The hype surrounding the Buffalo Bills ahead of the 2021 season was, arguably, at an all-time high following a historic 2020 season in Orchard Park.
However, the Bills suffered a swift kick to the teeth on Sunday in a 23-16 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers at Highmark Stadium.
While the Bills held a 10-0 lead heading into the locker room at halftime, things fell apart for Buffalo in the second half, as the Steelers executed their game plan well with some efficient play in all three phases of the game.
Meanwhile, the Bills shot themselves in the foot with some costly mistakes, especially on the offensive side of the football. The defense did relatively well against a new-look Steelers offense under offensive coordinator Matt Canada, but Buffalo's efficiency as an offense was not present against a stout Steelers defense.
Here are three observations from Sunday's season-opening loss for the Bills in Orchard Park.
1.) Puzzling play calling
It was a tale of two halves for the Bills and their offensive play calling on Sunday.
For a team that showed off its aggressiveness on fourth downs during the 2020 season, the Bills had two 4th-and-close situations on back-to-back drives in the opening half.
The first situation came on a 4th-and-1 at the Bills' 46-yard line with 2:41 remaining in the opening quarter. Instead of going for it and extending the drive, head coach Sean McDermott elected to send out the punting unit while leading 3-0.
Then at the 10:58 mark of the second quarter and facing a 4th-and-3 at the Pittsburgh 43-yard line, McDermott elected to send the punting unit out again with the score still at 3-0.
While punter Matt Haack did a great job pinning the Steelers deep inside their own 10-yard with both punts, it was odd to see Buffalo electing to play conservative in those short play situations.
However, the Bills flipped the script in the second half by going aggressive on fourth down situations. It did not end well in both cases for Buffalo.
In the third quarter with 5:54 remaining and facing a 4th-and-8 at the Steelers' 35-yard line, the Bills elected to go for the first down instead of sending kicker Tyler Bass on the field for a 52-yard field goal. Bills quarterback Josh Allen would attempt a lengthy pass down the middle of the field for Gabriel Davis, but it fell incomplete and the ball went back to the Steelers.
At the time, the score was 10-3 still in favor of the Bills. Pittsburgh was able to turn the mistake by the Bills into three more points to close the gap to 10-6 just 4:07 later.
On Buffalo's next drive and in the early stages of the fourth quarter, the offense faced a 4th-and-1 in Pittsburgh territory again at the 41-yard line. It would have been a 58-yard field goal attempt from Bass if the Bills wanted to attempt to add three more points on the board.
Understandably so, the Bills elected to go for the first down again, but elected an option play for Allen. The quarterback pitched the ball back to running back Matt Breida on the play, who ended up losing seven yard and giving the ball back to Pittsburgh again.
The Steelers ended up riding that momentum all the way down the other way and into the end zone with Diontae Johnson's five yard touchdown reception. That gave Pittsburgh the lead, 13-10, and the Steelers never looked back from there.
The Bills finished the contest going just 1-for-3 on fourth down after converting all but two fourth down attempts in the 2020 season.
In addition to the puzzling decisions on fourth down, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll called for a number of quarterback draw plays in the game that did not result in much efficiency for the Buffalo offense.
The Steelers defense seemed ready for whatever the Bills offense tried to throw their way, but Buffalo was not as sharp and efficient as a unit as they showed just last year.
2.) Penalties, penalties, penalties
The Bills killed themselves with penalties on Sunday, taking a total of eight penalties that tallied 81 yards.
A number of penalties came early on in the contest, with the offensive line being guilty of holding calls that wiped out some good gains on the play. Dion Dawkins was flagged a total of three times for holding in the game (one that was declined), while Mitch Morse, Daryl Williams and Jon Feliciano (declined) were also flagged for on the day.
Meanwhile, cornerback Levi Wallace was targeted quite a bit on Sunday, and it resulted in a couple of penalties that benefited the Steelers.
On the drive that put the Steelers ahead in the fourth quarter, Wallace was flagged for pass interference as he attempted to defend wide receiver Chase Claypool. The fourth-year cornerback was defending well within range of Claypool, but he never turned to look at the incoming ball and impeded on the receiving attempt. That penalty on a 3rd-and-7 play resulted in the ball being placed at the Bills' 23-yard line.
Two plays later, the ball was in the end zone and Pittsburgh was on top of the scoreboard.
Early in Pittsburgh's next offensive possession, Wallace was flagged again for defensive holding as Ben Roethlisberger was looking deep down the field to Johnson. While Wallace was only flagged for five yards this time, it still gave the Steelers a fresh set of downs.
3.) Allen still having issues with protecting the football
The Bills' fourth-year quarterback continues to struggle with protecting the football when moving around on his feet. Allen was stripped of the football twice on the afternoon, losing the football once and recovering the other fumble.
In the second quarter, Allen took off on a run and was stripped of the football by defensive end Cameron Heyward just as he was going down to the ground. Luckily for Allen, he was ruled to have recovered the football on his gain of eight yards to mid-field.
On the Bills' next offensive drive, Allen faced a 3rd-and-13 situation with the pocket starting to collapse around him. As he rolled out to his left, he was sacked and stripped of the football by All-Pro pass rusher T.J. Watt. After the ball bounced around for a bit, it was recovered by the Steelers with 8:38 remaining in the first half.
Allen will need to work on his protection issues with the football if he does not want to potentially cost his team more games down the road.
EXTRA POINT: Return of the fans
While the Bills failed to capture a win in Game 1 of the 2021 season, it was great to see the fans flock back to Highmark Stadium and experience a sense of normalcy in Orchard Park.
The atmosphere leading up to opening kickoff was, what the kids call, "lit" in the parking lots and around the stadium, and the sold out crowd at the stadium was loud and electric throughout the contest.
Hopefully this trend will be able to continue as the season progresses with no more hiccups due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Bills will look to bounce back next Sunday in South Florida when they take on the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. ET on the Buffalo Bills Radio Network with John Murphy, Eric Wood and Sal Capaccio on the call.
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