Buffalo Bills’ glaring weaknesses exposed by Los Angeles Rams in Week 14

Once again, HC Sean McDermott’s biggest flaw played too big of a role in a losing effort

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen scored six touchdowns… and yet his team lost 44-42. Despite a classic Allen game, it was the Bills’ defense that exited Week 14 making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

We could sit here and rummage through the glaring defensive stats, we could also bemoan how ineffective the defensive line is week after week… and that punt-return TD. (Maybe we still do touch on all that below.) The reality is that, overall, Buffalo fields a highly flawed defense propped up by opportunistic and usually disciplined play.

Disciplined they were not, against the Los Angeles Rams. Nor were they any good. No NFL team should lose a game when it scores 40-plus points. Yet, the Bills did just that thanks to a handful of really poor decisions blanketing a nearly invisible defense.

Another common theme of 2024 has been slow starts for offensive coordinator Joe Brady and his group. Though the first half got out of hand quickly, Brady uncharactaristically abandoned the run game. Apart from Allen’s contributions, running back James Cook added just six rushes for 20 yards — and wide receiver Curtis Samuel just one carry for one yard. Yikes.

There are positives to take away despite the loss. First, Josh Allen is as dangerous as ever, and doing it without the likes of Stefon Diggs. If the Bills had to lose a third game, dropping it to an NFC team was the best outcome. Not to be forgotten is the fact that Buffalo still holds the two seed in the AFC.

As has been the case in seasons’ past, a couple of old skeletons reappeared. Let’s dive in…

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Buffalo Bills’ special teams gaffe keyed Week 14 loss

Consider the myriad ways points were scored at SoFi Stadium. It was fantasy football come to life with a total of 86 on the scoreboard — the stuff of crazy college football matchups. In a game where neither side turned the ball over and with offenses putting up points at will, the key difference came on special teams.

It had been 108 games since the Rams returned a blocked kick for a touchdown. While we can’t know what reality looks like without that return touchdown, we can observe those points as the difference between winning and losing.

If you were curious why the Bills didn’t try to block the final play of regulation, it’s because they didn’t have enough players on the field. Seriously. There were just nine Bills special teamers in for the final snap. Perhaps small in the grand scheme of things, it leaves me wondering if other Super Bowl-hopeful teams operate similarly.

The Buffalo Bills have a defense problem

Since 1962, 13 NFL teams have given up 44 points and won. The Bills nearly joined that group, but the rally came too late. How many weeks now have we discussed the Jekyll & Hyde nature of Buffalo’s defensive line? They feast on weaker competition, then disappear in big games. It’s concerning that the likes of Greg Rousseau, Ed Oliver, Von Miller, and A.J. Epenesa couldn’t make life difficult for Matthew Stafford and a Rams offensive line featuring more than one depth player.

The Bills need to fix the defensive line problem before it costs them a playoff game. Every year we spend plenty of space discussing who, what, and where general manager Brandon Beane needs to sign and draft to fix things. It’s beginning to sound like a broken record now, where every season features the Who’s Who of “What Should Have Been.”

Perhaps more troublesome was the Rams’ ability to disrobe the Bills’ secondary. It’s rare that you’ll find either Christian Benford or Rasul Douglas suffer terrible games. To watch them both (plus Taron Johnson) get thoroughly cooked all game by Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp is concerning. Each of the three made key plays at times, but Stafford only had seven incompletions when the dust settled.

In the first half, Babich’s zone scheme was blown apart, having faced 23 run plays and proving largely inept as a stop unit. The thought was that Babich would make adjustments and add some wrinkles in to offset the first-half bleeding. Wrong, as it was more of the same in the second half. What most won’t write about is the role that linebackers Terrel Bernard and Matt Milano played in this awful effort. Stafford certainly had zero reason to throw to receivers underneath and near the Bills’ linebacker duo, but their failures to help in run defense allowed the Rams to hang 24 points in the first half.

No one will ever doubt Milano’s heart and ability when he’s in prime form, but it’s worth wondering where he’s at in this stage of his return to play. From the game I watched, Milano looked slow and hesitant on more than a few plays. It remains a curious to me that the team’s leading tackler, linebacker Dorian Williams, has simply been resigned to bench duty. Milano hadn’t played in nearly two seasons prior to Week 13. No one should expect him to be back to form yet. These are essentially preseason games in his return-to-play timeline. Considering that, why hasn’t Williams continued to see the field on defense. The chemistry he’d built up with Bernard and the rest of the defensive starters should not be cast aside.

It’s a difficult subject in a lot of ways, made more challenging by a scheme that features one of the best nickel cornerbacks in the NFL.

Sean McDermott once again blew it in crunch time

In a crazy game full of memorable plays, it’s the negative ones authored by head coach Sean McDermott that will stick with Bills Mafia.

Sean McDermott’s late-game management system is a problem. It’s been trouble for him most of the eight years he’s been in charge. What proof do we have to believe the situation ever change? To this point, no situation has proven challenging for McDermott to fumble. And I say this as someone who fully supports his continued tenure at One Bills Drive.

The guy is just utterly brutal making choices in key moments. There are those who will tell you that McDermott didn’t lose this game for Buffalo. The counter is that he did nothing to help the odds of his team winning late in the fourth quarter.

With the Rams driving late and looking to extend on a 38-35 lead, the Bills did the unthinkable and held their ground to force a long third-down situation. On the ensuing play, LA was flagged for a holding penalty. At that point, McDermott decided to trust a very over-matched defense.

Instead of declining the flag and pushing the Rams to 4th & 7 and a likely try for a long field goal, McDermott accepted the flag and 10 yards. It was a terrible decision handing the Rams a retry on third down, and they gained 12 yards of it back on 3rd & 17. So instead of 4th & 7, LA now had 4th & 5 — and every reason to try and convert the first down against a zone defense that couldn’t stop anything all day. And convert they did, eventually all the way to six points.

Buffalo’s task was now more difficult, needing to overcome a nine-point deficit instead of just six points. The Rams had a two-score lead inside of two minutes and much of it can be shouldered by McDermott.

Not to be outdone by his first mistake, McDermott later chose to use his first of three timeouts after the offense failed to score from a yard out. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady should have radioed in two plays, so that if the first goal line try failed, the offense had its marching orders in place. We don’t know for sure that Brady didn’t send down two plays, but we do know that McDermott called a timeout to stop the clock.

That timeout was used to line up and run the same play. Yes, the offense scored, but at what cost? Why not tell the offense to run the same play out of the no-huddle, saving every timeout possible for the defense? Buffalo had pulled off the more difficult of two scoring possessions needed, and that extra timeout would have forced different decisions in the closing seconds.

For all that’s great about Sean McDermott, and there is plenty — his biggest flaw remains being unable to process big-picture scenarios in crunch time. This doesn’t mean he should be shown the door, but it’s worth considering what moves the team could make to help him avoid some of these situations.

The Buffalo Bills fumbled their double-dip opportunity

An argument can be made that the Bills lost as soon as they won the coin toss. Back when Buffalo was a regular in the Super Bowl, head coach Marv Levy understood that taking the ball on offense was the preferred move winning the flip of the coin. Most of the NFL abided by that rule, but times change. Since Bill Belichick decided to play things defensively, every team hopes to win the toss only to defer to the second half.

McDermott was never not going to let the Rams start on offense. Okay, certainly the Bills might once again be slow out of the gate and punt on their first possession. But at least that might have allowed them to pin the Rams deep, instead of kicking off under the interesting 2024 rules. McDermott and company were forced to watch the Rams methodically and physically march down the field to an opening-drive touchdown.

The Bills were immediately behind the eight ball. No worries, as the double-dip was still in play to end the half. But instead of leveraging that opportunity to score points and keep the ball away from LA, Buffalo punted back to the Rams. Goodbye double dip, hello 10-point halftime deficit.

Still, the Bills hit the break knowing they were getting the ball back with a chance to play catch-up out of the locker room. Change of plans: Buffalo went three-and-out, punting the ball back to LA still down by 10. The Rams proceeded to drive 76 yards in 11 plays for a touchdown, taking 5:29 off the clock and putting the Bills in a 17-point pit.

In total, that missed-opportunity double dip saw Buffalo gain just 26 yards on eight plays, using just 2:52 of game clock. Failing to execute that key momentum swing on either side of the half made for a poor decision to start the game.

Josh Allen is one of the NFL’s all-time best QBs

We’ll end on a high note with Josh Allen. The guy is absolutely incredible, already an all-timer at quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. Allen became the first quarterback with three touchdown passes and three touchdown runs in a single game. His rushing scores leave him just four shy of Hall of Fame running back Thurman Thomas’ franchise lead.

At 28, Allen’s still ascending as a professional quarterback, and no moment seems too big for him. After struggling to find traction in the first half, Allen put his cape on at halftime and did everything possible to bring a win back to Orchard Park, NY. Humans can’t outrun time, and that’s exactly what got Allen in the end. His performance was magnificent, highlighted by a 21-point fourth quarter that saw his play lift receivers well above their punching weight.

Allen finished his day going 22-of-37 for 342 yards and three touchdowns; adding a team-leading 10 rushes for 82 yards and three more scores. This is a game many Bills fans will long remember — one where a tremendous effort by Allen was ultimately undone by terrible special teams play and awful coaching decisions.