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Alaina Getzenberg
atlanta-the buffalo bill Enter their bye week on a two-game losing streak after a 4-0 start. coach Sean McDermott said after Monday night lost 24-14 till atlanta falcons That the team would have to “start from ground zero.”
“We’ll figure things out on offense, defense and special teams,” McDermott said. “We have to start over and start from ground zero and figure this thing out and do everything in our power to do it.”
With the loss to the Falcons, the Bills fall to 4-2 new England Patriots In the AFC East. McDermott reiterated several times in his post-game news conference that the effort “wasn’t good enough.”
The Bills also hope the bye will allow some players to recover from injuries, but McDermott said there is no guarantee how many will return. tight end Dalton Kincaid (oblique) Games missed, defensive tackle daquan jones Tore his left calf in pregame warmups and couldn’t play, wide receiver joshua palmer (Ankle) Left and linebacker in the first half. Terrell Bernard (Ankle) Did not play second half.
The defense struggled early, allowing 335 yards in the first two quarters, the most given up by the Bills in the first half of a game since 2001. Most of those yards went to two players – 152 to running backs. bijan robinson and 147 to wide receiver drake londonMcDermott said the defense will continue to work on fundamentals and said it “has to improve.”
While the defense stepped up in the second half, giving up only one field goal and one drive of more than 35 yards, the offense struggled throughout the game to find any consistency against one of the league’s top statistical passing defenses, punting six times. quarterback josh allen Throwed two interceptions as the Bills lost the turnover battle for the second consecutive game.
Allen was also sacked four times, completed 15 of 26 passes (57.7%) for 180 yards and two passing touchdowns, both of which came on the unit’s two halves of the opening drive. He ran for 42 yards on six carries.
Allen said his hand was not injured in the game and is healthy, while McDermott said he was not informed of any injuries to Allen, but said the game was “very tough” on the quarterback given the position he was placed in. Allen’s 12 sacks on the season are two sacks away from his total in the 2024 regular season.
Allen had 47.1% of dropback pressures, his highest rate since the 2020 AFC Championship Game (47.4%). According to Next Gen Stats, the Falcons blitzed Allen on 55.9% of their dropbacks, the highest blitz rate they have faced since Week 8 in 2021. When blitzed, 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. It was difficult to find answers to the crime.
“I guess just go back to the drawing board, okay?” spencer brown Said. “Technically, practice hard. But yeah, you never want to see your quarterback get hit. You don’t want to lift him off the field. You don’t want to see him holding his arm or his stomach or whatever. So, they pay us to protect. So, that’s our job and we should do it.”
However, the reigning MVP took responsibility at times after the game, including responsibility for sacks, saying, “I have to get better. Protection, ID, hustle in the pocket. I just have to get better.”
After a loss, Allen typically talks with his fellow quarterbacks by his locker, but a rare guest, offensive coordinator Joe Brady, joined him after Monday’s game.
running back James Cook Was not on the field for any of the team’s nine third-down plays (2-9) or one fourth down (0-1) despite rushing for 87 yards on 17 carries.
McDermott said of Cook’s reason for moving to third, “It’s a good thing. We’ll look at it here on the bye as well.” “I control what I can control,” Cook said.
Just under two weeks until the Bills travel to play carolina panthersAlan said it would stay with him.
“It’s going to bother me for the next two weeks,” Allen said. “So, yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of ground to clear up. We’ll turn our attention to our next opponent and go from there.”
