The Buffalo Bills came into the 2022 regular season as the odds on favorites to win the Super Bowl and through the first two games, that certainly looked to be the case. They throttled two good opponents, blowing out the defending Super Bowl Champion Los Angeles Rams on opening night 31-10. They followed that up by defeating last season’s No. 1 seed in the AFC, the Tennessee Titans, 41-7.
The Bills were cruising heading into a huge Week 3 matchup against their AFC East rivals, the Miami Dolphins. Despite having all of the confidence in the world heading into that game, they were tripped up, losing 21-19.
Injuries have begun hitting the team hard, as they were without four starters on defense against the Dolphins. They actually had their most productive offensive game of the season, racking up 497 total yards, but they were unable to finish off drives with points.
While injuries are certainly difficult to overcome, the Bills have arguably the deepest, most talented roster in the NFL. They can withstand a few players missing. Their biggest issue is their inability to find success and finish off close games.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, since the start of last season, the Bills are 0-6 in games decided by eight points or fewer. The only other team that is winless over that timespan in one-possession games is the Houston Texans, who are 0-6-1 after losing in Week 3 to the Chicago Bears.
That is a truly surprising stat as it is normally the best teams that succeed in crunch time when the pressure is on. The last game that they won which was decided by eight points or fewer was in the Wild Card round of the playoffs following the 2020 season against the Indianapolis Colts. The last such victory they have in the regular season came on November 1st, 2020 against the New England Patriots.
Buffalo is going to have numerous more one-score games throughout the regular season and postseason. Winning close games is something that the Bills will have to figure out how to do if they want to reach their lofty expectations.
