The Bills gave up at least 29 points in five of their first six games of the season and opponents averaged over 386 yards of offense in those contests.

Concern about those numbers was mitigated by the team’s 5-1 record, but it lingered as a reason to doubt that the Bills would be able to go the distance come the postseason. The Bills had a bye in Week 7 and the last two weeks have seen very different performances.

The Bills allowed 144 yards in a 36-10 win over the Ravens in Week 8 and they allowed 178 in Monday night’s 23-6 win over the Vikings. They recorded six sacks and six takeaways in those games and the defensive effort on Monday bought their offense time to get going after a poor start to the game.

Linebacker Greg Rousseau had a sack in each win to get to eight for the season and he said the performances show a unit that is discovering its identity.

“Last week wasn’t a fluke,” Rousseau said, via Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News. “It’s what we are. It’s what we can do. We just have to keep going.”

The counter to Rousseau or anyone else feeling bullish about the Bills defense is that Joe Fagnano was at quarterback for most of the Ravens game and that Carson Wentz was running the Vikings offense. The Bills can’t control such things, of course, but they do make it harder to feel like the results were all about tweaks that had improved the defense.

General Manager Brandon Beane has a chance to bolster the group before Tuesday afternoon’s deadline and games against the Jets and Dolphins offer chances to keep building confidence over the next two weeks. Those things could help because the real tests of the Bills defense won’t come for some time.