5 players who need to step up for the Buffalo Bills starting in Week 8

Josh Allen

I understand it's not all his fault, but he also deserves some blame.

When Allen scores three touchdowns against one turnover and the defense allows 29 points to a stale offense, you'd think the loss probably wasn't his fault — and it wasn't entirely on Allen — but right from the opening play of the game, he wasn't making the proper reads or adjustments.

While the Bills offensive line wasn't stellar, especially rookie right guard O'Cyrus Torrence, Allen failed to call the correct pre-snap protection changes. In many cases, the Patriots were designing 5 and 6-man blitzes that Allen wasn't picking up on.

And even if he did, he was holding onto the ball instead of throwing underneath to open receivers. In this case, it appeared that while Ken Dorsey was far from calling a perfect game, he anticipated this strategy from New England and he schemed open some shorter targets for Allen to use when trying to combat the pressure — and missing those reads is on Allen.

In a video that was posted to his X account this afternoon, former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovskydescribed these struggles.

In reality, there is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to breaking down the Bills inconsistencies — and that includes some blame for Ken Dorsey, Sean McDermott, and Josh Allen. The team might have to add players at the trade deadline or consider some bigger changes, but for now, their focus should be on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who travel to Buffalo on Thursday night before the Bills start a mini-bye week in advance of their clash with the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 9.

As for Bills Mafia, the season isn't over just yet.