Consecutive losses for the Bills is tough to stomach. Especially for quarterback Josh Allen and coach Sean McDermott following Monday night’s 24-14 setback against the Falcons. It’s a multi-game failure that’s happened once per season for Buffalo since 2019.
The mistakes and ineptitude offensively is correctable, but Allen and McDermott did not hold back after another disappointing outing resulted in a tie atop the AFC East with the Patriots. They’ll head into an open date before playing the streaking Panthers later this month.
“It’s gonna eat at me the next two weeks,” Allen said after Buffalo never found its rhythm. “I mean, a lot of stuff to clean up.”
A couple three-and-outs in the fourth quarter with an opportunity to tie the game was particularly alarming for a team with Super Bowl hopes this season after last fall’s campaign ended in the AFC Championship Game.
Back to back pedestrian performances from Allen, which included a pair of interceptions and a season-low 18.7 QBR in Atlanta, sounded the alarms.
“We’ve got to figure it out,” McDermott said. “We’ve got to dive deep into what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, making sure we’ve got the right people in the right positions, and then the execution at the end of the day, we’ve got to start from ground zero and work our way back up.”
The Falcons got consistent pressure on Allen, harassing him on a season-high 44.1% of his dropbacks, per NFL.com. Buffalo eclipsed 30 points in each of its first four wins prior to last week’s 23-20 loss to New England that preceded Monday’s 14 points — the team’s lowest total since a 14-9 win over the Giants in 2023.
“We had our opportunities to take advantage of and we didn’t,” Allen said. “It sucks when you feel like two-thirds of your team (special teams and defense) are doing their job and you’re the team not to pull your weight. It sucks.”
Bijan Robinson rushed for 170 yards and the Falcons jumped out to a 21-7 lead at halftime.
“They had a good plan,” Allen said. “Looks like they came off the bye week and got to game-plan us quite a bit. Again, I’ve got to be better in seeing the things they’re trying to do to us and make adjustments accordingly.”
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