Buffalo Bills: Some positives from the 31-20 loss in the home opener

The Buffalo Bills picked up another loss but put together a performance filled with positives after the blowout in Week 1.

Josh Allen got the start for the Buffalo Bills and while he did not heroically lead his team to victory, he played much better than Nathan Peterman. And that is a nice change after the Week 1 disaster.

Allen finished 18/33 for 245 yards. He did throw a late touchdown and had two interceptions on the day.

In the overall scope of things, Allen’s performance was a positive. Yet this game was still frustrating.

So frustrating that Vontae Davis retired at halftime?

That is bizarre and may be a good thing if he didn’t have his head in the game. No need to have a veteran be a distraction. However, that is extremely unprofessional.

I’m assuming more news will come out on this as the week goes on.

Back to the game, the defense had allowed 28 points by halftime and just like last week, the offense was trying to play catch up. This time with a rookie quarterback.

It got so bad that Sean McDermott began calling the plays on defense in the second half. That can’t be a good sign for Leslie Frazier if he is having his one job taken away at halftime of Week 2.

As I write this it does seem like there were more negatives. But after Week 1, the fact the Bills were at least attempting to mount a comeback in the second half was a reason to have some optimism about this team putting up some fight in 2018.

And that fight was led by Josh Allen. He even went out and tried to fire up the defense, showing some leadership skills that this team desperately needs at that position. Oh, there was this too.

The legendary arm!

LeSean McCoy couldn’t get much going during the game, finishing with nine carries for 39 yards, but did finish with a rib injury.

This is two straight weeks without much of a run game. To be fair, the struggles along the offensive line means there isn’t much time for plays to develop.

A loss is still a loss. But Bills fans got to see the hopeful quarterback of the future show some flashes of success in a game that could have been another blowout. And even though his first career touchdown pass came in garbage time, the connection with Kelvin Benjamin looks like a sign of things to come.

Allen held onto the ball too long and made some bad decisions. That was clear. The good news is that he still did enough to keep his team in the game. The same could not be said about Nathan Peterman.

The Josh Allen era is officially underway. Now it’s time for the defense to figure things out. And to make sure no one else plans to retire.