Are The Buffalo Bills Broken?

That wasn’t a pretty way to open up the season, especially against a team without Aaron Rodgers for 96% of the game. The Buffalo Bills had huge expectations from the fanbase going into this season, and throughout training camp/preseason they looked very good. But something just didn’t click Monday night. Was it Ken Dorsey’s scheme? Was it Josh Allen? Or something else?

Ken Dorsey deserves blame!

Dorsey is in his second year as the OC and we haven’t seen any growth from Josh, or the rest of the offense from the end of last year. Allen pounded the table for Dorsey to become the OC, and at the time it was a smart bet. He was going to leave for a OC/HC job that off-season if we didn’t promote him. And the team couldn’t lose both him and Brian Daboll in one off-season. But now, since we’ve seen what his offense looks like and how difficult it seems for Allen and Co. to play in, Ken Dorsey may not be that guy.

The MLB position

The Buffalo Bills did absolutely nothing to improve this position when they had every opportunity to. They put their entire faith in former UDFA Tyrel Dodson, who was fine with leaving in Free Agency, and a third round pick who couldn’t get on the field last year (Terrel Bernard) manning the defense. They drafted Dorian Williams, and after the draft said he would be competing for the MLB job. However, that wouldn’t be the case in training camp. Brandon Beane said he would be focusing entirely on OLB which, again, doesn’t help improve the position you just lost a Pro Bowler at. Now come game time, Bernard got beat, and the defense isn’t functioning properly with him as calling the plays.

Do we blame Josh Allen? 100%

Josh Allen deserves a good chunk of the blame, if not all of it, for how the offense played through all four quarters. Allen was trying to play Superman when the game got tough. And, instead of taking the short plays, would throw into double coverage where Jordan Whitehead was playing thief. Allen, who has notoriously lived and died by his arm, has shown more bad than good since the end of the regular season in 2022. Since December of last year, he’s thrown nine INTs. In that same time span, he’s thrown for 16 TDs.

While Allen’s done a lot of good in that time, he also put us in some bad situations in meaningful games. Entering Year 6, you’d like for him to mature more and take what the defense is giving him. We’ve seen it done before, he relied on the short game when Cole Beasley was in town. He’s just got to trust it again so the offense can click.

What the hell was that ST performance?

Absolutely pitiful job at the end of the game by the Bills punting unit. From neither of the gunners maintaining their positions, to that weak push by Sam Martin as the last line of defense. That was doomed from the moment he punted it short to the middle of the field. The team can’t be missing Jake Kumerow and Taiwan Jones’ special teams prowess that much… can it?

Besides Sean McDermott’s lead defense, the rest of the Buffalo Bills were not prepared to walk into MetLife stadium and win a divisional matchup. They have a week to get whatever they need to figured out before the schedule starts getting tough.

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