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Bills Hoping Quick Turnaround Will be Their Saving Grace

They won't have a lot of time to dwell on Sunday's loss with Thanksgiving game against New Orleans looming.
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Most Buffalo Bills players claimed after Sunday's embarrassing 41-15 loss to the Indianapolis Colts to be grateful for this week's quick turnaround in which they must travel to New Orleans for a game on Thanksgiving night.

Coach Sean McDermott is not so sure.

No matter what their positions on that issue are, their position in the AFC East is not debatable: Second place, albeit with full control of their playoff destiny still in their hands.

That means they have no choice but to, in the words of left tackle Dion Dawkins, "flush it."

His verb choice was appropriate. In every conceivable way. Though another word beginning with "F" also comes to mind.

The Bills can take solace in the fact that the week-to-week nature of the NFL was perhaps never more evident this weekend.

Not only were they humiliated by the Colts, but the Tennessee Titans were beaten at home by the Houston Texans and the Saints' top-ranked run defense allowed the Philadelphia Eagles to average 4.8 yards on 50 attempts on their way to a 40-29 win.

By now it should be clear that the Bills won't be running away with the division the way they did last year. They already have more losses than they endured in 2020, with more guaranteed to come.

But it doesn't mean they can't get back to last year's level by the time the playoffs begin, which is all that really matters.

In fact, McDermott sort of admitted he likes the action ahead.

"It's a journey every season and it's going to ebb and flow," he said, "and that, to me, is part of the challenge. And I love that challenge, to be honest with you — not that you want to lose but but making those adjustments to get our team exactly where it needs to be and learn who you are as a team and we continue to grow and move forward.

"And, you know, we'll see where we are. We'll see where we are after Thursday night. And just looking at it one week at a time right now."

Added Josh Allen: "It's a terrible feeling. But at the same time, we've got to play Thursday. So this one's got to be out of our system by tomorrow. We've got to be ready to go on Thursday, and I think ... that's a fortunate thing for us that we get to play on Thursday and try to get the taste out of our mouths."

But all of a sudden, even with seven games left, the Bills are running out of time.

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.