What We Learned From Week 14 in the N.F.L.

Josh Allen all the time offers the Payments a shot.

Payments Coach Sean McDermott, who is just too usually caught in 1995, but once more, punted and kicked discipline targets far too usually in Buffalo’s 33-27 extra time street loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But when there’s a takeaway from probably the most dramatic sport in Week 14, it’s that so long as Josh Allen is the Payments’ quarterback, they’ve received a shot.

Nothing went proper for the sinking Payments early Sunday. The run protection was gashed and Tom Brady picked aside McDermott’s protection with ease, because the Buccaneers constructed a 24-3 halftime lead. McDermott each settled for a 21-yard discipline objective within the first half whereas trailing 10-0 and punted from his personal 43-yard line with 2 minutes 18 seconds left within the third quarter when the Payments nonetheless trailed by two touchdowns.

These choices have been consistent with his previous. McDermott, the defensive-minded coach, hovering his foot above the fuel pedal however by no means stomping down, settled for chip-shot discipline targets in a loss to Kansas Metropolis in final season’s A.F.C. championship sport.

Stymied by timidity and a porous run protection, and down, 27-10, Allen led scoring drives of 75, 46, and 70 yards within the fourth quarter to pressure an extra time Buffalo had no enterprise being in. Allen threw for 308 yards and two touchdowns, and led the bottom sport with a dashing landing and 109 yards, greater than double the staff’s subsequent closest runner.

After all, Tampa Bay pulled by ultimately. Brady’s 58-yard landing go to Breshad Perriman dropped the Payments to 7-6, two video games behind the New England Patriots, who had a bye, within the A.F.C. East.

Since storming out to a 6-3 report by mid-November, Buffalo’s flaws have turn into obvious. They’re not massive and never overly bodily, not best in a convention the place groups carrying Derrick Henry and Jonathan Taylor are constructing postseason instances, and the place the Patriots and Browns proceed to brawl.