Bills report card: Josh Allen was horrendous with four turnovers, handed game to Jets

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The Buffalo Bills were all singing a familiar tune in the visiting locker room at MetLife Stadium as Monday night was turning into Tuesday morning.

It’s only one game, it’s Week 1 of the season, we’ll get things corrected and we’ll be fine.

OK, there’s truth in all of that, but let’s not ignore the fact that wins are hard to come by in the NFL, especially division wins, and when you blow a golden opportunity like the Bills did in falling 22-16 in overtime to Zach Wilson - yes, Zach Wilson and not Aaron Rodgers - you have to figure that’s going to come back and haunt you at some point.

This was a game that should have been a no-doubter for Buffalo the moment Rodgers ripped his Achilles on his fourth play as the Jets quarterback. There was simply no excuse to lose to Wilson, no matter how good the Jets defense is.

However, when you play as terribly as Josh Allen did, turning the ball over four times and literally handing the game to the Jets, it doesn’t matter who’s playing quarterback on the other team.

Instant reactions: Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills implode in terrible overtime loss to New York Jets

It was stunning to see Allen play the way he did. He talked all offseason about needing to take better care of the ball, to play smart, to play efficient, and then he went out on opening night and stunk out the sold-out joint, just as he did last year in this same venue when he somehow lost to Wilson, a mediocrity of a quarterback who can’t seem to beat any teams other than the Bills.

“I hurt our team tonight,” Allen admitted. “I cost our team tonight. It feels eerily similar to last year and I hate that it’s the same.”

Here’s how I graded the Bills’ performance:

PASS OFFENSE: F

As I said, Allen was awful. He was under duress, yes, because the offensive line struggled mightily with the Jets’ tremendous front line. They registered five sacks, nine QB hits and forced a killer fumble. But even when he had time, Allen just made too many bad decisions and it killed his team.

Not that he got much help from anyone else on offense besides Stefon Diggs who caught 10 passes for 102 yards and the Bills’ only touchdown. Gabe Davis, who I believed was ready to have his breakout season, caught two passes for 32 yards on just four targets. Dawson Knox had 3 for 25, Dalton Kincaid 4 for 26 and James Cook 4 for 17. That’s just not good enough.

The Jets outstanding secondary, led by safety Jordan Whitehead who had all three interceptions, blanketed the Bills’ receivers and everything was difficult as Allen finished with just 236 yards on 41 attempts (29 completions).

RUN OFFENSE: C-

Cook did the bulk of the work and he had one nice 13-yard run but otherwise finished with just 46 yards on 12 carries. He showed some quickness on a couple plays, and he was involved in the passing game, but it was a very Devin Singletary-type performance which is to say, the Bills need more from him.

Damien Harris was used sparingly, one run for three yards and he also caught two passes for 16 yards but on one of those, he made a bad decision on a cut and failed to get a first down which led to the Bills settling for a field goal. Latavius Murray had two attempts for eight yards and caught a nine-yard pass that resulted in a first down. WR Deonte Harty, who was supposed to be a gadget type player, had one jet sweep but gained only four yards.

The Bills offensive line did not create enough push which has been an issue in the past, especially against the Jets. In the end, Allen’s 36 yards bumped the team total up to 97 on 22 attempts.

PASS DEFENSE: B-

Wilson threw for only 140 yards and had very little success downfield. Two of his three longest throws for 15 and 20 yards came on short passes that turned into those nice gains thanks to good blocking and some poor tackling by the Bills.

Garrett Wilson caught only five passes for 34 yards, but he had a big 12-yarder to convert a third down on the Jets first possession of the second half that led to a field goal. And he caught a tying three-yard TD pass with Tre’Davious White in man coverage.

I thought White had a rough night, especially tackling in the run game as he had two big whiffs that resulted in big gainers. Matt Milano had Buffalo’s only turnover, an interception in the second quarter, but then he took a mindless taunting penalty which cost the Bills 15 yards and they wound up settling for a field goal on that possession.

The Bills were able to get some pass rush and they had three sacks, none more impactful than Leonard Floyd’s, the one that knocked Rodgers out. Floyd also shared a sack with Ed Oliver and Jordan Phillips had the other. Greg Rousseau had no sacks but he had a few pressures and forced a fumble, though the Jets recovered.

RUN DEFENSE: D

Jets RB Breece Hall, returning from ACL surgery, ripped off an 83-yard run on a terrible defensive play by the Bills. With the Jets pinned at their own 4, Sean McDermott called for an eight-man front, correctly assuming the Jets would run. However, White missed a tackle, Terrel Bernard got lost in traffic, Jordan Poyer took a bad angle and Hall had nothing but green turf in front of him. Kudos to Christian Benford for tracking him down because that saved the Bills four points when the Jets failed to cash in for a touchdown.

Hall finished with 127 yards on just 10 carries which was unacceptable, but the Bills did a nice job on Dalvin Cook in holding him to 33 yards on 13 carries. Bernard led the Bills with 11 tackles, but several were of the Tremaine Edmunds down-the-field variety. Milano had eight including one for a five-yard loss on Cook.

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

Sorry, but when you give up a game-winning 65-yard touchdown in overtime, nothing else matters. Sam Martin had terrible middle-of-the-field placement on the punt, and then the coverage unit was just slow to get down the field and Xavier Gipson had way too much room to operate.

Cam Lewis missed a tackle early, Reggie Gilliam took a bad angle, and then Gipson bounced it outside and he was off to the races. Losing a game on a walk-off punt return is certainly a new one for the Bills. The kickoff coverage team also allowed a 28-yard return by Gipson.

Harty was deep on punts and had just one return for four yards, and there were no opportunities on kickoffs as Greg Zuerlein had six touchbacks. Tyler Bass made three field goals, though the tying 50-yarder with two seconds left clanged off the left upright and he got a very fortunate bounce.

COACHING: C

I’m not killing the coaches for this game. You can call great plays all night long, but if the quarterback is going to turn the ball over four times, you’re probably not winning. I will say the one call by Ken Dorsey that I hated was that stupid second-and-15 run in overtime. Cook gained just three yards which put the Bills in third-and-12 and they had no chance to convert, at least not on this night. The game ended about 20 seconds later.

On defense, it’s hard to hammer McDermott. His defense gave up one touchdown and three field goals which should have been more than good enough to win. On this night, it wasn’t. One thing that was a problem last year and was again Monday was giving up third-and-longs. It happens too often with this defense and the Jets had two conversions of third-and-10 or more.

As for Matt Smiley’s special teams, they were shoddy in preseason and while that’s understandable, their performance Monday was unacceptable.

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 will come out every Friday during training camp, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills report card: Josh Allen was horrendous, handed game to Jets