ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here are my five takes from the Buffalo Bills’ 25-20 loss against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London:
1. Well, so much for trusting the guidance of advanced science that drove the decision to travel to London on Thursday night, arrive Friday morning, stay up Friday and essentially get only one good night of sleep before the kickoff.
The Bills looked every bit like a team suffering from jet lag. They were lethargic for most of the first half. They showed more urgency and energy in the second half, but it was too little too late.
Their travel plan became even more of a disadvantage because the Jaguars were able to acclimate to the five-hour time difference with a 10-day stay in London because they faced the Atlanta Falcons there last Sunday.
“We need to evaluate everything because I didn’t feel like our energy was good enough early in the game,” coach Sean McDermott said. “(The Jaguars) had better energy than we did.”
Let’s say it now: The next time the Bills travel overseas for a game, they’ll leave earlier in the week. Sometimes it’s better not to overthink things with all the data supplied by analytics, despite the heavy investment the Bills have made in them.
2. There were simply too many defensive injuries to overcome. That isn’t the only reason for the loss, but it was a significant factor.
Topping the list was a knee/lower leg injury suffered in the first quarter by linebacker Matt Milano. McDermott said it “didn’t look good.”
If Milano is done for all or even most of the rest of the year, the Bills’ defense will be left with a huge void. Milano is the best player the team has on defense and one of the best on the entire roster. His tremendous instincts, intelligence and ball-hawking skills will be greatly missed. There was a big drop-off after rookie Dorian Williams and Tyrel Dodson tried filling Milano’s enormous cleats.
Another significant blow was the first-quarter loss of tackle DaQuan Jones to a pec injury that McDermott also said was “not looking good.” Jones was playing exceptionally well, finding his way into a number of important defensive stops through the first four games.
The Bills already were without defensive end Greg Rousseau and cornerbacks Tre’Davious White and Christian Benford. They were simply missing too many key players to hold up against an offense capable of generating big plays, even if it hadn’t done so consistently before Sunday. Though Von Miller was back in the lineup for the first time since suffering a torn ACL last Thanksgiving, his snaps were limited because the Bills kept him on a pitch count.
Despite all the defensive injuries, the Bills did get a tremendous effort from end A.J. Epenesa, who was filling in for Rousseau.
Epenesa almost single-handedly saved the day for Buffalo. He had two sacks, including a tripleheader with a sack, forced fumble, and fumble recovery that snuffed a Jaguars scoring chance deep in Bills territory. He also had three passes defensed, two quarterback hits and a tackle for loss.
“He showed up,” McDermott said. “I thought he performed well and gave great effort.”
3. The Bills’ offense did not show up, at least not the way it had in the previous three games.
Josh Allen did throw for a game-high 359 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. He wasn’t helped by some drops by his receivers. He also wasn't nearly as consistent or as crisp with play as he was in the previous three games.
But the offense simply couldn’t recover from being so sluggish in the early going. The Bills only had four three-and-outs entering the game. They had two on their first two drives. Their initial first down didn’t come until the final seconds of the first quarter, but their third drive still ended with a punt, as did their fourth.
The wake-up call finally came at the end of the first half when Allen connected with Stefon Diggs for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 11-7, which was how it stood at halftime.
4. What happened to the Bills’ running game?
It played a major role in allowing the team to win three games in a row after the season-opening stinker against the New York Jets but was nowhere to be found against the Jaguars.
James Cook and the rest of the backs looked slow and there wasn’t a whole lot of running room created by the offensive line, whose run-blocked had been superb in the previous three games. The Bills finished with 29 yards on the ground and an average of 2.1 yards per carry. Cook finished with minus-four yards on five carries.
“That’s not gonna be good enough most times to win in the NFL,” McDermott said of his team’s rushing total. “We have to win the line of scrimmage a little bit more.”
That was an understatement Sunday.
5. I’m not bringing this up as any sort of excuse for the Bills’ loss, because it isn’t, but the officiating was terrible.
There were far too many flags thrown on both teams. A total of 19 were accepted, eight on the Jaguars and 11 on the Bills. Two calls, a roughing penalty on Bills safety Jordan Poyer that seemed impossible to avoid and a roughing-the-quarterback hit on Jacksonville’s Josh Allen that simply didn’t occur, were horrible calls.
That said, the Bills need to do something about showing better discipline on special teams, while rookie guard O’Cyrus Torrence will likely get some extra attention from offensive line coach Aaron Kromer for two holding penalties in three plays in the fourth quarter.