ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Sitting on a stool, scrubbing his hand over his beard and shaking his head, Michael Pierce summed up the loss in five words: “It just wasn’t good enough.”

The veteran nose tackle heard what his younger teammates were saying — that the Buffalo Bills’ offense didn’t necessarily beat them in the 27-25 loss, the Ravens’ defense beat itself — “but at the end of the day, I’m sure you can say that about any game.”

“They outexecuted us,” Pierce said. “That’s the truth of the matter.”

Similar to how they started the season, the Ravens initially struggled on defense. And, the same way they found their footing toward the end of the season, they came out of the half and remembered how to play aggressive, Ravens football.

However, in a flip of the script, they struggled against the run while they contained Josh Allen as a passing threat. He completed just one explosive pass of 20 yards or more and finished with 127 passing yards.

Ironically, the Ravens’ success against the Bills’ deep game made it harder for them to reach the goal established at halftime: takeaways.

Without Allen airing it out, there were fewer opportunities for interceptions, cornerback Tre’Davious White said. So they had to focus on trying to punch or pull the ball out.

They failed to knock the ball loose and finished with zero takeaways.

“It don’t matter about the yards,” White said. “They can have 500 yards. If you take the ball away five times and give our offense five more possessions, we still gonna have a great shot to win.”

Zero takeaways compared to the Bills' three made a difference, as Allen made his way down the field one handoff or short pass at a time.

The discrepancy in red-zone efficiency also weighed in the Bills’ favor.

They may have had less total yardage (by a lot — the Ravens had 416 net yards to the Bills’ 273), but they were effective when it mattered.

Granted, the Ravens had little help from the offense, which failed to score a touchdown from first-and-goal at the 2 and was unable to score on two 2-point conversions from the 2.

Meanwhile, the Bills took advantage of the good field position gifted to them by a defensive pass interference call against White, one he questioned.

“I don’t think — which a lot of people agree with — wasn’t a call,” White said. ”Which they gave them seven points, so those are big, big-time calls in playoff football. Those are things that can decide a game.”

White’s mistake was far from the deciding factor in the two-point loss that featured multiple turnovers by the offense and an uncharacteristic failure against the run.

Buffalo’s 147 net rushing yards, while not crazy compared to some NFL games, were the most the Ravens allowed all year.

“I think they ran the same duo play like 10-plus times tonight, and that honestly is just not a good showing of what we can do as a defense,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “I feel like that’s somewhat disrespectful, and for us to allow them to do that, that’s just out of character for us.”

And they gashed the Ravens at the goal line, scoring all three of their touchdowns with runs.

Coming into the game, the Ravens’ goal was to keep Allen in the pocket. He was responsible for two rushing touchdowns. Mission failed. As Pierce said: “It just wasn’t good enough.”

They also struggled to pressure Allen, finishing with just one sack and four quarterback hits, but it was the difficulties against the run that hurt Pierce the most.

“That’s something we normally hang our hat on, going into each game, that we have the best run defense in the league,” Pierce said with resignation in his voice.

And yet, despite losing the turnover battle and despite struggling to get into the end zone, the Ravens had a chance to tie it because the defense forced a field goal.

“I think holding them to three on that second-to-last defensive drive was huge to just give our offense an opportunity to go tie the game,” Hamilton said. “I think everyone on the sideline wasn’t surprised with what happened. They [the offense] go down the field and score a touchdown. At the end of the day, the chips didn’t fall our way, but we have the utmost belief in everybody on both sides of the ball — special teams, coaches — so that’s just the way the coin was flipped today. Nothing really more to say.”

Or maybe there is more to say. Sure, the Ravens might feel they are the better team. Sure, they could have won. But, after eight years in the league, Pierce knows it doesn’t matter how close it is.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you know you come into the playoffs, you know you have to be on point each and every possession for four quarters,” Pierce said. “So we just simply did not execute, and they did. And so that’s why they won.”