Tag: Stephen Hauschka

Report card: Bills lose 24-17 to Ravens

In a classic AFC slugfest, the Ravens came away victorious over the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field to clinch a playoff birth.

The Bills received plenty of national attention after their Thanksgiving victory over the Dallas Cowboys, and with the national media watching two weeks in a row the team fell flat. The Bills offense was smothered by a dominate Ravens defense in Week 14 at New Era Field as the visitors took a 24-17 win.

While Buffalo’s defense had a stout performance they couldn’t stop MVP front runner, Lamar Jackson for four quarters.

A fourth quarter touchdown did make the final few minutes interesting, but it was too little too late.

Here’s how the Bills graded out in this week’s report card following their loss to the Ravens:

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Quarterback: D

Josh Allen had an atrocious first half, let’s not kid ourselves.

He was 8-for-17 passing, threw for just 39 yards, and was constantly hounded by a ferocious Baltimore defense. His production increased in the second half, which gave Buffalo an opportunity to tie the game in the fourth quarter but he couldn’t produce on the final throw of the game.

While the Bills kept it close throughout the game, Josh Allen simply wasn’t good enough during the first three quarters. Allen missed on a majority of his deep shots, which resulted in drives stalling out, or stopping before they could even start. He also missed on some of his shorter throws, with most of his misses sailing over the head of his intended receiver.

Allen’s final stat line was 17-for-39, 146 yards, and one touchdown, and one successful two-point conversion throw. Frankly, this may have been Allen’s worst game of the season and it couldn’t have come at a worst time.

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Sean McDermott confirms Bills’ interest in K Chase McLaughlin

Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDemott on kicker Chase McLaughlin.

On Wednesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the Buffalo Bills were curiously one of three teams that put in a waiver claims for kicker Chase McLaughlin.

The former Bill kicker from training camp this summer has hopped around a bit since the Bills cut him. He’s had a good run of form, good enough for the Colts to claim him ahead of the Bills in the order, which is the only reason why he’s not in Buffalo. The Patriots also put in a bid for him, but sit behind the Bills in the NFL’s waiver order.

Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott confirmed that report on Thursday.

“It’s just like any position and us continually trying to add players to our team we feel like can help us,” McDermott told reporters.

McDermott added that the move was “no reflection” on the Bills’ current kicker, Stephen Hauschka.

Regardless, the move is an interesting one considering Hauschka’s struggles. Hauschka has missed two extra points this season and has a 71.4 conversion rate so far this season, a career-low.

McLaughlin has been 13-for-17 on kicks this year, but recently had a good spell with the 49ers. He was 7-for-8 kicking and his lone miss in three games was a game-winning attempt after he converted on a game-tying kick. McLaughlin also had a spell with the Chargers earlier this season.

The 23-year-old was released after Robbie Gould returned from injury to the 49ers.

In a corresponding move, the team waived tight end Matt Lengel, not kicker Adam Viniteri, who’s struggled all year. He’s undoubtedly one of the NFL’s best kickers ever, but he’s also dealing with a knee injury along with his struggles. It remains to be seen what the Colts do.

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Stephen Hauschka lands on PFF’s Team of the Week

Buffalo Bills K Stephen Hauschka lands on Pro Football Focus Team of the Week.

Good thing the Bills didn’t act rash in regard to kicker Stephen Hauschka.

After missing two kicks including a potential game-tying kick from 53 yards in Week 10 against the Browns, Hauschka has landed on Pro Football Focus‘ Team of the Week a week later.

Hauschka was a perfect 3-for-3 on place kicks and 4-for-4 on extra-point attempts against the Dolphins in a 37-20 win in Week 11. Hauschka’s first kick was from 51 yards after missing his last five attempts from 50 yards or longer prior to that.

His other attempts were converted from 34 and 21 yards.

Of Buffalo’s 37 points, Hauschka accounted for 13 of them.

In terms of his overall season, Hauschka is ranked as PFF’s 18th best kicker in the NFL after his early-season struggles.

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Stephen Hauschka says he didn’t feel ‘ideal’ vs. Browns

Stephen Hauschka has been a oft-reliable during his Bills career. Against the Cleveland Browns in Week 10, he was not. 

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Stephen Hauschka has been a oft-reliable during his Bills career. Against the Cleveland Browns in Week 10, he was not.

Hauschka missed from 34 yards and again from 53 yards, the second of which was a game-tying kick attempt with under a minute left. It missed.

On Wednesday, Hauschka told reporters going into the game he wasn’t feeling 100 percent.

“Physically I feel good… mentally, technically, this job is… you’ve got to be on his every single week. Sometimes you head into a game not feeling, for whatever reason, not feeling ideal, and most of the time you kind of get away with it. Sometimes you don’t… that’s kind of how I feel after last week, so this week I just have to do everything normal and get back into this game and the routine,” Hauschka said.

“If you kick long enough in this league, you’re going to have an off day, you’re going to have an off game,” Hauschka added.

But the 34-year-old hasn’t seemed himself for some time. He’s missed his last five-straight kicks from 50-plus yards.

Still, he insisted he’s still holding his head high.

“You can paint it however you want. They haven’t gone in recently, but I’ve still got plenty of confidence. I make them in practice all the time,” Hauschka said.

In practice is one thing, in a game is another. The Bills won’t potentially lose a spot in the postseason picture thanks to a missed kick at practice. There’s a decent chance the Bills will have to rely on Hauschka at some point down the stretch.

As now, he still have his head coach’s confidence if things come down to his foot.

“Got a lot of confidence in Stephen and obviously it didn’t work out but, we’ll remain confident in Stephen as we move forward here,” Sean McDermott said.

Hauschka is currently hitting 61.5% of his kicks, a career low. He’s missed all three of his attempts from over 50 yards this season.

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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.

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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. 

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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.”

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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

Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White. (AP Photo/David Richard)

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.

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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:

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