ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — So what happens now?

In a span of eight days, the Bills have gone from Super Bowl favorite to third place in the AFC East with way more questions than answers.

And the memory of the way Buffalo conjured Sunday’s 33-30 gift-wrapped overtime loss to the Vikings at Highmark Stadium will far outlive the “24-hour rule” for forgetting about the previous game.

This is a hot mess and extends far beyond quarterback Josh Allen’s bizarre mental regression over the last 11 quarters, including overtime against Minnesota.

Over that span, the fifth-year QB, who was the preseason favorite for NFL MVP, has thrown six stupefying interceptions and one touchdown with nine sacks, three fumbles and a horrible passer rating in the low 60s.

And, oh yeah, the Bills haven’t scored a second-half TD since last month in Kansas City, three games ago.

OF COURSE, the loss to the Vikings was Allen’s most egregious collapse.

Buffalo blew a 27-10 lead mostly because of the two end zone interceptions he threw to Minnesota’s elite cornerback Patrick Peterson and the fumble he had in the Bills’ end zone that handed the Vikings a touchdown.

Afterward, Allen conducted his press conference head-down, never making contact with his questioners.

“It comes down (on) my shoulders and my shoulders only … making the right decisions and the right throws,” he said. “This (video) is going to suck watching.

“(It was a) horrendous second half. I have to be better. … We were horrendous in the red zone and again, that’s on my shoulders. I have to clean it up. You hate to lose, especially that way.”

Coach Sean McDermott understandably defended his quarterback.

“(Allen) makes plays, he makes spectacular plays. He’s a special player,” he said. “I believe in him, we’ve just gotta do a better job of taking care of the football and taking what the defense gives us at times. That’s an adjustment we have to continue to make.”

But isn’t that the message to the quarterback from Day 1 of training camp?

What McDermott didn’t explain was his own flawed decision to go for it on 4th-and-2 from the Vikings’ 7-yard-line with his team up, 27-17 on the first possession of the fourth quarter.

Kick the field goal and go up by 13 especially since, after the Vikings next score, they missed the extra point.

Instead, Allen threw his first end-zone pick and Peterson ran it out to his own 34. Thirteen plays later, when the Vikings scored, it was 27-23 and the collapse was on.

McDermott going against his hyper-conservative nature to go for it when a field goal was an obvious choice was compounded by Allen’s desperation pass being hijacked.

That single two-gaffe play changed the entire momentum of the game as it appeared the Bills were about to answer the 81-yard touchdown run by the Vikings’ Dalvin Cook on the previous possession.

That play leads to some interesting speculation, as in, would the Bills have won the game had McDermott started Case Keenum instead of Allen?

To be sure, Allen showed no obvious effects from the elbow injury he suffered in the 20-17 loss to the Jets a week earlier. But he’s also Buffalo’s unquestioned leader. It’s likely he lobbied McDermott to go for it and paid with an ill-considered, game-changing throw.

No way would Keenum have been so brash had he been the starter.

Meanwhile, McDermott opted for coachspeak.

“That’s the course of the season … these are close games,” he said. “We had opportunities to win. That’s what makes it sting. We were right there and, again, we got sloppy with the football. This is the journey of a season, so you’ve got to pull yourself back together, find out the reasons why, make the adjustments and move forward.”

BY THE WAY, while Allen has admittedly endured an exceedingly rough stretch, he’s hardly the lone culprit.

Start with the ground game.

This is the third-straight year Buffalo hasn’t been able to consistently run the ball, and general manager Brandon Beane hasn’t been able to solve it through the draft. Devin Singletary (2019), the supposed feature back, has been an enigma, exceeding 66 rushing yards only twice in nine games. Zack Moss (2020) under-performed his way into a trade with Indianapolis for Nyheim Hines, a skilled punt returner and reliable pass catcher, but not an every-down back. James Cook (2022) remains a work in progress.

Hence, the Bills’ running game is named Josh Allen, who has merely led the team in rushing for six of the nine games. Buffalo’s statistics on the ground SEEM decent, but they’re deceptive. Yeah, the Bills are averaging 127 rushing yards per game, however Allen is accounting for 42% of that figure; the three running backs have the rest, a decidedly low contribution.

That discrepancy puts a disproportionately heavy responsibility on Allen, whose recent problems aren’t physical — he was 29-of-43 passing for 330 yards against the Vikings — but rather above his shoulders where pressure to carry the offense, with little or no help from the running game and some of his receivers, seem to be affecting him.

BUT, ALAS, those aren’t the only issues for the Bills.

What’s happened to that stingy, run-stuffing defense that led the NFL in stopping the rush for the first six weeks?

The last three weeks the Packers, Jets and Vikings have burned Buffalo for an average of 176 yards per game on the ground, exactly 100 more than the Bills were giving up the first month-and-a-half.

And, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that Brian Daboll, the Bills’ former offensive coordinator, has now coached the New York Giants to a 7-2 record — 7-1 in one-possession games — third-best in the NFL.

(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)