It’s already been a good week for the first-place team in the AFC East, and that club won’t be taking the field until a week from this Sunday.

On Thursday evening at Soldier Field, the Chicago Bears cooled off the New England Patriots. Ben Johnson’s team came away with a 30-24 triumph in a contest which saw New England’s Drake Maye and Chicago’s Caleb Williams both throw for 300-plus yards.

That means Joe Brady’s 5-1 Buffalo Bills have extended their lead in the division as the Pats dropped to 4-3. Of course, there’s still a lot of football remaining in the league’s 107th campaign.

Bills’ offense has been nearly unstoppable this season

Six weeks and one game into the 2026 NFL season and one thing is abundantly clear: Putting 30-plus points on the board is becoming more of a common occurrence. Last night’s performance by the Bears marked the 55th time a team reached that figure this season.

Such is the case with Brady’s Bills. An offensive unit led by the tag team duo of quarterback Josh Allen and running back James Cook has already produced 23 touchdowns in six contests. Buffalo leads the NFL in average points per contest (32.8) and has reached the 30-point mark in four games.

But Bills’ defense hasn’t stopped many teams this season

That’s the good news. When it comes to the other side of the football, new defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard is still looking for answers. The Bills are giving up 28.5 points per contest and only the Detroit Lions are allowing more total yards and passing yards per contest. Leonhard’s unit has surrendered 21 offensive TD—15 of those through the air. In the four games that Buffalo has reached at least 30 points, they have also permitted 30-plus points.

So where are we headed with this? There’s still 11 games remaining on the Bills’ schedule, and who they play doesn’t seem to matter these days. Allen and company are finding their way to the end zone, and so are their opponents.

A pair of Bills’ franchise records could be in jeopardy

It was just two years ago that the Bills set a team record for points scored (525) in a season. That happened to be the year that Allen was named the league’s MVP. Now ponder this. The franchise mark for the most points allowed in a season is a brisk 454 (28.4 points per game), which came in a 16-game campaign in 1984.

That club finished 2-14 under head coach Kay Stephenson, but that was bad enough for the team to earn the first overall pick in the ’85 NFL draft—selecting future Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith.

The average Buffalo Bills’ game this season averages 61.3 points. That adds up to a lot of entertaining football. But if this club has any kind of aspirations of reaching and then winning Super Bowl LXI, Leonhard needs to come up with some solutions on his side of the football.