The Week 5 stinging loss to the Houston Texans is going to haunt the Buffalo Bills for some time now. With their second consecutive loss, the Bills find themselves going backwards after getting off to a hot 3-0 start and rolling over opponents by scoring 30+ points against them. In the last two games, the Bills have put up 30 total points, averaging 15 points a game. Putting up those numbers with a quarterback like Josh Allen is unacceptable.
Now granted, Allen deserves half of the blame for the Bills’ performance on offense. Finishing 9/30, completing only 30% of his throws is unbelievable. He looked like a true rookie quarterback. Even though Allen should not be left unblamed for this disappointing loss, he was put in a tough predicament by the coaching staff, specifically by Sean McDermott that ultimately cost the Bills a potential win against the Texans.
The Bills had the chance to play for overtime, or even take a shot down the field to set the Bills up for a potential game-winning field goal. However, the final play calling by the Bills was abysmal and it was the main reason why the Bills left as losers.
Being pinned down inside their own five yard line and the Texans still having all three timeouts left, the Bills opted to throw three straight passes in which all fell incomplete. This stopped the clock for the Texans and it forced the Bills to punt it back to the Texans. Not only did Sean McDermott allow the Texans to get the ball back, but Buffalo didn’t even punt the ball out of bounds to pin the Texans.
Instead, Sam Martin booted the ball in the field of play and Robert Woods managed to get the Texans in better field position to allow C.J. Stroud and the Texans offense made one quick pass to get them into field goal range. Then we all know what happened after. Houston broke Buffalo’s heart.
McDermott has been facing the music with the media on the play calling and has been heavily criticized about it. TV host Colin Cowherd from The Herd discussed the call by McDermott and how the game management cost the Bills a Week 5 win.
Cowherd said the perfect quote to describe McDermott when it comes to a quarterback like Josh Allen:
"I think that Buffalo has the wrong coach for a superstar quarterback."Colin Cowherd, The Herd
.@ColinCowherd questions Sean McDermott's late game management in loss to Texans:
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) October 7, 2024
"That is totally on the head coach." pic.twitter.com/O1qa9v5Bj5
Colin Cowherd makes a valuable point
This game management against the Texans is just yet another thing added on McDermott and why the Bills have lost games that they should have won. For the longest time, McDermott would coach to not lose rather than be aggressive. Well, him trying to be aggressive against the Texans late in this game cost Buffalo a win.
It just seems like McDermott still has yet to figure out when to utilize correct game management. If the Bills don’t get ahead by two touchdowns early in the first quarter, fans will have to worry about this game coming down to the wire and McDermott screwing it up.
If these game management issues continue, it is going to be very hard for Brandon Beane to keep McDermott around.