Despite being 12-3, coming off a hard fought division win and staying in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoff picture, the Buffalo Bills are in trouble with their defense. Over the last three weeks, we have seen this unit suffer multiple injuries and they look out of sync.
In their defence, they had to take on a Los Angeles Rams team that finally became fully healthy and then go up to Detorit to take on a high-powered Lions offense. However, they did not show a lot of promise in both of those games. You would think that they would have a bounce back game against the New England Patriots, right? Well, guess again.
In their three games against the Rams, Lions and Patriots, the Bills defense has given up 452 total yards per game, including 500+ against Detroit. They have lost a lot of players in the secondary like Rasul Douglas, Taylor Rapp, and Damar Hamlin. In addition, Matt Milano missed Week 16 and it caused a major issue at the linebacker spot against the Patriots.
Buffalo’s defense is performaing poorly at the worst time
Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich and Sean McDermott have been under a microscope these last few weeks. A lot of people may have thought that Week 16 would have been a good game for the defense to get back to what they were before. Drake Maye proved them wrong.
Even though the Patriots came out on the losing end of Week 16, he and the Patriots offense made Buffalo look absolutely silly early on and they gave them a scare at the end of the game. One big reason why the Bills let the Patriots stay in the game was due to their third-down efficiency.
It seemed like every time the Patriots faced a third down, they managed to convert by a yard or two. They finished the game going 7/12 on third downs and they also went 2/2 on fourth downs, including a fake punt play.
New England outgained Buffalo in total yards (379-324) and they also had eight fewer penalties than the Bills. This was a lucky win for the Bills, but we are seeing their defense slowly falling apart. Luckily, there are two games left in the regular season so there is some time to clean up their act.