By Justin DiLoro / Billswire.usatoday.com
The Buffalo Bills suffered a discouraging loss in front of their home crowd at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles. For the moment, all goodwill from a 5-1 start has been halted, as there are many questions following this game.
Unfortunately, this means that several players are trending downward after such a performance which resulted in a 31-13 final score.
Here’s how we see the latest trends for Buffalo’s play after this week’s game.
Stock up
Devin Singletary
The Buffalo Bills seem to get a lift each time he touches the ball. There is an air of excitement in the stadium when he’s on the field. Once again, Singletary did well with limited touches in this game.
He scored the Bills second touchdown on the afternoon. It even seemed as if he would cut inside, only to high-step, pick up his pace down the sidelines, and break a tackle on his way to a 28-yard touchdown reception.
The rookie ended the day with three carries for 19 yards and four receptions for 30 yards plus the aforementioned touchdown. There has to be a way to get this man more carries.
Cole Beasley
Beasley once again found the end zone for the Bills. On a day where it was difficult to complete passes due to the weather conditions, the former Cowboy reeled in three passes for 41 yards.
It’s his second consecutive game with a touchdown reception, his first two scores as a member of the Bills.
Quarterback Josh Allen is still looking his way often, as Beasley was second on the team with seven targets. Some minor tweaks and the catch percentage will improve. For now, the touchdown is a positive.
Matt Milano
Milano returned from injury, and it looked as if he were back to his old self. He was flying around the field, deeply involved in many defensive plays.
While he didn’t necessarily have a standout play in the loss, he did lead the team with 13 total tackles, 10 of which were solo efforts. He also had three tackles for loss on the day.
He is also healthy at the end of the game. That’s a success moving forward.
Stock down
Josh Allen
The wind played games with Allen’s throws all day. He struggled to navigate the conditions, which resulted in a stagnated offense. A throw, with the winded, ended up falling short on a deep pass to Robert Foster. Several times, it seemed as if Allen and his receivers were not completely on the same page. He was late on a fourth-down pass to John Brown, which ultimately sealed any late-game heroics on the afternoon.
That may have to do with the game plan. More on that later.
Allen’s day was a struggle, going 16-of-34 for 169 yards. His two touchdowns helped on the day, but his three fumbles (one lost) are a bit worrisome. Once again, Allen ended up leading the Bills in rushing, which is a problem in itself. Allen has the same amount of fumbles this season (8) as he had his entire rookie year already.
Bills rush defense
Swiss cheese. Open the flood gates. It’s a sieve. Use any colorful metaphor you want, the rush defense was non-existent on Sunday. The Eagles smacked this unit in the face and ran on them at will.
The Bills gave up a total of 218 yards on the ground. In addition, they surrendered three touchdowns to three different running backs.
That’s not the type of hat trick that you want.
The group was pushed around and struggled to win in the trenches. It was the type of day where the run game would be of the most importance and therefore, the defenses should have been ready for it. Ultimately, the team who got pushed around in the trenches got blown out by a talented Eagles’ front-seven.
Oh, and they let quarterback Carson Wentz look like Michael Vick at times. Ok, that may be a bit of a hyperbole, but if you didn’t yell at the TV when Wentz ran through the defense for a first down, then you probably don’t have a pulse. It was frustrating, to say the least.
The offensive line
It’s hard to tell at times if it’s a poor offensive line or if it’s Allen. It’s probably a combination of both but at some point, it can’t look like the quarterback is constantly running for his life.
Allen was sacked four times against the Eagles. It’s a problem, even with a slightly improved line over last year’s group. Either the unit has help with protection, which limits the number of routes, or there’s a jailbreak with defenders attacking Allen.
Not to mention, Allen was the Bills’ leading rusher on the day. Rushers Devin Singletary and Frank Gore didn’t get much space to work with in this one. LeSean McCoy was beaten up in publicly in the past for not out-rushing Allen.
The coaching staff
The game plan was abhorrent. If the idea were to run and dominate on the ground, then maybe the group to get some forward push from that group.
This team has no plan in action in case they run into a shootout. Once the Eagles put 24 points on the board, there was little confidence that the team would be able to stage a comeback.
The offensive plan lacked any sort of creativity. With a game where the conditions warranted a different plan of action, it did not come into play.
What is this team doing with Singletary? Why can’t their starting defensive ends get after the quarterback? How does a defensive coach allow his unit to get shredded on the ground? Why was the intermediate passing game largely nonexistent? Is there a better answer than (and we might be paraphrasing from previous weeks): We have to be better? Why are we talking about protecting the quarterback then running him on a sweep? Why does this team take so many dumb penalties?
The game was a mess in all facets. That falls on the coaches.