The Bills Blog

The Bills drop their second game in a row in an embarrassing Monday night performance against the Atlanta Falcons

The Buffalo Bills looked awful in their 24-14 loss on Monday. The team dug themselves into a hole from the very first defensive snap when Edge rusher Greg Rousseau lined up offsides negating what would have been a fumble recovery by the Bills. From there, the Bills defense was seemingly non existent as the Falcons found gaping holes and waltzed into the endzone for an opening drive TD.

The Bills offense fought back, responding with a well executed, 6 play, 73 yard touchdown drive. Buffalo’s defense stepped up and forced a key 3 and out that gave Allen and co. the ball back with a chance to take control of the game.

From there, the wheels fell off. All of them. Offensively, Buffalo punted on its next 4 drives before Josh Allen threw an interception to cap off one of his worst halves of football as an NFL Quarterback. Defensively, the team had absolutely no answers allowing Drake London, Bijan Robinson and Michael Penix to have their way and score at will. The Bills were inches away from a 21 point halftime deficit but were bailed out as Drake London stepped out of bounds while lunging towards the endzone as time expired.

The Bills received the ball at halftime and put together a touchdown drive that felt like they had finally settled in. They ran the ball effectively, converted on 3rd down and executed plays when needed. The Bills defense responded accordingly and forced a punt that put Buffalo in the improbable position to tie the game.

Yet, the Bills offense could not get the job done. They finished the game with a turnover on downs. 2 punts and another interception to end the game. The Bills special teams unit even blocked a field goal to keep it a one score game. Despite the adjustments made on D, Buffalo’s offense was completely ineffective and looked lost out there.

Its tough to point to one aspect as what went wrong offensively. The Bills were once again plagued with penalties that stifled any momentum they could muster up. The offensive line struggled and allowed QB pressures on roughly 44 percent of snaps. James Cook got going and started to open things up offensively but his usage was inconsistent and on most big downs, he could only be found on the sidelines. Josh Allen didn’t look like himself. He was pressured heavily, couldn’t escape the pocket and forced to make tough throws to receivers who couldn’t get open. Nothing went well for Buffalo and it seemed like they moved away from the play calling that defined their offensive success last year.

It will be interesting to see how the Bills respond after their week 7 bye. They have lots of work to do to get back on track and will need to come out with a revived intensity and a statement win against Carolina.