Bills lament another near-miss after OT loss to Eagles

PHILADELPHIA — At times this season, the Buffalo Bills have been a team without answers. A team that has lost its breathing room in the competitive AFC, facing a steep climb to even qualify for the playoffs with one of the toughest schedules in the league to finish the season.

After another loss Sunday, this time to a talented Philadelphia Eagles team, dropped the Bills to 6-6 heading into the bye week, it was defensive tackle Ed Oliver who explained why the 37-34 loss in overtime in many ways summed up the feelings around the team’s season.

“Well, the frustrating thing is being so close, but yet so far away,” Oliver said.

The Bills are 2-6 in one-score games in 2023, tied with the New England Patriots for worst record in eight or more one-score games and tied for second-worst record in the one-score matches on total.

Despite the number of losses, the Bills are plus-101 points, the 268th team to be plus-100 or better through 12 games. But they are the second team in this group to not have a winning record, joining the 1950 Eagles, who also had a 6-6 record.

“Like you just said, we might have nine or 10 wins right now, but it’s fantasy land, and in real life we ​​understand what our record is,” safety Micah Hyde said. “And it’s the NFL, man, it’s been a long time, and it’s tough.”

Losing close games isn’t necessarily a new problem. Sean McDermott is now 1-6 in overtime, including the playoffs, as head coach. This is tied with Dom Capers for the worst record of a head coach in NFL history with a minimum of seven overtime games coached (81 coaches have coached at least seven overtime games, including the playoffs ).

“We didn’t do enough, we didn’t make enough plays and we didn’t do enough on the coaching side,” McDermott said. We are a good football team and we came out of it in the short term. There are no moral victories. Each of us has to look at ourselves. Like I told you, it starts with me. That’s what you do.’ That’s what the best do, and I know our football team is a very good football team. “

There was concern among officials in the first half when Buffalo racked up 10 penalties, many of which were controversial, including a grounding call on quarterback Josh Allen. Despite this, the Bills had a 10-point lead at halftime and another 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. But then there were moments near the end of the game that can be pinched for possible reasons the Bills failed: the two timeouts McDermott used on the Eagles’ final drive in regulation when they made a 59-yard field goal to tie the game. and the decision to go to overtime with 20 seconds left, as well as settling for a field goal on fourth-and-6 from the Eagles’ 22-yard line in overtime instead of going for the win.

The Bills defense allowed the Eagles offense, opportunity after opportunity, to get back into the game after stifling Philadelphia in the first half (the Bills outgained the Eagles by 177 yards in the first half, the worst margin yards in a half). game started by Jalen Hurts for Philadelphia). The Eagles came back with three straight touchdowns in the second half, including one on an Allen interception that created a short field. There were three drops due to offense and miscommunication by the Bills, including on a pass to wide receiver Gabe Davis on the Bills’ final offensive play in overtime.

“Yes, it’s an optional path,” Allen said. “They were at zero [coverage] so we protected it as much as possible. Understand that they were coming to get me. I made a guess, and I guessed wrong.

Allen has not won an overtime game in his career (0-6), the most losses without a win or tie in overtime by a starting quarterback. In overtime, he never threw a touchdown pass and he never threw a ball more than 15 yards.

In his second game with interim offensive coordinator Joe Brady calling the plays, Allen completed 29 of 51 passes for 339 yards, two passing touchdowns and the pick. On the ground, he rushed for a record 81 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns. Allen now has the most games with 300 passing yards and 75 rushing yards in NFL history.

“His level of play has increased over the last couple of weeks. That’s really the most important thing. When your quarterback is playing well, you have a chance,” McDermott said. “Over the last two weeks, Josh Allen’s level of play has been good enough for us to win.”

Allen said “Yeah” when asked after the game if this loss stings a little more than others. Linebacker Terrel Bernard called it an “execution issue,” with the defense having to “go out and finish” late in games.

On the other end of the bye, the Bills face last year’s other Super Bowl representative, the Kansas City Chiefs.

“We understand that this football team definitely has a lot of upside,” Hyde said. “It’s crazy…with our record being 6-6, but I could just say the close games we’ve lost, and the games we’ve lost have been by a few points. So we just have to keep going to find a way in those situational moments to find a way to get a takeaway or if the offense gets the ball, get a touchdown.