Olean Times Herald

‘But if the Bills win a division title next week in South Florida (officially scheduled for the NFL’s Sunday night regular season finale) by beating the first-place Dolphins, they may want to send a thank you note to Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens for making it possible — and another one to the Green Bay Packers for trading away Rasul Douglas.’

‘To get in position for either a wild-card spot or possibly challenge the Dolphins for the AFC East, though, the Bills first have to correct one of the season’s worst mistakes: a loss to the New England Patriots in Week 7. Fans probably still can’t shake the image of Mac Jones hitting the “Griddy” dance after a last-minute touchdown.’

‘Of course, the Bills will only have themselves to blame if they end up short of the playoffs, and it’ll be because of games much like the one they face on Saturday in Los Angeles. On paper, it should be an easy one: a 5-9 team, without its star quarterback and many others that just lost so badly in primetime it prompted the firing of its coach and general manager.’

‘The Bills sit at ninth, though they are tied with the aforementioned three teams at 8-6. Buffalo’s 4-5 conference record puts it at the bottom of that tie. If Buffalo beats the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night, the Bills would be in the Top 7 and in a playoff spot, though they could be knocked back out with the combination of Sunday’s results. A Bills win would increase the odds to 76 percent and would be even higher if Pittsburgh beats Cincinnati earlier in the day).’

‘Or, put it this way: when Josh Allen stayed on the sideline to let backup Kyle Allen take care of the final 11 minutes, the scoring margin (28) nearly doubled Josh’s total passing attempts (15). The total rushing yards (266) nearly tripled Allen’s passing yards (94).’

‘Bills fans were thinking they’d seen this film before, and they didn’t like the ending. Good thing Buffalo wrote a new ending, with some help from Kadarius Toney’s foot.’

‘Any week where the coach has to address a star player accused of domestic violence, then a day later clarifies his thoughts on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks cannot be a good one.’

‘You’d think a coach who saw Patrick Mahomes get into field goal range in 13 seconds would think it’s worth a shot to try it in 20. Even last year, the Bills were in an almost identical situation — tied, with 23 seconds left, albeit with all three timeouts — and Allen hit Stefon Diggs to immediately get in range for a walk-off kick in Detroit over the Lions on Thanksgiving. So what changed? Allen was fantastic for the majority of the game — save for one bad interception — why not give him the chance to win the game?’

‘Eagles third-year coach Nick Sirianni hails from Jamestown, part of a long line of coaches in the Sirianni clan. His father, Fran, is a local legend as a former football coach and longtime track coach at Southwestern High School.’

‘The good news for Joe Brady was his Bills offense scored on its first three drives Sunday in his debut as coordinator. The bad news? They were all field goals, though to be fair, against the New York Jets and Zach Wilson, field goals might have got the job done. For a while, it looked like the Bills might owe another game to their defense while a slumping offense adjusted to a new play-caller.’

‘So, no, this shouldn’t be an easy debut for Joe Brady in the offensive play-calling job after taking over for the fired Ken Dorsey. Brady met with the media Thursday to discuss his sudden new job as interim offensive coordinator and said he still had not decided where he’ll call plays from: the booth, as Dorsey did, or on the sidelines, as many offensive coordinators now do.’

‘Dorsey didn’t put 12 men on the field to block a would-be go-ahead field goal in the game’s final seconds. He also didn’t call consecutive ‘Cover 0’ blitzes with the Broncos on the outskirts of field goal range, leaving Taron Johnson one-on-one for Jerry Jeudy to draw an obvious pass interference flag.’

‘The score could have been much worse for Buffalo: in all, the four turnovers led to only six Denver points on two field goals.’

‘So what do we make of this mid-season Bills swoon? It’s easy to point a finger at the defense, and just as easy to excuse, or at least understand struggles on that side of the ball due to injuries.’

‘But this is a bit different than last year, when the Bills’ biggest midseason addition, Nyheim Hines, was acquired in a running back swap for Zack Moss (who, by the way, looks pretty good in Indianapolis now). Hines ended up only meaningfully contributing on special teams, never finding a significant role in the Bills’ offense.’