Buffalo Rumblings
All the Buffalo Bills had to do to defeat the Atlanta Falcons was score more than 24 points. If someone knew that going into Monday Night Football, they’d probably believe Josh Allen was a lock to get it done. When the final whistle blew, Buffalo had just 14 points — only one touchdown to begin each half. That’s rarely enough to get a “W” in today’s NFL.
The Bills are now 4-2, having lost a road game in which they never led. For the second-consecutive game, Buffalo lost the turnover battle, which is uncharacteristic of teams under head coach Sean McDermott in recent seasons. It’s no wonder they lost on Monday night, as is true of two Sundays ago.
The effort isn’t enough to win football games, regardless of opponent. There’s a concerning lack of execution in almost every phase and each position group, and the offensive line looks nowhere near as dominant as it did in 2024.
Atlanta deserves plenty of credit for coming in well-prepared, clearly taking advantage of film study and practice sessions based around Buffalo’s tape. The Falcons have a fantastic defense that’s loaded with blue-chip talent thanks to the premium draft assets invested in the trenches.
But that’s no excuse for the Bills’ effort on the field. General manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott signed off of each player wearing game-day numbers, and the truth is that too many of them just aren’t good enough to play proper chess. That’s especially true on defense, and at wide receiver on offense.
Quite often, critiques of games skew heavy one way or the other. The defense is the reason for the loss; the offense is why they lost. Well, what if both sides are at fault? At halftime, Buffalo’s defense gave up 21 points to Atlanta, then surrendered just a field goal after the break. Defensive penalties gutted the Bills in the first half. A lot of that second-half success is due to the play of defensive tackles Ed Oliver and Deone Walker. That’s commendable considering they were down DaQuan Jones who injured his calf in pregame warm-ups.
At the same time, they didn’t do enough in the first half. No defender did. But who would claim such to be true when surrendering 335 yards of offense to an opponent in one half of play?
Just as it was against the New England Patriots, Buffalo’s defense came to life after halftime, and the offense wasn’t ready to hold up its end of deal. Complementary football. It’s preached all the time. Yet another week, another awful effort on offense.
You may hear a lot of negative things about Taylor Rapp in the coming days, but his effort kept this game within range thanks to an individual effort to stop a touchdown with zeroes on the clock ahead of halftime. That’s another commendable moment that involved a ton of luck, but his play overall also deserves the criticism that’s surely waiting in the days ahead. He won’t...
