Buffalo Bills ‘Blame-O-Meter’: Who’s at Fault for the Team’s Struggles?

Let's face it, the Buffalo Bills are in serious trouble.

After losing to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday night, the Bills are barely treading above .500 after nine games — and five of their remaining eight games are against playoff teams from last season. In short, the Bills need to pick up their socks sooner rather than later before this season becomes a complete waste.

So, who's to blame for the team's struggles? Realistically, everybody — aside from maybe wide receiver Stefon Diggs — deserves a piece of the pie, including several members of the coaching staff.

But some deserve more blame than others, whether they like it or not. Here are which members of the (so far, disappointing) 2023 Bills who deserve to be held under the microscope, along with a corresponding rating for their hand in the team's misfortune.

3. Ken Dorsey (7/10)

Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey feels like the easy scapegoat. He's the shortest-tenured important piece, if you will, and the Bills offense is failing to score points at a consistent pace.

But if there is an excuse for Dorsey, it's that he's a mostly inexperienced offensive play caller.

The knock on Dorsey is that he's rather uncreative and he's struggled to get certain components of the Bills offense involved, like running back James Cook and the Bills rushing attack. He's also called fewer rushing plays that involve Josh Allen than we've seen in the past, but that's probably more of an organizational decision that stems from Allen dealing with a shoulder injury.

If you break down the film, Dorsey hasn't been perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Look no further than calling run plays from the shotgun while inside the opponent's five-yard line. But there have been numerous occasions where he's schemed players open and Bills quarterback Josh Allen has neglected to take what's being handed to him.

Dorsey is part of the problem, but given he's in the early days of being an NFL coordinator, he should be hearing less scrutiny than other long-tenured Bills on this list. Especially when you consider that certain components of the Bills offense, like its rushing attack, were already terrible before Dorsey took over as offensive coordinator.

2. Sean McDermott (9/10)

Bills head coach Sean McDermott isn't just the defensive coordinator of the football team.

While it's impressive that McDermotts banged-up defense held the Bengals offense to just 24 points this past Sunday, despite being in a short field for most of the night, he's still at fault for the Bills struggles because, after all, he's the head coach.

McDermott has never been good enough, at least in my opinion, at situational football. The greatest example is the Bills 13-second debacle against the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2021 playoffs, but there have also been a number of instances this season.

For example, the Bengals possessed the ball for over 23 minutes in the first half alone on Sunday night, scoring 21 points. While part of possessing the ball is sustaining long drives, something the offense wasn't doing, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was nearly perfect in the first half — something McDermott was supposed to handle when former Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier stepped away from the team after the 2022 season.

Not to mention, the Bills defense was solid for most of the second half but when they needed one final stop to give their offense a chance to capture its first lead, McDermott couldn't draw up the right plays to get things done.

Once again, I understand the Bills defense is injured but McDermott handles all three facets of the football team and no facet has been good enough this season — especially when you consider that McDermott continues to say everything is under control when in reality, that's not the case.

Eventually, the excuses will run out for the Bills seventh-year head coach.

1. Josh Allen (10/10)

I'm sorry, but it's the truth.

Sure, Josh Allen hasn't gotten help from the running game in his career, nor has he enjoyed a consistent second receiving option outside of Diggs, but in his sixth NFL season — while being paid more than 200 million dollars — a play like this one on Sunday night, just can't happen.

The Bills defense had just gotten their first stand of the night and instead of rewarding them with a game-tying touchdown drive, Allen threw this interception to Bengals cornerback Cam-Taylor Britt on second down from the team's own 12-yard line.

When Allen throws to wide receiver Gabriel Davis, he has three other targets open underneath amidst a three-man pass rush that hasn't gotten any pressure. Allen's read is Bengals cornerback Taylor-Britt who can decide to either trap the out route from Diggs or follow Davis up the sideline. Allen never takes his eyes off Davis and still can't make the proper read while Dorsey had schemed three players open for Allen's choosing.

That's on Allen and nobody else.

Allen is still the most valuable player on this team and Dorsey is far from perfect, but when your considered a superstar quarterback that's making his 85th regular season start — and your team is backed up near the goal line against an opposing offense that's moving the ball at will — you can't be making these mistakes, especially when they're happening far too often, regardless of whether they become interceptions or incompletions.

Putting everything else aside, the Bills success lies on the shoulders of Allen who will need to find some consistency if the team still has Super Bowl aspirations. And as for playing 'complimentary football', the Bills entire organization needs to start practicing what it's preached.