Josh Allen, Bills left to contemplate latest heartbreak in a season of setbacks

PHILADELPHIA – Josh Allen sat fully dressed, soaking wet, back against the wall of his locker, staring into the distance. His Buffalo Bills uniform had grass and dirt stains all over from the unrelenting rain that pounded Lincoln Financial Field. The quarterback had played arguably his best game of the season, nearly willing his team to a victory against the Philadelphia Eagles, the defending NFC champions and the team with the league’s best record entering the game.

Instead, the Bills squandered a double-digit lead in the second half, and the Eagles walked off winners, 37-34, when Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts scampered into the end zone with 2:37 left in overtime.

For all of the mishaps, mistakes and misfortunes the Bills endured – mind-numbing losses, a fired offensive coordinator and debates about “championship windows” – through the first 11 weeks of the season, they had a prime opportunity Sunday to leave much of that behind for the stretch run.

“You’d definitely like to get that win, get some momentum going into the bye and KC (in two weeks), but you got to live with it, swallow it, and find a way to correct the things that we haven’t been able to correct in the first 12 games,” Bills safety Micah Hyde said.

A win against the Eagles would have been the perfect palate cleanser going into the bye week, with the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys on the schedule in consecutive weeks on the other side of the break. A victory would have, for the time being, elevated the Bills into the No. 7 seed in the AFC seed – giving them a half-game lead over the Indianapolis Colts, Houston Texans and Denver Broncos – as they entered their bye week. Now, they need to count on losses from those teams for better odds; the three teams all hold tiebreakers over the Bills.

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“That’s the NFL, man. You’re on one side or the other,” Hyde said. “We’ve been fortunate enough around here for a long time to be on the winning side, and it seems like this year, every game comes down to the last two minutes.

“It’s unfortunate. We could have nine or 10 wins. But that’s a fantasy land and in real life we understand what our record is.”

The upside, Hyde added, is also palpable within the locker room.

“It’s crazy to say that, with our record being 6-6,” he said.

On Sunday, Allen led the Bills to 505 yards of total offense. He scored two touchdowns with his legs, threw for two more and added multiple first-down conversions on the ground while his team often faced third-and-long situations.

“That’s why we love him so much,” center Mitch Morse said of Allen. “That’s why he’s the undisputed leader in this locker room.”

Head coach Sean McDermott, who less than two weeks ago made the choice to replace offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey with quarterbacks coach Joe Brady following a last-second loss to the Denver Broncos, said he was encouraged with the direction of the offense.

“I’m extremely confident in our guys,” Allen said. “The men that we have in this locker room, we understand where we’re at. So we’ve got good things going.”

Allen, battling the elements, was 29-of-51 passing for 339 yards and had one interception. It was his eighth straight game with a pick, and it proved to be a costly mistake. The Eagles were able to take their first lead of the second half following James Bradberry’s interception of Allen, who was trying to find Stefon Diggs. Three plays later, Hurts bought time rolling to his left and hit Olamide Zaccheaus in the back of the end zone.

“When you’re in a dogfight of a game like that, it’s never supposed to be pretty,” left tackle Dion Dawkins said. “All of our jerseys are bloody and muddy and dirty. A dogfight is never supposed to be perfect. We would love to play perfectly clean football, but it’s unrealistic for the full duration of a game.”

The Bills’ defense held Hurts to 50 yards passing until late in the third quarter. But the quarterback diced the Bills for 116 yards in the fourth quarter and overtime, which Eagles kicker Jake Elliott forced with a 59-yard field goal to tie the game at 31 with 20 seconds left.

When the faced a fourth-and-7 in the red zone in overtime, McDermott sent the kicking unit out, entrusting his defense to make a stop. That proved fatal, as the Eagles marched down the field, and Hurts took a quarterback draw 12 yards for the win.

The offense, however, could have ended the game in overtime. Allen correctly identified an all-out blitz from the Eagles on third-and-6 from just outside the red zone, and receiver Gabe Davis had a step on his man. Davis turned to his left. Allen threw toward the middle. The ball fell incomplete, a chance at victory splashing in the end zone.

“I made a guess,” said Allen, who reviewed game footage on his tablet before walking toward the visitor’s showers, “and I guessed wrong.”

For the Bills, it was the latest in a series of brutal defeats this season. They lost their opener on a game-winning punt return in overtime against the New York Jets. On Nov. 13, they lost to the Broncos after having 12 players on the field during a missed field goal that gave Denver another chance to kick the game-winner. Following the latest setback, Buffalo fell to 2-6 in one-score games this year.

Coming out of the bye, Morse said the team needs to find renewed energy and a “vibrance for football.”

“Because we’re going to need it down this last stretch if we want to get to where we want to go,” Morse said.

The week of rest is coming at a good time, Hyde said. And the Bills know there will be big challenges awaiting them.

“You stand up. It’s time to – this is the league we’re in,” McDermott said. “We came in here, fought our asses off, we didn’t make enough (plays), do enough.”