One Stat Recap: Buffalo Bills lose to Philadelphia Eagles

For the second week in a row the Buffalo Bills put up a disappointing performance in front of their hometown crowd. Unlike the Miami Dolphins game, this one resulted in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. All three phases of the game share some of the blame. The offense only put up 13 points against an Eagles defense that had only held one team, the New York Jets, under 20 points until Sunday. The defense looked confused by screens and struggled to match the Eagles’ strength on interior runs. On special teams there was a missed field goal and blocked extra point.

While each of the three phases can be blamed, I am going to choose an offensive stat, courtesy of WGR550’s Jeremy White, to show why the Bills lost. After cutting the Eagles’ lead to four points with 9:44 remaining in the third quarter, the Bills’ offense ran 22 plays for 30 yards. For those counting at home that is an average of 1.36 yards per play. At that clip, if the Eagles gave the Bills the ball at the Eagles’ five-yard line the Bills would’ve needed a fourth down conversion to get a touchdown.

The defense didn’t live up to their high rankings on Sunday, but the offense was still given opportunities to succeed and failed. Both units need to step it up for the Bills to make the playoffs, but the offense has the bigger black eye this morning.