Bills rue 'inexcusable' 12 men on field penalty in loss to Broncos - ESPN

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — For 59 minutes and 36 seconds, the Buffalo Bills played a mistake-filled game against the Denver Broncos but still managed to do enough to establish a late one-point lead.

Then, as the seconds ticked off the clock in Highmark Stadium, the miscues and wrong steps caught up to them. A penalty for having an extra player on the field during a 41-yard missed field goal attempt by Denver kicker Wil Lutz held the door open for the Broncos to leave Buffalo with a 24-22 win.

«Absolutely, absolutely,» Bills coach Sean McDermott said when asked if it was one of most inexplicable losses he had suffered. «We practiced two or three times that this week — the substitution from dime to field goal block. At the end of the day, we didn't execute it. So, it's inexcusable.»

With the Bills up 22-21, Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson kneeled to the Buffalo 23-yard line with 24 seconds remaining and no timeouts. Denver quickly brought out its field goal unit.

The Bills switched from their dime defense to a field goal block package to match Denver and watched Lutz miss the 41-yard attempt.

That should have been game over. But the Bills didn't switch players well enough, and as the ball was snapped, there were 12 defenders on the field. After a 5-yard penalty, Lutz made the 36-yard field goal attempt that followed. Game over, but with a win for the Broncos.

«You can't beat yourself in those situations,» linebacker and special teams captain Tyler Matakevich said. «You got to make sure we're locked in, everyone knows what's going on. I mean, we practiced it. We just didn't execute it, and that's real, real frustrating.… There's some games, they're going to be ugly at times, you just got to find a way to win it, and