BernieBill

It's McDermott ... head of the snake

Nice job Lewis

10-3 feels not great because we all know it should be 11-2 ... the Vikings game, pure and simple ... that collapse may hand KC the #1 seed (Bills remaining 4 obviously much more difficult than Chiefs) ... Bills should have a game in hand ... bc of the Vikings debacle, they don't.

Two chances late in the half to extend a 10-pt lead ... 2 brutal failures

James Cook stumbles a lot

I like the idea of making the Browns go for two under your scenario ... maybe they don't get the 2 and it works out even better for the Bills (Bills kick 1 point, Browns miss 2pt conversion). Going for two in the 3rd quarter to go up 14 instead of 13 was simply not necessary ... make the Browns make 2 point conversions.

"The math" says 1 point is better than zero, which is what the Bills got, zero ...

It was the wrong call (a sad refrain for Sean McDermott's game management). You put the point up on the board. Notice how the final margin was 8 ... let's say the Browns had miraculously recovered the onside kick, scored and made a 2 pt conversion ... tie game, potential Bills loss. It's akin to McDermott's wrong decision not to kick the FG against the Vikings.

A little bit ... Stephen A Smith, Colin Cowherd ... if the Bills do not advance to the Super Bowl this year (get to the game ... get past Kansas City ... get out of the AFC), you must fire McDermott ... the guy finds ways to lose ... I can see it in McDermott's eyes and facial expressions in these close games, he's afraid, the team is not prepared for crucial situations in games time and again (you could almost tell before the snap that something was going to go wrong on the goalline fumble ... imo, it's because the team isn't well-coached and prepared for such moments). McDermott is a defensive-minded coach trying to coach an elite NFL offense, it simply isn't a good fit in the Josh Allen era.

Against the Packers, Bills up 24-7 at halftime, Bills score 3 second half points. Against the Vikings, Bills up 24-10 at halftime, 6 second half points. I vehemently disagree with McDermott's decision not to kick the FG and go up 13 yesterday ... I don't classify that as "killer instinct," I classify it as just plain dumb ... you have to go up 2 TDs in the 4th quarter. I'm talking about a general slowing down of the offense in 2nd halves of games, instead of keeping your foot on their throats and putting games out of reach (Kansas City has scored over 40 points 3 times this season ... remember the Brady-Randy Moss year in NE? Utter domination offensively and running up scores ... the Bills should be that kind of team).

IMO, the problem is that McDermott's a defensive coach designed to win games 17-13, kinda like his first couple years in Buffalo ... then all of a sudden, you have an all-world QB and McDermott is unable to adjust to coaching that kind of a team ... McDermott lacks killer instinct, when the Bills get a lead, McDermott goes ultra-conservative and leads/games are squandered. KC, for example, doesn't do that ... whenever Jacksonville sort of got back into the game yesterday, the Chiefs are able to make huge plays on offense and put up additional touchdowns to put games clearly out of reach ... the Bills under McDermott don't do that ... they play to not lose instead of playing to win (and therefore end up losing way more often than they should).

The Chiefs have an elite coach. The Bills don't. KC finds ways to win. Buffalo finds ways to lose. Nothing changes until McDermott's the ex-head coach. 6-3? It's a disgrace. This regular season was about getting the #1 seed ... McDermott's blown that.

Bye Bye #1 seed, bye bye season ... 1 human being's fault: Sean McDermott

Literally fire Sean McDermott ... the guy can't manage NFL football games

Sean McDermott is possibly a good coach in practice ... you kick the FG so Minnesota has to score two TDs ... McDermott stupidly goes for it ... now this ... the guy holds this team back with his dumb game management

Awesome game management McDermott, as always ...

You like that?

Everything's fine ... go get a TD here ... have a big 2nd half ... chill.

Bengals points allowed in their 3 playoff wins: 19, 16, 24 ... that's why they're in the Super Bowl ... the McDermott-Frazier combo is the reason the Bills aren't.

A defense that can make a big play against Kansas City ...

I respect your take. But at the end of the day, the General Manager makes the draft pick and the coach coaches. I give Beane credit for drafting Allen. If McDermott contributed to the decision, that's fine, credit to him for that. But that certainly doesn't cancel out the in-game coaching errors, imo. You cannot kick the ball into the end zone on the last kickoff. You cannot call two timeouts on defense and then watch as the Chiefs get huge chunks of yards after each timeout, setting up a game-tying FG. It was the most poorly managed 13 seconds in NFL playoff history. To win football games at the highest level requires coaching decisions at the highest level. McDermott has proven again and again and again that he is a poor manager of the clock and a poor in-game strategist. I hope he improves but I'm skeptical. With Josh Allen, I would love to be able to feel complete confidence that the head coach won't ***** defeat from the jaws of victory.

On the notion that one must categorically be "an idiot" to question Sean McDermott's ability to win playoff football in the NFL: First, obviously the Bills are a playoff franchise under McDermott whereas prior to McDermott they were 20-year losers. Is that actually a function of McDermott? Or does the fact that the Bills happened to draft possibly the best QB in the NFL play the major determining role? McDermott was 9-7 in his only year without Josh Allen. Nice, many low-scoring close victories in the regular season that year. Would McDermott be winning at the level he has over the past two years if he didn't have one of the league's top QBs? Very simply, no. Second, is in-game decision-making part of the job description for an NFL coach? I would argue that it is. I would argue that in-game decisions are immensely important, particularly in the playoffs. What glaring in-game mistakes did McDermott make last night? After the beautifully executed and coached opening drive, McDermott reverted to an ultra-conservative coaching style which wasted possessions in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Can any team afford to waste offensive possessions against Kansas City? No. Did McDermott waste possessions? Yes. Did Josh Allen catch fire when given the proper play-calls after McDermott's 3rd quarter punt? Yes. Does McDermott deserve any credit for Allen's otherworldly performance? No. I would suggest that any NFL coach with Josh Allen on his team would benefit from Allen's genius. So, specifically, what in-game decisions did McDermott make last night which cost his team? He allowed Daboll to improperly call the game offensively after the injury to Honey Badger. You have Josh Allen and you took the ball out of his hands on multiple possessions, when KC had lost a top defensive back, when you know the game is going to require 40ish points, when Kansas City did not waste possessions. That is a game-deciding coaching error. What else? With 13 seconds left in the game, after your QB leads an heroic should-be game-winning drive, you don't kick the ball short of the end zone requiring a Kansas City return to burn off some number of those precious seconds. You make every decision possible, on special teams and on defense, to allow Kansas City to tie the game and send it to overtime. In short, you wasted Josh Allen's performance and wasted a golden opportunity to host an AFC Championship game and win a Super Bowl. Am I categorically saying "fire McDermott"? No. I wouldn't want to be accused of idiocy after all. Am I saying that Bills fans have a right to seriously question whether Sean McDermott can lead this team to a championship, given his repeated instances of making poor in-game coaching decisions? Yes.

Not even necessarily a "squib kick" but just a kick that was short of the end zone forcing a KC return (and running a few of those 13 seconds off the clock)

Thought exact same thing ... can't lose 9-6 to Jacksonville, just can't happen, and it did ... kinda like losing a game when you take a 36-33 lead with 13 seconds left.

This is traumatic