Fresh off their best game of the season, the Buffalo Bills rolled into Tennessee to looking to take sole ownership of the best record in the AFC. The Titans, fresh off their two week COVID hiatus, had plenty of time to prepare and showed up ready to play in their Tuesday dress blues. They remained undefeated, improving to 4-0, and handed the Bills their asses, 42-16, and their first loss, dropping them to 4-1. It’s not the end of the world, but definitely not what you want to see heading into the showdown with the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Sometimes, a bad omen happens early in a competition and sets the tone for what’s to follow. On the third play of the game, John Allen’s pass bounced off Andre Roberts shoulder and popped up in the air, almost in slow motion, just waiting for Malcolm Butler to collect the interception. Sure, the pass was a little behind Roberts but he should have caught it anyway. And you could run that same play a hundred, maybe even a thousand times and the ball doesn’t pop up in the air like that. As soon as that happened, I knew it was going to be a rough night. Two plays later, A.J. Brown made a nice grab on a great throw just past Josh Norman for the touchdown to give Tennessee the 7-0 lead. Less than two minutes into the game, Buffalo had lost the possession advantage and given up a touchdown. You couldn’t ask for a worse start.
Responding to those types of moments is a big part of becoming a better team. The Bills answered with a 15-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with a Isaiah McKenzie touchdown to tie the game 7-7. Despite the shitty start, things weren’t looking so bad with six-minutes left in the 1st quarter. While there were a number of positives to take from the drive, what stood out to me the most was a TD pass to rookie wideout Gabriel Davis that was negated by a procedural penalty and Devin Singletary losing five yards on his two carries.
Buffalo wound up committing 10 penalties for 56 total yards but many of them would come in key situations down the stretch while they were playing catch-up. And Singletary ended up only gaining a pitiful 25-yds on his 11 carries. I would like to think it’s an isolated incident but he has struggled to run between the tackles all year. Even as the lead back for basically the whole season thus far, his yds/carry and yds/game are both down from last year. Even seldom used veteran T.J. Yeldon averaged 7.3-yds/carry on his seven touches on Tuesday. Devin is a talented player and I’m glad he’s cleared up his fumbling concerns. I still believe in his skill set but there was a reason they got Frank Gore last year and why they drafted Zack Moss this season. Singletary hasn’t shown to be effective as a downhill runner on early downs and it’ll be tough to justify those opportunities if the Bills aren’t playing with the lead. With Le’Veon Bell now back on the market, Orchard park is rumored to be one of his potential landing spots and Buffalo would be foolish not to pursue him. It would be a tremendous upgrade to the running back group and give them some much needed depth at the position. Anyhow, back to Tuesday’s debacle.
With the game tied, the Bills forced a punt on the ensuing possession for Tennessee but, thanks to a false start and dropped pass, wound up punting five plays later. Kalif Raymond gave the Titans great starting field position when he returned the a punt for 40-yds down to the Buffalo 30-yard line. It looked like the Bills were going to give up only a field goal attempt when an offensive pass interference call set up a 3rd & 19 for Tennessee but soft coverage and poor field awareness allowed the Titans to convert for a 1st down. A few plays later and the Derrick Henry bullied his was into the end zone, like he has a tendency to do, and TEN was on top 14-7. While a one TD deficit shouldn’t seem like much, it was the cascade of errors which led to the score that’s the concerning part.
To their credit, Buffalo answered back with a 10-play drive resulting in a Tyler Bass field goal that cut the lead to 14-10. They even forced a Titans punt on the ensuing possession but went 3 & out in less than a minute as Allen continued to struggle with his accuracy. Corey Bojorquez booted a monster punt 71-yards down to the Tennessee 19-yard line and a holding penalty during the return backed the Titans up to their own 10-yard line to start the drive. Inside three minutes to go, things weren’t looking so dire but Ed Oliver committed a neutral zone infraction on 1st down and it snowballed from there. The Bills had the chance to end the drive with a 3rd & 4 at their 35-yard line, but a defensive pass interference call on Norman kept things alive. It was a soft call but, unfortunately, probably the right one. All things considered, I thought Norman’s defense was pretty good throughout the evening despite A.J. Brown getting the better of it (and getting posterized by a Henry stiff-arm), but this is where Tre’Davious White was missed the most. Four plays after the penalty, Ryan Tannehill bootlegged to the right and just ran it into the end zone, untouched, to put the Titans up 21-10 to close out the half. Football is often referred to as a game of inches and, by this point in the game, it’s easy to see how a few mistakes translates into a lot of points.
Tennessee opened the second half with the ball, but Buffalo got a much needed stop to get the ball back without any additional damage. The Bills’ 14-play drive looked like their best of the game and took them to the Titans’ 33-yard line when Allen threw an ill-advised pass that was picked off and by Malcolm Butler, again, and returned 68-yards to the BUF 12-yard line. Buffalo almost held ‘em to a field goal try but a Quinton Jefferson roughing the passer penalty bailed TEN out on 3rd & 8. Jonnu Smith caught a 4-yard TD on the next play to make it 28-10. The Bills scored on a 22-yard TD pass to Yeldon on the next drive but failed on the 2-pt conversion and things continued to slide downhill from there. Seemingly every chance to keep it a game backfired and the Titans added a couple more touchdowns just because they hadn’t played in a while and felt the need to get some practice in.
Bills’ fans have a painful history with the Titans, dating back to the Music City Miracle. This one wasn’t heartbreak as much as it was a disappointing ass whooping. Buffalo actually did a good job keeping Henry in check but the absence of starters Tre White, Matt Milano, and John Brown had a big impact on the game. Tannehill wasn’t gunshy throwing at Josh Norman and A.J. Brown had 7-catches for 82-yards and a touchdown. Jonnu Smith was a mismatch all night long en route to a pair of TDs without Milano off the field, and Allen seemed to press a little more than usual without Smoke out there.
Performance Grade: C-
Many of the mistakes from Tuesday are correctable and I liked what I saw from Allen on the sideline as the Bills let Matt Barkley finish out the game. He wasn’t hanging his head, his body language wasn’t deflated. He was walking up and down the sideline talking to the rest of the offense and making sure to keep their spirits up. That’s what a good leader does and I’m happy to have #17 under center. He’s going to have to play better, but there is a lot to learn from that loss and I’m confident the Bills will be ready to play, back at home against the Chiefs.