Sean McDermott is becoming someone who has developed a reputation for coming up short in January, and you can tell it’s starting to bother him.
As McDermott stood in front of reporters Sunday night following yet another postseason loss to Kansas City, one reporter asked him about what it’s going to take to get his team over the hump against a Chiefs club that against Patrick Mahomes and company in the postseason, they’re now 0-4.
“Well, they’re a good football team,” said McDermott. “They’ve won two Super Bowls. They’ve been to seven straight AFC Championship games. That’s no excuse. This is a good football team. We got to keep working to get over that hump. There’s no doubt about it.”
He then paused for a moment, likely realizing the criticism ahead for a Bills team that was considered one of the better ones we’ve seen in recent years. This looked like a group that could finally pull off the upset and be the one moving on, especially given how well they had been playing in recent weeks.
Instead, we saw more of the same. Questionable play calls in key moments, along with their inability to come up with a big play when they needed it most.
After a while, the blame goes from the players to the one leading them, and it was obvious that McDermott is starting to feel the pressure.
He went on to remind people about the season they just had, which included a 30-21 victory over the Chiefs at Highmark Stadium back on November 17th.
That game would have set the stage for the Bills (13-4) to have the edge had they pulled off two more victories to get the tie breaker against Kansas City (15-2) and see this game been played in their stadium.
Instead, they had to win on the road to advance, and they fell short. Much like they have throughout McDermott’s tenure.
While McDermott said later in his press conference there were “no excuses,” he went on to make one as he resumed speaking, probably knowing the discussions about his future this offseason will likely be coming.
“We’ve won a lot of tough games this year against really good opponents, really good coaches, and I’m proud of this football team for it,” said McDermott. “This is obviously a challenge for us. We’ll figure it out.”
Unfortunately, he didn’t figure it out this time around.
For the Bills, it’s another year of Josh Allen’s career that’s out the window, playing for a coach who is quickly joining the likes of Tony Dungy and Marty Schottenheimer as a guy who just can’t get over the hump when it comes to these types of games.
Dungy eventually got his, thanks to Peyton Manning and a bit of luck after they happened to face a New England Patriots team that came into that AFC Championship game with the flu that year.
But McDermott feels like he’s miles away from ever reaching that. At least as long as Mahomes and Andy Reid remain in his way.
For now, it’s just another loss as the Bills head back to the drawing board for an offseason that is just more of the same. It’s also why McDermott will likely be under fire during the coming months for a region that is probably starting to get impatient, having already gone through enough disappointment a few decades ago.
“Our guys played their hearts out,” said McDermott. “We came up a little bit short against a really good football team. We go back to trying to figure it out in terms of how we can beat this football team and we’ve got to look at everything.”
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
The Bills are in reach of the ring several years, and the team plays hard for that coach. Their Personnel picks are generally good enough. Doesn’t seem the coaches and QB are the smarter team, but they play hard. Stuff like running the tush-push over left guard and failing 3x in a row and then trying again will bode questions…. KC is the smart team and preppared for that tendency. Cook at RB had the hot hand and then KC adjusted to that but Buff didn’t counter adjust on play action well enough. They/Buff seemed a step behind the curve… Read more »