Buffalo Bills kicker Stephen Hauschka (4) misses a 53-yard field goal late during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

For everyone that was hoping the Buffalo Bills would prove the doubters wrong, Sunday was your worst nightmare. The Bills did just enough to blow the game against the league’s most disappointing team, the Cleveland Browns. Stephen Hauschka’s two missed field goals, including the game-tying attempt with less than a minute to go, were the most obvious example of many mistakes the Bills made to lose a game they should have won.

First and foremost, the Bills are paying top 10 kicker money to a below average kicker. Hauschka proved just how overrated he is on Sunday, first missing a chance to take a 10-9 lead into halftime by blowing a 34-yard chip shot, then missing the potential game-tying 53-yard kick with 22 seconds to go. The Bills only lost the game by three points, so had “Hausch-Money” actually been worth the money, the game should’ve turned out differently.

Still, he wasn’t the only one to blame. Part of Buffalo’s disappointing performance goes to Levi Wallace, who failed to live up to the standard the rest of the Bills defense set on Sunday. Tre’Davious White did a great job covering Odell Beckham Jr., while Tremaine Edmunds and the run defense came up big when it mattered in the redzone. The highlight of the day defensively came when the Bills stopped Cleveland on eight consecutive plays inside the 5-yard line and forced a turnover on downs. That sort of game from the defense should have been enough, but Cleveland took the lead late in the game with a touchdown to Rashard Higgins of all people — not Beckham, Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb or Kareem Hunt — solely because he was guarded by Wallace. The Bills have too good of a defense to allow misplays like his to slide.

Josh Allen had a misleading day in terms of evaluation. While he threw for 266 yards without an interception, Allen had his fair share of mistakes. Early on, Allen missed John Brown on an easy throw on fourth down that resulted in a turnover, then Allen missed another throw to Brown on a fourth down later in the game. While he didn’t throw the ball to the other team on Sunday, Allen didn’t throw to his own team enough either. Allen struggled to complete 50 percent of his passes (22-for-41) and barely avoided an atrocious fumble in the redzone, when Jon Feliciano made an incredible recovery to set the Bills up for Allen’s second rushing touchdown on a quarterback sneak for the 16-12 lead. If the rest of the team didn’t make up for his mistakes to hang around long enough for Hauschka to become the easy ‘fall guy,” Allen would have seemed a lot worse than he came across on Sunday.

Between Hauschka, Wallace, Allen and even the mind-boggling decision to only give Devin Singletary eight carries and three dump-offs, the Bills deserved to lose on Sunday, even against the disappointing Browns. This performance is why people questioned the strength of the schedule coming in, because Buffalo showed on Sunday that it is closer to a team that can get smoked at home by the Eagles and find a way to lose to the Browns than it is to a team that deserves a 6-3 record. While the playoffs are still well within reach, games like Sunday are why it’s hard to get too excited about the Buffalo Bills.

Twitter: @bradencarmen