The Buffalo Bills have an extra week to stew in Monday night's last-second loss in Nashville.
Heading into a bye week, Josh Allen and the Bills came up short on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-inches from the 3-yard-line to fall 34-31 to the Tennessee Titans. Naturally, the focus will be on the fourth-down decision, but from Buffalo's perspective, the miscues were aplenty before the fatal failure.
"A lot of shoulda, coulda, woulda," Allen said, per ESPN's Alaina Getzenberg. "But at the end of the day, 4-2 going into the bye week. Going back to last year, taking a loss the way we did against Arizona … this is a resilient team, and I got no doubt that we're gonna use this to fuel us and be ready to go in two weeks."
The Bills defense couldn't slow Derrick Henry -- who can? -- or the rest of the Titans offense. Buffalo didn't force a punt in the final three quarters of action. A previously impervious unit that had pitched two shutouts in five weeks and came in averaging 12.8 points per game allowed got steamrolled. The Titans' final eight drives went: TD, FG, TD, end of half kneel, TD, FG, TD, game-winning kneel.
On offense, Allen and the Bills moved the ball seemingly at will between the 20s. Buffalo gobbled up 417 yards of offense, with the QB throwing for 353 yards on 35-of-47 passing, three TDs, and one INT. The Bills also combined for 82 rushing yards on 23 carries.
The issue continued to be red-zone failures. Buffalo entered Week 6 ranked 24th in the NFL converting red-zone opportunities into TDs. They went a piddling 2-of-5 on Monday night. Given Allen's power-running ability, it's surprising Buffalo is so bad in the red zone, but they've settled for a ton of chip-shot field-goals when they could have been celebrating TDs.
"Just not executing, how we should," Allen said, per the team’s official website. "Shooting ourselves in the foot a couple times with penalties. I've got to be better for us in the red zone, so it's no secret 2-for-5 against a team like this it's not going to win you a football game. We go 3-for-5 we win that game.
"A lot of shoulda, coulda, wouldas. That's a really good team and they had a really good plan. On offense, they've got some really good players over there, so you can't give them those opportunities and not convert. You've got to put six on the board."
Allen's famous "no red-zone INTs in XXX career attempts" stat that TV producers love to show every game takes on a different characteristic when viewed through the lens of the Bills' red-zone struggles. A missed pass from Allen to an open Stefon Diggs that fell at the receiver's feet on the second red-zone failure of the night underscored a night of missed opportunities for Allen and the Bills.
Luckily for Buffalo, they have the bye week to work out the kinks, then have a soft schedule coming up. The Bills' next four opponents -- Dolphins, Jaguars, Jets and Colts -- are a combined 5-14 through six weeks.
