If the championship-hungry Buffalo Bills want to shed their new reputation as pretenders and reemerge as title contenders heading into the late December playoff push, it'd behoove them to establish an honest ground game.
In their overtime road loss to the reigning champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon, the Bills' running backs were practically non-existent. They became the first NFL team since 1991 to play an entire first half with no carries registered by a halfback, as 43 rushing yards came via scrambles by star quarterback Josh Allen.
"Their inability to run the ball is their Achilles' heel right now. That can't be the case," former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann told the Reiter Than You show on Tuesday morning. "Josh Allen is their running game, and that can't be the case... They're asking him to do an awful lot, and don't really have the ability to take that off his shoulders. You throw three passes [against the Patriots]?
"Sooner or later, you've got to put enough people at the line of scrimmage to say, 'We're not going to let this happen'... There's growth that has to happen, and the quarterback position is one of process. Josh is continuing to grow in it, but the Bills can't rely on him to be their running game. And if they can't find one, they're going to continue to struggle."
One of the reasons why the Bills eliminated the ground attack from their first-half gameplan was due to the score. They trailed by a whopping 21 points at halftime, as Buccaneers veteran quarterback Tom Brady exposed defenders. Through two quarters, Buffalo scored a lone field goal.
Allen managed to shrug off an underwhelming start and finished on somewhat of a high note, completing 36 of 54 passes for 308 yards with two scores and a pick. He also rushed for 109 yards and a touchdown, becoming the fourth player in history to record 300-plus passing yards and 100-plus rushing yards in a single game. Buffalo totaled 64 yards from halfbacks, and after the game, Allen was seen wearing a walking boot. The team has listed him as day-to-day with a left foot sprain.
Buffalo (7-6), which now owns the final AFC wild card spot, will look to snap its two-game losing skid in a Week 15 matchup against the Carolina Panthers (5-8) this coming Sunday. According to FiveThirtyEight's projections, the Bills currently have a 66-percent chance to reach the playoffs and a 20-percent chance to win the AFC East.
The entire NFL conversation between Theismann and Reiter can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Reiter Than You show on Twitter @sportsreiter and @CBSSportsRadio, and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.