By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) -The Buffalo Bills entered the 2025 NFL season as Super Bowl favourites, but their championship aspirations are looking shakier by the week after they lost two straight games heading into their bye.
Buffalo’s latest stumble came on Monday in a humbling 24-14 defeat by the host Atlanta Falcons, leaving reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Josh Allen with plenty to ponder during the team’s two-week break.
“It’s going to eat at me the next two weeks,” Allen said of the missed opportunities after a loss during which he completed 15 of 26 passes for 180 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. “I mean, a lot of stuff to clean up.”
The Bills had been the NFL’s lone undefeated team entering their Week 5 match-up against the New England Patriots on October 6, but have since suffered consecutive primetime defeats that exposed glaring weaknesses across the roster.
While Buffalo still boast a 4-2 record, a closer look reveals troubling trends. Their wins have come against teams with a combined 3-21 record – Baltimore, New York Jets, Miami and New Orleans – while they’re 0-2 against clubs with winning records after falling to New England and Atlanta.
The latest loss dropped Buffalo into second in the AFC East and highlighted issues across the board. The Allen-led offense has looked disjointed, the defense is struggling particularly against the run, and costly penalties continue to mount.
“We’ve got to figure it out,” said Bills head coach Sean McDermott. “We’ve got to dive deep into what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, making sure we’ve got the right people in the right positions, and then the execution at the end of the day, we’ve got to start from ground zero and work our way back up.”
While Buffalo remain one of the NFL’s best teams by record, their two-game skid has also triggered talk about a need for them to make moves to improve the roster, whether it’s landing a top wide receiver or adding some bite to the defense.
Early-season questions are nothing new for the Bills. Last year they pulled out of a two-game skid before going on to win their fifth consecutive AFC East division title. They went on to fall one win short of a spot in the Super Bowl.
Buffalo will look to avoid losing three consecutive games for the first time since Allen’s 2018 rookie season when they return from their bye to face Carolina on October 26.
“We’ll put our focus on our next opponent and go from there,” said Allen. “Got to get into the film room and learn from our mistakes and move on.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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