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Bills hope to use quick turnaround to rebound from ugly loss to Colts

Following the Buffalo Bills’ 41-15 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, there isn’t much to feel good about.

The team has officially dropped out of first place in the division and trails the 7-4 New England Patriots. They could also lose their Wild Card spot by the end of the night, depending on how the other AFC games go.

But while the cards are down, the Bills are using their short week, thanks to a Thanksgiving matchup vs. the  New Orleans Saints, as a way to look forward and not back.

“We got a game on Thursday, short turnaround. So we’re able to come back tomorrow and obviously, 24-hour rule and get ready to play on Thursday night,” Bills safety Jordan Poyer said to the media following today’s loss. “We’re excited to get back and get back to work and play Thursday night.”

Bills quarterback Josh Allen also emphasized the short week as something the Bills are fortunate to have in this moment.

“It’s a terrible feeling, but we gotta play Thursday, so this ones gotta be out of our system before tomorrow and we gotta be ready to go on Thursday,” Allen said. “I think that’s a fortunate thing for us that we get to play on Thursday and try to get this taste out of our mouths.”

While the Bills have now lost four games this season, including two of their last three, Allen maintains the Bills are better than what we saw on Sunday.

“What we put on that field today is not who we are,” Allen continued. “I got a lot of trust and a lot of faith in our team… It’s not panic mode. We gotta learn from this one and move on as quickly as possible, because again, we’re playing on Thursday night.”

Bad games like this really leave a team with two choices, do you write it off as a fluke and forget about it? Or do you try to actually taken away some teachable moments?

Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins, feels the team needs to do a little bit of both.

“I think it kinda goes in the category of flush it and just let it go and move on,” Dawkins stated during his postgame press conference. “The good thing is we have another game coming where we can show our best ball. It’s not really that concerning. I have high faith and high trust in our team and our players. Happens, happens to the best of all people… best of all teams. There ain’t really much we can do, but flush it, learn from it quick as possible and move on.”

When asked whether or not having a short week off a blowout loss is a blessing or curse, Dawkins again said it’s a little of each.

“It’s both ends. It’s a disadvantage and it’s an advantage cause we don’t have to let this one sit on us for a full week, you know, like we can flush it fast and keep it going naturally, but the best thing that we have to do is just recover as fast as possible get our mind and our bodies ready for this Thursday night game.”

While the Bills players seem to fall into the category of liking the fast turnaround due to the emotional nature of dwelling on losses, Bills head coach, Sean McDermott, looks at it from more of a logical standpoint.

“There’s some bad to short turnaround because you can’t really get back on the practice field for all that much time,” McDermott told reporters. “Then there’s some good to it so you can move on and move forward. I’m not really sure which one I like more to be honest with you.”

Regardless of whether or not having a game four days after a loss is a good or bad thing, the Bills don’t have a choice in the matter.

The Bills will continue their toughest stretch of the season when they take on the Saints, Thanksgiving night, followed by the division leading Patriots, the Super Bowl defending Buccaneers, the Panthers and then a second matchup vs. New England.

What was originally a season where the were Bills fighting for a one seed/bye week in the playoffs, has now turned into a fight for the division and even further perhaps, a fight to just make the playoffs in general.

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