Upon Further Review: Bills are an average football team – or worse – on the road
Thursday night’s 23-19 loss to the Texans at NRG Stadium dropped the Bills to 2-3 on the road this season, but their struggles extend far beyond just the calendar year. Since the start of the 2023 season, the Bills are 11-12 on the road.
It’s time to confront a harsh reality about the Buffalo Bills.
They are not a good road football team, and they haven’t been for a while. Thursday night’s 23-19 loss to the Texans at NRG Stadium dropped the Bills to 2-3 on the road this season, but their struggles extend far beyond just the calendar year.
Since the start of the 2023 season, the Bills are 11-12 on the road, including the postseason. Even while accepting that one of those losses in last year’s regular-season finale at New England meant nothing, the evidence is clear: Take the Bills out of Orchard Park, and they’re an average – or worse – football team.
That is bad news, considering the Bills are now 7-4 on the season and fighting for a spot in the playoffs. Their hopes of a sixth straight AFC East title look all but dead, now two full games behind the New England Patriots, who could move 2.5 games ahead Sunday with a win against the Bengals. The Patriots also currently hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bills.
With the division nearly out of reach, that sets up the very real possibility of the Bills needing to win three road playoff games to advance to the Super Bowl. Is there anyone out there who thinks that is remotely plausible at the moment? Keep in mind, this is a team that has never won a road playoff game (0-5) under coach Sean McDermott.
Winning on the road is more difficult than winning at home. That’s a given. But in the same time frame, dating to the start of the 2023 season, the Chiefs are 16-8 on the road, and the Ravens are 16-7. So winning on the road is not impossible for franchises with Super Bowl aspirations.
The Bills, though, make it look awfully hard.
Texans wide receiver Jayden Higgins makes a touchdown catch against the Bills during the second quarter Thursday night.
The Texans' win dropped the Bills to 11-12 on the road since the start of the 2023 season. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
“Not the result we were looking for,” McDermott said after Thursday night’s loss. “I am proud of the players, the way they battled, had some guys go down. Guys gave it all they had, and we came up short. (There were) things you can't do against a good football team and a good defense, overall.”
That list started with turnovers. The Bills had three of them, while failing to take the ball away once.
“We’ve still got to find a way to get a takeaway to help our offense,” safety Jordan Poyer said. “We just weren’t able to get that done today.”
In the past seven games, the Bills have turned the ball over 14 times, losing the turnover battle in five of those seven games. Not surprisingly, they’ve lost four of those seven games.
Particularly in the passing game, the Bills’ offense is not remotely the same unit on the road. Allen has thrown for 13 touchdowns at home, compared to just five on the road, granted with one more home game played. He has also been intercepted five times on the road, compared to four at home. Allen has been sacked 18 times on the road this season, compared to 10 at home. The passing offense has produced 82 first downs at home, but just 48 on the road.
“We’ve got the guys to do it. We’ve just got to be more consistent,” wide receiver Gabe Davis said. “At the end (of the game), we’re doing what we do. We’ve got to start doing that early.”
McDermott pointed to first downs as a problem area for the offense against the Texans. That was especially true in the second half. The Bills ran 13 first-down plays after halftime against Houston. Those plays gained a total of 23 yards. That left the offense vulnerable to a relentless Houston pass rush that sacked Allen eight times – a career high.
“When you're not winning first down, and you get into second down and long, that's what becomes predictable,” McDermott said. “Then their D-line pins their ears back, and they go, and they're built that way for a reason. That's where the hits come. Second down and long turns into third down and long, and that's the unhealthy formula I'm talking about.”
McDermott expressed confidence in the offensive coaching staff, led by coordinator Joe Brady, to figure that piece out. He might be alone in Western New York in sharing that optimism right now.
“We kind of knew what they had going on,” Davis said. “Just man on man, didn’t win. Put the team in bad spots a couple times. It’s on all of us. Just got to be better.”