Coach Sean McDermott says Bills need to take advantage of bye week to start again

ATLANTA — The Buffalo Bills enter their bye week on a two-game losing streak after a 4-0 start. Coach Sean McDermott said after Monday night’s 24-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons that the team had to “start from scratch.”

“We’re going to fix things on offense, defense and special teams,” McDermott said. “We have to start over and start from scratch and figure this thing out and work hard to get it done.”

With the loss to the Falcons, the Bills fell to 4-2, behind the New England Patriots in the AFC East. McDermott repeatedly said in his post-match press conference that the effort was “not enough.”

The Bills also hope the bye will allow some players to recover from injury, but McDermott noted there are no guarantees as to how many players they will get back. Tight end Dalton Kincaid (oblique) missed the game, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones popped his left calf during pregame warmups and was unable to play, wide receiver Joshua Palmer (ankle) left in the first half and linebacker Terrel Bernard (ankle) did not play in the second half.

The defense struggled early, allowing 335 yards in the first two quarters, the most the Bills have allowed in the first half of a game since 2001. Most of those yards went to two players — 152 to running back Bijan Robinson and 147 to receiver Drake London. McDermott said the defense will continue to work on fundamentals, adding, “It’s got to get better.”

While the defense stepped up in the second half, allowing only a field goal and a 35-yard drive, the offense struggled throughout the game to find any consistency against one of the league’s best statistical pass defenses, scoring six times. Quarterback Josh Allen threw two interceptions as the Bills lost the turnover battle for a second straight game.

Allen was also sacked four times, completing 15 of 26 passes (57.7%) for 180 yards and two passing touchdowns, both of which came on the unit’s opening drives of both halves. He rushed for 42 yards on six carries.

Allen said his hand was not injured during the game and that he was healthy, while McDermott said he was not aware of any injuries to Allen but said the game was “too hard” for the quarterback, in terms of the position he was placed in. Allen’s 12 sacks this season are two shy of his 2024 regular season total.

Allen was pressured on 47.1% of his dropbacks, his highest rate since the 2020 AFC Championship Game (47.4%). According to Next Gen Stats, the Falcons blitzed Allen on 55.9% of his dropbacks, the highest blitz rate he has faced since Week 8 in 2021. In the blitz, Allen completed 8 of 14 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown, but was pressured on 9 of 19 blitz dropbacks and was sacked three times. Answers to the offense were hard to come by.

“I think we just have to go back to the drawing board,” right tackle Spencer Brown said. “Technically speaking, practice hard. But yeah, you never want to see your quarterback get hit. You don’t want to pick him up on the field. You don’t want to see him holding his arm or his stomach or whatever’s going on. So, they pay us to guard him. So, that’s our job and we’re supposed to do it.”

The reigning MVP, however, took responsibility on several occasions after the game, including sacks, saying: “I have to be better. Guards, IDs, movement in the pocket. I just have to be better.”

After losses, Allen usually chats with his fellow quarterbacks near his locker, but a rare guest, offensive coordinator Joe Brady, joined them after Monday’s game.

Running back James Cook was not on the field on any of the team’s nine third downs (2-9) or fourth downs (0-1) despite rushing for 87 yards on 17 carries.

“That’s a good point. We’ll look at that in the bye here as well,” McDermott said of why Cook went out on third down. Cook said: “I control what I can control. »

With just under two weeks until the Bills’ trip to face the Carolina Panthers, Allen said it will stick with him.

“It’s going to eat away at me for the next couple of weeks,” Allen said. “So, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of stuff to clean up. We’re going to focus on our next opponent and go from there.”