One of the biggest regular season games over the last 20 years for the Buffalo Bills franchise turned into one of the most depressing losses on Monday night at Highmark Stadium.
It wasn’t heartbreaking or gut wrenching. It wasn’t a last-second defeat or a game they lost because of a controversial call from officials. There was no potential game-winning field goal that was missed.
This game was the football equivalent of death by a thousand paper cuts.
Losing to New England is life sucking. It really hurt watching the New England Patriots celebrate at the end of the game, seeing Bill Belichick with a big smile on his face, as he congratulated his players and knowing what is coming about how he is a genius and they still own the Bills.
We needed the Bills to stop the Patriots' hype train, and sadly that didn’t happen.
You probably went to bed with a whole bunch of "what ifs" in your head. I know I certainly did.
Obviously the wind had an impact on the game, but so did the Bills' coaching. They hurt their offense more than the Patriots defense did.
The Bills coached the first half like they were afraid of their passing game. When Buffalo drafted Josh Allen, didn’t the team do it in part because he had a strong arm and could still throw the ball when the weather turns in December and January?
The two best drives by the offense came in the fourth quarter when the Bills, basically, said, "To heck with running the ball, we need to throw it." They did, and it worked, despite the fact they were going into those considerable winds.
In that fourth quarter, Allen was 7-of-13 for 69 yards. Through the first three quarters, he was 8-of-17 for 76 yards.
It was as if the Bills decided if we're going down, let's go down doing what we do best.
The run game was doing absolutely nothing on this night. Devin Singletary, Zack Moss and Matt Breida (although he only had one carry after a first quarter fumble) combined for just 60 yards on 19 carries, which is a lousy three yards per-carry average.
The ESPN broadcast team kept talking about how we should expect a steady diet of designed runs for Allen, but that never materialized. He ran just six times, and those were on scrambles. They could have absolutely used Allen’s legs in the red zone, where the Bills' drives died.
If you want to boil this game down to one thing, it would be the Bills going 1-for-4 in the red zone. The Bills' final three drives of the game all went into the red zone and they produced a field goal, a missed field goal and a turnover on downs.
The biggest of those failures came in the fourth quarter with the Bills trailing 14-10.
Buffalo had a 1st-and-goal at the Patriots' six-yard line, and if Moss bounces his run outside, it looked like he had a sure touchdown. Instead, he went inside for no gain. A sack on second down and an incomplete pass on third down led to a 33-yard field goal attempt from Tyler Bass into the wind, which pushed it wide-right.
On the next drive, which turns out to be the Bills' final possession, they had a first down at the Patriots' 14-yard line, but, again, came up empty. A Singletary run gained just one yard on first down. How about use your 250-pound quarterback to run the ball? A back-shoulder pass for Stefon Diggs around the goal line sailed out of bounds on second down. Allen almost pulled off a fantastic play on third down, but his pass to Dawson Knox in the end zone was broken up. I think the Patriots got away with holding Knox on that play.
On the final play, 4th-and-14 at the Patriots' 18-yard line, Allen had Cole Beasley open over the middle, perhaps for a first down, but apparently locked on to Gabriel Davis in the end zone. Davis was open too, but a Patriots defender must have read Allen’s eyes, because he dropped off of Beasley, drifted into the passing lane and broke up the throw.
There were some "what if" plays with the Bills offense too.
What if Breida doesn’t fumble when the Bills are driving inside the Patriots' 30-yard line with the wind at their back in the first quarter and a chance to put up the game’s first points?
Later in the first half, what if Knox hangs on to a diving catch for a first down at the Patriots' 22-yard line? A safety punched the ball out, and the Bills punted on the next play.
What if the bomb to Diggs in the third quarter isn’t affected by the wind? Diggs beat his man and it looked like it was a touchdown in the making. The Bills ended up with a field goal on that drive, pulling them within one point. A touchdown would have given them their first lead of the game.
If one of those many plays turns out differently, maybe the Bills don’t lose by four points and they are in control of the AFC East instead of the "Evil Empire".
As depressing as this game was, the Bills season is not over. They can even still pull out the division, but now face a must-win game in New England in three weeks.
According to the New York Times playoff machine, the Bills' playoff chances are still at 77%. Hopefully that picks you up a little on a day when we all need something to pick us up.
