ORCHARD PARK - For the second time this season, the Buffalo Bills played a 1 p.m. game at Highmark Stadium, and for the second time, they apparently must have thought that meant 1 p.m. central time.

The first hour or so of their eventual 34-10 runaway victory over the Tennessee Titans Sunday was a complete mess as their defense buckled to Mason Rudolph’s methodical but efficient ways, and Josh Allen and the offense was woefully out of sync with three consecutive three-and outs.

“Yeah, I thought we were ready,” coach Sean McDermott said.

Sign up for the Bills Blast newsletter Delivered straight to your inbox, additional Bills analysis, insight, stats, quotes and team history from Sal Maiorana

Well, they weren’t, and the result was an early 10-0 deficit. “We came out and started slow,” McDermott continued. “Some of those were self-inflicted - had a drop, had a penalty. I can't remember on the next drive what happened, but just not good enough and not what you want to do in that situation.”

Josh Allen, who completed only four passes in the first two quarters, agreed.

“Not ideal to start the way we did,” Josh Allen said. “Our defense kept us in it long enough where we figured it out. I think first and second down efficiency was just really poor, something I've got to clean up, make better decisions early on, get us into the right plays.

“I do love and appreciate our guys, how we came out in the second half, our defense getting a stop, the fourth down allowed us to get some momentum right there. And, again, we just found a way. It didn't look like it was going to be pretty in the first half, but to win the way we did speaks a lot to the guys in the locker room.”

Here are a few of my observations:

A Titans gamble failed in a big way

Tennessee’s first-year coach Brian Callahan made a decision that changed the arc of the game. On the first possession of the third quarter, leading 10-7 and facing a fourth-and-2 at his own 44, Callahan got bold and went for the first down.

Which, OK, you’re 1-4, on the road, feeling your oats a little, sure, take the chance. However, whoever made the play call, either Callahan or coordinator Nick Holz, it was a disaster. They tried to run Tony Pollard up the middle and rookie DT DeWayne Carter blew it up for a three-yard loss.

“We were in short yardage situations all week and basically, the situation we practiced in practice came out with the same look,” Carter said. “I knew I had to get off the ball fast and low. And you know, fortunately, I got off the ball fast enough that I just split the guys and ran into a tackle. And you know, sometimes a little luck helps a lot.”

The game flipped on a dime as the Bills immediately marched to the end zone in six plays, Josh Allen hitting newcomer Amari Cooper with a 12-yard touchdown pass for a 14-10 lead, and the Titans were never heard from again.

With the momentum permanently altered, the Bills rolled to what became an easy victory as they tacked on two Tyler Bass field goals, a four-yard Allen TD pass to Ty Johnson, and a Ray Davis TD run.

Some risks pay off, but this one by the Titans might have cost them a chance at pulling off an upset.

Amari Cooper scored in his Bills debut

It certainly wasn’t the best first impression for Cooper, the new wide receiver acquired in a trade from Cleveland on Tuesday. On the first series of the game, on a third-and-1, Cooper ran a simple sideline pattern, Allen delivered the ball and Cooper dropped it, forcing the Bills to punt. Drops have been a problem for Cooper this season, and that came into play immediately.

He was not targeted again in the first half while playing less than 10 snaps. But then in the third quarter, Cooper found his groove and he showed exactly what he can bring to the Buffalo offense, a terrific route runner who can get open and make plays on the ball.

After Carter’s big play for the turnover on downs, Dalton Kincaid made a tremendous catch for 17 yards on a third-and-12, and then Cooper ran through the Titans zone coverage on a slant pattern from the left side and beat safety Quandre Diggs to a spot in the end zone where Allen hit him for a 12-yard touchdown that gave Buffalo the lead at 14-10.

“We had an alert on the play built in, predicated on if we got a specific look,” Cooper said. “We got the look that we wanted, we checked to it, and it worked just like it did in practice.”

Pretty impressive stuff for a guy who just joined the team. “We changed the play at the line of scrimmage,” Allen said. “They gave us a zero look, we got into our zero beater. I'm pretty sure he knew what to do because he did it.”

Cooper played probably more than was initially planned because Curtis Samuel suffered a shoulder injury in the first half and did not return. That worked out pretty well because on the next Buffalo possession, Cooper made a nice catch on the left sideline for a 19-yard gain to the Tennessee 30 which led to Bass’ first field goal.

Later in the third, Cooper got open on the left sideline for a 27-yard reception to the Titans which helped set up Allen’s TD pass to Johnson on the first play of the fourth quarter. And he added an eight-yard grab on the next series which ended with Bass’ second field goal and a 27-10 lead. In all, it was four catches for 66 yards in his Bills debut.

Cooper wasn’t the only standout on offense

Coleman had his best game as a pro as he had receptions of 44 and 57 yards, plus nearly scored a touchdown on a beautiful catch in the end zone, but he just failed to get his second foot in bounds to finish the play. He wound up with four catches for 125 yards.

“He's a guy that wants the ball,” Allen said of the second-round pick. “He's back side one-on-one, he wants the ball thrown to him and he continues to make plays like that for us. You know, it's hard not to throw it to him. But just staying in it, trusting the offense, trusting what's going on. And he made some good plays for us tonight, and we're going to need that going forward.”

Dalton Kincaid made an outstanding catch for a 25-yard gain to set up a touchdown in addition to the superb catch he made before Cooper’s touchdown. And Khalil Shakir looked like he’s back to being slippery and dangerous as he had a team-high seven catches for 65 yards.

After the terrible first half, Allen really got hot in the final two quarters and for the first time this year he topped 300 yards, finishing 21 of 33 for 323 yards.

This against a Tennessee defense that came into the game No. 1 in the NFL in yards allowed per game and passing yards allowed per game. After managing just three first downs and 90 yards in the first half, the Bills finished with 18 first downs and 389 yards, the most the Titans have yielded this season.

After a sluggish start, Bills defense came up big

The moment I saw on Saturday that Tennessee was ruling out second-year starting quarterback Will Levis due to a shoulder injury, and veteran career backup Rudolph was starting the game, I had a feeling the Titans offense would be better than it’s been at any point this season.

And for most of the first half, that was the case. Rudolph looked calm and confident and he used a short passing game to produce back-to-back scoring drives bridging the first and second quarters for a 10-0 lead. Those drives went 61 yards resulting in a Nick Folk 25-yard field goal, and 75 yards to Rudolph’s four-yard TD pass to Nick Westbrook-Ihine.

But it got much more difficult for Rudolph thereafter as the Bills made their adjustments and on their next seven possessions they did not score and netted just 66 yards and six first downs, two of those via Buffalo penalties.

Finally, when they were down 27-10 and the Bills were backing off a bit, the Titans started moving the ball in the classic garbage time segment of the game, but that seven-possession vacuum, during which the Bills scored 27 consecutive points, helped cost them the game.

The trouble for the Titans started after the Bills scored a quick-strike touchdown on a three-play, 61-yard drive culminating in James Cook’s 11-yard TD run that cut the Tennessee lead to 10-7. Rudolph fumbled a snap and Terrel Bernard recovered at the Titans 46, and though the Bills offense wasted that and had to punt, it was still a lost possession near midfield for Tennessee.

Next, AJ Epenesa sacked Rudolph, forced a fumble, and while the Bills missed on the recovery, it was a loss of 20 yards and the Titans could not escape that hole and punted.

Thereafter, the Bills’ defense just continued to make it difficult for Rudolph to regain the rhythm he established in the early portion of the game, and Damar Hamlin’s interception with 4:31 left deep in Buffalo territory put an exclamation point on a defensive effort that certainly ended better than it began.

McDermott tried to play weatherman

The game began in the most curious fashion. The Bills won the coin toss and it’s almost automatic that they defer because they want the ball to start the second half, analytics saying that that’s the most efficient way maximize scoring chances.

But this time, the Bills chose to receive the kick and McDermott said it was because of the weather. What?

“I took the ball in the first half because of the wind being a factor,” he said. “Life of a weatherman, but we felt like it was going to gust a little bit more in the second half. So we wanted to have the opportunity to get the wind when we wanted it.”

That backfired when the Bills went three-and-out, and the decision proved silly because the weather never changed throughout the day. It was breezy, but never enough to affect any aspect of the game. Sometimes coaches just over-think too many things.

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills wake up to blow out Titans as offense dominates in second half