Top 3 Things We Learned

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Top 3 things we learned from Bills at Falcons | Week 6

Oct 14, 2025 at 12:50 AM

Alec White

Content Manager

The Buffalo Bills dropped their second consecutive game, falling 24-14 on the road to the Atlanta Falcons. At 4-2, the Bills have a bye week to regroup before heading to face the Carolina Panthers in Week 8.

Here's what we learned Monday from Bills at Falcons:

1 — Missed opportunities "eat at" Josh Allen and the offense

Outside of the opening series in both halves, it was a night to forget for the Bills offense.

The Bills marched down the field on two separate 73-yard scoring drives, one to begin each half. The other nine drives resulted in six punts, two interceptions and one turnover on downs. The offense recorded less than 10 yards on five of their 11 total possessions against the Falcons — two of which came in the fourth quarter when the Bills trailed by only a touchdown.

"It's gonna eat at me the next two weeks," Allen said of the missed opportunities. "I mean, a lot of stuff to clean up."

On a night when it appeared that the Bills and Falcons would be destined for a shootout, the second half turned into a defensive struggle and which team could play mistake-free football with a combined 10 points scored between the two clubs.

After allowing 335 yards and 9.1 yards per play in the first half, Buffalo's defense weathered the storm after halftime, allowing just three points and 108 yards the rest of the night. The Bills got the ball to begin the second half, turning a 14-point deficit into a 21-14 game on a Josh Allen to Ray Davis 16-yard TD connection.

Buffalo's offense went ice cold on their remaining four possessions and a glaring reason for that was Atlanta's ability to generate pressure and affect the rhythm of the offense. According to NextGenStats, the Falcons blitzed Josh Allen on 55.9% of his dropbacks, the highest blitz rate Allen has faced since Week 8, 2021.

"Looks like they came off the bye week and got to game plan us quite a bit," Allen shared. "I got to be better and seeing the things that they're trying to do to us and make adjustments accordingly."

Allen was sacked four times by the Falcons (three when blitzed), tied for the third-most in any game of his career and the most in a game since the 2023 opener at the Jets — a 22-16 overtime loss. His -0.13 EPA (expected points added) per dropback was tied for Allen's sixth-lowest in a game since the start of 2020, per TruMedia.

"Protections, IDs, movement in the pocket. Just got to do better," Allen said of himself.

Thanks to two punts forced and a blocked field goal by DE Greg Rousseau, the Bills defense and special teams did everything they could late in the game to come up with stops and buy the offense time to get into a rhythm. Unfortunately for Buffalo, the offense sputtered

Allen put the blame on himself for not being able to come through.

"We had our opportunities to take advantage of and we didn't," Allen said. "It sucks when you feel like two thirds of your team (special teams and defense) are doing their job and you're the team not to pull your weight. It sucks."

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2 — Two birds soar against Bills defense

Falcons RB Bijan Robinson and WR Drake London had record-setting performances against the Bills defense.

Robinson's 238 scrimmage yards are tied for the third-most by any player against the Bills defense in franchise history and the most in the Sean McDermott era. The

"The first half wasn't good enough," CB Taron Johnson said. "It just wasn't good enough. We have to do better."

London carried the charge when the Falcons moved the ball through the air, hauling in 10 passes for 158 yards and a touchdown which came out of the slot when matched up against Johnson in the first half.

"The quarterback was finding him. He was making some great plays. He's a big body guy making plays," Johnson said.

Robinson and London combined for 396 of the team's 443 scrimmage yards.

3 — Bills banged up heading into bye week

The Bills entered Monday night's contest with a relatively healthy starting offensive and defensive unit, especially with DT Ed Oliver making his return after missing the last four games.

The only Week 1 starter on defense not dressed for the game was LB Matt Milano (pectoral); TE Dalton Kincaid (oblique) was the only opening day starter not active on the other side of the ball.

However, their depth pieces were of concern heading in with CB Dorian Strong, S Damar Hamlin, DT T.J. Sanders all on injured reserve and WR Curtis Samuel (neck/ribs) inactive.

The defense took a hit before the game even started with news that DaQuan Jones was injured during pregame warm-ups and would not play in the game.

"He popped his calf," McDermott said while adding the severity of the injury is still unknown.

With Jones's pregame injury that left Oliver, rookie Deone Walker and practice squad call-up Jordan Phillips as the only defensive tackles dressed for the game. The Falcons took advantage of the Bills' area of concern, running 17 times for 168 yards and two scores in the first half.

LB Terrel Bernard (ankle) left in the first half after getting rolled up on in a pile while trying to make a tackle and did not return. Broadcast cameras showed Bernard still in uniform in the second half but on the sideline without his helmet.

CB Christian Benford went down in the second quarter with an Achilles injury but he returned on the first drive of the second half. Safety Cole Bishop briefly left the second half with cramps but returned in the fourth quarter.