Misery Remains In Buffalo
The Buffalo Bills are still lamenting their playoff exit and it sounds like there is potentially some misery internally as players and coaches apparently weren’t happy with how the final sequence of things played out, with Sean McDermott finding himself in a real tough spot.
There seems to be quite a bit of debate about what happened in those final moments, and Tyler Dunne of Go Long recently
published a piece about the situation that Buffalo Rumblings recently broke down.
Here’s the bullet points
Matt Warren provided from the report:
- Heath Farwell told his special teams coverage unit to squib kick, running time off the clock
- Sean McDermott said to kick it deep, allowing a touchback and no time off the clock
- Instead of talking to Tyler Bass, Farwell went to talk to McDermott, then back to the kick team, and Bass was never told to squib
- Levi Wallace lined up outside leverage on both KC offensive snaps while Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer were 26 and 31 yards off the ball
- The Bills rushed four, only dropping seven in coverage, and no one jammed any of the receivers at the line of scrimmage
- The Bills were trying to stop a last-second touchdown, not a field goal
- Stefon Diggs and a defensive player were in an argument leaving the field that was quelled by Jerry Hughes
- After the game when McDermott only said “execution” publicly, it rubbed players the wrong way
- Players and people inside the building are questioning Sean McDermott’s management at the end of the game
- Because it was the end of the season, the team hasn’t gathered to discuss the end of regulation or watch film, leaving to a massive void in accountability inside the roster and many players have no idea what happened in the last 13 seconds of regulation
McDermott has reportedly downplayed that final sequence but internally, players aren’t happy with whatever explanation they were given and a team source told GoLong that everything ended “abruptly”.
“You preach accountability,” one player
told the site. “But you don’t practice it.”
Overall, all the blame appears to be landing firmly on McDermott, which might set up an interesting offseason in Buffalo. For a team that was thought to be among the teams to beat again next season, if ever there was a team that might “hate their coach”, Patriots fans can smile and enjoy the fact that, for now, the Bills appear to fit that description.
