The Buffalo Bills entered this game with a 6-1 record and were looking to keep their four-game win streak going. However, the Bills had one of their sloppiest games of the season and would come up short against the New York Jets by a final score of 20-17.
These are five takeaways from the Buffalo Bills’ loss in Week 9.
5 takeaways from the Buffalo Bills’ loss in Week 9 to the New York Jets
Red zone woes continue for the Buffalo Bills
Last week against the Green Bay Packers, the Buffalo Bills converted only two of their four trips in the red zone into touchdowns. One of those trips ended in an interception thrown by Josh Allen and the Bills started this week the same way.
The Bills’ opening drive began near midfield after Braden Mann slipped on the opening kickoff. It took only one play before the offense was in the red zone as Josh Allen found Stefon Diggs deep for a 42-yard reception.
However, Allen would make an ill-advised throw that was picked off by Jordan Whitehead.
Then on their second drive the offense once again reached the red zone but that drive almost ended in disaster. Josh Allen would fumble the ball after it was knocked from his hands but he was able to recover.
The Buffalo Bills did end up finding the end zone but these are mistakes that they have to correct moving forward and is one of the reasons they came up short today.
Has the league caught up to Josh Allen?
Josh Allen began the season looking almost unstoppable and was playing at an MVP level. However, after the bye week the Bills franchise quarterback has now had back-to-back games where he has not looked like the same quarterback.
Last week against the Packers, Allen had only 218 passing yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions while completing only 52% of his passes. This week, while Allen did have over 85 rushing yards but he struggled as a passer with only 205 passing yards and completed only 53% of his passes and two interceptions.
The interceptions in particular are concerning and it raises the question if defenses have figured something out in stopping Josh Allen through the air. He doesn’t appear to be reading the defense well and making questionable throws as both interceptions seemed to go right to a Jets’ defender.
There were also a number of other throws that could have been interceptions that fortunately the Jets would drop.
Every great quarterback goes through these slumps but the question is how long this slump carries on for Josh Allen. There is no other way to say it than this was Josh Allen’s worse game in probably the last two seasons and he needs to improve his level of play.
Defense desperately missed Matt Milano against the Jets
The Buffalo Bills have been dealing with injuries almost all year and fortunately have had players step up when their number has been called. They have been able to continue their success and entered this week with a 6-1 record.
However, this week the defense wasn’t nearly as effective and the absence of Matt Milano was a big reason for that. Milano has arguably been the best player on this defense and playing at an All-Pro level this year.
In place of Matt Milano, the Bills had rookie Terrel Bernard get the start and he looked overwhelmed at times and wasn’t able to consistently make plays. He had a number of missed tackles and just wasn’t in the right position.
Run defense falls apart in the second half for the second straight week
Last week against the Green Bay Packers, the Buffalo Bills defense gave up over 200 rushing yards with a majority of those yards coming in the second half. In the end, it worked in Buffalo’s favor because they had a big lead and it ate up the clock.
This week against the New York Jets, the Buffalo Bills’ defense once again struggled to shut down the opposing run game and the Jets were picking up big chunks of yards on the ground in the second half. On the Jets’ final drive of the game, they would call eight consecutive run plays and the defense had no answer.
This was one of the reasons the Buffalo Bills came up short against the Jets because the game was tied and the defense couldn’t get off the field. There could be a number of reasons for their struggles from the injuries to poor tackling but ultimately it is something that needs to be fixed or teams are going to continue to utilize this type of offense against the defense.
Buffalo Bills coaching staff didn’t make the necessary halftime adjustments
One thing that the Buffalo Bills coaching staff has done an excellent job of this season is making halftime adjustments. A majority of these games were close up until halftime and the Bills would pull away in the second half.
However, this week it was the New York Jets that seemingly had all the right answers and the coaching staff, particularly Ken Dorsey and the Bills’ offensive coaching staff didn’t make the right calls.
The Bills’ offense had only four drives in the second half with only able to score three points. They finished the second half with only 43 total yards and two of their drives resulted in negative yards.
This isn’t necessarily overly concerning at this point because the Bills have really done a good job for most of the season. Although, it is something that has to be addressed and hopefully is just a learning for Ken Dorsey in his first year as a play-caller.
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