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An alarming Bills letdown

Carmen’s Column

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, bottom, calls time-out as he slides under Philadelphia Eagles' Malcolm Jenkins during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/John Munson)

If the Buffalo Bills want to prove to the rest of the league that they are a legitimate playoff threat, games like Sunday’s just can’t happen.

What was recently considered one of the best defenses in the NFL was absolutely gashed by the Philadelphia Eagles’ running game. As a team, the Eagles had 41 carries for 218 yards and three touchdowns, including 96 yards and a score on 23 carries by Jordan Howard and a 65-yard touchdown run by rookie Miles Sanders.

Philadelphia came into Sunday’s game in turmoil, after being blown out by the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, in which Carson Wentz and the rest of the Philadelphia offense looked absolutely awful. On a rainy, windy day in Orchard Park, the Eagles were obviously going to rely on the run. That shouldn’t have surprised anyone, yet the defensive unit that carried the Bills early in the season looked as clueless as can be.

Philadelphia didn’t rely on tricks or even big plays through the air. The Eagles just simply ran it right down the Bills’ throats.

Did Josh Allen look good for the Bills on Sunday? No, but he wasn’t the one to blame for Sunday’s loss. Allen’s completion percentage was under 50 percent, as he managed just 169 yards on 16-for-34 passing, though he threw a pair of touchdown passes. Allen also wasn’t much of a factor rushing, with just eight carries for 45 scoreless yards, but he was still more efficient than Frank Gore, who only had 34 yards on nine carries, on a day where the Bills failed to rush for 100 yards as a team. Allen also struggled to hang onto the football, with three fumbles, though only one was recovered by the Eagles. Each team only turned the ball over once in the game, with similar numbers across the board except for one category — the rushing yards as a team. That wasn’t Allen’s fault. It was the defense that dropped the ball in this one.

The Bills looked about as bad as a previously 5-1 team can look against the Eagles on Sunday. After a hot start to the season, only a six point loss to New England separated the Bills from the best record in the league. Instead of building upon that on Sunday, Buffalo fell flat at home on a rainy day in Orchard Park.

Rather than looking like the team its record defined it as, the Bills showed signs of heading toward a similar trend. After a 5-1 in 2008, the Bills finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs entirely. That year, the Bills were 4-1 headed into a Week 6 bye, then won the first game after the bye week at home, but then lost four straight contests after that and seven of the next eight. This year, the Bills once again started 4-1, had a Week 6 bye, won the next game, then lost immediately after that. Performances like this past Sunday’s are reminiscent of the tortured recent history of the Buffalo Bills. Even though the next four games are all against bad teams — just like all but one of the games prior to this week’s game were — it’s hard not to be alarmed by what the Bills showed against the Eagles on Sunday.

Twitter: @bradencarmen

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