Sean McDermott on Bills’ failed final play: ‘I’ll take Josh Allen 10 times out of 10’
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The Tennessee Titans will undoubtedly take their win over the Buffalo Bills on Monday night. But heck, even the Titans themselves felt for the Bills.
“I know (Josh Allen) is gonna be sick about it. Looked like he slipped or something,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said following the game. “But that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
Hindsight is 20-20 and the Bills (4-2) could’ve gone another direction with their decision. For one, a field goal would have extended the game to overtime.
Instead of doubting his decision, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott did not back down. He “never considered” kicking it, even.
“At the end of the day, I trust (Allen), and I’ll trust him again if we’re in that situation again,” McDermott said via postgame video conference. “I’ll take Josh Allen 10 times out of 10.”
Elaborating, the coach said that he took the entire picture into consideration in that moment when he decided to keep the offense on the field with 22 seconds left on fourth-and-inches.
Instead of leaving the game up to a flip of a coin in overtime, McDermott left Allen on the field and put the game in his hands. But also, the Titans offense had been rolling and the Buffalo defense was struggling to stop them in the second half and he recognized that.
“Josh is usually spot on with those [QB sneaks], you’ve seen him have a lot of success with those in that situation,” McDermott added. “We hadn’t stopped them on defense for a number of drives there in the second half, really. Again, felt like we could go and win the game right there. Obviously, didn’t get it done.”
A somber McDermott seemed like a happy guy giving that answer in his presser. Clearly dejected, Allen tried to take whatever positives he could out of the missed attempt.
Doing so for him meant that even just being given the chance to win it for his team was a confidence booster.
“I take a lot of pride in it. I love coach McDermott for giving me that opportunity and I’ve got to go out there and prove him right,” Allen said. “Sometimes the plays don’t go your way. They get paid on that side of the ball, too.”
If anyone needs any sort of further convincing that it was the right decision to try it, the fancy stats said the same thing. According to football analytics outlet NFL Next Gen Stats, the Bills had a 75 percent conversion probability on that play.
Plenty of support for the decision was found throughout the Bills locker room as well, not just with the two who had to ride or die with the outcome.
Wide receiver Cole Beasley was used as little more than a decoy on the field in that moment. He still supported it.
“That’s what you want. You want your coach to have that belief in you and who better to have the ball in their hands than (number) 17? He’s the best player we got,” Beasley said.
Safety Jordan Poyer, no where near the field of play, would’ve gone for it, too. He echoed Beasley in almost the exact same manner.
“We trust coach. We trust 17. I’m with coach 10 out of 10 times. We ride with that every time,” Poyer said.
