In this case, the NFL schedule-maker just might have done the Bills a huge favor.
Reeling after consecutive ugly losses to American Football Conference elites, Buffalo desperately needs a win to regroup.
To the rescue come the 0-6 Jets, the league’s last remaining winless club and easily pro football’s worst team.
If you doubt it, let’s give the bookmakers the last word: Next Sunday New York is an 11-point underdog to the Bills … AT HOME.
How bad are the Jets? Let me count the ways …
They’re last in the NFL in points scored (12 ½ per game), passing yards, third-down efficiency and red-zone touchdowns. There’s more. The Jets are 30th of 32 teams in yards gained per game (277), penalties and starting field position and 29th in points allowed (31 per game).
In short, a Buffalo loss at MetLife Stadium, sans fans, would be absolutely devastating.
That’s particularly true as, after the Jets, whom the Bills beat 27-17 in the opener, Buffalo’s schedule includes trips to San Francisco, Arizona, Denver and New England, plus home games with unbeaten Seattle and Pittsburgh, plus the Patriots, Chargers and the season finale against resurgent Miami.
AND, RIGHT NOW, any Bills’ foe looks formidable.
Quarterback Josh Allen, in the first quarter of the season, put up legitimate MVP numbers in getting Buffalo off to a 4-0 start. But his heroics masked the deficiencies of a defense which was the antithesis of its top-tier performance last season.
When the third-year QB struggled the past two games — a 42-16 loss to the Titans at Nashville and a 27-16 defeat by the Chiefs at Orchard Park — the Bills’ ‘D’ was exposed for all to see.
The home defeat by Kansas City was particularly hurtful as it highlighted Buffalo’s flaws.
As the saying goes, you know you’ve got problems when your game MVP is the punter. Indeed Corey Bojorquez had his best effort as a Bill, averaging nearly 53 yards on four punts, all of them landing inside the Chiefs’ 20.
HERE’S A LOOK at Buffalo’s main areas of concern as the season heads toward the halfway mark:
1. Allen. In fairness, Josh isn’t so much a concern as he is an uncertainty. Bills fans were euphoric when he got the team off to an unbeaten start and put up otherworldly numbers in the process.
It seemed astonishing that he had overcome the accuracy issues of the first two seasons, going from 56 percent completions to 71 percent in Year 3 without the benefit of the normal Organized Team Activities and training camp.
Unfortunately, the last two games his numbers have been much more reminiscent of 2018 and ‘19.
Were the most recent games an aberration; is he really the player we saw in the first quarter of the season or is he somewhere in between?
For the sake of Bills fans, given this defense, they had better hope the 4-0 Josh is the real one.
2. The rush ‘D.’ And that doesn’t exonerate the oft-touted secondary, which hasn’t exactly been the second coming of the 1985 Bears.
Buffalo’s pass defense ranks 24th in the league, giving up 256 yards a game, but the ground performance is even worse, 25th in the NFL at 131 yards. Combined the 387 yards are 23rd in the league.
The significance of Buffalo’s woes in stopping the ground game was proven Monday night.
Coach Andy Reid, a fierce advocate of throwing the ball, found the Chiefs were running the ball so effortlessly, he minimized what KC does best and ran it down the Bills’ throats for 245 yards on 46 carries. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who loves to throw deep, admitted it was so easy to run the ball on Buffalo that it was an easy choice on a rainy night.
3. Running game. No matter how well Allen throws the ball, as with any quarterback, he’s at his best with balance. Instead, 76 percent of Buffalo’s offensive yardage in the first six games have come from the pass. Indeed, the Bills’ 553 rushing yards (92 per game) rank 27th in the league and 143 of those have come from Allen. Only 398 yards have been produced by their running backs, who have been disappointing at best.
Second-year pro Devin Singletary has 270 yards on 71 carries and rookie third-round draft choice Zack Moss has been worse with 22 tries for 58 yards.
In short, the Bills’ No. 1 and 2 running backs have combined for 328 yards (3.5 per carry) with one touchdown.
Small wonder the Bills made a bid for former Steeler Le’Veon Bell, released by the Jets, before he was signed by the Chiefs.
Still, Buffalo needs a spark in its running game and you get the idea general manager Brandon Beane is working overtime trying to solve it, and it has to be … fast.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
