Sean McDermott admit Bills should have gone for it on 4th down vs. Chiefs
Bills quarterback Josh Allen wouldn’t say whether or not he thinks he should have been left on the field to go for it on 4th down a couple of times vs. the Chiefs in the AFC Championship.
Hindsight 20/20, he probably should’ve been given that chance considering their opponent. Kansas City lost one game during the regular season with their starters and it required the opposing team (Raiders) to score 40 points.
Buffalo ended up losing this one, 38-24, and at minimum, 38-32 is a much closer game. That’s what score it could have been had the Bills went for it instead of settling for two shorter field goals (& scored).
Allen didn’t exactly flare a competitive approach following the game by saying he wanted to go for it… instead, the quarterback took a statesman like approach.
“That’s coach’s decision,” Allen said postgame. “We had three downs to get it in there prior and we didn’t do our job.”
At minimal, Allen is right about one thing. That decision wasn’t his, it was Sean McDermott’s. Buffalo’s bench boss had a couple of questionable decisions in the game, no bigger than the 4th down situations.
After the loss, McDermott did admit that he might’ve changed his mind on at least one of those decisions. All things considered, it went down as a mistake.
“Yeah, I did, I thought about it on both occasions, really,” McDermott said via video conference. “Maybe if I had to do it all over again I would have went for one of them.
“The one before the half, for sure, I wanted to get points. We were having trouble getting points and I at least wanted to have something to show for it going into half, especially knowing they were getting the ball after half. I’ll look back at that and reevaluate that, especially the one after half there. Again, as an entire team we’ll learn about this experience.”
That second occasion McDermott referenced came on Buffalo’s first possession after the half. The Chiefs were held to a field on the first drive coming out of halftime, and the Bills marched all the way down to the KC eight-yard line and settled for a 27-yard Tyler Bass kick on 4th and 3.
Had Buffalo put up a touchdown, the score would’ve likely been 24-19 instead of 24 to 15. A one-score game instead of a two-score game.
The closest Allen came to referencing a mistake being made by not keeping him out there actually came in regard to the first field goal. Allen said his team kind of hit a slow point in the first half. What could have quelled that issue? Not settling for a field goal on the Chiefs’ two-yard line with 11 second left in the half.
“I wouldn’t say we started unraveling, I just think we hit a lull there in the first half. Again, I thought we moved the ball well enough, but when we got the ball into the red zone, we couldn’t get the ball in the end zone,” Allen said.
Typically the Bills do show a bit more of an urgent approach in terms of scoring. After all, they did win three games in a row toward the end of their regular season by at least 29 points.
The Bills faithful should hope such decisions in the future will hold a different outcome.
