Power rankings: Bills losing stronghold on top-10 placement

Buffalo Bills in national power rankings polls heading into Week 11.

The Bills couldn’t muster up enough positive plays and point on the board against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday in Week 10. Buffalo lost 19-16.

Because of that, the Bills aren’t moving up in power ranking polls around national media outlets. The Bills are starting to fall out of the top-10, a place they’ve been hanging around the past few weeks.

Here’s a look around those national polls and where the Bills sit, heading into Week 11:

USA Today

17. Bills (15):

Their play is getting incrementally worse, and schedule forecasts incrementally harder with Miami, Pittsburgh among opponents that no longer project as lay-ups.

Touchdown Wire

11. Buffalo Bills

(6-3. Last week: 9)

One of the reasons — perhaps the primary reason — the Bills selected Josh Allen with the seventh pick in the 2018 draft, despite serious concerns about his accuracy to all levels of the field, was Allen’s howitzer of an arm. Buffalo’s coaching staff surely thought it would be relatively easy to correct this. Not so, and it really showed in the Bills’ 19-16 loss to the Browns, in which Baker Mayfield made a few more plays than Allen did. Buffalo’s defense allowed a crushing 82-yard drive late in the fourth quarter, but it was Allen’s inability to respond that should really concern the team. Per Pro Football Focus, Allen was 0-for-5 on passes of 20 or more air yards in this game, and for the season, he’s completed just 12 of 43 such passes for 350 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions and a passer rating of 39.7. Only Carolina’s Kyle Allen has a worse passer rating on deep balls among quarterbacks who have taken at least 50% of their team’s snaps this season, and Kyle Allen was nobody’s idea of a franchise quarterback when the season began.

NBC Sports

10. Buffalo Bills (6-3)
Last week’s rank: 11

Bills lose and move up? Outside a few teams, this league is falling toward the mean. Bills are in line for a tumble. There are plenty of good teams left on the schedule.

CBS Sports

9. Bills (9)

At 6-3, they are still the Wild-Card leader. But they’ve lost two of the last three games and haven’t looked good doing so. They need more offense.

ESPN

13. Buffalo Bills (6-3)

Week 10 ranking: 13

Most important game left: Dec. 15 at Steelers

The Steelers have been resurgent over the past few weeks, winning four of five games to vault into AFC wild-card contention. With the Colts, Raiders and Titans all jockeying with Buffalo and Pittsburgh for the conference’s two wild-card spots, this late-season matchup will go a long way toward deciding who gets it — and establishing a tiebreaker.

Sporting News

15. Buffalo Bills, 6-3 (13)

The Bills have been good at winning battles of attrition, but you knew they were due for that method to fail on the road against a desperate Browns team that tried to give away the game several times. Josh Allen is simply not playing well enough for them to feel comfortable about their wild-card status.

Bleacher Report

High: 11

Low: 23

Last Week: 11

Week 10 Result: Lost at Cleveland 19-16

The shine is coming off the Buffalo Bills.

After starting the 2019 season 5-1, the Bills have no lost two out of three after falling to the Browns in Cleveland. The reason for that mini-slump isn’t hard to pinpoint.

While the Bills remain a stout defensive team, the offense is sputtering.

Despite facing a Browns run defense that entered Week 10 allowing the third-most yards per game in the league, the Bills managed just 84 rushing yards Sunday—and a third of those came courtesy of quarterback Josh Allen. Allen didn’t do the Bills many favors throwing the ball, hitting on just 22 of 41 throws and missing open receivers on multiple occasions.

“Given their record, schedule and the fact that this isn’t the best year for the AFC, the Bills are probably going to make the playoffs in 2019,” Davenport said. “But Sunday’s loss showed why I can’t take Buffalo seriously as a contender. The Bills just don’t have the offense to hang with the Patriots in a playoff game. Or the Chiefs. Or the Texans. One and done, anyone?”

Gagnon is not sure they’ll even get that far.

“Josh Allen was again useless on deep throws and useless under pressure as a bad Bills offense cost Buffalo the game in Cleveland,” he said. “That unit just isn’t good enough, and the defense doesn’t make enough plays. With a tough schedule coming, Buffalo will be lucky to finish with a winning record despite its 6-2 start.”

Yahoo! Sports

11. Buffalo Bills (6-3, LW: 7)

By now we kind of know the deal with the Bills. They’re not bad but not as good as their record. They shouldn’t have lost to the Browns, but it wasn’t a shock. They are 6-3 and in almost no danger of missing the playoffs because their schedule still lines up well. You can practically pencil them in for a game at the No. 4 seed on wild-card weekend, and nobody outside of Buffalo will be too excited to watch.

NFL.com

16. Bills (6-3)

Previous rank: No. 13

The Bills looked like a middle-of-the-pack team on Sunday against the Browns, hence their placement on the Power Rankings. We saw a breakdown in three phases in Cleveland: On offense, Josh Allen sailed a couple deep balls past open receivers (sound familiar?), and Buffalo was held under 20 total points for the fifth time this season. On defense, the Browns were able to march 82 yards on 10 plays for the go-ahead score late in the fourth quarter. On special teams, kicker Steven Hauschka missed two-field goal attempts, including the 53-yarder that sealed Buffalo’s fate in the final minute. At 6-3, there’s no need to panic. The schedule stays light, with winnable games against the Dolphins and Broncos over the next two weeks. Take care of business there, and a playoff ticket is close to punched. But can this team be trusted right now?

[lawrence-related id=48285,48276,48271,48071]

By the numbers: Important stats to know from Bills’ loss to Browns

Numbers and stats to know from the Buffalo Bills’ 19-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 10.

This type of loss, the optimism turned gut-wrenching, was all-too familiar.

The Bills had a chance to pull even, at the very least, in the waning moments of a 19-16 loss to the Browns.

There was more to the loss than questionable play-calling, a few poor reads from the quarterback and a lackluster afternoon for the kicker. It’s easy to pile on – we’re all guilty of it – but there’s plenty of blame to go around.

As the dust settled, here are important stats and numbers to know from the Bills’ Week 10 loss to the Browns:

116

In what’s becoming a bit of a trend here at By The Numbers, the Bills rushing defense is garnering (negative) attention. Cleveland running back went for 116 yards on 20 carries – the second straight week in which Buffalo has allowed a 100-yard rusher. The Browns rushed for 147 yards as a team on 26 carries, good enough for 5.7 yards per carry.

The Bills rank 21st in the NFL, allowing 115.6 rushing yards per game. The troubling trend has worsened in recent weeks; Buffalo has allowed an average of 164 yards per game over the last three games; only Carolina (172 per game) ranks worse.

Zero

Buffalo’s defense had a golden opportunity to wreak havoc against Baker Mayfield and the Browns Sunday. Mayfield entered the afternoon with 12 interceptions, tied for most in the league with Jameis Winston. Arizona picked off Winston twice, while the Bills failed to generate a turnover.
Instead, Buffalo allowed Mayfield to throw for 238 yards and two touchdowns on 26 of 38 passing and a season high 102.7 quarterback rating.

Missed opportunities have become too much a trend of late, as the Bills have forced just one turnover over their last three games and three since the bye week. Prior to the bye, Buffalo forced eight turnovers in five games.

23

Ed Oliver played just 23 of 70 defensive snaps (33 percent) Sunday. Oliver saw the field on fewer plays than his counterparts Jordan Phillips (50 snaps) and Star Lotulelei (49). Newly acquired Corey Liuget played 17 snaps.

Oliver, Buffalo’s first round pick in 2019, has not started either of the last two games and has played 50 percent or more of the defensive snaps just once since the bye week. He failed to record a stat of note Sunday – marking the first such occasion of his career.

62.7 percent

Everyone wants to talk about Stephen Hauschka. The 34-yard miss was unforgivable, granted. You’ll get no argument there. For his career, prior to the miss from 34, Hauschka converted 96.5 percent (85 of 88) of his kicks between 30 and 39 yards. That was brutal.

As for the 53 yarder he missed on Buffalo’s last drive, it’s a bit more excusable. Prior to the fateful miss, he hit on 64.3 percent (27 of 42) of his kicks from 50 yards or more. The miss drops Hauschka to 62.7 percent – hardly gimme range. In his three years in Buffalo, he is now 11 of 19 from kicks from 50 yards or further.

-6.0

Buffalo will wrap up a two-week road trip with a trip to Miami in Week 11 to take on the Dolphins. Miami is riding a two-game winning streak and just knocked off Colts in Indianapolis.

The Bills, who opened as six-point favorites, will be eyeing the first sweep of the Dolphins since 2017.

An impressive road win would be a reprieve of sorts heading into the home stretch of what should still be a playoff-caliber season. On the other hand, a loss might signal the wheels falling off the wagon.

[lawrence-related id=48285,48276,48271,48071]

Ravens extend lead for No. 2 seed in AFC playoff race

The Baltimore Ravens inched closer to the top seed in the 2019 AFC playoff picture and are even closer to locking up a first-round bye.

[jwplayer rzKgNnfu-ThvAeFxT]

The Baltimore Ravens took care of what could have been a trap game, beating the Cincinnati Bengals 49-13 to improve to 7-2. They moved a little closer to the top seed in the 2019 AFC playoff picture, while improving their lead on a first-round bye, thanks to help from other teams in Week 10.

Let’s take a closer look at the seeding in the AFC playoff picture and how things changed this week.

2019 AFC playoff picture:

Seed	Team	Overall record	Conference record
1	New England Patriots	8-1	6-1
2	Baltimore Ravens	7-2	5-2
3	Houston Texans	6-3	5-1
4	Kansas City Chiefs	6-4	4-3
5	Buffalo Bills	6-3	4-2
6	Pittsburgh Steelers	5-4	4-2

The Bills, Colts and Chiefs all lost on Sunday. Buffalo fell to the Cleveland Browns and dropped to 6-3 on the season, a full game below Baltimore. Kansas City lost to the Tennessee Titans and is now 6-4, which is important considering they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with Baltimore after beating the Ravens in Week 3. Indianapolis fell to the Miami Dolphins and to 5-4, which knocks them out of the AFC playoff picture for the time being because they lost to Pittsburgh.

With the Patriots having a Week 10 bye, they sit tight in the top spot but remain vulnerable to being supplanted. If New England were to lose in Week 11 to the Philadelphia Eagles and the Ravens beat the Houston Texans, Baltimore would jump to the No. 1 seed. Even without a Patriots loss, if Baltimore were to beat Houston next week, they would effectively have a three-game lead on one the top-two seeds in the 2019 AFC playoff picture.

[vertical-gallery id=36838]

Brian Daboll discusses late pass vs. Browns: ‘I should’ve given them a better play’

Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll on late pass play vs. Cleveland Browns in Week 10.

[jwplayer rzKgNnfu-ThvAeFxT]

The Bills’ mantra of “culture” dictates there’s no room for finger pointing in Sean McDermott’s house of process.

But the Bills offense did fumble, metaphorically, down the stretch against the Browns during their 19-16 loss in Week 10. It was one step forward and a bunch back.

Quarterback Josh Allen hit rookie running back Devin Singletary with a quick pass just short of the first down near the sideline. The good stopped there. The receiver didn’t get out of bounds.

Buffalo huddled with less than a minute on the clock with that same clock still running thanks to Singletary not getting out of bounds, something head coach Sean McDermott admitted “wasn’t part of the plan.”

What was part of the plan, according to offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was what ensured.

After Singletary’s six-yard gain on second down setting up a third-and-4 scenario, Allen tossed a deep pass to wideout John Brown down the right sideline. That pass with Browns defensive back Denzel Ward in coverage fell incomplete and moments later, Stephen Hauschka’s kick from 53 yards missed and the Bills lost.

Replays showed that slot target Cole Beasley was likely open enough over the middle to gain a first down. But Allen opted to go deep.

Daboll broke down everything about the play on Monday.

The coach defended Allen’s decision, but with Beasley in mind, also added that’s a hard play to make, especially when the Browns dialed up a blitz on the play. He also kept in-step with taking some blame himself.

“(Allen) has to make a split-second decision when you have all those people up at the line of scrimmage in there. And the blitz, he has to make a quick read on that. We had a three-man route combination over to the left, and he had a one-on-one with John to the right, and threw it up there, and we just didn’t connect on it,” Daboll said.

“I should’ve given them a better play,” Daboll later added.

But with what Allen had to work with, such as the play called and blitz, Daboll defended that throw to Brown. It appeared to a throw tossed behind Brown, but Daboll indicated that it was an intended back-shoulder throw that didn’t connect, a similar play the Bills have run throughout the season.

“Let’s hit it and win it. We have a one-on-one matchup,” Daboll recalled of his thoughts in the moment. “It wasn’t the same play, but similar to the third down and whatever it was against the Jets, with Smoke on the left hand side, where he caught it and ran into the end zone. You have to have confidence in your guys. You hit some and you don’t.”

Of course, Allen didn’t have a problem with the play after the game, either. He took responsibility as well immediately following th eloss.

“Put the blame on me,” Allen said. “I didn’t play well enough today.”

Buffalo’s second-year quarterback still appears to have some growing pains to go through. The deep pass falling incomplete stung a bit more because of the nature of the pass. According to The Athletic, the Bills QB is 0-for-16 on passes that have traveled more than 30 yards in the air this season. There’s also the decision not to look Beasley’s way, really at all, to consider as well. That’s a concerning trend.

After the way things unfolded, the Bills will hope Allen learns from such a scenario to better prep himself while the game is on the line and that the learning experience didn’t cost them a potential playoff spot in the coming weeks.

[lawrence-related id=48276,48271,48071,48224]

Sean McDermott says ‘plan wasn’t to huddle’ in dying seconds vs. Browns

The Bills had a rookie mistake followed by a rookie mistake, leading to their 19-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

[jwplayer rzKgNnfu-ThvAeFxT]

The Bills had a rookie mistake followed by a rookie mistake, leading to their 19-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

After crossing into Browns territory, Bills quarterback Josh Allen tossed a six-yard pass to rookie running back Devin Singletary. It put the Bills in field goal range.

But the first rookie mistake was made by the rookie. He didn’t get out of bounds. The clock kept running with less than a minute left.

The next rookie mistake is perhaps the worst thing you could’ve done from there, not hurry up. Buffalo’s offense huddled instead of moving quickly to the line of scrimmage.

Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott admitted on Monday that wasn’t what the coaching staff wanted to see unfold.

“The plans weren’t really to huddle at that point. It was to go to the line and get the third-down call off and then save the timeout there,” McDermott said.

The bench boss added it was a mistake that the Bills have tried to focus on in the past, and will keep focusing on in the future. Maybe even more detailed now.

“Those are situations we practice every week. … We didn’t execute well enough, so we’ll go back and look at that again this week,” McDermott said.

The poor clock management eventually bled the clock down to 22 seconds remaining and a fourth down after the Bills failed to connect on third down. It was a 53-yard Stephen Hauschka game-tying kick attempt.

It was no chip shot and Hauschka missed his fifth-straight kick from 50-plus yards. Buffalo didn’t have to kick it there and could have opted to go for it on fourth down. The Bills did go for it twice earlier in the game on fourth down but didn’t there.

McDermott said he believed kicking it was the best chance for the Bills to win.

“We’re going to win it,” he said. “That’s the mindset. At a minimum, trying to put us into overtime in that situation. We had a chance, I thought.”

[lawrence-related id=48271,48071,48224,48236]

Bills playoff picture: Post-Week 10 recap of AFC teams ‘in the hunt’

The Bills’ loss to the Cleveland Browns hurt. All loses tend to do that in the NFL, but this one hurt a little more. The feeling that Buffalo let this one get away, combined with other teams around the AFC playoff picture scoring some wins of their …

The Bills’ loss to the Cleveland Browns hurt.

All loses tend to do that in the NFL, but this one hurt a little more. The feeling that Buffalo let this one get away, combined with other teams around the AFC playoff picture scoring some wins of their own, things didn’t go well for Western New York in Week 10.

Here’s a recap of the latest happenings in the AFC playoff picture:

AFC seeding:

New England Patriots (8-1)
Baltimore Ravens (7-2)
Houston Texans (6-3)
Kansas City Chiefs (6-4)
Buffalo Bills (6-3)
Pittsburgh Steelers (5-4)
Oakland Raiders (5-4)
Indianapolis Colts (5-4)
Tennessee Titans (5-5)
Jacksonville Jaguars (4-5)

In the hunt teams recap:

Playoff teams recap:

[lawrence-related id=48071,48224,48236,48108]

Stock up, stock down following Bills’ loss to Browns

In this week’s stock report, we explore how a few players were still able to perform favorably which several are seeing people hit the “sell” button on them.

The Buffalo Bills 19-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns was a good old-fashioned soul-crushing ‘L’, as the performance of the defense seemed to be enough to help the team squeak out another victory.

Instead, the Bills gifted the Browns with a victory to help eradicate the weeks of struggles that Cleveland faced. The script was similar to every other game this year, as the defense kept the Bills afloat while the offense failed to find any sort of consistency. Add in a couple of missed field goals in a close game, and it’s a recipe for a tick in the loss column.

In this week’s stock report, we explore how a few players were still able to perform favorably which several are seeing people hit the “sell” button on them:

Stock up

Tre’Davious White

Tre’Davious White took on the task of tracking Odell Beckham throughout the afternoon, and cornerback won most of the battles, a week after doing the same against the Redskins’ stud rooke wideout Terry McLaurin.

Beckham caught five of his 12 targets for 57 yards. White had an impressive pass breakup in the end zone on a fade pass to Beckham during an early goal line stand which included White taking a penalty a few plays prior. One of two penalties White was flagged for. The third-year pro ended the day with four pass breakups. It put him on display as one of the top cornerbacks in the game.

Bills goal line defense

Oh my goodness. Buffalo’s defense seemed to be getting carved up once again, as Browns running back Nick Chubb was having his way weaving through the unit. Once Cleveland found its way into the shadow of the Bills goal line, Buffalo shut it down. On two drives in the first quarter, the Bills negated the Browns’ progress on 12 plays. Cleveland only came away with a field goal on those two drives, and were going to go for it on a second fourth down until a flag was thrown on them.

With a competent offense, these plays would have been game-altering drives. Instead, the defense’s effort was merely good enough to keep the Bills in striking distance throughout the afternoon.

Nevertheless, the Bills defense did something special in closing the door at the goal line.

Browns had eight chances to score from the goal line…

Bills stopped them ALL EIGHT TIMES 🚫

(via @thecheckdown)pic.twitter.com/7rWLcH8mjO

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 10, 2019

Pages: 1234

PODCAST: Takeaways from Bills’ Week 10 loss to Browns

Kyle Silagyi is joined by Rich Kowalski and McKenna Middlebrook to discuss the Buffalo Bills’ Week 10 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

Well, that was disheartening.

The Buffalo Bills probably should have beaten the Cleveland Browns in their Week 10 matchup with the preseason darling. The Browns have long been looked at as one of the most dysfunctional franchises in the NFL, a team with a regressing quarterback and a poor head coach that should not have had a chance against a prospective playoff team.

Yet, a poor offensive display and two missed field goals ultimately cost Buffalo in the matchup, as it left FirstEnergy Stadium with its third loss of the 2019 campaign. On this episode of The Kyle Silagyi Variety Hour, host Kyle Silagyi is joined by BillsWire staff writers Rich Kowalski and McKenna Middlebrook to discuss the Bills’ 19-16 loss to the Browns.

Subscribe:

[protected-iframe id=”592b47daa5ec723b9b41a552e05bb2f4-105974704-98603886″ info=”https://embeds.audioboom.com/posts/7421129/embed/v4″ width=”100%” height=”300″ frameborder=”0″ style=”background-color: transparent; display: block; padding: 0; max-width: 700px;” scrolling=”no”]

[lawrence-related id=48108,48185,48039]

Oddsmakers: Bills road favorite vs. winning Dolphins

Buffalo Bills Miami Dolphins Week 11 odds

The Dolphins enter Week 11 as the winning team in their meeting with the Bills. At least in a “what have you done for me lately” sense.

Despite their best efforts to acquire draft capital and increase its value via losing, the Dolphins are winners of back-to-back games.

The Bills are fresh off losing as an underdog to the Browns, 19-16, in Week 10. The Dolphins recently beat the Colts 16-12.

Despite that, the Bills are the favored team this week over the Dolphins. Per BetMGM, the Bills open as 6.5-point favorites against the Dolphins in Week 11 on the road.

The Bills won 31-21 against the Dolphins earlier this year, but were assisted by a very random Micah Hyde score late in the game after he recovered an onside kick.

Buffalo opened as 15.5-point favorites in their first meeting.

The over/ under for the game is set at 39 points.

[lawrence-related id=48108,48185,48039,48035]

What we learned from Bills’ Week 10 loss to Browns

What we learned, Buffalo Bills vs. Cleveland Browns, NFL Week 10

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

Coming into week 10, the Bills had survived several games this season where they did not play well, but found a way to win. Their luck finally ran out in another ugly game Sunday along the banks of Lake Erie.

The Bills faltered on both their final defensive and offensive possessions of the game after coming from behind to take a lead in the fourth quarter. Cleveland went on a 10-play, 82-yard drive to take the lead on a Baker Mayfield to Rashard Higgins seven-yard touchdown pass with 1:44 to go. Josh Allen and the Bills got the ball back with a chance to either drive for a game-winning touchdown or game-tying field goal. Buffalo got to the Cleveland 35, but faltered from there as Allen threw incomplete on a back-shoulder toss on third down. Stephen Hauschka trotted onto the field to attempt a 53-yard field goal that would tie the game, but was both wide and short as Cleveland held on to win, 19-16.

There was a lot to be concerned about following this game for Buffalo, including questions on offense, defense, and with the coaching staff. The Bills offense again failed to deliver enough production to win the game, while the defense again had trouble stopping the run. Sean McDermott and the Bills’ coaching staff also had a rough day as there were game management decisions to question in the final two minutes.

The Bills are now 6-3 and suddenly find themselves falling back toward a gaining pack in the AFC wild card race as Buffalo has now lost two of its last three.

Here are four things we learned from the Bills’ loss Sunday in Cleveland:

Pages: 12345