Bills report card: Josh Allen said he played like (expletive). So did the entire offense

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – We probably won’t know how potentially devastating the Buffalo Bills unfathomable 9-6 loss Sunday afternoon to the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars could be until later in the season.

You know, right around the time in December or early January when the Bills hope to be clinching the AFC East division title or trying to secure homefield advantage in the AFC playoffs, and they have this ridiculous defeat dragging down their record.

But know this. Barring the Bills going on a massive winning streak and regaining control of their season which is suddenly and inarguably off the rails with two losses in three games with a pretty ho-hum win over a lousy Miami team in between, they are going to look back on this day and rue its very existence.

“I played like (crap) today,” quarterback Josh Allen said, and the only way that statement could have been truer is if he had folded the rest of the offense into it because, well, they played like (crap), too.

Bills fans probably used every combination of four-letter words to describe what took place Sunday at TIAA Bank Field. I’m going to use a bunch of words that start with the letter D: I already used devastating in the lead, so lets add deplorable, disgusting, and disgraceful. They all fit.

You just shake your head on a day like this and wonder how in the world it could have happened because folks, Jacksonville is a bottom feeder, a team that really had no business breathing the same air as the Bills. Yet once again, we are reminded that this is why they play the games. It’s a cliché, but it never goes out of style because it’s 100% true.

Here’s how I graded the Bills’ performance:

PASS OFFENSE: F

Allen was right. He played like (crap). Quite frankly, it was a performance that we thought we’d seen the last of from him. Sure, every QB is going to have a bad day, but what was problematic about this is that Allen looked like the 2018 version of himself, and that’s a player no one wants to see. He threw two horrible interceptions and he lost a fumble that killed a drive in the fourth quarter that seemed destined for points, his first three-turnover day since 2019 against the Patriots.

But oh my, he wasn’t alone. His receivers dropped passes, they didn’t get open – especially Stefon Diggs and Emmanuel Sanders who were mostly invisible. And then, of course, the biggest problem of all, the main reason why all of that happened, the line was abysmal. It’s hard to comprehend how bad they were both in run blocking (always the case) and pass blocking. Allen never had a chance. Cody Ford was a disaster, and while he’s an easy target, all five of those guys were brutal. The Bills aren’t going anywhere this season if the line doesn’t improve. You can’t win, especially against good teams, with line play like that Sunday.

RUN OFFENSE: F

The Bills can’t run when Allen hands off to Devin Singletary and Zack Moss. This is not breaking news. They haven’t been able to run for two years when you get right down to the nuts and bolts of it. The only semblance of a running game the Bills have is when Allen scrambles. That’s it, because even the designed runs that Brian Daboll has called for him recently aren’t working.

Buffalo’s only meaningful rushing yards come on plays that were supposed to be passes. Allen had 50 yards rushing, the backs combined for 22 on nine attempts. Sean McDermott finally admitted Sunday that it’s becoming a concern. The problem is, what can he do? It’s the same players failing in the same ways, and there’s no one else on the roster who’s any better than the guys who are playing. Suddenly, this deep roster is leaking in several spots.

PASS DEFENSE: A-

This loss falls squarely on the offense because the defense played more than well enough to win. All the Jags could muster was three field goals, 218 yards, and a pathetic 2-of-13 on third-down conversions. The defense did all it could to keep the Bills in the game, and ultimately to win it, but the offense couldn’t hold up its end.

Rookie QB Trevor Lawrence threw for 118 yards. He did nothing harmful to the Bills, but the one thing he didn’t do was turn the ball over, and in the end, that was the only number that really mattered. And the Bills put forth that lockdown effort despite losing nickel CB Taron Johnson to a concussion early in the game meaning they had to use Siran Neal which is never a good thing.

One area that wasn’t good enough, though, was the pass rush. Jerry Hughes had a sack and Tre White and A.J. Epenesa shared another, but the Bills didn’t harass Lawrence, who had nine picks coming into the game, enough to force him into mistakes.

RUN DEFENSE: B+

The Jaguars played without one of the best offensive players, RB James Robinson, and lost LT Cam Robinson in pre-game warmups to an injury. Again, it’s just insane that the Bills lost to this team, but one guy who stepped up for the Jags was veteran Carlos Hyde as he minimized those losses by rushing for 67 yards and more than anything, it helped the Jags essentially split time of possession which provided less opportunity for the Bills to figure out their own offensive woes.

Counting their sacks the Bills had six tackles for lost yardage including one where Jerry Hughes forced a red zone fumble and Levi Wallace recovered near the end of the first half, the kind of play that, on a normal day, would have invigorated the Bills. Instead, they went into the locker room at halftime and came back out playing just as poorly on offense.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C+

As usual, Tyler Bass was one of the best players on the field for the Bills. Think about it. Given his responsibilities, who does his job better than Bass? No one, especially Sunday. He made both of his field goals and put all three of his kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks.

Isaiah McKenzie gave the offense a great start on its first possession of the game with a 45-yard kickoff return, but he had another excellent kickoff return wiped out on a personal foul penalty against A.J. Klein. Taiwan Jones had a foolish running into the kicker penalty but was bailed out because the Jags kicker, Matthew Wright, was in the middle of missing three straight kicks on one possession which has to be an NFL record.

COACHING: D

Penalties. Twelve in all for 118 yards, both season highs which is saying something for this team as it was already one of the most penalized teams in the league. Coaches have to take some of the blame for that, though I still fall on the side of the players taking the hit because they’re the ones failing to use proper technique, or their brains.

McDermott has to get this cleaned up because as we’re finding out, the Bills really aren’t good enough to overcome such an egregious penalty day. The Bills were just dumb and undisciplined in this game, and that’s why upsets like this happen.

On offense, Daboll should just burn the tape. Nothing worked. He had very few answers for anything Jacksonville was doing on defense, especially with the pressure packages. He has to get Allen back on track, and he quickly needs to figure out why Diggs and Sanders are not getting the ball. On defense, there’s not much to complain about. Leslie Frazier’s group was rock solid with the exception of forcing only one turnover and taking some dumb penalties of their own.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills report card: Josh Allen, offense were a disaster against Jaguars