Buffalo Bills’ mistakes against Tampa Bay Buccaneers a cause for concern

The Buffalo Bills had a big win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a thrilling contest that saw nine lead changes. That many lead changes does mean a lot of scoring (see my other analysis post this week). It also means a lot of opportunities for the other team.

A major part of that story is a defense that allowed 32 points to the opponent. But it also means in this case a team that handed over several free chances to the Bucs via turnover.

The Turnovers

With such a short amount of time between last Sunday’s win and Buffalo’s Week 12 game on Thursday Night Football, time is at a premium. As such, all of the clips for this are in one video with some brief thoughts on each below.

• The Bills started off making us want to shout, backed up in their own end zone early. It looks like Buffalo wanted to dial up a blitz beater, allowing a free rusher. There was no time to set anything up and Josh Allen shoved the ball forward looking to avoid a safety. He did avoid the safety but the lob floated and was picked off.
• The second interception could just be written off as a tip that went poorly, but leading up to that ball careening upward tight end Dawson Knox found a nice zone to help his quarterback out. Allen had plenty of time in the pocket but delivered the throw late, allowing it to be deflected.
• Wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr. had an up-and-down start to the day. A long kickoff return was great early on, but his arm being yanked led to this fumble — which tipped the ledger far to the other side.

The Final Straw

The Bills have had a good streak of takeaways in the Sean McDermott era, helping the team’s overall metrics considerably. This season Buffalo is still plus-one in turnover differential, but recently the giveaways have been more prominent. That includes this week with an overall minus-one differential on the back of the three giveaways shown above.

Josh Allen turning on the god mode cheat code bailed the Bills out of not only the turnovers, but a defense that struggled to stop quarterback Baker Mayfield and his crew. The question now is whether or not the turnovers are here to stay, or if Buffalo will fall back into better ball security habits and start stacking wins.