Buffalo Authority

My how things can change in a week. Last week the Bills were on top of the world after thrashing the Dolphins 48-20, declaring themselves officially “back” in a disastrous start to the season on Monday Night Football. One week and another county later, the Bills find themselves searching for answers once again after a frustrating 25-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Travel

Did the Bills’ management put them behind the 8-ball before even getting on the plane to London? Sean McDermott cited sports-science as to why the team practiced in Buffalo Wednesday and Thursday and didn’t leave until Thursday night, sleeping on the plane and having just 48 hours for their body to acclimate. Josh Allen even admitted to how tired he was feeling on Friday after arriving. It is a curious decision when their opponent had been in London for nearly a week and a half, having played there last week. If both teams had been flying from the U.S. I can understand waiting to travel, but the Jaguars had been there and acclimated for quite some time. Knowing how McDermott values consistency and routine, I’d be willing to bet the Bills wanted to keep to their schedule for as long as possible, quickly fly over for the game and get back ASAP to have a normal week leading up to Sunday night’s game against the Giants. Postgame McDermott said that the schedule would be evaluated, as would every aspect of the game given their performance today.

Injuries

The injuries in this game were nothing short of crushing. It is hard to fault the defense today after how depleted they were for the better part of the game. Already without Tre’Davious White, Greg Rousseau, Shaq Lawson, and Christian Benford, the Bills quickly lost Da’Quan Jones and Matt Milano. If Milano is going to miss extended time, which is seems certain he will, the Bills are really going to tested in the middle of the their defense. Taron Johnson briefly went out with a scary knee injury, Dion Dawkins was looked at for a bit, and Dalton Kincaid was evaluated for a head injury. There is so much luck that is involved with player’s health, and the Bills are clearly on the wrong side of it so far this year.

Defense

Into the 4th quarter the Bills defense, which was made up of 2nd and 3rd stringers, had held the Jaguars to 11 only points. The Jags took an 11-0 lead in the 2nd quarter, so for two whole quarters, the defense held the Jaguars scoreless. Based on that stat alone, the Bills should have won this game. You couldn’t have asked much more for 2nd and 3rd stringers against a very talented quarterback in Trevor Lawrence . The defense also forced two red-zone turnovers to keep the team in the game. Again, the defense did it’s job today and played well enough for the Bills to win. I came away impressed with McDermott’s unit, playing against an AFC contender and down half of their starters. The biggest question I have for the defense is what Brandon Beane will decide to do with Kaiir Elam before the deadline. Based on today, it doesn’t appear Beane can sit on his hands this time around. Elam didn’t make it through the game due to his performance. Calvin Ridley cooked him consistently and unless he can improve his game significantly in the next few weeks, Beane will have to replace him.

Offense

For whatever reason the Bills’ offense has looked unprepared to play in 2 out of their 5 games this year. In the other three games the offense has been unstoppable, which is what makes Ken Dorsey’s unit so frustrating. Penalties consistently put the Bills in difficult positions throughout the game. Once the film has been analyzed I bet McDermott and Dorsey will say that the team became one-dimensional due to their lack of production on the ground. A running game has been something that McDermott has been calling for for years now, and it has been hard to argue with the results from the past three weeks when the run game was clicking for the Bills. James Cook saw his stats for the year literally get worse today from when he woke up. He finished with -4 yards on 5 carries.

The Bills are still very much in the discussion in the AFC. They are 3-2 with an excellent chance to get to 6-2 over the next three weeks. They nearly won a game today against a fellow AFC contender while playing with a 2nd and 3rd string defense. More importantly, they do not have to play international games every week against teams that did not have to travel. Hoping for news on Milano this week that his injury is not season-ending. Losing two all-pro players for the year in consecutive weeks would be very hard to come back from.