The Buffalo Bills’ chances were ruined by a punt that they neither attempted to block nor return.

That’s not why they lost, but the senseless whimper was definitely symbolic.

A series of gaffes led to the Bills’ modest demise. Their defense failed to impress against an opponent known for short-circuiting all season, and late coaching decisions tore open some of Sean McDermott’s scar tissue from previous mistakes that had dashed past Super Bowl hopes.

Josh Allen accomplished a feat not seen in the NFL in 70 years, helping Buffalo’s offense achieve an efficiency that led to a 1,000 win percentage for over a century. Now a team somehow lost despite scoring at least six touchdowns and zero turnovers.

A week after becoming the betting favorites to reach the Super Bowl, the Bills revived typical Buffalo sports agita on Sunday with a weak 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium.

How?!

📺: @NFLonFOX pic.twitter.com/3bmamSjk1M

– Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 8, 2024

The Rams ranked 30th in third-down conversions on Sunday, but were nearly flawless as Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp made an incredible number of spectacular catches. The Rams also blocked a Sam Martin punt that was returned for a touchdown.

But what Bills fans will remember until next Sunday’s blockbuster matchup against the Detroit Lions is the way McDermott and his staff handled Allen’s historic performance with a crazy timeout and an inexcusable lack of attention in that last one Punt lost.

“We have to get off the field and get the ball back to Josh,” McDermott said. “You’ve seen what he can do, so we have to do a better job.

“I thought we lost two of the three phases today.”

The biggest questions about whether Buffalo can make a strong postseason run have centered on its run defense and what might happen against threats like Derrick Henry, Joe Mixon or, the football gods willing, Saquon Barkley. Los Angeles has fourth-leading rusher Kyren Williams, but new concerns arose when Buffalo couldn’t stop Nacua or Kupp. The coverage was good, but they kept picking off Matthew Stafford’s passes. Nacua caught all but two of his 14 targets for 162 yards and a touchdown, while Kupp had five receptions for 92 yards and a touchdown.

It was infuriating to think that the Rams were only able to convert 32.6 percent of their third downs before Sunday because they made it look so easy against the Bills.

By the time the Rams took a 17-point lead at the end of the third quarter, they had converted 10 of their 11 third downs.

Allen rallied Buffalo hard. After a slow start, he put together the second half most quarterbacks dream of, throwing two touchdowns and rushing for two more.

The Bills cut the deficit to three points with 8:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Rams responded with an 11-play drive that included a fourth-and-5 conversion from the Bills’ 35-yard line. Rams coach Sean McVay didn’t want to shoot the field goal because Allen was sizzling. When Stafford connected with Nacua for a touchdown with 1:54 left, Allen still looked like he could lead the Bills to victory. They still had all three timeouts and Allen’s hot hand.

Two defensive pass interference penalties made the comeback noticeable. There was a 34-yard flag on a fourth-and-15 incompletion to Khalil Shakir and another to Amari Cooper in the end zone to get the ball to the 1-yard line with 1:06 stopped on the clock.

McDermott has made great strides in burying the game management demons of the past, but what happened next rightly gave his critics more fodder.

Offensive coordinator Joe Brady called for the quarterback sneak, but Allen was overwhelmed.

Instead of pulling back into formation for another play or shooting the ball to stop the clock, the Bills called their first timeout.

“They’re in a pile,” McDermott said. “To unload the pile you have to go back on the line, which takes some time. Regardless of whether you manage to do it at this point, just to get up from the pile, it will take longer than you would like in this situation.”

With only two timeouts remaining, after the Rams’ next three downs before a punt, they could no longer hope to call a timeout. The Bills would now need the low percentage onside kickoff recovery. On the Fox Sports broadcast, analyst Tom Brady lamented the decision and said the Bills had just finished themselves off.

Had the Bills already announced a second play in case they needed to hurry?

“I honestly don’t know,” right tackle Spencer Brown said. “I just do what I’m told and we didn’t really talk about what was going to happen. We didn’t ask for the “OK, we’re stopped at the 1-yard line” scenario. We were all just listening to Josh saying, ‘Attack! Attack!’

“I don’t know if the staff was wrong or what it was. But that’s how it happened.”

Bills left guard David Edwards agreed with the decision to stop the game because it can take a long time to reverse a pileup in the end zone, especially when defenders can cleverly slow the process by sandbagging.

“I thought the time off was beneficial to us,” Edwards said, “because it gave us more time within the parameters of the situation.”

Asked if it would have been better to shoot the ball and keep all three timeouts, Allen replied: “I can’t tell you. Theoretically probably, but it’s the middle of battle and I have to find a way to get into the end zone.”

Allen was successful on the next play, scoring his third 1-yard rushing touchdown with just 60 seconds left. He also threw three touchdowns, becoming the first since Cleveland Browns legend Otto Graham in the 1954 NFL Championship Game to score at least three touchdowns and score at least three more touchdowns.

Los Angeles easily recovered the onside kick at the Buffalo 45-yard line and handed Williams three straight plays to run out the clock.

Rams punter Ethan Evans sat out the final six seconds with no worries.

Why didn’t Buffalo return the punt or try to block it? The clock struck almost exactly 0:00 when the ball dropped to the 1-yard line, but freshman Brandon Codrington didn’t even bother to catch it. He threw a half-hearted block against shooter Xavier Smith and watched the ball dribble out of the end zone.

Everyone just strolled off the field. However, only nine of them were Bills because they didn’t have enough men on the field for the final play. The Rams even let the game clock expire due to a delay in the game and then called a timeout beforehand. Smiley had plenty of time to prepare his unit.

“We should have been on the (punt block),” McDermott said. “Honestly, we didn’t have enough people on the field to do that. That’s something we need to figure out.”

Chances are, with only eight other teammates, Codrington won’t return the punt 99 yards for a touchdown.

Chances are, even with a healthy return and the possibility of a Rams penalty and an untimed Bills default, Allen won’t throw a TD heave or trigger a multilateral miracle.

However, there is also a good chance that a team will win if it scores six touchdowns and doesn’t commit any turnovers. Before Sunday, it had occurred 317 times in NFL history, counting postseason games. The teams are now 318-1.

No wonder McVay was laughing maniacally as time expired at SoFi Stadium. Miracles happen.

The Bills have six days to figure out what went wrong. The all-around impressive Lions await a possible Super Bowl preview.

“Sometimes,” McDermott said, “if you look at it the right way and are able to make the necessary adjustments, as difficult as it is, it can be a good reminder of what you need to do every week this week League and how we have to adapt as a football team.”

(Top photo by Josh Allen: Harry How / Getty Images)