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Another disappointing Buffalo Bills season came to an end on Sunday, the fourteenth consecutive year that ended with the team missing the NFL playoffs. The New England Patriots, who needed the win to secure a first round playoff bye, won easily 34-20. Here are my main thoughts as far as what to take out of another one-sided loss by Buffalo to their AFC East nemesis:

* The loss gave the Bills a 6-10 record for the season – the exact mark Chan Gailey managed in his last 2 seasons coaching the team. One season isn’t long enough to make an assessment of Doug Marrone, but a couple of things are clear. One hope fans have if a team can’t have a winning season is that they at least show progress and growth as the year goes on. Marrone’s Bills looked pretty much the same in the season-ending defeat as they have all year. They play hard but make mind-boggling mistakes at crucial times in games. Marcell Dareus, not Marrone, jumped offsides on the late-game field goal attempt that handed New England a first down. He also didn’t take consecutive unsportsmanlike conduct penalties to give the Pats a free 30 yards on one of their late drives. But Marrone, as the head coach, is responsible for coaching these mistake-prone players to be disciplined and not give gifts to their opponents. They did it all season in their losses and the problem, going into the off-season, is still not corrected. The “losing culture” mentality that Marrone keeps talking about changing is still firmly intact.

* LeGarrette Blount took his turn as the obscure back that the Bills turned into a superstar. He gained over 300 yards on runs and kickoff returns. It was very discouraging to watch Buffalo players, on both defense and the kickoff coverage team, show little interest in tackling the big New England back all day long.

*The Patriots seemed to spend much of the game toying with the Bills. Buffalo managed to keep the score respectable, but it never appeared to me that they were really ever going to seriously threaten to overtake the Pats.

* The Bills will be sending 3 players from their defense to the Pro Bowl, and 2 others (Dareus and Kiko Alonso) could still be added to the game if injuries and players going on to the Super Bowl open up spots. Yet that unit has major problems stopping the run and was gashed for big plays on Sunday, repeating a pattern that’s been in place all year. Without a doubt, the team is a totally different unit on the road than at home, supposedly a trait of “young” teams. Realistically, other than Alonso and maybe Stephon Gilmore, is the Buffalo defense young?

* One good thing about Buffalo closing out the year with another demoralizing loss – there won’t be any kidding themselves about how far off they are from being able to truly compete with a franchise like New England. When it comes to decisions about which players to try to build a future with and which to discard, there really aren’t many they can do without.

The Buffalo Bills turned their home season finale against the rival Miami Dolphins into an excellent Christmas present for their fans. Combining their best defensive effort of the year with a workmanlike offensive showing, the Bills shut out a Miami club with playoff aspirations, 19-0. With starting quarterback EJ Manuel out with a knee injury, backup Thad Lewis stepped in and engineered a win over the Dolphins for the second time this season. Buffalo’s running game has been a staple of their successful outings this year, and Sunday’s game was no exception. Fred Jackson ran for 111 yards and the game’s only touchdown, while C.J. Spiller added 77, plus another 26 through the air, for a combined 103 yards that matched Miami’s total output for the game. Lewis led some impressive drives, most of which resulted in field goals, but with the way the club’s defense was playing, it was a good decision by coach Doug Marrone to play it conservatively and build up an insurmountable lead with kicker Dan Carpenter’s reliable leg. With Stevie Johnson out, Lewis did a good job of spreading the ball around to his entire receiving corps. Robert Woods had another fine game before being ejected for fighting in the fourth quarter. T.J. Graham, Chris Hogan and tight ends Scott Chandler and Lee Smith all made plays also.

The story of the game, however, was the defense. Coordinator Mike Pettine had a great game plan, and his unit executed it perfectly. They were aggressive all day, harassing QBs Ryan Tannehill and Matt Moore from start to finish. With seven sacks, the team broke the franchise record for sacks in a season. They also had two interceptions of Moore during short stints when he replaced Tannehill because of injuries. The Bills were sending blitzers from everywhere, as rookie cornerback Nickell Robey registered a pair of sacks. Kyle Williams also had two, while the other three came from Jerry Hughes, Mario Williams and Da’Norris Searcy. Leodis McKelvin and Jim Leonhard had the picks. Overall, the entire defense had a great day, with contributions coming from the whole unit. Miami managed to gain only the paltry 103 total yards, picking up only six first downs all day. Buffalo’s third down defense, a problem in some of their losses this year, allowed only 2 of 14 conversions, a 14% conversion rate. The Bills close out the season in New England, with a chance to put a crimp in the Patriots’ playoff seeding. A win would be a big deal for the Bills, a team looking to show some progress, to distance themselves from the mediocre Bills’ teams of recent years. It would put their final record at 7-9, a tangible improvement over their back-to-back 6-10 finishes under Chan Gailey.