Through 5 weeks of the season I’ve been wondering just what the Bills are this year – are they truly a new team? Are they the same old team that drives us crazy every year? Do they have talent? Are we just buying into the same old hype we do every year? I kept waiting for a definitive answer and it’s been tough. Are they the team that won going away against Indianapolis and Miami? Are they the team that managed to get the job done in Tennessee by squeaking out an ugly win? Are they the team that should have beat the NY Giants but were never really in the game? Are they the team that got thrashed by New England?

Sunday’s disturbing loss brought some clarity to me. What I saw was team pumped up for a big game at home in the friendly confines of Orchard Park that fell flat on their face for the third time in 4 tries. I saw a team that very much resembled teams of the past that couldn’t move the ball offensively and asked for a defensive bailout that never came. I saw a team that is not a playoff team.

The 2015 Buffalo Bills have the look of yet another heartbreaker – a team you want to get excited about and have such high hopes for early in the year only to find a club that finishes at .500, give or take a game. This year may be all the more painful because the AFC as a conference is shaking out favorably through six weeks – there are clear division leaders, but the wildcards seem attainable. It wouldn’t shock me at all if we saw another 9-7 type season where the Bills just miss out on getting a playoff spot.

There has certainly been a tremendous amount of hype around the changes to the Bills this season – Rex Ryan and a new coaching staff, LeSean McCoy, a promising new quarterback in Tyrod Taylor, a top defense that has remained largely intact since last season, the production provided by misfits such as Percy Harvin and Richie Incognito. Make no mistake, the team has talent – more talent than they’ve had in years.

Unfortunately, talent doesn’t guarantee success. In training camp unproven players are warned that “you can’t make the club in the tub” meaning that you need to show results, injuries aside. Right now it seems that half the team is in the tub after being sidelined with various injuries and unfortunately that’s impacting results.

Going into Sunday’s contest the Bills were already without Taylor (knee injury in previous game), Aaron Williams (IR DTR – neck injury against New England), Harvin (hip injury he had been playing through suddenly worsened) and Karlos Williams (concussion in Giants game). McCoy and Sammy Watkins suited up at less than 100% on Sunday as the Bills desperately needed some playmakers on the field (the Tennessee game proved somebody’s got to make plays). By the end of the game the bills had lost Tackle Seantrel Henderson (concussion), Watkins (ankle), WR Marquise Goodwin (ribs) and DT Kyle Williams (knee). Harvin and Kyle Williams will almost certainly miss Sunday’s game against Jacksonville in London; Taylor and Watkins are question marks; Goodwin seems like he’s always hurt and Karlos Williams seems to be healing very slowly (seriously – Lamar Odom may come back faster from falling into a coma after doing blow with hookers).

I don’t know why the Bills are so banged up – at this point I don’t really care. Whether it has to do with conditioning, going all out when playing or just bad luck, the result is the same – the Bills are sorely lacking the playmakers that give them a chance on offense. I wanted to believe the Bills has good depth and could handle the inevitable injuries that happen, but there’s a huge drop off between Taylor and EJ Manuel, between Karlos Williams and Dan Herron, between Watkins and Marcus Easley (who is also currently injured). You can’t make the club in the tub, and I doubt you can make the playoffs, either.

With aforementioned injuries Manuel was pressed into service on Sunday, and not many were impressed. Manuel is a backup quarterback and if you had any doubts as to why he wasn’t named the starter, look no further than his performance against the Bengals. Manuel did all things that he’s always done – the things that make you rip clumps of hair from your scalp. His passes were woefully inaccurate – he seems to be able to get the ball near where it needs to go, but in the NFL near isn’t good enough. He didn’t handle pressure well – the intentional grounding penalty he got was awful – Rob Johnson, anyone? He dropped the ball off well short of the first down marker time and again where the receiver could catch it but had no chance to move the sticks. In short, none of it was good enough – not good enough to get the Bills to the playoffs, not good enough to win the game, not good enough to keep the offense on the field. I think Manuel’s a good guy who works hard, but he just doesn’t have the accuracy to win in this league and I don’t think that skill can be acquired – the faster Buffalo gets someone else under center the better off they’ll be.

For all you’ve heard about Buffalo’s highly-vaunted defense, especially its front seven, it seems like it’s all bark and no bite. The Bills were nowhere near Andy Dalton on Sunday, and he made them pay. While I’m sure the Bengal laundry staff is happy Dalton’s uniform was so clean, the lack of pressure allowed Dalton to throw for 243 yards and three touchdowns including a 42-yard play that crushed the Bills late in the game. Admittedly the Bills have faced some quality quarterbacks thus far and their secondary has done a solid job in defending passes, but without pressure up front there’s only so much that group can do – eventually a good quarterback makes the completion. A team that lead the league in sacks last year now has 9 sacks through 6 games – that ranks 24th in the league – what happened?

Tackling continues to be a problem – for the third time in as many weeks a runner who should have been stopped near or even behind the line of scrimmage has found the endzone thanks to a missed tackle – that has to stop. If missed tackles were not enough, how about third down efficiency – the Bills allowed the Bengals to convert 7 or their 12 third down opportunities – the defense has to be able to get off the field if they are going to win more games.

Penalties continue to plague the Bills and if you need proof look no further than the special teams. The Bills were penalized eight times for 93 yards on Sunday and many of these were the dreaded “jackass” variety (you know – the ones that make you scream “what a jackass” at the TV). It seems that 15-yard personal conduct penalties are so common on kickoff and punt returns that the league is thinking of having the refs throw the flag before the ball is actually put in play and letting them assign blame to a player after the play. The coverage units were brutalized on Sunday – the Bengals started no worse than on their own 45-yard line in each of the first five drives – hard to keep points off the board playing on only half a field.

Unfortunately, all of the above problems point to another typical mediocre Bills season. Whatever the reason or reasons, right now the Bills do not have their act together. Some of the issues are just bad luck and some of it is self-inflicted, at this point I don’t really care. I love the Bills and I’ll be screaming for them each Sunday as I watch them play, but it’s time to realize that this team does not look like a team that’s going anywhere in a hurry. Almost everyone has Sunday’s contest against Jacksonville as a win for Buffalo, but Buffalo needs to find some healthy players and go out and make it happen – lose this game and I think your chances of making the playoffs fall to almost zero. At his point I’m hoping that the only thing I’m yelling about is the Yahoo feed buffering and not the performance I see on the field.