Bills: Sean McDermott learned the hard way not to play conservative against Patrick Mahomes
Sean McDermott played way too conservative against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs and learned his lesson the hard way.
Fans of the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers are both having rough Sundays. The two fanbases are also sitting at home wondering why their coaches couldn’t stop opting for field goals over touchdowns.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott had the tough task of trying to beat Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs on the road at Arrowhead. You can assume Mahomes is going to score often and a shootout is the best strategy to take him down.
That is why it was so alarming when McDermott kept deciding on field goals throughout the game. He ultimately learned his lesson the hard way in the 38-24 loss.
McDermott was way too conservative
The story from the Packers loss was head coach Matt LaFleur kicking a field goal to go down by five points with just over two minutes remaining. McDermott’s bad decisions came at several points throughout the game.
His team took a 9-0 lead after a special teams blunder by the Chiefs midway through the first quarter. The Chiefs then responded with 21 unanswered points.
Buffalo had the ball late in the second quarter and marched it all the way down to the Chiefs’ 2-yard line. They faced a fourth-and-goal from that spot with just over 20 seconds remaining. McDermott opted for the chip-shot field goal to make it 21-12 at halftime.
The Chiefs kicked a field goal of their own to start the second half and the Bills followed it up by marching the ball down the field once again. They faced a fourth-and-3 from the 8-yard line and just like before, McDermott opted for another short field goal. The lead was then 24-15 with just under six minutes remaining in the third quarter.
McDermott was playing with fire and the Chiefs ended up scoring a quick touchdown, sending Buffalo fans into a spiral wondering why McDermott wouldn’t get aggressive against the best team in football.
It is one thing to play like this in a regular season game. But being ultra-conservative in the playoffs is never going to be a recipe for success. That is true against the Chiefs or any team at this point in the year.
Kicking short field goals just delayed the inevitable and prevented the Chiefs offense from ever feeling much stress. Andy Reid kept running his usual scheme and the Buffalo defense was faced with an impossible task without help from their head coach.
The Bills are still in great shape moving forward. The team won a playoff game this year for the first time since the 1995 season and made it to the AFC Championship Game for the first time since the 1993 season. McDermott has engineered a total turnaround and Josh Allen looks like a perennial MVP candidate.
Hopefully, McDermott can use this as a learning experience. This was his biggest game as a head coach and NFL fans saw Kevin Stefanski make similar mistakes against the Chiefs last week in the biggest game of his own career.
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The Chiefs are tough to beat and are defending champions for a reason. Now it is up to McDermott to make sure he can get his team close to or at that level so he will be the one heading to the Super Bowl in the near future.