The box score from Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the Patriots tells a convenient lie — a work of fiction where the Bills won. They held the ball for nearly 35 mins, racked up more first downs (25 to 21), and gained more total yards (363 to 338). It’s a statistical bedtime story that Bills fans would tell themselves to feel better. 

As observer Kevin Siracuse put it, this loss feels like a “microcosm of what has hampered this team in the postseason each of the last few seasons — receivers not being able to get open and corners not being able to cover effectively.”  Remember the big offseason project? Finding that exact weapon. Yet, here we are. 

Josh Palmer had 2 catches for 36 yds, Curtis Samuel managed two for 26 yds and a TD, and Tyrell Shavers was targeted once with 0 receptions. Outside of Dalton Kincaid’s impressive 108 yds on 6 catches, the receiving corps was a ghost town, forcing Allen (22/31, 253 yds, 2 TDs, 1 INT) to become a magician and the team’s leading rusher with 53 yds on the ground.

The core issue is that Allen’s frantic, mistake-prone play happens when “There is also no vertical threat to this offense, which the Bills talked about finding all offseason. There were way too many times where Allen was scrambling around trying to find SOMETHING down the field.”

HC McDermott’s post-game diagnosis: “You cannot turn the ball over three times,” he said, “and expect to win.” He’s not wrong. Allen muffed a handoff and threw an INT at New England’s 10-yd line. Keon Coleman (4 catches, 23 yds, 1 TD) lost a fumble.

Those 3 moments were daggers. But they weren’t just random acts of sloppiness. They were the predictable result of a QB trying to do too much because his supporting cast isn’t doing enough. Pointing at the turnovers ignores the rot in the floorboards that made the whole structure unstable to begin with.

A familiar postseason problem

The defensive secondary, particularly the cornerback spot opposite Christian Benford, has become a glaring liability. Stefon Diggs was a walking, talking indictment of the Bills’ roster management. He was cooking, pulling in 10 catches for 146 yards, with 119 of those coming in a second-half dismantling, courtesy of his new QB, Drake Maye (22/30, 273 yds).

Watching Tre’Davious White (4 tcks) try to cover him felt like watching a memory.  As Ryan Talbot put it, the Bills “have a cornerback problem,” and it was on full display while Patriots QB Drake Maye completed 13 of his 14 second-half passes.

The Pats were just throwing to their best player, who was consistently open. While the Bills’ run defense held James Cook to just 49 yds on 15 carries, they couldn’t stop the bleeding through the air, or the 2 short-yardage rushing TDs from Rhamondre Stevenson.

Add in the 11 penalties for 90 yards and those “self-inflicted wounds” McDermott mentioned, and you have a team beating itself long before the opponent has to.