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This is the first section of a four part series reviewing the 2015 Buffalo Bills’ season. This post will cover the team’s front office and coaching, with three other segments reviewing the team’s offense, defense, special teams and a final one speculating on what the team needs to do to improve in 2016. In my opinion, the Bills’ front office, which includes general manager Doug Whaley and his scouting staff, has done admirable work in constructing a roster that should be capable of making the NFL playoffs. Whaley has been criticized for some of his moves, like trading up to draft Sammy Watkins and jettisoning Matt Cassel after he failed to win the starting quarterback job. The main argument against the Watkins trade is that the Bills could’ve stood pat and picked Odell Beckham Jr. and gotten themselves a better player. I would argue that the move was a good one, since Watkins is maturing into a top echelon receiver and a leader in the locker room, while Beckham, while talented, is a selfish prima donna. Meanwhile, Cassel proved in his starts in Dallas that moving him was no big loss. Despite trading the Bills’ first round pick in last year’s draft to get Watkins, Whaley still provided the team with some major contributors to the roster.

As far as coaching, there’s no way Rex Ryan gets anything but a failing grade for his efforts. Ryan raised the hopes of the fan base with guarantees of “building a bully” and playoffs (“Get ready, we’re gonna go”) and failed to deliver on anything. He retained special teams coach Danny Crossman from the previous coaching staff, but the bomb squads were anything but special . He spent the entire season trying to fit square pegs into the round hole that is his supposedly vaunted defensive scheme, and took a top-ranked unit and ran it into the ground. Players openly questioned the coaches all year. They say that teams take on the personality of their coach, and that appeared to be true with this year’s Bills. Ryan was undisciplined with his boastfulness and silly behavior all year, and the team followed suit. They picked up undisciplined penalties all year, and Ryan never fixed the problem. It was interesting to read a comment by a New York journalist who covered Ryan while he coached the Jets, that Ryan’s teams will “give you tremendous highs, inexplicable lows, and in the end, lots of mediocrity”. His career record indicates that this statement is accurate, so Ryan needs to figure out how he can tone down his personality and actually channel all the energy he exudes into coaching his team so they play with some consistency each week.

If your team’s final game of a season in which they underachieved and missed the playoffs needed some storylines to add incentive for the players, then Sunday’s Buffalo Bills’ matchup with the New York Jets certainly had that. The Bills faced their head coach’s former team, the New York Jets, quarterbacked by the Bills’ former quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, with the Jets needing the win to secure a playoff spot. On top of that, there were rumblings of dissension in the Bills’ locker room with players suggesting that Mario Williams checked out a long time ago and was a selfish player. So how did the Bills respond? With a rousing effort that got them a 22-17 victory and ruined the Jets’ playoff hopes. Their win put the Pittsburgh Steelers into the playoffs as a wild card, and also ensured a non-losing season (8-8) for the second straight year for Buffalo. It’s very disappointing that a non-losing season passes for a positive, especially in a season that had so much promise, but at least the Bills didn’t run for the bus.

On the contrary, they played with as much passion as they’ve shown all year, especially the defense. Even the guy supposedly dogging it, Mario Williams, had a sack, while Leodis McKelvin, Manny Lawson and rookie A.J. Tarpley all picked off former Buffalo quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in the fourth quarter to seal the win. It was a great all-around game for a unit that struggled all year, as they couldn’t quite adjust to coach Rex Ryan’s defensive scheme. On offense, the Bills had a tough time running against the Jets’ top-ranked rush defense. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor was their leading rusher with 51 yards on 10 carries, including an 18 yard scoring run in the first quarter. Taylor was his usual consistent self – his passing stats were ordinary, as he hit on 18 of 28 passes for 182 yards. He was extremely efficient, however, in keeping drives alive with third and fourth down conversions. The Bills controlled the clock for most of the game, doubling up the Jets in time of possession. Taylor’s biggest positive in the game may have been his ability to get the ball to his top weapon, Sammy Watkins, even though Watkins was being covered by the game’s top cover corner, Darrelle Revis, and the rest of the Bills’ receiving corps was depleted by injury. Watkins caught 11 passes for 136 yards.

A loss would have sent the Bills into the off-season with a bad taste in their collective mouths, especially if they had lost to Ryan’s former team, quarterbacked by their former signal caller. Instead, Buffalo salvaged a .500 season and now must regroup and hopefully make a run at the postseason in 2016.

After the Buffalo Bills’ postseason hopes came crashing down last week in the team’s meltdown performance in Washington, all hell broke loose, in the locker room with players openly questioning the defensive scheme and the effort of their teammates, and in the local media with heavy criticism of head coach Rex Ryan and reports that general manager Doug Whaley’s job could be in jeopardy. So, with all the negative karma surrounding the team coupled with the announcement that the team’s only Pro Bowler, LeSean McCoy, would be out with a knee injury, all of Buffalo’s fan base wondered how the Bills would come out and play in a meaningless game against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. Well, their effort was certainly there, even though the game resembled an early preseason game. Both teams were missing key pieces due to injury, big plays were at a minimum and you needed a program to identify some of the players on the field. Buffalo pulled out a 16-6 win, as their defense managed to hold the Cowboys’ offense to just over 300 yards of total offense and only a pair of field goals. Facing a fourth string quarterback making his first NFL start in Kellen Moore, the Bills’ defense still couldn’t muster any kind of a pass rush and allowed Dallas to convert half of their third downs into first downs. They did manage to come up with a couple of turnovers, with A.J. Tarpley intercepting a tipped pass and forcing a fumble on a kickoff that sealed the win.

The offensive star of the game was Buffalo’s diamond-in-the-rough running back, Mike Gillislee, who rushed for 93 yards on only 9 carries. He set up Buffalo’s first score when he took a Tyrod Taylor swing pass and fought his way down to the one yard line, setting up a Karlos Williams TD. He then put the game away with a 50 yard scoring run in the final minutes. Gillislee is using these last few games of the year to make a strong case for a permanent roster spot in 2016. The push for the playoffs is over for the Bills, but their finale next week is anything but a meaningless game. They’ll face the New York Jets, coach Rex Ryan’s old team, who will likely need to win to secure a wild card playoff spot.

Sunday’s 35-25 defeat by the Buffalo Bills at the hands of the Washington Redskins , which officially eliminated the Bills from the playoffs, may have been the most disheartening loss for coach Rex Ryan’s team in what has been a completely disappointing season. As has been the pattern in most of their losses this year, the Bills’ defense, which was ranked fourth in the NFL last season, couldn’t stop anything when it mattered, and put QB Tyrod Taylor in a bad spot, having to try to come back from a multiple score deficit before the game was very old. The Redskins shredded Ryan’s supposedly vaunted defense for touchdowns on their first three drives, then after the Bills finally put some points on the board with a Dan Carpenter field goal, responded with a 77 yard touchdown throw from QB Kirk Cousins to Desean Jackson to up the lead to 28-3. Speaking of Cousins, as has also been customary this year, the Bills’ defense made him look like a Hall of Famer, rather than the average signal caller that he is. He was allowed to hit on 22 of 28 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns, while also rushing for a score. The Bills didn’t force a punt until well into the third quarter. They didn’t force a turnover, again, and recorded only one sack, by Jerry Hughes, who was about the only defensive player who showed any interest in competing. The Bills’ special teams contributed almost nothing, and if there were any positives to take out of this game, they were provided by the offense. Despite the early hole, the offense fought back and got their team back into the game in the third quarter, only to have the defense respond with another fold to keep Washington’s lead a comfortable one. Taylor wasn’t spectacular in a game when he needed to be, thanks to his impotent defense, but he was his usual consistent self, hitting on 16 of 27 throws for 235 yards, two scores and no turnovers. Both his TD passes went to Sammy Watkins, who had another spectacular day. Unheralded running back Mike Gillislee, who saw game action when LeSean McCoy was injured, had his second straight eye-opening game, with a solid effort that included a 60 yard scoring run. Karlos Williams returned from injury to battle for a hard-earned 40 yards, and another rookie, tight end Nick O’Leary, made his season debut with a 37 yard catch and run.

Buffalo now closes out an embarrassing season with home games against Dallas, an even more disappointing team than the Bills, and Ryan’s old team, the New York Jets, who may need the win to secure a playoff spot. Despite a lost year, the Cowboys are an NFC East team, and the Bills have been manhandled by the other 3 teams from that division this year, despite being probably the weakest division in the NFL. It would be the ultimate embarrassment for Ryan to get beaten by his old team to get that team into the playoffs, but Buffalo has shown little or no desire to rise to the occasion for anything this year.

That whooshing sound coming out of Philadelphia after Sunday’s Eagles/Bills game was the sound of Buffalo’s 2015 playoff hopes going down the drain, making it a 16 year drought for the Bills. LeSean McCoy’s teammates failed to “get this one for our boy”, as Boobie Dixon had promised, as the Bills fell 23-20. It was just another case of the team failing to walk the walk after doing a lot of talking, taking their cue from their bombastic head coach, Rex Ryan, who blew into town when he was hired guaranteeing the playoffs. With three weeks left in the season, Ryan will likely go into the off-season with his tail between his legs after failing to deliver on all his boasting, and will likely face the embarrassment of not even getting this team to the same record as his predecessor, Doug Marrone, did. Buffalo followed the same formula on this day as they have in most of their recent losses – they played decently on offense as Tyrod Taylor made some plays, but shot themselves in the foot with confounding penalties, this week adding to their league-leading total with 15 flags for 101 yards. The special teams got another taunting penalty, a problem that has plagued the Bills all year, and also a problem that should be easily correctable but has yet to be corrected by Ryan and his coaching staff.

The offense had some positive moments. Taylor’s 47 yard scoring throw to Sammy Watkins was a thing of beauty, and unheralded Mike Gilleslie did a great Karlos Williams impression on his 19 yard touchdown run in the third quarter, tying the game at 20-20. Robert Woods had 106 yards receiving in his best game of the year. Unfortunately, Watkins became a non-factor in the second half, just like he was a couple of weeks ago against Kansas City. With the season now into it’s final quarter, it’s clear the Bills do not have the mental toughness to be a playoff team. They are making the same mistakes and playing with the complete lack of discipline now that they did at the start of the season, with no sign anywhere that the coaching staff has a clue of how to correct things and improve the team. It’s a real shame that the Bills are in the position they are in. For the most part, Taylor has done this season what the formula called for him to do – manage the offense, don’t turn the ball over, let your running game dominate and sprinkle in some big plays in the passing game. At the same time, Ryan has turned the NFL’s 4th ranked defense into a mediocre, average unit that can’t get off the field when they need to and gets almost no pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Defense is supposed to be Ryan’s area of expertise, so the unit’s dramatic failings this year fall squarely on his shoulders.

The Buffalo Bills revived their staggering playoff hopes on Sunday with a 30-21 win over the Houston Texans, leveling their season record at 6-6. They’re still on the outside looking in (6 teams qualify, the Bills stand eighth), but a loss would have all but buried them as far as their postseason hopes were concerned, as it would have been a second consecutive loss to a team ahead of them in the standings. On offense, the team used the formula that they need to follow to be successful – run the ball, don’t turn it over and mix in some big plays in the passing game. Quarterback Tyrod Taylor had what was probably his best game of the season, completing 11 of 21 throws for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns, and running for another score. LeSean McCoy, priming up for a clash with his former team, the Eagles, next week, led the rushing attack with 112 yards on 21 carries, while Taylor and newcomer Mike Gillislee sprinkled in some nice runs to help amass 187 yards on the ground at a 5.2 yard per carry clip. Taylor also spread the ball around nicely to his weapons in the passing game, with Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods and Charles Clay having big games and scoring touchdowns through the air despite the team’s limited focus on the passing game.

Defensively, the Bills were somewhat disappointing again, as they still are struggling to put together a consistently dominating game. They did, however, make plays when they needed to as they now seem to have evolved into a “bend but don’t break” unit, despite their talent. Some defensive standouts in the game included linebackers Manny Lawson and Preston Brown, who were the team’s leading tacklers, Jerry Hughes and safety Bacarri Rambo, who both had 6 tackles and a sack. Rambo, who is developing into a playmaker in the Bills’ secondary, also had a key pass breakup late in the game to squelch a Texans’ drive with a big hit on the receiver.

Buffalo may have to run the table in their remaining 4 games to make the playoffs, and will begin their attempt to do that next week in Philadelphia against an Eagle team that should be bursting with confidence after knocking off New England on Sunday. That will be the first of the Bills’ NFC East tour, with games against the Redskins in Washington and the Dallas Cowboys at home to follow.