Bills Running out of Time to Salvage Season and Keep QB Josh Allen in 1 Piece

All of their weaknesses were exposed by a team with a standard they're still far from achieving, despite Sunday's score.

Their offense, declared dead by the Hillsborough County coroner's office at halftime of Sunday's game, sprang to life in the second half, giving the Buffalo Bills a chance to put together a possible season-defining win in Tampa.

Alas, they could not get it, keeping alive a pattern of disturbing inability they have shown to defeat the NFL's better teams and/or win close games.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 33, Bills 27, in overtime.

Sunday's loss dropped the Bills to 0-5 in one-score games this season. Their only victory against a team with a current winning record came two months ago at Kansas City.

The Chiefs have gone 7-1 since then. The Bills, by contrast, have gone 3-5 in the same span, lost control of the AFC East they once commanded and now face the struggle of their lives just to make the playoffs.

That the Bucs saw their commanding 24-3 halftime advantage evaporate just before the end of regulation when Tyler Bass kicked a 25-yard field goal to force the extra session should not matter to the Bills, who remain in danger of processing the ensuing setback as a moral victory when they should be concerned only with the bottom line.

That line is clear: They're not good enough. They're too mistake-prone, too undisciplined, too poorly coached on gamedays by a staff that won't commit to balancing their predictable offense with running attempts by anyone other than quarterback Josh Allen, who came out of this game limping and is almost certain to be on the injury report the rest of the way.

Allen carried 12 times, mostly on designed runs, for 109 yards and a touchdown. He was sensational in the second half in leading his team back with his legs and his arm (36-for-54, 308 yards, two TDs, one interception).

For all that, he was rewarded with praise from his teammates, around 12 miles of tape wrapped around his foot and toe — and another loss.

He showed up at his press conference with a boot on his foot.

"It's sore," he said. "That's football."

Allen is fast-approaching lead running back Devin Singletary as the team's top rusher and should take over the lead by the end of their next game.

That can be great for a high-school offense, not so great for the NFL. More proof came earlier in the day, when Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was knocked out of a loss at Cleveland with what is believed to be a high ankle sprain.

Jackson and Allen are spectacular athletes, but having them run any more than a handful of times each game simply is not sustainable.

This is why the Bills are in so much trouble. If Allen didn't literally pick them up and carry them on his shoulders in the second half against the Bucs, they never would have had a chance to win it.

A team that couldn't get out of its own way in the first half and didn't even make any attempts to get in the Bucs' way when they blitzed flipped the switch by basically riding Allen like a rented mule.

And they still weren't good enough in the end, going three-and-out on their one overtime possession before allowing the Bucs to score the game-winning TD.

Good luck with that approach going forward too.

If they keep using Allen like this, he'll never even make it to the end of his $258 million contract extension, much less the decade, before he's out of football and on pain-killers the rest of his life.

The Bills couldn't stop patting each other on the back after Sunday's loss. They were unhappy with the result, of course, but pleased with their comeback, believing it will give them momentum going forward, showing how much heart they have and all that other jazz.

"I think this loss can really pull a team together," Allen said. "In the locker room after the game, we were pissed off we didn't win it, but you can see how we came together in that second half. I think that's going to pay dividends going forward."

Poppycock.

In reality, momentum doesn't carry over from week to week. The proof is right their in their results. They win by 18 at Kansas City and lose by three the next week at Tennessee. They win by 15 over the Miami Dolphins and lose by three the next week at Jacksonville. They win by 28 over the New York Jets and get pounded the following week by Indianapolis.

Now they've just lost consecutive games for the first time.

And their $258 Million Man is in a boot with no bionic leg, arm, eye or ear to show for it.

Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.