Bengals at Bills: Buffalo Grades, Notes and Quotes

The Buffalo Bills’ playoff hopes are growing steadily dimmer.

Andy Dalton threw for 243 yards and three touchdowns, Marvin Jones caught nine passes for 95 yards and the Cincinnati Bengals stayed undefeated, dismantling E.J. Manuel and the Bills 34-21 in Buffalo.

Manuel, starting at quarterback in place of the injured Tyrod Taylor, finished 28-of-42 for 263 yards, one touchdown and one interception. It was Manuel’s first start of the year, and while the Buffalo offense failed to consistently move the ball downfield, it was perhaps as much as could be expected from the 25-year-old, who made his first start since last September. 

Bills running back LeSean McCoy had perhaps his best performance of the year on Sunday, finishing with 90 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. And Buffalo had five players with at least 30 yards receiving, led by tight end Charles Clay (nine catches for 62 yards) and wideout Chris Gragg (five catches for 54 yards). 

But a now familiar combination of injuries, penalties and a weak pass rush doomed the Bills (3-3), as Dalton and the Bengals (6-0) appeared entirely comfortable. Buffalo trailed by just three points at halftime, 17-14, but was outscored 14-0 in the third quarter and trailed 34-14 with seven minutes left in the game.

Buffalo travels to London next week for a matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars. After losing to Houston on Sunday, the Jaguars are 1-5 and should be no problem for the Bills. But the Jaguars game is succeeded by consecutive matchups against each of Buffalo’s AFC East rivals.

Given the performance of the Patriots (4-0) and Jets (4-1), Buffalo’s playoff hopes could be entirely dissipated by Week 10. The Bills need to move on from Sunday’s loss and take care of business in Europe next week. 

Positional Grades

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

Buffalo QB E.J. Manuel

Position:	Grade:
QB	B+
RB	A-
WR	B-
TE	B
OL	B
DL	C
Secondary	B-
Special Teams	C+
Coaching	B-

Two groups to highlight here. 

First, E.J. Manuel wasn’t the reason for Buffalo’s loss. His one interception came early in the game and did not lead to Cincinnati points. He stuck mostly to short, high-percentage passes, while—in contrast to previous weeks—Buffalo’s offense got going early, marching 80 yards on 11 plays in a game-opening touchdown drive. 

Manuel’s second touchdown drive was equally impressive, an 86-yard effort coming just before halftime. All in all, quarterbacks—including Taylor—have arguably been Buffalo’s most consistent offensive players. Neither Manuel nor Taylor has blown up the stat sheet, but neither’s play has kept Buffalo out of games. 

Second, if Buffalo fans are to take anything positive from Sunday’s loss, it was McCoy’s performance. The Bills entered the season with high playoff hopes, largely because of McCoy’s arrival. Last year, McCoy was perhaps the league’s most exciting offensive player, but he’s battled hamstring issues since the preseason, and his slow start is a fair part of the reason for Buffalo’s middling record. 

McCoy appeared as comfortable as we’ve seen him on Sunday, exploding for a game-opening 33-yard run and capping off Buffalo’s third and final scoring drive with a four-yard touchdown. If McCoy is actually back to 100% health and Buffalo’s offense begins to truly revolve around him, the Bills’ playoff hopes could look a lot better in a few weeks. 

Note 1: Injuries

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Buffalo WR Sammy Watkins

The script is getting predictable.

On Sunday, the Bills failed to overcome a toxic combination of injuries and penalties. And at this point, it’s worth wondering if this team is capable of overcoming that mixture. Let’s start with injuries.

Entering Sunday’s game, Buffalo was missing Taylor, wideout Percy Harvin, No. 2 running back Karlos Williams and special teams ace Marcus Easley, among others. Their collective absence is undoubtedly a huge part of the team’s struggles. But Buffalo hasn’t been healthy yet all year, and it appears increasingly unlikely the Bills will ever be able to field a full team.

Injuries are tough to control, and they’re a big part of the reason Buffalo is just 3-3. It’s fair to say this Bills team, at full strength, is much better than a .500 winning percentage suggests. But ultimately, a team’s record is more important than the factors it reflects, and the Bills need to find a way to beat top competition without their full array of options. 

Unfortunately, that task got only harder on Sunday. First, Sammy Watkins—who publicly complained this week about his lack of targets—injured his ankle while making a 22-yard touchdown reception late in the second quarter. Cameras showed Watkins exiting the game on crutches.

I wrote earlier this week about the ill-advised decision to play Watkins, and I’ll reiterate the point here. Watkins already had an injured calf and had struggled with health issues since the preseason. This is the NFL, Watkins is just 22 and his team is 3-3. He should not have played, and the team may live with the consequences for the rest of the season. 

Watkins is probably the team’s most physically gifted receiver, and his presence adds an entirely new dimension to Buffalo’s offense. Hopefully, he won’t miss extensive time and the team takes appropriate steps to ensure a speedy recovery. 

Lastly, stalwart defensive tackle Kyle Williams injured his leg on Sunday, as EPSN.com’s Mike Rodak reported. Bills fans should keep a close eye on that situation, as Williams, a Pro Bowler, is an essentially irreplaceable part of an already struggling Buffalo defensive line. 

Note 2: Penalties

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

Buffalo CB Ron Brooks

Buffalo’s season has been thoroughly up-and-down, as it's alternated wins and losses every week. That trend extends to penalties: Every time the Bills seem to have figured out their penalty problem, they take a step backward the following week. 

The Bills were penalized eight times on Sunday, surrendering a total of 93 yards. That’s not quite as bad as Buffalo was in Weeks 1, 2 and 4, but it certainly didn’t help. 

The flags were especially common for Buffalo’s special teams unit. And while those flags rarely nullified major Buffalo gains or directly led to Bengals points, they were critical to the field position game. In one especially frustrating incident, Buffalo cornerback Ron Brooks was flagged 15 yards for taunting during a first-quarter Bengals punt return. The violation placed the Bengals at midfield, and Dalton took less than three minutes to march his team 49 yards for the score. 

Quotes of the Day: Rex Ryan on Penalties and the D-Line

Gary Wiepert/Associated Press

Buffalo HC Rex Ryan

The penalties were not lost on Rex Ryan.

“Still too many penalties. And just dumb penalties. Seems like we can’t run a play on special teams without getting a penalty for some reason,” he said after the game, as reported by ESPN.com’s Rodak. 

Rodak also reported that Ryan took some of the blame for Buffalo’s second-straight pathetic performance on the defensive line. Ryan evidently acknowledged he could have sent more than three rushers on several occasions. 

These were certainly the themes of Sunday’s game. Not only did the Bills hand Dalton & Co. nearly 100 free yards—undermining a reasonably good opening half of football—but Buffalo’s putatively dominant defensive line managed just one hit (and zero sacks) on Dalton.

The loss of Kyle Williams hurt Buffalo’s defensive line. But there’s no excuse for the penalties, and the team cannot expect to win without mustering far more quarterback pressure.