Overcoming the Buffalo Bills’ ugly Week 4 defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens isn’t by far the most pressing concern, but an immensely impressive run of years that the team first began to build came to an end in the 2021 NFL season. when the final whistle blew.

Buffalo lost by 25 points on Sunday night, which according to WIVB’s Nick Veronica is its first regular-season multiple-possession loss since November 2021. That particular loss was a disastrous 41-15 home loss to the Indianapolis Colts in which running back Jonathan Taylor found the end zone five times; every subsequent Bills regular-season loss since that day had been within one possession, a streak that, according to Veronica, was the fourth-longest in NFL history.

Qualifying for the regular season is important here, as the Bills have lost by multiple possessions since that day; Buffalo dropped the 2022 AFC Divisional Round matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals by a score of 27-10, a three-possession margin.

While it’s troubling to see Buffalo’s astonishing multi-year streak come to an end, it perhaps supports the idea that the disheartening loss at M&T Bank Stadium was an outlier rather than an indicator of future misfortunes. Nothing went right for the Bills during the game; Baltimore identified the Bills’ depleted defensive second level and attacked it with passion, racking up nearly 300 yards of offensive lineage during the first half. Even as Buffalo’s offense came alive in the second half thanks to Josh Allen’s heroics, it shot itself in the foot with a ridiculous trick play that resulted in a turnover and subsequent Ravens touchdown.

Even the Bills’ meager defensive play resulted in misery; the defensive front was essentially building a red zone stance against Derrick Henry and company in the fourth quarter, making a few impressive stops. The unit forced a fumble on a second charge from the goal line; the ball rolled into the end zone and was recovered by Baltimore fullback Patrick Ricard for a score.

It was just a ridiculous outlier of a game; Buffalo has no intention of getting blown out, something the existence of the aforementioned streak proved. The loss in Baltimore was ugly, but it’s certainly not a trend; We’ll see if this turns into something worrying in the coming weeks.

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