Moments after the conclusion of the game, a 44-42 thriller that ended with the Bills dropping only their third game of the season, a familiar version of Josh Allen stood in front of the podium. This Allen hasn’t made an appearance at any point this season — even after the back-to-back losses to the Ravens and Texans in Weeks 4 and 5.
As Allen answered each question succinctly, mostly taking the blame head-on, his gaze drifted far past anyone in the room. After the news conference had ended and he made it back to the locker room, Allen bowled into his locker stall, slumped to its backboard and aimlessly scrolled on his phone to decompress. He didn’t utter a word to anyone.
Allen takes some losses hard, but we haven’t seen that since the frustrating first half of the 2023 season. Allen has shown the ability to snap out of it from one week to the next, but from time to time after losses, it’s a part of his process.
On Sunday, it’s hard to blame him for taking the loss so hard. Allen could not have done much more. He went from managing the offense to dictating the rest of the game, forcing the Rams to score 44 points to top him.
Meanwhile, coaching blunders, line-of-scrimmage letdowns and almost everyone not named Allen helped drop the Bills to a 10-3 record and a situation where they need help from other teams if they want to capture the AFC’s top seed.
As the Bills reflect on their loss and get ready for a whopper of a matchup against the 12-1 Detroit Lions, they mostly have their defense to blame.
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One of the biggest concerns of the 2024 Bills entering the season had nothing to do with Allen. It was mostly about how the defense would perform with as much turnover as they had in the offseason, along with some questionable starting pieces stepping into prominent roles. And to their credit, they’ve done a masterful job of masking some of those deficiencies throughout the season. Whether through terrific in-game adjustments, or jumping out to an early lead and forcing the opponent to play from behind, the defense has played above expectation this season. One could say they’ve overachieved based on their original outlook.
The Bills defense couldn’t contain wide receiver Puka Nacua for much of the game. (Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
But along the way, even entangled in some of their best defensive showings, was one sneaky little feature. Explosive plays have been a nuisance all season long for these Bills, forcing the bend but don’t break cliché to come through in the clutch time after time after time. And it has. But to cliché the cliché, it broke — almost the entire game. For some time, the Rams were flirting with a 2022 Bills vs. Patriots playoff-esque perfect game. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Bills barely stopped the Rams enough to force a punt. Every other time the Rams possessed the ball, except for the two end-of-half drives where they were actively trying to run the clock out, they got points, and usually a touchdown.
As for those explosive plays, the Rams socked the Bills’ defense for 18 plays that gained at least 10 yards. Ten of those 18 plays went for 15 yards or more. Four of those ten went for 20 or more. But it wasn’t even that they were losing on explosive plays; they were losing at each stage of the drive. The Rams faced only one 3rd-and-long (5 or more yards) in the first half, which showed the Bills were getting outclassed on first and second down. Once they finally got around to forcing those 3rd-and-long opportunities, the Bills allowed the Rams to convert on six of those eight chances. And it wasn’t just a specific issue. The Rams were both running and passing the ball at will. But there was a problem that permeated everything.
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In the game’s early stages, the Bills were getting blown off the ball at the line of scrimmage. The Rams clearly took a liking to what the 49ers had done the week prior, before running back Christian McCaffrey suffered what could be a season-ending injury. The 49ers were moving the Bills’ defensive tackles and linebackers out of the way at will, yielding some huge holes for McCaffrey to maximize runs. There were missed tackles, and had he stayed in that game, it looked like he could’ve gone for 150 yards on the ground. The Rams fancy themselves a power run-blocking unit — the strength of their starting five. They wanted to test that the middle of the Bills defense could stand up to that attack. The Bills failed the test, and it helped set everything else up throughout the evening.
Because the Rams had so much success running vertically with power, they caught the Bills off-guard with horizontal end-around runs to wide receiver Puka Nacua — a play that took way too long for the Bills to limit. Nine of the 12 plays on the Rams’ first possession were running calls. Six of their next nine on the next possession were rushes. The Bills had no answers. On the third drive, the Rams reared back and fired up their play-action game, and that’s when things really got out of sorts. The Bills couldn’t get the Rams to a third-and-long, they didn’t know what was coming next, so they couldn’t properly put on a pass rush. The result was hemorrhaging yards left and right. It started up front with the defensive tackles, went through to the linebackers and then to the secondary for everyone not named Christian Benford, ceding ample separation and yardage. By the end of the game, the Bills got their act together and made it more difficult on the Rams — even if it was too late.
But you had to expect a game like this was coming for the defense. They had been playing with fire all season with explosive plays, but, especially during their win streak, they hadn’t gone up against a perfect storm like the one they faced against the Rams. They had a healthy, and explosive, group of skill position players on offense. They faced a healthy and powerful offensive line. And there weren’t any inclement weather conditions that could help their cause of getting off the field. The last opponent like this, with that perfect blend of an offensive arsenal, was Baltimore. And it raises some questions about the overall ceiling of the team if a performance like the one they got from Allen wasn’t enough for a victory. The Bills will likely need to face a team with that exact profile should they make it to the Super Bowl in the domed atmosphere in New Orleans.
Depending on whether you’re an optimist or pessimist, you can look at their Week 15 matchup with the Lions as either an opportunity or a worrisome affair. The Lions have a hulking, powerful offensive line that runs the ball at will, along with a healthy group of explosive playmaking skill position players to balance the attack. And it will be in a dome, so it’s just a flat-out battle of wills unaffected by Mother Nature. It’s a chance for the Bills defense to exorcise their demons quickly. Or, if it goes similarly to the Rams game, a proliferating of the root problem could be the Bills’ downfall in 2024.
Bills MVP: QB Josh Allen — Duh. The Bills haven’t needed superhuman Josh to emerge often this year, but he clearly showed the club is in the bag. Allen took over the game, mixing pinpoint throws with good decision-making and back-breaking quarterback scrambles. He played an MVP-type game deserving of a win.
Bills LVP: HC Sean McDermott and the defense — One for the timeout taken after the failed first-and-goal quarterback sneak, and the other for getting steamrolled for 44 points.
Up next: The 10-3 Bills head on the road to take on the 12-1 Lions in a matchup that could be a Super Bowl preview.
(Top photo: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
