ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills linebackers coach Al Holcomb coached Shaq Thompson over two stints and six total seasons with the Carolina Panthers before they reunited in Buffalo this year.
Thompson, 31, is now in his 11th NFL season and first with a new team.
But earlier this season, Holcomb remarked to ESPN on the performance Thompson has put on the field with the Bills. "What he is doing now, I feel like he's playing his best ball," he said.
With linebackers Terrel Bernard and Matt Milano missing time with various injuries, Thompson has stepped in and provided some of the team's best play at the position. He has missed his own time, four games over the course of the season, largely with a right hamstring injury.
When Thompson has been on the field, his impact has been felt.
"I think it helps me in the long term, for sure," linebacker Dorian Williams said of Thompson's presence. "Just seeing how he studies, picking his brain on certain things, having that communication, just knowing what helps each of us, what we need from each other to make each other better."
Thompson and the Bills defense has played some of its best football this season against AFC opponents. Against the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers, in the last six quarters specifically, the unit has given up 10 points and taken a step with one of its biggest weaknesses -- run defense, while continuing a run of strong success against the pass.
The unit will be tested Sunday against another AFC foe as Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals head to town (1 p.m. EST, Fox) and then with a matchup against the current AFC East leader New England Patriots the following week.
"I don't think we can afford to be inconsistent. Not now," coach Sean McDermott said. "Not that you can ever be, don't get me wrong, but our backs are against the wall. That's the way it is, and that's our mindset."
As the Bengals come to Orchard Park, New York, it will mark the third time Burrow and Bills quarterback Josh Allen have played on the same field, including the postseason.
Burrow has shined in those meetings, throwing four touchdowns to zero interceptions, completing 68% of his passes and finishing with a total QBR of 81. And while this will be just his second game since returning from injury, Burrow led the Bengals to score 32 points against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 13.
Limiting Cincinnati will be a challenge as the Bills will likely be without defensive end Joey Bosa (hamstring). Bosa is fifth in the NFL in pressure percentage (14%) and leads the league in forced fumbles (five). McDermott described him as week to week and said they are hoping his absence is short-lived.
But the unit has dealt with a rotation of players all season long as injuries have plagued the Bills defense.
Despite that, the Bills have only allowed 12 passing touchdowns (tied for second fewest), give up a completion percentage of 59.5% (fourth) and total QBR of 48.8 (fourth). No team has allowed fewer passing yards per game (163.2), which is in part a result of many teams having success on the ground against Buffalo and not needing to throw with the fewest passing attempts against. No team has allowed more rushing touchdowns (18) or yards after contact per rush (2.4).
In a small sample size, however, the performance against the run has slightly started to improve, allowing 108 yards on the ground to the Houston Texans and a season-low 58 to the Steelers the past two weeks.
"Credit to the players during the week with the staff of working on it over and over and over again," McDermott said on the gap integrity and tackling against Pittsburgh. "And not until we could get it right, but until they couldn't get it wrong. And it just, it was executed at a very high level. And the physicality that came with that."
Continuing that against one of the league's worst statistical rushing offenses will be key.
"Right now, it's just make sure we get the defense under wrap enough with the run game, take that away and start making teams more one dimensional," Thompson said.
Thompson has played a key role in that, even speaking to the team last Friday and challenged them. While the Bills have embraced a substitution system defensively like in no other season under McDermott, now that Thompson's back on the field, it even raises question marks of what team captain Bernard's role will look like upon his return with the fourth-year back struggling to stay healthy this season. He is currently out with a right elbow injury.
"Initially, I didn't know what [Thompson's] transition would look like, him being in the linebacker room and those things, and he has grown so much from when we drafted him in Carolina to where he is now," Holcomb said. "... He is a mentor, he's a big brother, he's a motivator. Even if it's to another veteran, he has blended right in, and really his personality, he's just grown so much. I can't say enough about the value on and off the field that he brings to our football team."