The Buffalo Bills are heading into their bye week with major concerns across the roster after their second consecutive loss against the Atlanta Falcons. The Bills dropped this game, 24-14, on the road and now they find themselves looking up to the New England Patriots in the AFC East.
From start to finish, the Bills once again looked awful and quite frankly, they were lucky that this game wasn’t worse than what it could have been. The fact that they only lost by ten points is surprising if you watched the game.
Buffalo now goes into the bye week at 4-2 and their next matchup will be against the Carolina Panthers, a team whose offense has come alive this season.
The game featured some good plays from players, but there were a lot more mistakes than plays made.
Winners and losers from Bills' Week 6 loss
Winners:
CB Tre’Davious White
After a bit of a rough start this season, Tre’Davious White had himself a pretty solid game. There was a questionable defensive penalty called on him for pass interference, but other than that, he was good in coverage and didn’t give up extra yards.
RB Ray Davis
While he didn't have a carry on the ground, Ray Davis did manage to make himself useful in the passing game with 2 catches for 19 yards and a touchdown that got the Bills back into the game. Since James Cook has been electric this season, Davis has had the opportunities like he did last season. It was good to see him get into the endzone against Atlanta.
DE Greg Rousseau
Rousseau didn’t have much of an impact on defense, but he did block a field goal attempt that kept the game at a one score possession. That play gave the ball back to the offense in hopes of getting it tied, but the offense came up short. Either way, it could have been a momentum shift for the Bills if the offense had capitalized.
Losers:
DC Bobby Babich
It’s time to have a conversation on whether or not Bobby Babich should be calling the plays for this defense. From the beginning of the season to now, this defense has become a huge liability and will be the reason why the Bills miss out on a Super Bowl run if dramatic changes aren’t made.
Under Babich, this defense is giving up over 324 yards per game and has given up 400+ yards in two games this season. While the defense only gave up three points in the second half, the first half was a complete disaster and it forced the Bills to get away from their gameplan on offense.
S Taylor Rapp
The secondary continues to be bad and part of the reason why is because of the safeties. Taylor Rapp was not good against the Falcons, where he had a handful of missed tackles including on the Falcons’ opening drive. Buffalo has been heavily criticized in the safety room and they continue to prove doubters right.
DT Ed Oliver
In his first game back in four games, Ed Oliver was very quiet and his presence didn’t make a difference at all. While he did get a sack, the Falcons still managed to rush for 210 yards. Now granted, the Bills did lose DaQuan Jones prior to the start of the game due to a calf injury, which puts more pressure on the rest of the players.
At the same time, Oliver did not look great whatsoever in his game back with the Bills.
QB Josh Allen
Josh Allen deserves a bit of blame for this loss. Now, I understand that he was sacked 4 times and was pressured many times, but we have seen Allen overcome that many times. What was the problem in this game? He looked average at times and he threw 2 interceptions, including the game-sealing one late in the fourth quarter.
Allen has now looked rough the last two weeks and is playing bad football. The reigning MVP doesn’t look like the best quarterback in the AFC East, let alone the entire league.