Titans vs. Bills: 5 Things We Learned from Buffalo's 23-17 Loss

The Buffalo Bills can't seem to find any possible way to escape the current downward spiral that they are in, as the Bills dropped their fifth-straight game today, losing at home to the Tennessee Titans 23-17. The loss means that the Bills are now 5-7, and whatever playoff aspirations they have are now history. 

The Bills outgained the Titans and controlled the ball and clock for the majority of the game, but by virtue of two turnovers, that was all the Titans needed to secure the win. The Titans advanced to 7-5 with the win.

Next up for the Bills will be a trip to San Diego. The Chargers are playing on Monday Night Football this weekend, and the Chargers have lost six straight games.

We will proceed to discuss five things we learned about the Bills team today.

The Bills Didn't Seem To Have a Firm Handle on Sense of Urgency

The Bills were trailing 23-10 with almost nine minutes left in the game. The Bills took the shorter and safer pass plays en route to driving down the field and scoring a touchdown on a short pass to Steve Johnson.

The weird thing was that for the earlier plays when we got down to the 10-yard line, the Bills took their time at the line of scrimmage and didn't seem to be concerned with the clock.

Not only that but they continued to throw the ball short of the goal line, with one receiver being tackled at the 5-yard line, followed by a tackle at the 3-yard line. Precious seconds and minutes were evaporating off the clock, but why the Bills felt they couldn't throw the ball into the end zone before then was very baffling.

I appreciate how the defense stopped the Titans when they needed to and got off the field. But in the key final drive, Ryan Fitzpatrick was throwing passes to David Nelson, and it appeared that Nelson had no idea that the ball was coming to him.

With the game on the line, you would hope that your offense is more in sync than that.

C.J. Spiller Turned in His Best Game as a Buffalo Bill

C.J. Spiller put on a show for Bills fans today, as he had some of his most impressive runs ever since he became a member of the Buffalo Bills. In the first half today, Spiller rushed the ball 11 times for 80 yards. He has already established a career-best, that's how good Spiller looked today.

For some reason though, the Bills stopped giving the ball to Spiller. In the entire second half, Spiller picked up three yards in three carries. It was very mysterious as to why the Bills would abandon something that was working so well.

Spiller's first touchdown on the day was an exciting run down the sideline, in which he was caught from behind and fumbled the ball. Spiller raced ahead and just got his knees down in the back of the end zone with control of the ball, before he rolled out of bounds.

By getting his knees in play, Spiller was credited with a touchdown run. The play had been challenged by Bills head coach Chan Gailey. The referee overturned the call, and Spiller got his touchdown. How often do you see the Bills getting a break like that?

Spiller also had another touchdown run in the first half, this one from nearly 40 yards out. Unfortunately, Corey McIntyre drew a phantom holding penalty flag on the play, which wiped out C.J.'s second touchdown. The replays did not show any evidence of a holding call, so while the first call was a break for the Bills, this call was not any kind of a break at all.

Why Did the Bills Abandon the Run in the Second Half?

At halftime, the Bills had gained 204 yards of offense, compared to 183 for the Titans. The Bills held the ball for 19 minutes and change, while the Titans only had the ball for 10 minutes in the first half. The Bills gained 87 yards on the ground in the first half and were picking up big chunks at a clip.

But when the Bills came out for the second half, they for some odd or strange reason decided that they were going to give up on running the ball and stay with the passing game only. The result was that the Bills only gained 10 yards rushing in the second half. C.J. Spiller went from 11 rushes for 80 yards at half to 14 rushes for 83 yards at the end of the game.

Tashard Choice looked to be a valuable commodity, as he converted some runs for first downs and also gained 20 yards on five carries.

The Bills allowed the Titans to do more blitzing, and since they didn't have to worry about stopping the run, they were able to drop more guys into coverage, and make it tougher on Fitzpatrick to find open receivers.

I found the second-half adjustments to be more of the puzzling area today.

Brad Smith Is Turning into a Solid Wide Receiver

Brad Smith continues to impress as a wide receiver. Smith wound up being the leading receiver for the Bills today, as he caught seven passes for 72 yards. He likely will remain entrenched in the Bills wide receiver group for the duration of 2011, and then, we will see how Gailey wants to use Smith in 2012.

Smith made some more nice catches today, just like he did against the Jets. It appears that Fitzpatrick is comfortable throwing the ball to him, and he's a big target. Whenever they attempted to throw the ball long to Smith to stretch the field, it appeared that the duo of Fitzpatrick and Smith were not on the same page, as the pass was a good 15 yards over his head.

Fitzpatrick distributed the ball to 10 different wide receivers today. Even Corey McIntyre caught a pass today. Mike Caussin caught his first two career passes on the day.

The offense moved the ball at times, but the fumble by tight end Scott Chandler hurt the Bills to start the second half. I wondered at the time where all the rest of the Bills players were, as about six Titans players converged on Chandler, but there were no other Bills players anywhere else in the picture.

Bills Defense Played Better but Still Has Issues

The Bills defense turned in one of their better efforts in some time (best defensive game since the Redskins shutout in Toronto). The Bills only allowed the Titans to gain 317 yards of total offense. They held quarterback Matt Hasselbeck to just 130 yards of passing on the day, which is a big boost to the secondary.

The Titans for the majority were 0-for-7 on third-down conversions. They finally converted some in the fourth quarter, but the main thing was that the Bills were putting forth a concerted effort to contest every third-down pass or third-down play and making the Titans earn it. It was refreshing to see.

Nick Barnett had a sack today and generally played a strong game. The secondary looked better, and Leodis McKelvin looked like he was playing with some heart and passion as well.

Jairus Byrd continues to deliver big hits back there from his safety spot, and Bryan Scott turned in some very nice plays on third downs to prevent the Titans from picking up additional first downs.

The Bills did have some trouble containing Chris Johnson, as he gained 153 yards on 23 carries. All it took was a couple breakdowns, and Johnson was shredding the Bills defense for one big gain after another.