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.