How Aaron Rodgers forced Sean McDermott's hand for rest of 2024 season

Victory Tuesday for the Buffalo Bills took place today with their Monday night win over the New York Jets. After a disastrous two week stretch in Weeks 4 & 5, the Bills needed to find a way to win within the division. After putting up 20 points in the first half, the Bills only managed to put up one field goal in the second half, but that’s all that they needed.

Buffalo pulled out a 23-20 close victory to get back in the win column. The Bills remain on top of the AFC East at 4-2, and have won two divisional games this season. Now they add a wideout in Amari Cooper who is still a top-25 receiver in this league despite being stuck on the Cleveland Browns’ horrendous offense. 

Even though the Bills won an important primetime game, it came with a scare at the end of the first half that ultimately kept the Jets in the game going into halftime. After the Bills went up 20-10 with just over 20 seconds left, most of us figured that the Jets would try to atleast kick a field goal to make it a one score possession.

However, Aaron Rodgers did what Aaron Rodgers does best and launched the ball down the field into the endzone on a hail mary in which Allen Lazard came down with it to give the Jets the final touchdown of the half. Rodgers has a history of completing hail mary passes to break the hearts of his opponents.

The Bills went from celebrating to watching the Jets celebrate a miraculous throw. With that throw, head coach Sean McDermott has revealed that there is a plan on how to defend hail mary passes.

Sean McDermott may have Keon Coleman play defense on hail mary attempts

According to Sean McDermott, per Thad Brown, there is a chance that Bills fans will see rookie wideout Keon Coleman in the secondary to bat down any pass attempts to avoid the Bills giving up another hail mary.

Seeing the hail mary pass from Rodgers brought back memories to 2020 when Kyler Murray connected with DeAndre Hopkins on a “hail murray” throw to comeback and beat the Bills. Buffalo has had struggles at defending long passes and they cannot afford to lose off of a play like that.

Heading into Week 7, it seems like the Bills may be implementing that strategy should they be facing a last second attempt by the opposing offense to win the game. While putting Coleman out on defense gives them a height advantage, all it takes is one bad move for Coleman to come down with an injury. That is something that McDermott needs to consider.

More Bills Coverage: