Grading the Buffalo Bills in their 32-30 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at State Farm Stadium …
RUNNING GAME: D
Once again an afterthought. The Bills had just 18 attempts. Devin Singletary had just four attempts for 15 yards. One of those carries went for 13 yards, meaning the other three produced just 2 yards. Singletary played less than rookie Zack Moss for the third consecutive week. Unfortunately, neither of them did much Sunday. Moss carried seven times for just 20 yards. One of those went for 14 yards, meaning he gained just 6 yards on his other six carries. Quarterback Josh Allen was the team’s leading rusher, with 38 yards on seven carries, with a long rush of 15 yards. Allen hurt the Cardinals at times with quarterback draws.
PASSING GAME: B
Allen got it done when it counted. His touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs with 34 seconds remaining was pure perfection. Diggs, who beat Cardinals All-Pro Patrick Peterson on the play, made a diving, 21-yard touchdown catch that should have provided the game-winning points until … well, you know what happened. Allen finished 32 of 49 for 284 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions, and caught a touchdown pass. He could have been picked off two other times by Peterson, so it was a sloppy game for the Buffalo quarterback from that perspective. Cole Beasley was a baller. He finished with 11 catches on 13 targets for 109 yards and a touchdown. Beasley is a matchup nightmare for defenses. John Brown chipped in six catches for 72 yards. Singletary and Moss didn’t give the Bills’ passing offense much, either. In fact, they combined to lose yardage, with Moss’ one catch going for minus-3 yards and Singletary’s one reception going for minus-5. Rookie Gabriel Davis finished without a catch on three targets.
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RUN DEFENSE: F
Where, oh where have you gone, Star Lotulelei? Another embarrassing effort by the run defense continues to show what a glaring absence Lotulelei’s decision to opt out has created. Arizona racked up 217 yards on the ground, averaging 6.2 yards per carry. The middle of the Bills’ defensive line simply has to be better. Far too often, the Cardinals were gaining four or five yards before first contact was even made. Ed Oliver made five tackles. The only other defensive tackle to make even one was Justin Zimmer. Taron Johnson made a big play, forcing a fumble by Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake that was recovered by rookie cornerback Dane Jackson in the third quarter. Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray rushed for a pair of touchdowns. What Murray did to Bills cornerback Daryl Worley on a zone read should be made illegal.
PASS DEFENSE: D
Prepare to see DeAndre Hopkins’ game-winning touchdown catch, oh, a million times between now and the end of the season. The Bills had the three players they would want to defend that play in position, but Tre’Davious White, Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer failed to break it up. Hopkins has been a tough cover for the Bills. In his last three games against Buffalo, the former Texans star has 18 catches for 280 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Poyer made a fortuitous interception in the fourth quarter when he caught a deflected ball that Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald couldn’t quite haul in. He led the Bills with two passes defended – although they sure could have used three. The Bills did sack Murray three times, with A.J. Klein, Taron Johnson and Zimmer getting home defensively.
KYLER MURRAY HAIL MARY TO DEANDRE HOPKINS🚀 pic.twitter.com/z4aThLrN3p
— PFF (@PFF) November 16, 2020
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
A huge shift in the grade here. After a solid first half led by Tyler Bass, the Bills fell apart in the second half. Andre Roberts tried to do too much against his former team, bringing a pair of kickoffs out from deep in his own end zone. On the opening kickoff of the third quarter, Roberts could only get to the Bills’ 10-yard line. His next attempt didn’t go much better, as he could only get the team to the 12-yard line. Corey Bojorquez put his first punt in the second half in the end zone for a touchback, then shanked one for 12 yards. Bojorquez is too talented to have that type of inconsistency. Siran Neal was called for holding on a punt return, which cost the Bills field position.
COACHING: C
Let’s start with the good. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was feelin’ himself on the Bills’ first drive, setting up an Isaiah McKenzie-to-Josh Allen pass that went for a touchdown. Sean McDermott stole an extra possession at the end of the first half by smartly using his timeouts. That resulted in a field goal before halftime. Now, the bad. The run defense once again didn’t have any answers, but it’s been apparent for a while that none are coming. Daboll called for a Singletary run on second-and-10 early in the fourth quarter. That’s a brutally bad call in normal circumstances – even more so in a game in which Singletary had produced so little. The Bills killed themselves with penalties in the fourth quarter, committing five. Obviously, McDermott isn’t telling them to do that, but he doesn’t seem capable of getting his players to stop doing it, either. Perhaps the biggest penalty was against Dawson Knox, which offset an Arizona penalty and thus wiped out a 21-yard completion to Singletary in the third quarter that would have given the Bills a first-and-10 on the Cardinals’ 40-yard line. McDermott has his work cut out for him in the coming weeks making sure this loss doesn't linger.
