Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott was in no mood to talk about the ending of his team’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Bills took it on the chin from the Chiefs in a game which will be known as “13 seconds” in the history books.
In the eventual 42-36 final, Buffalo stormed back and led 36-33 with only 13 seconds remaining. On the ensuing kickoff, McDermott’s decision making came into question.
Rather than kicking the ball short in some variation, such as a squib kick, the ensuing kickoff saw Bills kicker Tyler Bass boot the ball through the end zone. Such a move takes no time off the clock.
Had Buffalo kept the ball outside of the end zone, the Chiefs would have had to make a decision. Instead, it was made for them and no seconds came off the clock. Kansas City used 10 of those seconds to get into field goal range and tie the game.
Hindsight is always 20-20, but it appeared the Bills made a mistake. McDermott was in no mood to discuss it, though.
“I don’t want to really get into specifics,” McDermott said via vide conference.
Eventually the coach did take some blame.
“We can just execute better and that starts with me and goes all the way down,” McDermott added. “We talk about a lot of things. I’m just gonna leave it at the execution and that starts with me.”
At times, McDermott’s teams have struggled with game-management scenarios. This is one example.
Another part of the game management issue then fell on the defense right after the kickoff. Buffalo did allow KC to go 44 yards on two throws from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to set up a Harrison Butker game-tying kick.
Again looking back, it appeared the Bills were in a prevent-style defense which allowed the Chiefs to pick up chunk plays.
But at least Buffalo’s locker room was on the same page in terms of sticking together after the crushing loss. Bills quarterback Josh Allen was great and deserved to win, but he stood by his teammates and coaches when it was all said and done.
“It takes everybody, takes all 53 or 55 guys on the roster,” Allen said. “It takes everybody on our team, from our practice squad to the people in the organization in the building, to our cafeteria, and the people upstairs. And again, I’m proud of how we handled this season, from top-down.”