ORCHARD PARK - There were plentiful reasons why the Buffalo Bills lost to the Houston Texans , but beyond the poor coaching decisions, the unusually brutal day Josh Allen had , and the fact that they were missing too many key players, there was another key factor: Terrible game management .
In the end, the Bills lost on a 59-yard field goal on the final play, but this was a game that should never have come down to that if the Bills hadn’t failed in so many situations that ultimately either cost them points, or handed Houston points.
“Situational football,” coach Sean McDermott lamented, knowing this has to be so much better Monday night when the Bills visit the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium, a team that will surely be motivated after the firing Tuesday of coach Robert Saleh.
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For three games the Bills were very good in this area and they went 3-0, but in the last two, not so much, and it was particularly noticeable in Houston.
Right off the bat, the Bills started their second offensive possession at the Texans 49 and were quickly in a first-and-goal situation at the 9. But a blown up James Cook run, a sack of Allen, and a false start on Keon Coleman had them going backwards and they settled for a Tyler Bass field goal. A potential four points wasted.
Third-down defense, which has been sloppy all year as the Bills are allowing conversions 43.4% of the time which ranks 24th in the NFL, killed them. Houston’s first TD came after it converted a third-and-5 with a 28-yard pass to RB Dare Ogunbowale. Get off the field there and the Texans are punting and still trailing 3-0. Instead, it was quickly 7-3.
At the end of the first half, the Bills gifted the Texans three points with more mismanagement. They took possession with 1:02 left at their own 28 and Allen threw three straight incompletions. Sam Martin then boomed a 59-yard punt but he out-kicked his coverage team and Robert Woods ripped off a 36-yard return to midfield. CJ Stroud, with timeouts to spare, was able to get Ka’imi Fairbarn in position for a 50-yard field goal that made it 17-3.
And then came the coup de grace. Having fought back to within 20-17, the defense made a huge play as Dawuane Smoot forced a Stroud fumble and Dorian Williams recovered at the Texans 15 with 4:21 left to play. The offense proceeded to waste a chance to score a touchdown which would have made it 24-20, meaning the Texans could not win the game with a 59-yard field goal.
“That would have probably changed the outcome of the game,” McDermott said of the series that featured a no gain Cook run and two Allen incompletions which resulted in settling for Tyler Bass’ tying field goal.
“I thought we had opportunities in the game, I really did,” McDermott said. “All of it adds up when you’re in that type of situation.”
This is what it adds up to: A 3-2 record with a big game looming against a Jets team that is also desperate to gain traction on a season that has been mostly frustrating.
Here are three questions the Bills need answers to going into this AFC East showdown:
1. Paging Curtis Samuel, are you there?
It’s pretty difficult for an NFL receiver to put up a box score line like the one the eighth-year veteran had against Houston. He was a part of the passing tree on 24 snaps, was targeted just three times on a day when the Bills didn’t have their best receiver, Khalil Shakir , and he caught just one for zero yards.
He also rushed once and lost a yard. You don’t need to be a math genius to know that zero and minus-1 totals out to minus-1 yards. To put this in perspective, all six of the offensive linemen who played against the Texans were more valuable than Samuel because they had zero yards, which is better than minus-1.
“We have to find a way, especially in a game like that,” offensive coordinator Joe Brady said when he was asked about the inability to get Samuel going thus far. “Obviously, we didn’t do a good job passing the football (Sunday). I’ve got to make sure that I’m calling some of those plays, and that we’re able to get the ball in his hands and allow him to do what I’ve known, I’ve been a part of it, seen him do.”
The Bills handed Samuel a contract that guaranteed him more than $15 million when he signed it in March, and his salary cap hit for 2024 is $3.405 million, the 10th-highest on the team. Part of the reason was because Samuel had his best NFL season in 2020 when he was with the Panthers and Brady was the OC.
For that investment the 28-year-old has played a grand total of 102 snaps in five games, and on the 65 snaps where he was a potential target, Allen has gone his way just 12 times and he has nine receptions for 48 yards.
“It is a concern of ours and that’s something we have to look at,” McDermott said. “And Curtis is a good football player. We know what he can do with the ball in his hands, whether he’s running it or catching it. So it is something that we need to look at to make sure that we are maximizing his potential.”
Sorry, but it’s pretty tough for anyone to judge what he can do with the ball in his hands because it never is. And life won’t get any easier for Samuel this week as the Bills will be up against what might be the best cornerback tandem in the NFL, the Jets’ Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed.
The outstanding nickel cornerback has been practicing on a limited basis in a red non-contact jersey for a couple weeks, and when the Bills were winning their first three games without him, they could afford to be patient and make sure his fractured forearm healed. Now they’ve lost two in a row, and Johnson’s replacement, Cam Lewis, has been a liability in both games.
According to Pro Football Focus charting, Lewis played 38 snaps in coverage, was targeted 12 times by Houston’s CJ Stroud, and he allowed 10 receptions for 93 yards. In Week 4 against the Ravens, he played 16 coverage snaps and gave three receptions on three targets for 39 yards and he also missed three tackles which helped lead to 31 yards after contact.
In five games, Lewis has allowed 33 catches on 39 targets for 312 yards. For comparison, in 17 games last year, Johnson allowed 60 receptions on 78 targets for 480 yards.
Lewis is a nice guy to have on your team because he can serve as a backup in a variety of spots plus play special teams. The key word in there is “backup” because that’s what the former University at Buffalo player is. Johnson is one of the best nickel corners in the league and his absence is now being felt big time.
The Bills really need Johnson to get back on the field this week against the Jets in a game the Bills really can’t afford to lose because it’s against the one team in the division that figures to be Buffalo’s biggest threat in its pursuit of a fifth straight AFC East title.
“Taron, we’ll see how he does this week,” McDermott said Monday. “I think he’s improving a little bit. We’ll have to see how the week goes. We’ll take it one day at a time.”
3. Can the Bills pass rush affect Aaron Rodgers?
The last time Rodgers faced the Bills , he lasted four plays and his 2023 season crashed to an end with a torn Achilles. Now he’s back, but he might be wondering why because the Jets’ offensive line has struggled to protect him and his 40-year-old body has been getting pounded.
Last week in London it looked like he was seriously hurt on one of the three sacks he incurred in the loss to the Vikings, but despite suffering what is a mild ankle sprain, he soldiered on. On Monday, a day before he was fired, Saleh said, “All the preliminary stuff says he’ll be fine. He’s doing fine. Obviously, he’s a little banged up, but he feels good. The reality is, if you throw the ball over 50 times, the quarterback is going to get hit. Period.”
Luckily for Rodgers he gets an extra day of rest with the Monday game, and he needs it because in the last two losses to the Vikings and Broncos the offensive line has allowed 47 pressures, 25 QB hits and eight sacks on 104 drop backs. “I’m not discouraged,” Saleh said of the line’s play. “I’m very disappointed with the way the last couple of weeks have gone. Something that we obviously need to get fixed.”
Denver and Minnesota were blitz heavy and while the Bills aren’t a team that blitzes much, they need to take advantage of Rodgers’ lack of mobility and get after him because when he has had time, he’s still pretty good. “He’s seen it all,” Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said of the challenge of facing Rodgers. “So we’ve got to do a good job of just changing the picture as late as possible on him. It’s a challenge. Obviously, Aaron Rodgers is. He’s one of the best to ever play the game.”
The Bills’ pass rush, after a slow start in Houston, affected Stroud in the second half and PFF clocked them with 19 pressures, one of which was the Dawuane Smoot strip sack in the fourth quarter.
“We did a good job and we really want to capture those moments,” Babich said. “We need to just make sure the consistency of the rush … the consistency of everything we’re doing is in line, and we should be in pretty good shape.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Paging Curtis Samuel, are you there? Need at WR tops Bills' questions vs Jets
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