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PHILADELPHIA — Of all the amazing things that happened Sunday night at a rain-soaked Lincoln Financial Field — both positive and negative for the Buffalo Bills in their crushing 37-34 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Eagles — there was one play that outdid all the others. .
And because this is the Bills we’re talking about, a franchise that has built a library and filled it with defeats so demoralizing that they warrant nicknames, of course it was a negative play that simply defied belief, and one that brings the 2023 season closer to extinction.
Buffalo’s defense, gasping for air at the end, thought it had done enough to secure the Bills’ best win of the season. He got up and stopped the Eagles’ final drive in regulation at the Buffalo 41-yard line as Jordan Poyer broke up Jalen Hurts’ pass intended for AJ Brown.
Starting on fourth-and-17, the Eagles had no choice but to attempt a 59-yard field goal with 25 seconds left. Given the rain and wet field, it looked as if it would take a miracle for Jake Elliott to drive the ball through goalposts that must have looked like they did in Scranton.
but not. Of course the ball passed, one of the greatest kicks in NFL history and that’s no exaggeration. It was the fourth-longest field goal ever against the Bills, and the longest field goal to require overtime in the NFL since Jay Feely’s 61-yarder for Arizona, naturally against the Bills, in 2012. And in this weather? amazing.
“Seeing that result, it was kind of heartbreaking,” said privateer Cyran Neil. “On their part, that was a great kick, and for us to see that was definitely devastating.”
It didn’t even seem possible to kick the ball off the wet ground, through all that falling water, at that distance. However, here we are. Earlier in the day, Texans’ Matt Amendola attempted a 58-yard shot in the final seconds trying to send Houston’s game into overtime against the Jaguars. Amendola was inside but fell just shy and hit the crossbar. Inside. In ideal conditions.
Again, we’re talking about bills. Of course Elliot found a way to kick the ball to the promised land.
“That was crazy,” safety Micah Hyde said. “Obviously this is the NFL, you realize until there’s no time left on the clock, you don’t assume you’ve won the game but that was a kick amazing.”
It stole the victory from Buffalo as it tied the game at 31-31, and then after Tyler Bass gave the Bills the lead in overtime, the defense was unable to repeat its performance on the previous drive and allowed the Eagles to drive 75 yards to hurt. Game-winning 12-yard touchdown run.
Now 6-6, the Bills aren’t dead in the playoff hunt, but they’re clearly in very big trouble.
Here’s how invoices are categorized:
Passing violation: A-
Josh Allen had a heroic game as he passed for 339 yards and two touchdowns including the go-ahead touchdown to Gabe Davis with 1:52 remaining in the fourth quarter, and he also ran for 81 yards and two scores, giving him a 420-yard total on the day for the offense.
However, he threw a terrible interception deep in his own territory that led to an Eagles’ touchdown, and on Buffalo’s last offensive play in overtime, he got Davis open in the end zone but the QB and WR miscommunicated when Davis went one way and the ball went the other. That led Buffalo to settle for a field goal, and in the end, that was usurped by an Eagles OT TD.
Davis had his best game of the year with six catches for 105 yards, while Stefon Diggs was inconsistent as he caught just six of 11 targets for 74 yards with a TD. Dalton Kincaid had five very quiet catches for 38 yards and Khalil Shakir had three for 47 yards.
As for James Cook, yes, he caught the ball and ran for 29 yards, but he also dropped a surefire TD pass in the first quarter.
Running Attack: A-
Against the No. 1 rushing defense in the NFL, the Bills tried all night to establish the ground game on a sloppy field and finished with 173 rushing yards, the most the Eagles have allowed this season. The Bills ran it 40 times for an average of 4.3 yards with Allen leading the way as his 81 yards came on a combination of running and designed rushing.
Cook struggled with just 43 yards on 16 carries, while Latavius Murray and Ty Johnson had a combined 49 yards. The offensive line, opposing the Eagles’ stud-laden front, created some nice gaps, especially on a drive in the fourth quarter that ended with a Davis TD catch that gave the Bills a 31-28 lead.
Defense pass: C-
With 1:50 left in the third quarter, right after the Bills opened up a 24-14 lead, Hurts was 7 of 15 for 50 yards with an interception and even after he hit DeVonta Smith for a 34-yard touchdown, he still went for a fourth-down touchdown. A quarter with only 84 yards passing.
And then it all fell apart for the Bills during a disastrous fourth quarter and overtime. In a two-minute span early in the fourth, Hurts capped off a very easy 75-yard drive with a 15-yard TD pass to Smith. And after an Allen interception, Hurts somehow found Olamide Zaccheaus for a 29-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone after scrambling to buy time on third-and-15, just a colossal failure of missing coverage by both Hyde and Poyer.
Before all that, the bill had already succeeded. Taking advantage of the lack of Eagles star RT Lane Johnson, the pass rush was electric in the first half, though not so much in the second half. Linval Joseph and Tim Settle both had sacks, Greg Rousseau and Leonard Floyd were a constant nuisance, and Floyd hit a painful pass into the air in the first half that floated into the arms of Terrell Bernard for an interception that led to the Bills’ first touchdown. When they started that journey in Philadelphia 29.
Smith hit the Bills with seven catches for 106 yards, but AJ Brown — despite catching a TD pass — only had five receptions for 37 yards. No one else had more than two and the Bills limited the damage to 200 yards on 31 attempts.
Running defense: D
The Bills did some good work early in the game, but the biggest problem with their defense is that they always get hurt by huge plays and that happened early in the third quarter. D’Andre Swift only had seven yards on the half, but he broke off a 36-yard run that set the Eagles off on a touchdown drive that cut Buffalo’s lead to 17-14.
Russo played a tremendous game. He had three tackles for loss of yardage and the first time he recovered a fumble by Hurts. Unfortunately, he didn’t receive much help as the Eagles finished with 185 yards. Swift eventually gained 80 yards while Hurts dished out some damaging runs including the game-winning 12-yard run in OT where he wasn’t even touched up the middle. LBs Bernard and Tyrel Dodson were weak against several plays.
Special teams: Dr
Obviously the weather conditions were poor, and Lincoln Financial Field was a grass surface, so kicking conditions were an issue, but that can’t be an excuse for Tyler Bass missing two field goals, and given the score, they missed big. The first was partially blocked by Jalen Carter in the second quarter from just 34 yards, then in the third quarter it was wide from 48 yards. He had a 48-yard score in the second quarter and a 40-yarder in overtime.
The Bills had a miserable night with punt returns, 11 for 80 yards including two on special teams. Neal was hit with a personal foul that gave the Eagles a free 15 yards to start the first down drive of the first quarter. Baylon Spector was awarded a penalty that cost the Bills 10 yards from field position and forced them to start the drive from the 5 in the second quarter.
Sam Martin knocked down three punts inside the 20, but his net was just 38.3 yards, eight yards worse than the Eagles’ Braden Mann. Andy Isabella had a comeback from 25 yards out, while Shaker blocked a kick that he was lucky to recover.
Training: Dr
This team’s penalty issues are a problem. The first half was quite comedic, and while I completely understand that Shawn Hochuli’s crew looked like they were making some of those calls, that doesn’t explain all of Buffalo’s rule-breaking. Sean McDermott should be appalled at the lack of discipline shown by his team, which falls squarely on him. “I’m not going there,” he said when asked about management.
I thought Joe Brady described another very good game. I like that he stayed patient on the run when he saw it was working, especially on a sloppy night when the ball handling was compromised in the passing game. Getting Allen back into the running game is crucial and he killed the Eagles with some big plays. The Bills finished with 40 minutes of possession time, 505 yards, 29 first downs and 13 of 22 on third down.
Defensively, it was the same story that hurt the Bills all year. The defense played well for long stretches, but faded in big moments as McDermott’s unit allowed 23 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. The Bills can’t close out games, which is a big reason why they’re a mediocre .500 team.
Sal Maiorana can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal’s Bills Blast newsletter, which is published twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
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