Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Sports Columnist
What a sad fall from grace…if they even had any to begin with. Once again, the Bills have failed, and once again, Buffalo fans will be forced to endure another season of disappointment, depression, and total utter heartbreak.
With Buffalo’s 37-34 loss to the eagles on Sunday Night Football, they have now officially dropped 4 of their last 6 games and are now 2 and a half games out of first place in the AFC. Going into their bye week, unexpected would be an understatement for how both the Bills and their fans’ thought this season would go.
After coming off two straight second round exits, Bills fans were confident that it was their time to shine and make a deep run into the playoffs. In fact, aside from the Chiefs, the Bills were the number one favorite to come out of the AFC. They had an MVP-caliber quarterback in Josh Allen, a top 3 receiver in football in Stefon Diggs, and a dominant defense led by Pro-bowler Matt Milano. This is what makes the Bill’s collapse so unprecedented!
How could a team that looked so good on paper coming into the year completely fail to meet expectations? It comes down to a few things, but from the very beginning this season looked grim for the Buffalo Bills. In what was supposed to be an electric shootout between the Bills and Jets in week 1, Aaron Rodgers tore his achilles on his first drive as a Jet and was ruled out for the season. Jets fans died of a heart attack and Bills fans breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they had an easy win in the bag…or so they thought.
Miraculously (off the back of three interceptions from Josh Allen) gang green defeated the Bills 22-16 on an unbelievable walk off kick return in overtime. Still though, Bills fans were optimistic. After all, it can’t possibly get any worse than losing to Zach Wilson…RIGHT???
Wrong! Well, at least not until later. For the next three games, Buffalo looked like the team everyone thought they would be coming into the year. They blew out all three of their opponents and scored over 37 points in each contest. People started to view the Jets game as simply a fluke and the Bills were once again expected to be super bowl contenders and the favorite to win the AFC East.
However, after a heartbreaking loss against the Jaguars (again on the back of multiple Allen turnovers) things only went downhill. They nearly lost on primetime to the New York “Poverty” Giants, and then proceeded to lose to the now 2-9 Patriots in week 7. They lost 2 of their next three to the Broncos and Bengals with Josh Allen continuously putting up lack-luster performances game after game.
Eventually, the Bills hit the ultimate low-point of their season. In a thrilling contest, the Bills lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Eagles in overtime on the back of a 5 touchdown performance from Jalen Hurts. They dropped down to 6-6 and every Bills fan in the nation was left flabbergasted only able to ask one question: “How did this happen?”
Well, how exactly did this happen? Going back to what I said at the beginning of the article, how could a team that was viewed as a super bowl favorite coming into the season have failed so miserably going into their bye week? The Bills collapse can ultimately be contributed to three main factors:
1-Injuries on defense
The Bills defense had been solid for the first weeks of the season. However, after an injury sidelined Matt Millano for the rest of the season, their defense has been atrocious. They are outside the top ten in total defense and have the 20th ranked rush defense with no Millano. Injuries to other notable players such as Tre’Davious White and DaQuan Jones have caused the Bills to allow high amounts of points to both good and bad teams. Needless to say, the Bills defense is too banged up to be considered championship-caliber like it was before.
2-Lack of offensive weapons outside of Allen and Diggs
A second contributing factor to the Bills failure is a lack of offensive talent outside of Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen. Despite the emergence of rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid, the Bills offensive talent is more shallow than Jalen Hurts’ personality. Both Gabe Davis and James Cook have been widely inconsistent this year and Latavius Murray has been flat out awful. With this lack of threats on the offensive end, defenses are able to effectively double team Stefon Diggs. With a lack options to go to (especially when moving on the run), it has once again brought out the turnovers in Josh Allen which leads to the final and most impact factor in the Bills demise that being…
3-Josh Allen’s Turnovers
Through 12 games, Josh Allen has 16 turnovers this season. He has averaged more than 1 turnover a game and his stupid interceptions in critical moments have lost the Bills multiple close games. The fact is, that Allen needs to play better, plain and simple. He has looked like a shell of himself and without Josh Allen playing at an MVP level the Bills are Toast.
With all this being said, the Bill’s season is still not quite over. Despite heading into a tough stretch to the end the season, the Bill’s have had some time to reflect on their season during the bye week. If head coach Sean McDermott can figure out some replacements on defense, sign some new talent, and clean up Josh Allen’s turnovers, the Bills could be right back in the playoff hunt.
Is it likely? Frankly, no. The Bills season has already been registered as a disappointment. Coming in as super bowl contenders, barley squeaking into the wild card is the absolute bare minimum for them… and even that probably won’t happen. No matter how their season ends, the Bills will, just like in those four super bowls, ultimately fail. Why? Just ask any Bills fan. They will tell you, heartbreak is what the Buffalo Bills do best.