle. “I didn’t get to standing right here (as a head coach) without James, and it’s the confidence I have in him,” he added.
Cook has 627 rushing yards on 117 carries with six touchdowns. He also has four fumbles this season and 11 fumbles since the start of 2025, so one clean afternoon won’t end the conversation.
Will D.J. Moore be back for the Ravens game?
Buffalo hasn’t said. Moore has missed two straight games with a shoulder injury after being limited in Friday’s practice again, and Ed Oliver (knee) has sat out the same two games. Bradley Chubb and Dalton Kincaid both left Sunday with rib injuries and returned.
We noted the passing game still needs D.J. Moore, though Kincaid looked like himself again with seven catches for 38 yards. He had four catches over the previous three games. “The more touches that we get him, the better,” Allen said, per the Democrat and Chronicle. “Made it a point to get him involved today, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
At 5-1, Buffalo sits a game ahead of 4-2 New England, which owns the head-to-head tiebreaker for now. Two weeks of rest should help, and the crowd in Orchard Park will want Moore on the field when Baltimore comes to town.
More on the Buffalo Bills
- Is the Bills’ Fourth-Quarter Defense Fixed? Jalon Kilgore’s Late Stop Was Only a Start
- Bills Hit Bye at 5-1, but Their Passing Game Still Needs DJ Moore
- C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s Spitting Ejection Hands Raiders Points, Leaves Bills’ Secondary Exposed
- Josh Allen and the Bills Win a Shootout in Las Vegas in Our Week 6 Score Prediction
