For the second straight season, the Bills head into their bye week smarting from a last-second road loss.

A year ago, it was the cringe-worthy 32-30 “Hail Murray” defeat hung on them by the Cardinals. It happened when quarterback Kyler Murray threw a fourth-down prayer from midfield into the end zone where wideout DeAndre Hopkins out-fought three Buffalo defenders for the winning TD.

This time, it was Monday’s night’s 34-31 loss to the Titans as Josh Allen slipped on a fourth-and-less-than-a-yard quarterback sneak when a field goal would have tied the game and sent it to overtime.

Two debates evolved from that defeat, one, the decision to go for the winning touchdown rather than opt for OT, and two electing to go for a pair of field goals in the red zone early in the game.

LET’S START with coach Sean McDermott’s decision to try for the win in regulation.

Allen had just run five yards to the Titans’ 3-yard line, coming up about 18 inches short on third down with 22 seconds and two timeouts remaining.

McDermott kept the offense on the field in a bid to at least pick up a first down. Instead, Allen lost his footing and Tennessee tackle Jeffrey Simmons made sure Buffalo’s QB didn’t advance that foot-and-a-half.

Because the play didn’t work, any number of Bills’ fans, with the perfect vision of hindsight, criticized the call.

But here’s the reality, NFL teams, more and more, rely on analytics (the study of odds) when making decisions.

The league’s own database, Next Gen Stats, concluded the probability of conversion was 75%. Further, the win probability was 63% if the Bills went for it and only 42% if they settled for a field goal.

And, other factors likely entered McDermott’s thought process.

The Titans had scored on their previous six possessions and Buffalo had shown no ability to stop Tennessee running back Derrick Henry (143 yards on 20 carries with 3 TDs including a 76-yarder).

It’s likely he considered, if the Bills took the field goal but the Titans won the toss in overtime, they might go right down the field and score the winning touchdown without Buffalo ever getting the ball.

Afterward, McDermott explained of the decision, “We’re this far (holding his fingers inches apart) from winning the game. I owe that to my players, and I believe in my players. I believe in our quarterback. Obviously, we didn’t get it done in this case, but I trust my players. I’m always going to believe in my players, our football team, and my coaches.”

MEANWHILE, Buffalo’s struggles in the red zone have been a season-long problem.

Though still averaging an AFC-best 34 points a game, the Bills have scored only 16 touchdowns in an NFL-high 29 trips into the red zone, or 55 percent of the time, a success rate that ranks 26th in the league.

Ten of Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass’ 14 field goals this season have come on drives that have stalled inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

It happened four times in the 40-0 win over Houston and back then I wrote that failing to finish drives against a more proficient opponent would come back to bite the Bills.

That piece infuriated one reader who took to the Olean Times Herald’s Book of Face — I’m not on it but was told of the post — demanding I be fired for criticizing the team after a one-sided win.

But, the day after the Texans game, McDermott conceded those failed possessions could eventually haunt his team.

And they did.

Even Allen weighed in on his team settling for those two early gimme field goals — leaving eight potential points on the field — against the Titans.

“When you have the feeling of being able to move the ball and you kind of stall out there in the red zone, it’s never a good feeling, because we want to score points,” he said. “That’s our job. Score touchdowns. We just didn’t do a good enough job of that.”

Why did it happen?

“Just not executing how we should,” Allen said. “Shooting ourselves in the foot a couple of times with penalties. I’ve got to be better for us in the red zone. It’s no secret, 2-of-5 (in the red zone), against a team like that, is not going to win you a football game. We go 3-of-5, we win that game.”

(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)