Noah Randall – Sports Staffer
Buffalo’s performance Sunday afternoon against the Houston Texans certainly left a lot to be desired.
After a dominant first three weeks for the Buffalo Bills against admittedly mediocre opponents, the Bills were gashed by Derrick Henry and smothered by the Ravens’ defense en route to an embarrassing 35-10 loss to Baltimore. Week 5 against the Texans should have been a bounce-back opportunity for Buffalo to prove they belong in Super Bowl contender conversations and can compete against talented teams.
However, a valiant comeback effort from Buffalo was, once again, held back by incompetent coaching decisions and roster construction.
Yes, the Bills played an awful first half, and it can be argued they didn’t even deserve to be close to sniffing out a win. The Bills, however, did what the Kansas City Chiefs have made famous over the last two seasons and found a way to win despite the awful start.
Well, almost.
Despite this almost-comeback, Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s game plan against the Texans flat-out stunk. Curtis Samuel, the jack-of-all-trades gadget player for the Bills, was held to ineffective screens behind the line of scrimmage, turning Josh Allen into a D.J. Uiagalelei clone instead of the freak-of-nature QB he’s known to be. The Bills ran on first down nearly every time during the game. The offense that put up a combined 112 points through the first three weeks transformed into a pathetic, predictable shell of its former self.
During the offseason, Brady, Brandon Beane, and McDermott pushed “everybody eats” as the mission statement for the offense’s identity. But it’s hard for everyone to eat when the wide receivers at the table keep dropping their silverware, and the coaching staff keeps tripping over themselves and spilling the meal before they can serve it. It’s also hard to have an appetite when, across the table, Mack Hollins decided not to wear shoes to the dinner party.
Eighteen targets were dished out to the Bills’ wide receiver group. Only four of those were caught, totaling 76 yards and a Keon Coleman touchdown. Allen looked less than stellar, yes, but the lack of separation and dropped balls right to the hands (or head, in Coleman’s case) didn’t help improve Allen’s nine completions on 30 attempts.
Now, aside from on-field play, let’s address the elephant in the room: the one question on everyone’s mind after Kaimi Fairbairn’s 59-yard game-winner — what is Sean McDermott doing?
Late in the game, Buffalo overcame its first-half woes and made the game competitive again, tying it at 20. With less than 30 seconds to go in regulation, the Bills were pinned deep in their own territory after the defense forced a huge stop.
The obvious decision here is to run the ball, forcing the Texans to use all three of their timeouts and giving your team a chance to win in overtime. Given McDermott’s track record of conservative decision-making — like not going for it on fourth down with one of the best fourth-down offenses in the league — anyone with half a brain would see this as the correct choice.
Except for McDermott and Brady, apparently.
Instead, the Bills opted to throw the ball three straight times, resulting in three straight incompletions, which looked more like shot plays than attempts designed to get the first down, before punting. This, of course, gave Houston plenty of time to get into field goal range and win the game.
In his post-game media availability, McDermott took the blame for the debacle, saying, “I gotta do a better job in that situation.” This would be a fine response if McDermott were in his first few years as a head coach. He took accountability and blamed himself rather than anyone else, a good example of leadership.
The problem is, McDermott is in Year 8 with the Bills, and he’s still making mistakes that wouldn’t even fly at the JV level. This isn’t his first time botching game management situations — remember “13 seconds”? This is a consistent issue.
He’s proven that when it comes to situational coaching, he’s simply in over his head, and it’s incredibly frustrating to watch the Bills repeatedly be let down by incompetent coaching.
McDermott is a beloved figure in Buffalo. After all, he was the man who dragged the Bills out of the 17-year playoff drought and hasn’t looked back. But it gets to a point where fans need to be asking, “What have you done for us lately?” For the last few years, the answer has been “plateauing in the divisional round.”
McDermott has shown he can take a bad team and turn it into a contender. But he has also shown he can’t turn a contender into a champion.
At some point, the Bills’ front office and owner Terry Pegula need to realize it’s time to stop wasting the prime of the greatest quarterback Buffalo has ever had (sorry, Jim Kelly), and surround him with talent, both on and off the field, that will finally bring a Lombardi to the City of Good Neighbors. Hopefully, for the sake of Bills Mafia, that decision is made sooner rather than later.
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