Bills went 11 quarters without scoring touchdown

Peterman has 3 more interceptions, but not everyone his fault

ORCHARD PARK – This wasn’t all Nathan Peterman’s fault.

The Buffalo Bills have assembled such a poor cast of characters 1 through 11, it would not have mattered had Josh Allen, Derek Anderson, Matt Barkley — hell, Jim Kelly for that matter — was under center.

Toss in the fact that Peterman is cursed with more bad luck than Charlie Brown, and you had the recipe for a 41-9 loss to the Chicago Bears at New Era Field that took the Bills depth of frustration and emBEARrassment to a new low.

Poor Nathan Michael Peterman.

Three consecutive possessions in the second quarter on Sunday were ripped from the pages of the Bad Luck Handbook. Turning a 7-0 Chicago lead into a 21-0 hole that might as well have been 210-0 for the offensively challenged Bills:

A short completion to tight end Jason Croom was ripped away for a fumble that Bears’ safety Eddie Jackson returned 65 yards for a touchdown;

A Peterman pass to newcomer Terrelle Pryor hit off his rusty hands and into the arms of Bears safety Adrian Amos, Jr.;

Another pass glanced off the arm of Zay Jones and was returned 19 yards for a touchdown by linebacker Leonard Floyd.

Really kids? And you thought Halloween was over.

What is it about Peterman? Did he cross paths with a black cat, walk under a ladder, break a mirror, step on a sidewalk crack?

“It was a domino effect,’’ receiver Kelvin Benjamin said.

And when the last domino fell, the Bills were left with a 2-7 record.

Down 28-0 at halftime, they exited stage right to a chorus of boos and emptying seats. And they had nobody to blame but themselves.

“It’s disheartening because of the fact we created that situation,’’ linebacker Lorenzo Alexander said in a Bills locker room that was being visited by the ghost of 2010, the last time the Bills started this poorly with a record of 1-8. “Right now, we deserve to be booed.’’

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It’s unnerving to think what the Bears’ No. 7 defense may have accomplished had their best player, University at Buffalo product Khalil Mack, had played.

He sat with a bad ankle, as did one of the Bears’ best receivers, Allen Robinson, and Chicago (5-3) still won in a laugher, pouring it on with Mitchell Trubisky still passing deep and tacking on a touchdown in the final moments.

In other words, not only are the Bills bad, but nobody respects them.

What is worse?

Thinking general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott tanked the year by designing one of the worst offenses in NFL history to intentionally earn a Top 5 draft position?

Or that Buffalo’s talent evaluators actually thought Peterman is an NFL starting quarterback, Benjamin is a No. 1 receiver, interior linemen Vladimir Ducasse, Russell Bodine and John Miller can block anything more than a doorway, and that running back LeSean McCoy (10 carries, 10 yards) should not have been traded before he completely hit the wall?

When Peterman scored on a 1-yard run with 5:41 to play, cutting the Bears' lead to 34-9, fans erupted in gallows humor. It was Buffalo’s first score in more than 11 quarters.

It had been so long since a Bill had been in the end zone, Peterman was asked to show his ID. With nine points, the Bills matched the Buffalo Sabres for scoring output in a 24-hour span.

The Bills are in the process of making history, but not in a good way.

During their four-game losing streak, they are averaging 8.25 points per game and with 96 total points, they’re on course to easily smash the franchise record for fewest points in a 16-game season, 200, set during 1985.

Oh, shades of ’85. Kay Stephenson, Hank Bullough and a 2-14 record. The quarterbacks were Vince Ferragamo and Bruce Mathison, who combined for nine touchdown passes vs. 31 interceptions.

These 2018 Bills, whose quarterbacks have been Peterman, Josh Allen, Derek Anderson and Peterman again, have combined for three TD passes and 16 interceptions. Yup, history repeating itself.

Counting playoffs, Peterman has now appeared in nine games with four starts (1-3) over two seasons, throwing 13 interceptions (eye-rubbing 9.80 interception percentage). In his defense, a handful of balls that should’ve been caught instead went falling through the air like candy from a piñata.

He said he doesn’t feel snake-bitten, but I swear a trainer was on the sideline cutting an “X’’ into his passing arm and sucking out the venom.

“I never feel like a victim or anything like that,’’ said Peterman, who completed 31 of 49 for 189 yards and three picks total. “It’s football, it’s life. Things don’t always bounce your way. I mean, that ball’s not round and it bounces all different ways. Obviously, we had some bad breaks and things didn’t go our way. We got beat. But we still fought until the end and that’s what we’re always going to do here.’’

Yes, with a turnover on downs, a 2-point conversion try and an onside kick all in the second half, the Bills went down swinging. And Don Quixote jousted at windmills.

In a subdued Bills locker room, the fact Chicago won the turnover battle by a decisive 4-1 margin was a recurring theme.

The Bears won despite totaling just 11 first downs, converting 3 of 11 on third down, and gaining just 190 total yards. But they demonstrated that three red zone touchdowns combined with two defensive scores makes for a more efficient life than living with a coupon clipper.

It’s alarming that the game turned on one play, the Croom fumble. But that’s what happens when you field one of the youngest teams in the NFL where 33.4 percent of the snaps are being taken by rookies or second-year players. A team gets punched, it must counter-punch.

“There was definitely a stretch there in the second quarter where it was like everything was going wrong for us,’’ Peterman said. “That’s really where you have to dig down as an individual, as a team, and find out what you’re made of and be able to turn the momentum.’’

Week 10 is here and McDermott’s team is showing none of the fight — on offense — that it takes to be competitive let alone win.

It’s OK to lose, but scores of 37-5, 25-6 and 41-9 don’t exactly convince the Bills Mafia that “the process’’ is working.

In fact, McDermott and Beane are burning through the goodwill they accumulated by last season’s 9-7 playoff-drought busting record like a drunken sailor with his shore pay.

Is it time to doubt the big-picture direction of the front office? Players wouldn’t touch that question with a goal-post upright.

Checking out isn’t an option, Alexander said.

“At the end of the day you have to have some personal pride,’’ he said. “This is your job, you have teammates depending on you, an organization depending on you, and you are what you are on film.’’

I might add, there’s a fan base paying real money to watch an inferior product even by rebuilding standards. And that film? Like Nike said, just burn it.

COMPLETE BILLS-BEARS GAME COVERAGE

Maiorana: Sean McDermott says the Bills have the players to win. He’s lying.

Report card: Fans shouldn't be forced to watch this putrid product

Roth: Buffalo Bills front office is either tanking or incompetent

Game story: Deplorable, miserable, laughable — they all fit for the inept Bills in blowout

More Peterman picks: Nathan Peterman throws 3 more interceptions against Bears

Interactive: It’s your turn to grade the Bills

Final score and recap: Bills blown out by Bears

Game photos: Chicago Bears 41, Buffalo Bills 9

Bills Mafia turns tables: Bills fans donate to Chicago charity after NBC Sports calls them a laughingstock