Bills' slow starts will sink them against Dolphins and in playoffs
The Buffalo Bills are riding high on a four-game winning streak as they head into the season finale against the Miami Dolphins.The winner of Sunday's game takes home the AFC East crown, which obviously would guarantee a playoff spot for the Bills. The Dolphins have already locked in a spot thanks to their 11-5 record. […]
The Buffalo Bills are riding high on a four-game winning streak as they head into the season finale against the Miami Dolphins.
The winner of Sunday's game takes home the AFC East crown, which obviously would guarantee a playoff spot for the Bills. The Dolphins have already locked in a spot thanks to their 11-5 record. The Bills are eliminated from playoff contention if they lose this game and both the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers win – one of those two teams will have to lose in order for Buffalo to get in.
So, Josh Allen and co. need to hit the ground running against Miami in order to prevent any catastrophe from happening. They need to be dialed-in and ready to go from the jump, because they are essentially playing playoff football on Sunday – as they've been doing each week for the last four weeks.
But, the big problem with the last couple of games is the fact that the Bills haven't gotten off to good starts. In fact, they've been slow enough to the point to where the team has trailed early in games and has had to dig itself out of holes in order to comeback and get the much-needed dub.
"I was just off – just trying to find a rhythm early [and] couldn't seem to find one," Josh Allen told reporters after the New England Patriots game that saw the Bills go down by seven points right off the bat. "[It] felt like we got into a little bit of a groove in the third and fourth quarter. [We] have to start better than that. It's, never fun throwing incomplete pass after incomplete pass and just got to find a way, early-on, to get our guys more involved…
"They did a good job of rushing and just making me feel some stuff at my feet and just again, got the timing off, just ever so slightly. And that's all it really takes. And they played good coverage in the back end."
The Patriots returned the opening kick for a touchdown that put them up within seconds of kickoff. It took the entire first quarter to regain the lead and who knows how much longer it would have taken if it weren't for the Bills defense causing three turnovers in the first 15-minutes of the game.
But even then, the Bills offense came away with just one touchdown, despite drives starting at the Patriots 21-, 14-, and 30-yard lines.
"[It was] one of the longest quarters I've ever been a part of," said Allen. "You know, three possessions, down there, in the first quarter. And we only scored one touchdown, so that's that's not good enough on our end. We got to be better prepared to go and get six and seven [points], there. And again, we lucked out and our defense played a heck of a game."
It's not just about starting games, either
Against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Bills found themselves in a 10-0 hole minutes into the second quarter and it wasn't just the Chargers' early lead that gave Buffalo a bit of a shock – the Chargers stayed in the game, were never down by more than a single possession, and it took a last-second field goal to give the Bills a win.
The Bills were able to amass a 13-point lead over the Patriots going into the fourth quarter, but an Ezekiel Elliott touchdown run made it a six-point game with a little over 11-minutes to go. Buffalo eventually closed it out, but that's obviously a narrower margin then one would like to see – even if it's tough divisional game against a coaching staff that knows Allen and the Bills very well.
The aforementioned teams currently have a combined record of 9-23 and are picking in the top-6 of the 2024 NFL Draft. Sure, each week is an all-out battle in the NFL, but the Bills can't be screwing around like this against the Dolphins and then whomever they potentially likely play in the playoffs.
Slow starts and then subsequently allowing teams to hang around is a recipe for disaster in do-or-die matchups and even though the Bills have taken care of business over the last month, we've seen them wilt in the biggest moments of the biggest games, so they need to avoid those scenarios as much as possible.
Or else the team that currently holds the NFL's second-best odds of winning the Super Bowl will find itself either on the couch when the playoffs start or going home early after the first round.
