As Week 18 finally draws near, the Buffalo Bills will be playing their final home game ever at Highmark Stadium. The Bills need to use this time to address some troubling areas that occurred against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
While the Bills failed to win their sixth straight AFC East Title, they still clinched a spot in the 2025 AFC playoffs as a Wild Card team. Unless something happens, this Sunday will indeed be the last game played at Highmark Stadium.
The Bills need to hold players accountable for the loss on Sunday to address critical opportunities, then shift their focus to closing out Highmark Stadium with an AFC East Divisional win.
Bills must not overlook these three vital needs
1. Team turnovers
The Bills might as well be building a new bakery in place of the soon-to-be-demolished High Mark Stadium. They've created way too many turnovers for their liking, to the tune of 19 this season.
For an offense that relies on the motto, "Everybody Eats," creating turnovers isn't a delicious recipe the Bills can depend on too much longer. Otherwise, the Bills will have another season with no Super Bowl appearance or trophy.
And while quarterback Josh Allen has had another elite season, he, too, should be held responsible for some of his more questionable decision-making when throwing the football. This season, he has thrown 10 interceptions to his 25 touchdowns.
While most of them are due to a lack of personnel at the wide receiver position and players not getting open, Allen has always taken the mature route, saying he needs to play better, win or lose.
2. Offensive line
While this group has been steady for the past three years, you can see their age starting to take a toll on them. This offensive line has played well, but during the last game, the Eagles' defense sacked Allen a season-high five times.
The O-line is also accountable for Allen being sacked a career-high 40 times this season. It was so bad during the game that Allen had to take a 19-yard sack early in the fourth quarter, which pulled the Bills out of field goal range.
While the offensive line is starting to struggle, they'd better figure things out quickly, as this could be the last year where some members of the O-line are still playing on the Bills.
3. OC Joe Brady
To play devil's advocate, offensive coordinator Joe Brady has not actually been that horrible at calling plays for the Bills' offense. Because of their lack of wide receiver depth and an inconsistent offensive line, Brady, for the second year in a row, has had to rely on running the ball with James Cook down the opponent's throats and taking as much time off the clock as possible to keep opponents' offenses off the field.
Like Allen and others mentioned on this list, Brady must be held accountable for another inconsistent game plan that led to a poor first half and, once again, a massive second-half comeback attempt.
Their ineffectiveness to score for an entire game is still an issue even at this point in the season. Still, it's also on the players for not executing what is being called, but this could be Brady's last year with the Bills, assuming he takes another job as possibly a head coach.
The big thing here is accountability on the offensive side of the ball, while also continuing to improve on the items mentioned. Shouts do go out to the defense, which actually did well, including holding running back Saquon Barkley to only 68 yards rushing on the day.