Bills vs. Giants: 5 Things We Learned from Buffalo's 27-24 Loss

The Buffalo Bills lost a heartbreaker today to the New York Giants, 27-24, when Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes kicked a 23-yard field goal with 1:32 left in the contest. The loss dropped the Bills record to 4-2 and brought the Giants record to 4-2 as well.

The Bills came back in the fourth quarter to rally for a tying touchdown in the fourth quarter and actually were in position to win the game with a first down at the New York Giants 27-yard line with only three minutes left to play, when Ryan Fitzpatrick threw his second interception of the day, both by Giants corner Corey Webster.

The Giants turned that interception into the winning field goal drive, and now, the Bills enter their bye week with a bad taste in their mouth, as they really had a great opportunity to come out of this with a 5-1 record.

The Bills hope to get some of their injured starters back and work on both sides of the ball. This article will look at the five new things we learned about the Buffalo Bills team today.

Bills Are on the Short End of the Turnover Battle

Steve Johnson did what he could do to break up the pass, but the fact is that Ryan Fitzpatrick underthrew Johnson both times on the same type of pattern, and Corey Webster made a very difficult interception each time. Johnson even grabbed Webster by the face mask, but that only allowed the Giants to have the ball in better field position, instead of their own-five yard line.

This was the first time the Bills defense did not come up with a turnover. Each Fitzpatrick interception resulted in a Giants field goal, so you can say they led directly to the loss. It is surprising that the Bills came back with the same type of play, knowing that it didn't work before. For whatever reason, Fitzpatrick had trouble estimating how far to throw the ball and wound up being short by around five yards each time.

The Bills were just good enough to win their earlier close games, and each time, turnovers were in their favor. We are seeing each week how slim the margin is between winning and losing, and each game is coming down one or two key plays. The margin for error is becoming smaller and smaller, and that is going to result in tremendous pressure every week.

You could say that the law of averages with the Bills bounces, and all of their turnovers finally caught up with them today.

Bills Had Trouble Defending the Tight End Again

In the first two games this year, Giants' tight end Jake Ballard was held to one catch for 15 yards by the Philadelphia Eagles and one catch for 13 yards by the St. Louis Rams.

Enter the Buffalo Bills, who repeatedly in 2010 were burned by one tight end after another. Once again today, the Giants in key situations would look for their tight end, and Ballard came up big with five catches for 81 yards. He started to emerge last week against the Seattle Seahawks, with three catches for 72 yards.

The Bills let him run free too easily, and it may have been because they were overly concerned with Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham. They did prove to be difficult to contain today, but the passes to Ballard to me were more of a back-breaker variety.

The Bills have to go back and re-examine how they intend to defend against the better tight ends they face over the final 10 games of the season, as they still face the likes of Antonio Gates, Jason Witten, Aaron Hernandez and Dustin Keller down the road.

Bills Couldn't Make Up for Loss of Kyle Williams and Shawne Merriman

From Spencer Johnson, to Marcell Dareus, to Arthur Moats and to Kellen Heard, the Bills got close to Eli Manning, but never managed a single sack today. The lack of a strong press rush allowed Eli Manning to have way too much time to throw and get into a rhythm.

Manning completed 21-of-32 passes on the day for 292 yards. The Bills defense was only credited with one quarterback hit for the entire day. That means that Manning was never flustered enough to force him into bad throws where the turnovers usually follow closely behind.

Conversely, the Giants defense had three sacks, five tackles for loss, six passes defended and four quarterback hits. They did their job and got to Fitzpatrick, and maybe it was the constant pressure that caused him to come up short later on in the game with the two costly interceptions.

The Bills played without Kyle Williams and Shawne Merriman, so the Giants even without starting guard Chris Snee were able to contain the Bills pressure, which is a sign that the Bills pass rush is not up to par. This will continue to haunt the Bills for the rest of the year, depending on how long Williams is going to be out.

Buddy Nix felt that the pass rush was going to be there, and that is why he didn't draft a pass rush specialist this year. He said that they had the best pass rusher in Shawne Merriman, but now that he has injured his Achilles again, it is looking like Nix took a calculated gamble that might be backfiring on him big time.

Despite Adversity, Bills Continue to Play Well on Road

As the Bills demonstrated in a close loss to the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs last season, the Bills found a way to battle back on the road to tie up the game in the fourth quarter. The Bills have lost key members on both offense and defense, yet found a way to dig deep to take a stand in the fourth quarter and tie the game up.

The fact that they held the Giants to a three-and-out drive right after tying the game, and then moving right down the field to be in position to take the lead, speaks volumes about their heart and character. The Bills fans should still feel every bit as strong and positive about the team, as every game for them is still a learning experience.

The Bills defense showed great character when they were able to turn the Giants away twice on goal-to-go situations and prevent them from getting touchdowns. The Giants have been the No. 2  team in the NFL this year in scoring touchdowns in the red zone, but the Bills were able to deny them twice. That tells you all you need to know about how hard the defense was playing today, even though they were playing without three experienced starters from their front seven.

Ryan Fitzpatrick Was Too Indecisive with the Ball Today

One of the reason that the Giants were able to deliver so many hits on Ryan Fitzpatrick today was that there were too many times today that Fitzpatrick held on to the ball when he had a chance to make a throw and disdained the opportunity. Meanwhile, the Giants defense were able to close in on him and come up with sacks or creating a fumble, that was luckily recovered by Erik Pears.

Hard to say why Fitzpatrick abandoned his typical crisp, decisive type of decision-making that allows him to read the defense and release the ball before the pass rush can get to him. The lack of quick decision-making today cost the Bills dearly and allowed Fitzpatrick to take far more hits than he is accustomed to taking.

The Bills had a strong run game going today. Fred Jackson ran the ball 16 times for 121 yards, which was an average of 7.6 yards per rush. Brad Smith ran it four times for 26 yards, which is an average of 6.5 yards per carry. So, despite having a strong running game going, the Bills went away from the run in the final three minutes and went for the quick strike, which obviously blew up in their faces.

Where Do the Bills Go from Here?

The Bills demonstrated big play scoring ability from Fred Jackson and Naaman Roosevelt today. That can only help them going forward.

The biggest issue to me is how healthy are the Bills and what kind of depth do they have for the final 10 games of the season. The Bills are very much in the playoff hunt at 4-2 right now, but they have been getting serious injuries at an alarming rate.

Based on the severity of the new injury to Shawne Merriman, what does Buddy Nix do? Will he put Merriman on the IR and then attempt to bring in a free agent or trade for somebody to bring in a healthy pass rusher? We all saw what happens to the Bills defensive backs like Drayton Florence and Leodis McKelvin this year when they are asked to contain faster receivers.

Then there is the question of all the injured wide receivers. With star veterans like Reggie Wayne, Brandon Lloyd and Eddie Royal being made available on the trading market, should the Bills sacrifice some of their future, to acquire a healthy receiver with only two days left before the trade deadline has come and gone?

The Bills now have the bye week to regroup and hopefully get healthy. They have a wide number of reasons to be optimistic about the rest of their season, but how serious is the team about reaching the playoffs this year? We should know more about the answer to that question over the next two days.