Buffalo Bills report card: Let's just say nobody gets a passing grade for debacle vs Colts

ORCHARD PARK – Things have suddenly gotten very gloomy in western New York and, no, I’m not talking about the alarming surge in COVID-19 cases in the region, particularly in Erie County.

No, I’m referring to the Buffalo Bills, once thought to be the AFC favorite to make it to the Super Bowl and now, after a deplorable 41-15 shellacking at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts, aren’t even the frontrunners in the AFC East.

Fraudulent is admittedly too strong a word to describe the Bills but ever since their big win in Kansas City, which led to them becoming the darlings of the national media, they have face-planted like a 3-year-old on ice skates for the first time.

“Obviously wasn’t good enough at all today,” said coach Sean McDermott. “I mean it’s on all of us. I keep talking about it – we cannot turn the ball over. We turned the ball over four times today; it led to 21 points. Just can’t do that. And (the Colts) feasted on taking the ball away, and then we turned it over not only on offense, but on special teams. You can’t do that and expect to win. You make it really hard on yourself.”

With the exception of blowing out the God-awful Jets last week, everything has been hard for the Bills lately, and the alarming part about that is it’s only going to get tougher in the weeks to come.

No one was willing to admit this Sunday, but there’s no doubt the Bills’ season is in danger of collapsing, something that seemed impossible when they flew out of Kansas City on that stormy Sunday night a month and a half ago.

Here’s how I graded the Bills’ performance:

PASS OFFENSE: D-

There is a troubling trend brewing for the Bills and it revolves around Josh Allen. Like all QBs he carries a heavy burden in every game, but for this offense it’s even heavier because the Bills have no running game. Thus, when Allen isn’t having a great day, the Bills typically struggle because they have no one to turn to. And Sunday, Allen had a pretty lousy day. 

Right now he is playing well below the MVP level he showed in 2020 and as a result, the Bills have lost three of their last five games. One week after playing catch with Stefon Diggs, he completed only four passes for 23 yards to his star WR. Two of them did go for TDs, not that it mattered. TE Dawson Knox was back in the game plan and he caught six passes for 80 yards but he also dropped three, maybe four. Emmanuel Sanders was again mostly invisible, same for Cole Beasley, and this was against a Colts defense that has struggled all year to defend the pass.

As for the offensive line, hey, it wasn’t awful. Despite having to play with Cody Ford at RG and Daryl Williams at RT, Allen was sacked only once and he had decent enough time to throw, but he was inaccurate most of the day and he threw two brutal interceptions and nearly had a third.

RUN OFFENSE: D

The weekly dose of uselessness from Devin Singletary and Zack Moss shook out like this: A combined six carries for 22 yards, and Moss chipped in with a dropped pass. The Colts Jonathan Taylor had six carries for 35 yards – on the Colts first touchdown drive of the game. Singletary and Moss give the Bills almost nothing on a week to week basis, and as I said, when Allen is struggling, the offense is in huge trouble because there’s nowhere else to turn.

Of course, the Bills could turn to Matt Breida and give him a more steady role. He was active again and broke a 28-yard run on his way to 51 yards on five carries. He also caught a pass for 16 yards. Breida needs to be on the field more, and if it means having Moss or Singletary inactive, I’m raising my hand in favor of that.

PASS DEFENSE: D

What the Bills really should get here is an incomplete because, if he had chosen, Carson Wentz didn’t need to throw a single pass in this game. That’s how dominant the Colts run game was. He finished 11 of 20 for 106 yards, so yes, the Bills pass defense stats will get a shiny bump this week, even though it was completely undeserved.

The Bills’ defensive line was manhandled by the Colts talented offensive line and Wentz was barely touched in the game. The one time the Bills should have sacked him, Mario Addison became a meme when he somehow whiffed which allowed Wentz to convert a third down with an 18-yard scramble. 

Addison also committed a boneheaded roughing penalty on Wentz which gave the Colts a first down when they should have been punting. Jordan Poyer committed an equally dumb personal foul after Levi Wallace lost coverage on T.Y. Hilton on another third down. And then Taron Johnson killed yet another third-down stop with a holding penalty.

RUN DEFENSE: F

What a joke. It wasn’t bad enough that Tennessee’s Derrick Henry steamrolled the Bills for 143 yards and three touchdowns. No, Jonathan Taylor said “hold my beer” before proceeding to shred the Bills defense for 185 yards and four touchdowns. For good measure he also caught a TD pass. If the Bills had Star Lotulelei and Tremaine Edmunds on the field, it would have mattered little.

The Colts are the stronger, tougher team in the trenches and it was men against boys against the Buffalo defensive line. The Bills are always banging the drum about their depth on the line. The truth is, their starters are pretty much average, so what does that make the backups? Yeah, there’s plenty of bodies available – well, at least before Lotulelei’s COVID situation and Justin Zimmer’s knee injury – but this group has underperformed in some big spots.

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

On the opening kickoff, Tyler Bass delivered a well-placed kick to the right corner of the field, a designed play with the intention of the coverage team pinning return man Isaiah Rodgers on that side. However, the return team got pushed out of the way and Rodgers ran it out to the 35. Things never improved thereafter.

You know it’s a bad day when Bass, who had missed one kick of any type this season, missed two, albeit these were from 57 and 49 yards on a rainy day. Still, the Bills have faith in him to make those, and he missed.

Then there’s Isaiah McKenzie whose disastrous fumble late in the first half on a kickoff essentially sealed the Bills fate. He slipped on the turf and when he hit the ground the ball came out. He wasn’t even touched. The Colts recovered at the 2 and scored on the next play to make it 24-7. McKenzie averaged just 19.7 yards on seven returns.

COACHING: F

The Bills were not ready to play. The defense did not get one stop in the first half as the Colts scored on all four of their possessions for 24 points. The special teams failed on the first snap, so enough said there. And on offense, the Bills managed only 15 points, had three turnovers (Mitchell Trubisky threw a late pick), and never threatened to make this a game.

McDermott blamed himself. Fine, that’s what every coach does. But this was a total staff failure. The Bills needed this game with the Patriots breathing down their necks, and it was a soup to buts debacle, on the heels of that horrendous loss two weeks ago in Jacksonville.

The Bills have some big problems, and they have only a couple days to solve them before they play the Saints on Thanksgiving night.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.