McDermott: Bills must use bye week to start over

ATLANTA -- The Buffalo Bills enter their bye week on a two-game losing streak after a 4-0 start, and coach Sean McDermott said after Monday night's 24-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons that the team has to "start from ground zero."

"We'll figure out things on offense, defense and special teams," McDermott said. "We've got to start over and start from ground zero and figure this thing out and work our tails off to do it."

With the loss to the Falcons, the Bills dropped to 4-2 to fall behind the New England Patriots in the AFC East. McDermott repeated multiple times in his postgame news conference that the effort was "not good enough."

The Bills also hope the bye will allow some players to recover from injury, but McDermott noted there are no guarantees on how many they will get back. Tight end Dalton Kincaid (oblique) missed the game, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones popped his left calf in pregame warmups and couldn't play, wide receiver Joshua Palmer (ankle) left in the first half and linebacker Terrel Bernard (ankle) did not play in the second half.

The defense struggled early, allowing 335 yards in the first two quarters, the most the Bills have allowed in the first half of a game since 2001. Most of those yards went to two players -- 152 to running back Bijan Robinson and 147 to wide receiver Drake London. McDermott said the defense will continue to work on fundamentals, adding, "It's got to improve."

While the defense stepped up in the second half, giving up only a field goal and one drive over 35 yards, the offense struggled throughout the game to find any consistency against one of the league's top statistical passing defenses, punting six times. Quarterback Josh Allen threw two interceptions as the Bills lost the turnover battle for a second straight game.

Allen also was sacked four times, completing 15 of 26 passes (57.7%) for 180 yards and two passing touchdowns, both of which came on the unit's opening drives of the two halves. He rushed for 42 yards on six carries.

Allen said his hand was not injured in the game and that he is healthy, while McDermott said he was not informed of any injuries to Allen but did say the game was "too hard" on the quarterback, in terms of the position he was put in. Allen's 12 sacks on the season are two away from his total in the 2024 regular season.

Allen was pressured on 47.1% of his dropbacks, his highest rate since the 2020 AFC Championship Game (47.4%). According to NextGenStats, the Falcons blitzed Allen on 55.9% of his dropbacks, the highest blitz rate he has faced since Week 8 in 2021. When blitzed, Allen completed 8 of 14 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown but was pressured on 9 of 19 blitz dropbacks and was sacked three times. Answers for the offense were hard to come by.

"I think just go back to the drawing board," right tackle Spencer Brown said. "Technique wise, practice hard. But yeah, you don't ever want to see your quarterback getting hit. You don't want to pick him up off the turf. You don't want to see him holding his arm or his stomach or whatever's going on. So, they pay us to protect. So, that's our job and we're supposed to do it."

The reigning MVP, however, took responsibility multiple times after the game, including for the sacks, saying, "I've got to be better. Protections, IDs, movement in the pocket. I've just got to be better."

Typically, after losses, Allen talks with his fellow quarterbacks by his locker, but a rare guest, offensive coordinator Joe Brady, joined them after Monday's game.

Running back James Cook was not on the field for any of the team's nine third-down plays (2-9) or one fourth down (0-1) despite rushing for 87 yards on 17 carries.

"It's a good point. We'll look at that as well over the bye here," McDermott said of why Cook came off on third down, while Cook said, "I control what I can control."

With just under two weeks until the Bills travel to play the Carolina Panthers, Allen said this will stick with him.

"It's going to eat at me the next two weeks," Allen said. "So, yeah, I mean, a lot of stuff to clean up. We'll put our focus to our next opponent and go from there."