Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott took the blame for historically awful game management against the Houston Texans.
The Buffalo Bills made history during their 23-20 loss against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium in Week 5. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind of history they would want to celebrate.
Buffalo’s Week 5 loss encapsulated the issues that have kept the Bills from making a Super Bowl appearance over the past seven years. The loss displayed all facets of the team’s ineptitude — their poor salary cap management, underwhelming roster development and questionable play calling were all on full display.
In the final minute of the game, an intentional grounding penalty forced Houston to punt the ball from midfield with the score tied at 20-20. The Bills received the ball at their own three-yard line with no timeouts and just 32 seconds left on the clock.
Common wisdom would suggest that the best course of action in that situation would be to kneel out the game and play for overtime. Instead, Bills coach Sean McDermott decided to risk it all. The Bills called three consecutive pass attempts. Unsurprisingly, all three were incomplete and Buffalo punted the ball back to Houston. That allowed the Texans to get in position for a game-winning 51-yard field goal in regulation.
Sean McDermott takes blame for poor clock management
McDermott took responsibility for the poor game management during his postgame press conference, per ESPN.
“That’s on me, the end-of-game situation on offense,” McDermott said. “We’re in a tough situation … they were holding three timeouts; they got a good field goal kicker. We needed to run the clock and move the chains, and that’s on me. We didn’t do that there, and that’s my fault.”
Coaches throughout NFL history have universally agreed that McDermott’s decision was a poor one. The Bills became the only team in the last 45 years to throw three straight passes inside their own 5-yard line while being tied or leading in the final minute of the game, per ESPN Research.
The risk of an aggressive approach far outweighs the likelihood of success, especially with a middling offense that was barely able to muster points all game.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen finished the game with just nine completions on 30 pass attempts for 131 yards and one touchdown. Getting in field goal range would have been miraculous, but even attempting to get a first down was evidently a difficult risk.
“I love Josh with the ball in his hands — you know I do,” McDermott said. “And again, efficient offense was the right approach there and … I didn’t have us do that. And so again, we learned from that. Tough situation. … You go back and forth, and, hey, I probably should have run it on the first play and just said, ‘Hey, where are we now?’ Either way, we’re probably going to have to move the chains one time, right? To not give them a chance. But again, those are situations and that’s on me.”
McDermott could argue that the goal was simply to not punt the ball back at all, but Allen’s second pass attempt — a deep incomplete to wide receiver Mack Hollins — suggests he wanted something more than just overtime.
At the very least, Buffalo could — and should — have forced the Texans to burn their timeouts before punting the ball back with even less time remaining.
Perhaps former Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs could have made some magic happen. This time, however, Diggs was on the opposing sideline.