Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR 550) - This would have been a vintage drought game for the Buffalo Bills. The game would end, and you'd wonder how the heck the Bills managed to lose. There would be crazy plays and inexplicable moments, and we'd all say, "The Bills did some 'Billsy' things."
Crazy things certainly happened in Sunday's heartbreaking loss to the Minnesota Vikings at Highmark Stadium.
There were four different moments where I was sure the Bills had, essentially, put the game away and would be improving to 7-2, which would have kept them on top of the division and the conference.
When Tyler Bass kicked a field goal to give the Bills a 27-10 lead with 1:51 left in the third quarter, I said to myself, "Game over." But on the first play from scrimmage on the next drive for the Vikings, running back Dalvin Cook ripped off an 81-yard touchdown run.
When Von Miller, a.k.a. "the closer", sacked Kirk Cousins, leaving Minnesota facing a 4th-and-18 coming out of the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter, I was absolutely certain the game was over.
However, the Bills gave up a 32-yard pass to unstoppable wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
On that same drive, the Bills defense came up with a huge stop on Cousins on 4th-and-goal from the Bills' one-yard line. Not just a huge stop, but a victory-sealing stop with 49 seconds left, or so I thought.
All the Bills had to do was get a Josh Allen sneak on the first play to get away from their own end zone and that would be it.
Amazingly, Allen fumbled the snap and the Vikings recovered for a touchdown.
But the Bills came back and forced overtime on their next drive. Even though they were down by a field goal after Minnesota's opening drive of the extra quarter, Allen and company quickly moved all the way down to the Vikings' 20-yard line, and still had 1:25 left on the clock. Plenty of time for the offense to get into the end zone.
However, Allen, who recently has been a turnover machine in the red zone, made another critical, and in this case, fatal mistake when he was picked off by Patrick Peterson in the end zone. It was Allen's second red zone interception of the game, and fifth in the last five games.
I love Allen. I wouldn't trade him for anybody. I still think the Bills are a Super Bowl quality team, and the main reason is the presence of Allen at quarterback. However, Allen has been making some bad decisions and some big time mistakes lately.
Maybe he is putting more pressure on himself, and by extension the offense, because of all the injuries on the defensive side of the ball. Perhaps he is feeling the pressure of the tight race in the AFC East. It could be the sky-high expectations are getting to Allen.
The Bills quarterback is showing some tendencies from earlier in his career when he was too eager to make big pass plays down the field as opposed to taking what the defense is giving.
There were check-downs and shorter throws that could have been made on Sunday and would have resulted in positive plays, as opposed to an incompletion down field.
Allen was very good at that during the first month of the season. He was playing within himself, and was being patient. Eventually, the explosive pass plays would come after he softened up the pass defense.
Allen needs to bring that back into his game starting with this Sunday's matchup with the Cleveland Brown in Orchard Park.
