Sean McDermott reveals the one thing that has to change for the Bills to finally get back on track this season
Sean McDermott wasn’t holding anything back with his comments postgame.
The Buffalo Bills lost a heartbreaker to the Houston Texans. Quarterback Josh Allen was brought down eight times, with Houston’s No. 1 defense wreaking havoc all night. The protection up front wasn’t great, as it was the most Allen has been sacked in his entire career.
Despite it feeling like the Bills were down by 60 points, it came down to the closing moments. The team converted a massive fourth and long, but fell flat a few plays later, failing to convert another fourth down deep in Houston’s territory.
Head coach Sean McDermott didn’t mince words after the loss, saying that the team must be better, especially when it comes to protecting the franchise quarterback. I think all of Bills Mafia can agree with what McDermott had to say postgame.
“When you’re not winning first down and you get into second down and long, that’s what becomes predictable,” McDermott said. “And then their D-line pins their ears back, and they go, they’re built that way for a reason. That’s where the hits come, second down and long turns into third down and long.”
That’s when the topic of the offense came up, and while McDermott praised his coaching staff, the team looked awful at times. Far too predictable and didn’t allow Allen the time he needed to succeed.
“Again, that’s the formula, the unhealthy formula I’m talking about,” McDermott said. “Josh takes too many hits, we’ve gotta figure that piece out. I believe in our offensive staff. I believe in our coaching staff overall. Thought the adjustments on the defensive side were really good tonight, going into the second half.”
McDermott was blunt with his responses
While it wasn’t the last play of the game, Buffalo had another fourth down when the team handed the ball off to running back James Cook, which went nowhere. Allen discussed after the game that they probably should’ve called a timeout. Without directly saying so, it appeared that McDermott called out his offensive coordinator, Joe Brady.
“Yeah, I’m usually listening to Joe in terms of, hey, do we need one, do we not?” McDermott said. “I didn’t hear that at that point. I’ll talk to Josh and follow up. That’s how it went down.”
McDermott was quick to give the Texans their flowers after the victory. It wasn’t the result that Buffalo wanted, but the team battled until the bitter end.
“Not the result we were looking for. I’m proud of the players and the way they battled, had some guys go down,” McDermott said. “The guys gave it all they had, and we came up short. Things you can’t do against a good football team and a good defense overall. Let’s just start, field position-wise, we beat ourselves from a field position standpoint.”
Speaking on the self-inflicted wounds, McDermott once again brought up his favorite topic after a loss: not playing complementary football.
“Some costly penalties, the turnovers, three turnovers,” McDermott said. “Just looking at overall, and we weren’t playing enough complementary football, and we still had a chance to win at the end of the game. Plenty of things we need to work on.”
The message from McDermott was clear: the team cannot keep asking Allen to survive nights like that again. Until the offense finds answers and protection up front and stops putting itself behind the sticks, games will continue slipping away. Buffalo is running out of time to correct the same recurring problems.
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