The Buffalo Bills are off to a bit of a slower start to kick off the second month of the NFL season. After going 4-0 in their first four games, the Bills were handed their first loss by the New England Patriots in Week 5 on primetime. Even with the Bills playing very sloppy, they only lost by 3 points but let’s face it, they didn’t deserve to win it.
Infact, when you now look at Buffalo’s five games, there has only been one game where the Bills have won convincingly (Week 2 vs. Jets, 30-10). A major theme that the Bills have had to deal with is the lack of production from their defense. Through five games, the Bills have given up 22.6 points per game, which includes 40 from the Ravens and 28 from the Dolphins.
It’s very concerning that even with a defensive-minded head coach in Sean McDermott, the Bills are still struggling to stop the run and overall, barely do enough to help the Bills get the win. Again, not including the Week 2 performance the Jets, this defense has not been good against the run or in third-down situations.
The loss against the Patriots really opened up eyes on what the Bills need to fix because it’s only thing to have these issues and still win the game. But then it’s another thing to see what the issue is and come out with the loss.
There is a lot of pressure on McDermott this season to succeed. The Bills are too talented to not make the Super Bowl with a quarterback like Josh Allen, and he certainly is not the issue for the Bills. It’s the defense, and there is a time where McDermott has to take some accountability.
Latest HC power rankings has Sean McDermott in a spot that Bills fans are concerned about
Lou Scataglia from NFL Spin Zone put together a power rankings list of head coaches going into Week 6 and while McDermott isn’t one of the worst, he’s barely in the top ten. Scataglia has McDermott at No. 10.
"A bad loss against the New England Patriots is not nothing. Sean McDermott and the Buffalo Bills probably just want to fast-forward to the postseason, but they have to win the AFC East first. Buffalo is a nicely-run operation, but they do have some weakneses on the defensive side of the ball that need talked about, and they really do not feel like a Super Bowl-caliber team at all."Lou Scataglia, NFL Spin Zone
For everyone who thought that the Bills would have an easy run towards the AFC East, that is no longer the case as they are just one game ahead of the Patriots, but now New England has the tiebreaker on them. It would not be a surprise at all to see the Patriots overtake the Bills at some point here in the next month.
The Bills are a Super Bowl team. No one can dispute that. However, not having a head coach who is having success on their side of the ball is extremely concerning. We have seen this story over and over. Josh Allen has to carry the team and the defense has crumbled in crucial moments.
At some point, McDermott has take some ownership of blame for the performance of this team. The defense is the main issue and unless Brandon Beane makes a huge trade acquisition or players start to drastically improve their play, the Bills could easily repeat history of a heartbreaking loss in the playoffs, yet again wasting another season of prime Josh Allen.