Bills’ Issues On Offense Nearly Cost Them in Uncomfortably Close Win Over Giants

Buffalo escaped Highmark Stadium with a win Sunday night, but its offensive struggles were apparent with former offensive coordinator Brian Daboll on the opposite sideline.

The Giants’ boneheaded mistake before halftime felt like a death sentence against the Bills on Sunday night, even with Buffalo trailing 6–0 at the time.

Instead, Josh Allen’s mistake allowed the Giants to redeem themselves with clock management and earn what would have been a crushing loss for the Bills. Instead, New York was left with an ultimately deflating moral victory.

The Bills survived by defeating the Giants, 14–9. But this messy, entertaining game summarized the Bills’ offense ever since Giants coach Brian Daboll stopped calling plays for Allen.

Oh, what could have been had Daboll never taken the Giants’ coaching job and remained as the Bills’ offensive coordinator. Maybe we would be talking about them the way we do the Dolphins—you know, the team these Bills beat two weeks ago.

Allen threw for just 169 passing yards against the Giants, his lowest total since Week 14 of last season :: Gregory Fisher/USA Today Sports

The Bills’ offense is one of the biggest enigmas in the NFL. Just when you think it’s on the verge of steamrolling the entire NFL, it instead has a two-game stretch of bad football offensively.

The Giants were the biggest underdogs of Week 6, but they should have beaten the Bills on Sunday Night Football. If New York had been able to score from the 1-yard line on the final play of the first or second half, it could’ve improved to 2–4 while bringing Buffalo back to .500. 

I’m sure Giants fans will be thinking about the blunder to call a running play with 14 seconds left in the first half, which allowed the clock to run out when it failed, for the rest of the week. Well, at least the ones who haven’t checked out from this Giants’ blunder-filled season will be.

Maybe the Bills would have done enough to rally in the second half had the Giants scored before halftime. But we’ll never know. Instead of facing a double-digit deficit, the Bills were allowed to stay within arm’s length and used two mini-rallies in the second half to avoid becoming the latest Super Bowl contender to be upset in Week 6.

The Bills nearly had a what-could-have-been moment when Allen missed Dawson Knox on a critical third-down conversion, giving the Giants one more opportunity to pull off the upset. Tyrod Taylor and the Giants again returned to the Bills’ 1-yard line, but the veteran’s throw to Darren Waller fell incomplete.

Not many gave the Giants a chance to defeat the Bills, who were favored by a whopping 14.5 points, according to SI Sportsbook. But Buffalo trailed for most of the game and never possessed a lead approaching that number after the Jets beat the Eagles, and the Browns got the best of the 49ers on a Sunday filled with surprising results.

The Giants were heavy underdogs partially because they were without Daniel Jones, who was sidelined with a neck injury. Taylor filled in for Jones, and the experienced backup quarterback was on the verge of extending New York’s lead to 13–0 heading into halftime. But Taylor handed the ball off to Saquon Barkley at the Buffalo 1-yard line with no timeouts and 14 seconds left before halftime.

It might not have been entirely Taylor’s fault, but Daboll’s anger in the aftermath hinted that Taylor was supposed to throw the ball.

Perhaps it’s silly to dwell on a miscue from the first half, but the Bills’ offense was once again out of sync the entire game. The heavy home favorites might have at least needed to go to overtime had the Giants cashed in on the prime scoring opportunity.

For most of the week, the story lines surrounding the Bills were about the injuries on the defensive side, including losing All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano and defensive tackle DaQuan Jones for the rest of the season. The Bills’ offense was coming off a poor performance in the loss to the Jaguars, but it could’ve been written off to playing in London.

After the Bills delivered another sluggish offensive performance against the Giants, though, it might be fair to question whether Allen, Stefon Diggs and the rest of the offense have a consistency issue. They haven’t been quite the same since Daboll left as Buffalo’s offensive coordinator to take the coaching job with the Giants in 2022.

Daboll has had a much tougher go-round in his second season coaching the Giants :: Gregory Fisher/USA TODAY Sports

Daboll’s Giants were outmatched even against the sluggish Bills, who might still be hungover from their thrilling win against the Dolphins and recent trip to London to play the Jaguars.

The Taylor-led Giants had a chance, as they hung with the Bills for most of the first half with a 6–0 advantage. The seasoned Taylor ran the offense efficiently (besides the costly handoff to Barkley) behind a banged-up offensive line with a third-string left tackle. But Taylor’s strengths of protecting the ball and managing the offense hasn’t led to many wins throughout his 13-year career, partly because his safe approach often didn’t produce enough points. Bills fans know that well from Taylor’s time in Buffalo (he started 43 games from 2015 to ’17).

Bills fans are also familiar with Daboll’s work. In Daboll’s final two seasons, the Bills rarely had offensive funks the way they’ve had since Ken Dorsey took over the offensive play-calling duties.

The pinnacle of the Bills’ offense with Allen as quarterback was the classic postseason shootout against the Chiefs nearly two years ago. Kansas City beat Buffalo that memorable night, but losing the coin flip before overtime cost the Bills the game. That was Daboll’s last game as offensive coordinator, and the Bills haven’t been quite the same ever since.

But they’ve had many stretches of being a high-octane offense, such as the signature win against the Dolphins in Week 4. And the Bills are always going to have a chance with Allen, who had one of the best throws of the season when he connected with tight end Quintin Morris for a 15-yard touchdown with 3:48 left to give Buffalo a 14–9 advantage that ended up being the final score.

Allen, however, underthrew a pass to Knox on third down that would have sealed the win on Buffalo’s last offensive possession. After Tyler Bass missed a 53-yard field goal attempt, Taylor and the Giants received one more opportunity to shock the football world.

They didn’t because they failed to score twice from the 1-yard line. Oh, what could have been.

As for the Bills, they can’t wonder about Daboll. He’s not coming back. They need to figure out their offensive issues soon.