So how do we assess the Bills as they head into the final six games of the regular season?
Well, that view changed dramatically Friday morning when cornerback Tre’Davious White’s MRI indicated he had a torn ACL and surgery for the knee injury would keep Buffalo’s best defender out for the rest of the season.
It’s a devastating blow for a team that, in recent seasons, has fared fairly well on the injury front as it relates to its top performers.
HERE THE the Bills are at 7-4, 11 games in, but after a 4-1 start have alternated losses and wins for the last seven starts.
But they still see themselves as the Super Bowl contender Buffalo was supposed to be when the 2021 schedule started.
After the 31-6 domination of the Saints on Thanksgiving night in New Orleans, defensive end Mario Addison maintained, “We’ve got a good team … we’ve got a (darn) good team. But sometimes we don’t play like it. The thing we’ve got to do is play more consistent ball.”
And while a win-loss-win-loss-win-loss-win streak might be consistent … that’s not meant in a positive way.
Right now the Bills aren’t a good team … more like a shade above average.
That might get them into the playoffs — they hold the third and final AFC wild-card playoff spot if the postseason started today — but clearly their aspirations are higher.
Currently Buffalo is tied with New England atop the division, but the Pats host Tennessee (8-3), which has the conference’s best record, come Sunday afternoon.
With Buffalo having already lost to the Titans and trailing them by two games including the punitive head-to-head loss, you can bet the Bills coaches and players will be rooting hard for the Patriots.
And the reason is that a Tennessee loss would keep alive Buffalo’s hope of earning the conference’s lone playoff bye and a chance to host the AFC championship game. The Bills fate would be back in their own hands, as they will face the Patriots twice in the next four games, starting a week from Monday night at Highmark Stadium.
STILL, there are legitimate concerns about the offense and not just its uneven ground game.
Buffalo has struggled in the first half of four of its last five games.
Against Miami, in Orchard Park, it was 3-3 at intermission before the Bills pulled away for a 26-11 win. Then came the galling 9-6 loss at Jacksonville which was 6-6 at the break. Buffalo trailed 24-7 at halftime of the 41-15 home pasting by Indianapolis and even Thursday night’s domination of the Saints was only 10-0 at the midway point.
Coach Sean McDermott expects more from his team than that.
What galled him was a botched drive just before halftime.
The Bills had driven from midfield to a 2nd-and-1 at the New Orleans 7-yard line with 22 seconds left.
That’s when quarterback Josh Allen’s screen pass touchdown to tight end Dawson Knox was wiped out by an offensive lineman illegally downfield penalty. Guard Ike Boettger was flagged, but it could have been any of three linemen.
On the next snap, Allen’s pass for wideout Gabriel Davis was intercepted by Saints linebacker Kwon Alexander.
The sequence annoyed McDermott.
“That’s not how you win games, playing like that,” he said. “We had an execution error and we were sloppy. We turned the ball over twice (Allen was picked off earlier), but especially in the red zone, you take points off the board (when) it should have been at least three, let alone seven.”
AND ALLEN, admitted, “Coach always talks about ‘playoff caliber’ and that’s the team we want to be.
“It’s the pursuit of perfection, that this team, we’re not just happy with winning. We want to be the best versions of ourselves every day we step into that building. Every time we step on the field, we want to be the best teammate, the best player that we can possibly be and you feel that amongst the guys.”
But that attitude certainly hasn’t shown itself in three of the past six games.
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
