Bills report card: Buffalo was in control and win shouldn't have come down to Hail Mary

ORCHARD PARK - The fact that Thursday night’s game came down to a Hail Mary on the final play was a bit ridiculous because almost all night, it felt like the Buffalo Bills were in complete control against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

However, once the Bills took a 24-10 lead early in the third their offense stopped functioning and with the last four possessions ending in punts, it allowed the Buccaneers to hang around and hang around before they ultimately fell just short in a 24-18 loss.

“I thought our guys came out and were ready to play,” said Josh Allen, who had a solid night with 324 yards passing and three total touchdowns. “I hate to have those last second Hail Marys from the opposite side, just kind of hold your breath and wait. I hate putting our defense in that situation so we’ve got to figure out a way to go finish the game.”

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Yes, the final quarter and a half was disappointing after the Bills had played so fluidly and efficiently on offense in building their lead.

Allen admitted part of it was the score of the game and the Bills just making sure they didn’t do anything foolish which is why Sean McDermott decided to punt four times from midfield, and those were the right calls. It made no sense to take a chance, fail, and give the Buccaneers offense life with a short field.

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Still, the Bills have to be better in terms of staying away from fourth down on those possessions, and because they struggled, this game got a little too close for comfort.

Here’s how I graded the Bills:

PASS OFFENSE: A-

It was nice to see Josh Allen looking for and finding Gabe Davis early in the game and the inconsistent WR had the best game of his career in terms of catches with nine (for 87 yards). One of the problems with Davis is that in several games this year he hasn’t been able to get into the flow, but he caught five passes for 50 yards in the first half alone and throughout the night he took some of the burden off Stefon Diggs, though Diggs still made nine catches for 70 yards.

Also, Khalil Shakir had a nice night as he proved to be an available option, especially when Allen needed to get rid of the ball. Shakir’s 21-yard reception on the first drive helped set up a field goal, and his 30-yard reception on the second drive put the Bills inside the 10, but they came away with no points. He set new career highs with six catches for 92 yards.

TE Dalton Kincaid had his second straight impactful game, five for 65 and his first NFL TD. It is pretty obvious that Kincaid is a much better receiver than Dawson Knox.

Allen, who finished 31 of 40 for 324 yards and three total TDs, had some bad luck on his interception. Safety Antoine Winfield came free on a blitz and was on Allen in a millisecond. Allen tried to get rid of the ball but it hit Winfield’s hand, popped into the air and came down in the arms of DT William Gholston who outrebounded Mitch Morse on the play. Otherwise, the line played pretty well after a terrible game against the Patriots.

RUN OFFENSE: B-

The Bucs had problems in the middle as they were without both of their starting DTs, Vita Vea, who is one of the five best in the NFL, and Logan Hall. Vea was questionable and couldn’t go, and then Hall somehow got hurt in pregame warmups.

That created some space for the Bills and they successfully ran James Cook between the tackles on a few plays and Allen also had some alleys on a couple of designed QB runs including one that he took 13 yards for a touchdown. Cook finished with 67 yards and a 4.8 average per carry, and Allen had 41 yards on seven attempts which included scrambles and designed runs.

PASS DEFENSE: B-

For most of the night it was outstanding, but Tampa Bay’s eternal TD drive in the fourth quarter benefited from some poor coverage and then two killer penalties that turned fourth-down stops into Bucs first downs which kept the game alive.

The secondary did a great job on Bucs star Mike Evans who had just one catch for seven yards until that long drive and he finished with only three for 39 yards. Chris Godwin, the other half of their dynamic duo, was held to five for 54 yards. Evans did catch a 24-yard TD from Mayfield on a fourth-and-10 and Godwin caught the other TD on a three-yard pass that tied the score at 10-10 in the second quarter.

The Bills pulled LB Tyrel Dodson off the field in obvious pass situations and went with Taylor Rapp at deep safety and Jordan Poyer pulled up into the box and that was effective most of the way.

The pass rush finished with three sacks (A.J. Epenesa, Taron Johnson and Ed Oliver), but overall Mayfield had relatively decent time to throw on too many dropbacks. The Bills did get 10 QB hits, but it felt like many of those were deep into the play because Mayfield was holding the ball due to good coverage in the back end.

RUN DEFENSE: B-

The Bucs came into the night with the fourth-worst rushing offense in the NFL at 77.8 yards per game and they sure didn’t do much improving on that. In fact, they finished with 78 yards on 17 attempts.

They had three plays of 11 yards or more - a 15-yarder by Rachaad White, the only regular run play that went anywhere. Mayfield had an 11-yard scramble, and Godwin had a 14-yard reverse. Everything else was bottled up as the Bills welcomed the return of Oliver to the middle of the line and he made a difference.

Terrel Bernard and Poyer led the Bills with eight tackles but other than the three sacks there were no other tackles for lost yardage.

SPECIAL TEAMS: A-

Quite a turnaround for a unit that has been struggling for most of the season, but they get the minus attached because of two brutal penalties on punt returns in the second half. The first, by Siran Neal, wiped out a 23-yard Deonte Harty return and cost the Bills 33 yards in field position and forced a drive start at their own 17. The second, on Cam Lewis, ruined an 18-yard return and cost the Bills 15 yards of position.

Josh Norman was called up from the practice squad and the 35-year-old made an immediate impact as he made the tackle on the first two Tampa Bay kickoff returns.

Harty would have had a great night if not for the penalties. At least he had a season-best 24-yard punt return that wasn’t called back, a play on which he ran about 70 yards to make, and it gave the Bills a drive start at the Bucs 23 and set up a touchdown.

Sam Martin had a tremendous game. His first punt came in the third quarter and it was sheer perfection, a 48-yarder that went out of bounds at the 3; his second was 43 yards and downed at the 4; his third was a 41-yarder that was fair caught, and nearly fumbled, at the 8; and his third was 48 yards and into the end zone which it needed to be with 21 seconds left, preventing a return. Doesn’t get much better than that.

And Tyler Bass got back to being Tyler Bass as he made all four of his kicks - a 37-yard field goal and three extra points.

COACHING: B+

A much better night all around for the staff. On offense, Ken Dorsey schemed some nice plays for guys besides Diggs, particularly Davis and Shakir. But also, he gave Allen answers with hot reads when the Bucs brought pressure and Shakir and Diggs played a role in that.

The third-and-goal from the 1 early in the game when Allen was in shotgun made me want to scream, and sure enough, the Bills never did get the TD as that play, and the next one, both failed. It’s maddening that Dorsey keeps doing that. Just sneak Allen from the 1, it’s almost a guaranteed score.

I actually agreed with Sean McDermott’s decisions to punt on fourth and short twice in the fourth quarter. Here’s the reasoning: The Bills were in control at the time, the defense was playing great, so keep pinning Mayfield and the lame Bucs offense deep. And they did. Unfortunately, after the second one, the Bucs drove 92 yards for a TD that made this game sweaty right to the end when it shouldn’t have been.

On defense, McDermott had a better night for sure. His depleted defense never let the Bucs breathe and the only touchdowns Tampa Bay scored came after the Allen interception and drive start at the Bills 23, and then the last was on a 92-yard drive where they needed two huge penalties from the Bills on fourth down.

Of course, it sure helped the defense that the Bucs were in poor field position most of the night. They had three starts inside their 10 and their best start besides the one after the interception was their own 27.

As for special teams, you just read how well that went for coach Matthew Smiley.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which comes out twice a week during the season, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills report card: Buffalo win over Bucs shouldn't have been so close