Niagara Gazette

‘Josh Allen put together perhaps his most complete game of the season. Allen almost willed the Buffalo Bills to a win over the team with the best record in the NFL Sunday. Almost.’

‘An organization and a coach who believe they are Super Bowl caliber have wilted into mediocrity. In six losses, 78 of Buffalo’s 91 points allowed have come in the fourth quarter, while opponents’ yards per play jump from 5.6 in the first three quarters to 6.4 in the last.’

‘“They’re going to try and take us out of the game and have us running left and right,” Bills defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. “And when they try to do that, we gotta get over there and make a play. They’re not going to hand it to us.”’

‘“I got (Bills defensive backs coach John Butler) and we go through everything we’re going to run,” Douglas said. “Then I got Micah (Hyde) and (Jordan) Poyer and those (expletives) are going to make sure I don’t mess them up. So they make sure they’re communicating with me all the time what we’re in or what we’re doing.”’

‘The Bills averaged 4.4 yards per carry on designed runs in the first half Sunday, but they continued to run the ball in the second half, despite averaging 3.4 yards per carry in the game. But James Cook had 4.3 — tying a career-high with 17 carries — and they ran it 38 times.’

‘New York went 15 of 30 passing for 92 yards, with 18 of them coming on a fake by punter Thomas Morestead that set but lone touchdown of the day for the Jets. It was the performance the Bills didn’t get from the defense during Week 1 in New York, or frankly, against other subpar offenses they faced recently.’

‘The difference, though, is that the Bills made plays when absolutely necessary against one of the best defenses in the NFL. Despite fizzling on three consecutive drives, Buffalo scored on each of their three possessions for the first time since Week 4.’

‘The Bills possess the talent to beat any of the remaining teams on their schedule, the problem is that they have barely shown the capability to beat bad to mediocre teams over the last six weeks.’

‘If the Bills can’t figure out how to turn the season around, the blame is now placed squarely on McDermott. And he hasn’t shown much ability to take public accountability for any of the team’s missteps over the years.’

‘“There’s things that I think are naturally just in my mind,” Brady said. “I’d be lying to you if, with the amount of time this week, I spent a lot of time thinking about those things. I believe in relationships with your players and I believe if we’re all on the same page with communication, everything’s going to take care of itself.”’

‘“I’ve never been nothing but fully invested,” Diggs said Thursday, “especially from a professional aspect, a player aspect, a captain aspect, a brother, a teammate.”’

‘“It hurts a lot to see someone you care about go through a situation like that and to know that if I could have done more, if this offense could have done more, we wouldn’t have had to do something like that,” Allen said. “So again, it’s an unfortunate series of events that have led up to it but again, as much as you can sit here and feel sorry for yourself and you can sulk on what’s going on, we got a game to prepare for and it’s four days away, so we can’t pay too much attention to it.”’

‘“The way they play defense is gonna smudge the offense,” Torrence said, “so we just got to be patient with our calls and running the ball, being OK with getting 2-3 yards at times and not getting bored with getting stopped.”’

‘Dorsey spent 26 games as the team’s offensive coordinator after Brian Daboll left to be the head coach of the New York Giants and statistically had one of the NFL’s best offenses. The Bills rank seventh in the NFL in yards and passing and eighth in points, a year after finishing second in points and yards.’

‘More frustrating is that many of the interceptions are throws that shouldn’t leave his hand, including one in the last minute of the first half that led to a Denver field goal. Teams live with mistakes from players the caliber of Allen, but at some point there needs to be urgency to improve.’