The Buffalo Bills had another deflating loss on Sunday night, this time to the Cincinnati Bengals by a final score of 24-18. The Bills are now 5-4 but 2-3 over their last five games and more importantly 2-4 within the AFC.
This is a team that had high expectations entering the season and it seems like a real possibility that they will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018, which was Josh Allen's rookie season. The struggles can be attributed to a number of things, some of which are out of their control like the multitude of injuries they have suffered on the defensive side of the ball like Tre'Davious White and Matt Milano.
However, while the defense isn't in that elite tier right now that is not the reason for their struggles. The Bills over the past five weeks are allowing teams to score on average 22 points per game but with the talent on the offensive side of the ball, they should be winning these games. Unfortunately, the offense has scored 25 or more points only once during this stretch.
And that is where the blame lies and head coach Sean McDermott is going to have to make some drastic changes this week if the Bills want to save their season.
Buffalo Bills know the problem but don't want to state it
After the game against the Bengals, most of the questions centered around the offense. Head coach Sean McDermott and quarterback Josh Allen's responses were quite telling. McDermott said he didn't have a good answer for why the Bills didn't go uptempo earlier.
Josh Allen was asked a similar question and said it was "just the game plan that we had going into it". There is no question that when the Bills have gone uptempo or no huddle this offense has looked very good but earlier in the game they didn't necessarily have to do that after success on the opening drive.
That first drive Josh Allen went 5 of 6 and the Bills had only one third down on a seven play drive that ended with a touchdown. This was an excellent sign for a team that has not been able to get off to a fast start.
Buffalo Bills offense gets away from what works
However, the offense came to a screeching halt after that drive as they had three drives that resulted in only 11 plays. During that stretch, the Bills called run plays on three of their four first downs and would put them behind in down and distance.
Over the past five games, the Bills offense has looked like a team that has had to fight for every yard and for a group as talented as they are, this shouldn't be the case. The Bengals seemed to move the ball effortlessly and the talent in that group is not that much greater than Buffalo.
On Sunday night, it was a perfect example of what type of impact a good play-caller (Zac Taylor) can have on an offense instead of an inexperienced one (Ken Dorsey). In the opening drive, Dalton Kincaid and Stefon Diggs had five of Allen's six pass attempts thrown their way.
On the next three drives, these two had zero targets and it wasn't until the final drive of the first half that Kincaid was involved once again. It shouldn't be a surprise that the offense was once again moving the ball.
Buffalo Bills need someone else calling plays to save their season
The Buffalo Bills can still turn the season around but they have to make some drastic changes and it has to start this week. The next two games are winnable against the Denver Broncos and New York Jets and are must win games with the Eagles and Chiefs up after that.
It is hard to imagine that Ken Dorsey will remain past this season as offensive coordinator but Sean McDermott can't wait until them. There are a number of coaches currently on the staff that have experience calling plays as offensive coordinator that could step in.
The most obvious one is Joe Brady, who at one time was considered an up and coming offensive mind from his time at LSU. He would spend about a year and half as offensive coordinator with the Carolina Panthers.
However, the Bills also have Mike Shula, offensive assistant, Rob Boras, tight end coach, and Aaron Kromer, offensive line coach, who all have been offensive coordinators at one point in their coaching career.
The Buffalo Bills have the talent on the offensive side of the ball to be a top unit in the NFL and it might be time to make a change by taking away the play calling from Dorsey because what the last five weeks have shown is that it just isn't working.