Observations: Josh Allen's heroics undone by horrible defense, questionable coaching in loss to Rams
Josh Allen did all he could Sunday, and then some. The Buffalo Bills’ quarterback strengthened his MVP case even in defeat, totaling six touchdowns against the Los Angeles Rams. But the Bills defense had no answers, and the Rams earned a 44-42 victory to keep their playoff hopes alive.
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The job of an NFL head coach is to give his team the best opportunity to win.
Sean McDermott failed in that regard Sunday for the Buffalo Bills.
A superhero performance by quarterback Josh Allen was wasted by a putrid defensive showing, a terrible breakdown on special teams and a late-game coaching blunder as the Los Angeles Rams held on for a 44-42 victory at SoFi Stadium.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen was incredible Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, accounting for six total touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough to lead his team to a win.
Harry Scull Jr. photos, Buffalo News
Despite the repeated defensive failures, Allen kept clawing his team back into the game. The Bills had a first-and-goal at the Rams’ 1-yard line with 1:06 remaining in the game, trailing 44-35.
Crucially, the Bills still had all three timeouts. With a touchdown, the defense still had a chance to get the ball back to Allen and Co. by stopping the Rams and utilizing those timeouts. It wouldn’t have been an easy spot for the offense, but with Allen, anything is possible.
On that first down, the Bills went to their bread-and-butter play in short yardage – a quarterback keeper.
“I think that was the easiest call for us to do,” right tackle Spencer Brown said. “We’ve ran ‘attack’ I don’t know how many times on the season. We can at least get 1 yard out of it.”
This time, they didn’t. Allen didn’t get into the end zone, and the clock didn’t stop. McDermott chose to use a timeout with 1:02 left.
Once he did, the possibility of getting the ball back with a defensive stop was gone, because the Rams would be able to run out the clock. Instead, the Bills had to rely on an onside kick.
Allen ultimately scored on second down, but the Bills’ hopes then rested with an onside kick – a play that ha]s only been successful 7% of the time this season in the NFL (teams are now 3 of 41 after the Bills failed to recover).
Once the Rams recovered, they ran out the clock, stopping the Bills’ winning streak at seven games and dealing the team a severe blow in its quest to earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
McDermott explained his reasoning for using the timeout:
“You have two options, basically. Neither are great, right? So when you’re in that situation with holding three timeouts, felt like with the ball, felt like we (were) underneath kind of a time overall where we felt like we could get the ball back with a legit chance to win the game with no timeouts. Having said that, we used what we thought was our best play all year, which is 1-yard quarterback sneak by Josh. Had to use a timeout. Just felt like that was the best course of action for us right there. Neither of them are great choices in that situation.
“At the end of the day, we have to play better overall so we stay out of those situations. But we’ll go back and look at it again. Just overall, again, (I) felt like thought we could get it right there on the first play. Didn’t get it, used the timeout, and then feel like, ‘Hey, we’re in a situation if we do get the onside, we’re still going to have a high percentage.’ I recognize that – 15 yards and roughly 50 seconds, two timeouts to go, feel pretty good about ourselves.”
McDermott said he understood the odds of recovering the onside kick were low.
If he truly did, though, he shouldn’t have put his team in that situation.
It’s true that the Allen keeper has worked exceptionally well. It was only the third time in 19 rushing attempts this season he had been stopped with a to-go distance of at least 1 yard. Two of those stops have occurred on the opponents’ 1-yard line
He is 20 of 27 on sneaks from the opponents’ 1-yard line in his career and 4 of 6 this season.
When it didn’t work, though, the Bills needed to have a contingency plan. Yes, it would have taken time to untangle the pile and get lined up again to either run another play or spike the ball. But that would have been better than relying on an onside kick.
“Ideally, we’re not in that situation. But if we’re in the situation you don’t have great options at your disposal,” McDermott said. “There’s potential you’re able to save the timeouts and play defense and then you’re out of timeouts and they’re punting the ball back to you. Then you’re in a situation with no timeouts and the ball may be pinned. So you know, or you go the route we did. So there’s not great options at that point in the game. We’ll go back and look at it again, I promise you that.”
That’s surely little solace for fans frustrated by a loss in which coaching played a direct, detrimental role.
Other observations from Sunday’s thriller in SoFi Stadium:
2. The coaching errors didn’t stop there. After the Rams recovered the onside kick, the Bills used their two remaining timeouts, and the defense held the Rams to 8 yards gained on three plays. With 7 seconds left, the Rams let the play clock expire and took a delay-of-game penalty before Ethan Evans punted.
At that point, the Bills had to hope for either a blocked punt for a touchdown or a touchdown return by rookie Brandon Codrington.
Despite having more than enough time to get their punt-block unit set because of the Rams’ penalty, the Bills inexplicably had just nine players – nine! – on the field for the punt.
“Yeah, punt block. We should have been in that,” McDermott said. “Honestly, we didn’t have enough guys on the field to do that so that’s something we got to figure it out.”
How could that happen?
“It comes down to substitutions,” the coach said. “So it’s communication, it’s understanding who’s in the game, who’s available, so we’ll go back and figure that out.”
Codrington didn’t field the punt, and time expired as the punt went into the end zone for a touchback.
“The call before we went out there was go for the block, hopefully fair-catch, we have 1 second, or potentially a touchback, we get the ball at the 20 and we get one more play,” Codrington said. “That was what it was. That was definitely a thought, to try and return it.”
Bills special-teams players watch a replay of a punt blocked by the Los Angeles Rams’ Jacob Hummel and returned for a touchdown by Hunter Long on Sunday at
SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
3. The Bills had another disastrous breakdown on special teams. On fourth-and-10 from their own 48-yard line early in the second quarter, the Bills sent punter Sam Martin onto the field. But Rams linebacker Jacob Hummel broke through the middle of the line to block Martin’s punt. Los Angeles tight end Hunter Long returned in 22 yards for a touchdown. It’s the 10th time in Bills history a blocked punt has been returned for a touchdown by the opposing team, and the first since Pittsburgh’s Ulysses Gilbert did so on Sept. 12, 2021.
On the play, Hummel bowled over Bills long snapper Reid Ferguson to get in position to make the block.
“Obviously worst-case scenario, something you never want to go through,” Ferguson said. “Something I pride myself on as a snapper is good snaps and good protections. When one fails, you need to take a look in the mirror and see what went wrong. Got walked back on that punt. It wasn’t pretty. It’s a tough one to swallow, but you’ve got to look forward. Had good snaps and good protection the rest of the game, but you just hate to be the reason that one could cost you.”
Martin said he did not feel the pressure from Hummel until it was too late.
“Most times it is a surprise. I can sometimes see (pressure) when it’s off the edge, but no, it was bang bang,” he said. “You hate that feeling, but we’ll watch it Monday and get it fixed. It’s definitely something that’s fixable. So it happened, we’ve just got to figure it out and not let it happen again.”
4. Officials missed a huge call. Facing fourth-and-5 from the Bills’ 35-yard line with 3:53 left in the fourth quarter, the Rams left their offense on the field. Before quarterback Matthew Stafford took the snap, right tackle Rob Havenstein clearly moved. Officials did not throw a flag for the false start, however, and the Rams picked up the first down with an 11-yard completion from Matthew Stafford to receiver Tutu Atwell.
Buffalo Bills defensive backs Taron Johnson, left, and Taylor Rapp, center, look on as Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua celebrates a touchdown during the first half Sunday.
Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News
5. Taylor Rapp and Rasul Douglas were injured on the same play. The Bills’ safety and cornerback collided while in coverage on a play in which Rams receiver Cooper Kupp caught a 17-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter.
Rapp suffered a shoulder injury but was cleared to return. Douglas suffered a back injury but was back on the field by the time the Bills’ next defensive series had started. Douglas, however, then left the game later in the fourth quarter with a knee injury. He was replaced in the lineup by Ja’Marcus Ingram.
Defensive end Casey Toohill also left the game in the second half because of a rib injury.
Nickel cornerback Taron Johnson also briefly left the game but returned.
McDermott did not have any updates on the injuries after the game.
6. Lewis Cine made his Bills debut. The safety, who was called up from the practice squad Saturday, was on the field for the opening kickoff, marking his first action as a member of the team. Cine is a former first-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2022 who has been on the Bills’ practice squad since late August.
“I was ecstatic, of course. Still grateful to get that opportunity, win or lose,” Cine said. “Being on practice squad, just keep your head down, work, work, work until you get your shot. Once you get it, don’t look back.”
7. Two of the Bills’ top offensive weapons still weren’t ready. Rookie wide receiver Keon Coleman and second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid did not play. Coleman missed his fourth straight game because of a wrist injury originally suffered in Week 9 against Miami. Kincaid missed his third straight game with a knee injury suffered in Week 10 against Indianapolis.
Tight end Quintin Morris also missed the game with groin and shoulder injuries. Coleman, Kincaid and Morris were all questionable for the game on the final injury report.
8. Kaiir Elam was once again inactive. The Bills’ cornerback was inactive for the third straight game. The team’s other healthy inactive players were offensive lineman Will Clapp, rookie linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio and defensive tackle Jordan Phillips.
Rookie defensive tackle DeWayne Carter, who was activated from injured reserve Saturday, made his return to the lineup for the first time since being hurt in Week 7 against Tennessee. To make room in the gameday lineup, the team sat Phillips.