Devin Singletary not scoring a TD with 34 seconds left

[NoSaint]

6 minutes ago, KHAN said:

OK. So you obviously are confused about the down and time on the clock. The Singletary run was on second down. Miami called their last time out. We called a kneel down on 3rd down and ran the clock down to 2 seconds. Kicked the field goal to win.

Kicking on 2nd down or 4th down wouldn't have made any difference.

had Sanchez said “brilliant play, the kick will end the game” instead of “omg he didn’t get the first down” the general reaction would been different for many here. 

[Matt_In_NH]

21 minutes ago, ArtVandalay said:

Doc, it's about providing the Bills room for error. You have severe weather conditions, anything goes wrong with the snap, hold, footing of Bass you are screwed.  

 

If you took the free first down, you kick the FG on 2nd. If something is wrong with the snap/ hold/ footing you tuck the ball down, kill the play call TO, then kick on 3rd.

 

You give yourself room for error in the extreme weather conditions. 

Can you list the times a team messed up a snap and then used the next down to kick a fg?   While possible this pretty much never happens.  

[Bob Jones]

1 minute ago, Matt_In_NH said:

Can you list the times a team messed up a snap and then used the next down to kick a fg?   While possible this pretty much never happens.  

Can you name a time when all a team had to do was take a routine snap, and kneel it down in order to win a game, but then fumbled away that snap, and went on to lose the game? 🤔 That pretty much never happens! 😉🤪

[Buffalo716]

I was 💯 sure it was the right play

 

I was screaming for devyn to fall down if he broke through the line of scrimmage…. 
 

No matter the conditions…. A professional long snapper and kicker will drill that short field goal 99-100 times 

 

And the smart thing is to never give the ball back to the dolphins

2 minutes ago, Bob Jones said:

Can you name a time when all a team had to do was take a routine snap, and kneel it down in order to win a game, but then fumbled away that snap, and went on to lose the game? 🤔 That pretty much never happens! 😉🤪

We couldn’t take a snap and kneel it down because Josh was in the end zone

 

We were running a play… Probably sneak but we were not kneeling the ball

[Big Turk]

38 minutes ago, Bob Jones said:

You must have missed this, which was posted in this thread earlier:

 

The most obvious answer is that they wouldn't be forced to kick the FG on 4th down. Get the 1st down, run a play (same play they ran on 3rd down), then stop the clock with the TO at about 10 seconds and kick the FG. That way, if there was a bad snap, a bad handle by Martin, or a slip/bad approach by Bass, they'd have a second chance at the FG. The latter would leave about 4-5 seconds (if the first FG try is good) on the clock. Then squib the kickoff and it's over.

 

Yeah that's wishful thinking. Did you see what happened when Allen's 2 point conversion was thought to be a fumble? Like 20 seconds of people slipping and sliding to get on the ball. There would have been no time left if the ball was mishandled.

[ArtVandalay]

3 minutes ago, Matt_In_NH said:

Can you list the times a team messed up a snap and then used the next down to kick a fg?   While possible this pretty much never happens.  

There's been a multitude of bad snaps/fumbled on FGs, especially in poor weather conditions... happens all the time. 

 

Vast majority of FGs occur on 4th down obviously, if they had the chance to down and re-kick they would. 

[folz]

I'm not sure why fans don't see that it was the right move. We watched Belichick win games against us like that for 20 years (managing the clock at the end of a game). We have also seen the Bills do this successfully a few times now over the last few years. It is textbook and absolutely the best way to assure a victory.

 

And not sure if anyone has mentioned it in other threads today, but Devin had a great game last night. Stat-wise it doesn't look like that much (70 yds from scrimmage, no TDs), but he was laying the lumber to the Dolphins at the end of his runs and in the blocking game (setting a tone)---he knocked a Miami pass rusher to his ass on one play---and then the unselfish play to help seal the game. Motor was ballin' last night.

[GunnerBill]

100% the right decision. Not even worth discussing.

[MarkyMannn]

33 minutes ago, WideNine said:

 

Sadly, I have no problems envisioning that scenario.

 

 

I know right?👍😃

[JakeFrommStateFarm]

McD was seeing ghosts.

 

Ghosts of 13 seconds....

[NoSaint]

9 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

 

Yeah that's wishful thinking. Did you see what happened when Allen's 2 point conversion was thought to be a fumble? Like 20 seconds of people slipping and sliding to get on the ball. There would have been no time left if the ball was mishandled.

yea, cause the only mishandle is it flying away, not slipping to the ground right in front of the holder

[Matt_In_NH]

16 minutes ago, Bob Jones said:

Can you name a time when all a team had to do was take a routine snap, and kneel it down in order to win a game, but then fumbled away that snap, and went on to lose the game? 🤔 That pretty much never happens! 😉🤪

Not the same. Nice try.  Stay on topic

[NoSaint]

10 minutes ago, ArtVandalay said:

There's been a multitude of bad snaps/fumbled on FGs, especially in poor weather conditions... happens all the time. 

 

Vast majority of FGs occur on 4th down obviously, if they had the chance to down and re-kick they would. 

Also, most importantly, even if rare there’s no reason to risk home field advantage in the AFCCG just for lack of attention to detail

[Bob Jones]

1 minute ago, Matt_In_NH said:

Not the same. Nice try.  Stay on topic

You're right, it's not. A snap to a holder in cold, snowy weather, in a high pressure situation, is decidedly more dangerous/prone to mishap than a routine exchange between a center and a QB. 😉

[WideNine]

37 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Unselfish play by an unselfish player. 
 

Singletary has turned into a very smart RB who understands the game. He will get a nice payday this summer, but I’d love to see him back. 

 

He is not that shabby in protecting Allen chipping and picking up the occasional blitz either.

 

I like Motor, he is not going to break free and outrun the second level of defenders, but what he does do he does pretty well and as folks say - unselfish.

[BigAl2526]

I understand the reasoning for Singletary deciding to go down.  I don't agree with it.  With snow and wind, even a short field goal attempt is not a sure thing.  Going the other way, under the declining field and weather conditions, it was very unlikely for Tua and the Dolphins to be able to pull a Pat Mahomes type finish.

[Casey D]

51 minutes ago, ArtVandalay said:

Dude, take your own advice.  Maybe you are just closed minded and lack strategic thinking. Don't know. Use your brain, it isn't that hard...

 

The run was on 2nd, Miami used their last TO. Buffalo kneeled on 3rd, took their 2nd TO.

 

You now have 4th Down, in severe weather conditions for the snap, hold, and approach by the kicker.  If something goes wrong you have no room for error, game goes to overtime. 

 

If you took 1 more step forward and took the free first down, the FG would have been on 2nd down, if something went wrong with the snap, hold, footing of Bass, you could have tucked the ball down,  call your final TO, then kick again. 

 

Class dismissed. 

Stick to architecture.  Your arrogance is profound.

[Matt_In_NH]

16 minutes ago, ArtVandalay said:

There's been a multitude of bad snaps/fumbled on FGs, especially in poor weather conditions... happens all the time. 

 

Vast majority of FGs occur on 4th down obviously, if they had the chance to down and re-kick they would. 

And this is where the pwin stats come in.  It takes everything into account.  

[Dr. K]

I think it was absolutely the right decision. Don't let the Dolphins touch the ball again--especially because they have Hill and Waddle. Listening to the play-by-play I thought, "This is why Sanchez is no longer in the league." 

[3rdand12]

The fact that Devin knew what Coach wanted and executed is fairly awesome. Especially when the heart and body want the TD ! Proud of his self discipline and awareness

 Love the Win 

Bills drive me crazy how they get it done but wow its sure is an adventure each week with this Team

 Go Bills

[Dr. K]

58 minutes ago, ArtVandalay said:

Dude, take your own advice.  Maybe you are just closed minded and lack strategic thinking. Don't know. Use your brain, it isn't that hard...

 

The run was on 2nd, Miami used their last TO. Buffalo kneeled on 3rd, took their 2nd TO.

 

You now have 4th Down, in severe weather conditions for the snap, hold, and approach by the kicker.  If something goes wrong you have no room for error, game goes to overtime. 

 

If you took 1 more step forward and took the free first down, the FG would have been on 2nd down, if something went wrong with the snap, hold, footing of Bass, you could have tucked the ball down,  call your final TO, then kick again. 

 

Class dismissed. 

Wrong. The whole point of running the clock down is to leave the Dolphins with NO TIME on the clock, so you don't have to kick off and risk some miracle play. 

[pennstate10]

1 hour ago, Boatdrinks said:

I agree this came from the coach , but there’s nothing iffy about it. This isn’t college football either. You expect a routine kick to be made. You run the clock down and win the game; take many variables out of the equation and don’t give MIA an opportunity. 

Ahh, I think Tony Romo may differ with your opinion on automatic kicks. 

[Maine-iac]

For anyone who didn't see it  or catch it when I said it before McDermott made it sound like they had talked about this prior to the play.

 

[Doc]

1 hour ago, NoSaint said:

had Sanchez said “brilliant play, the kick will end the game” instead of “omg he didn’t get the first down” the general reaction would been different for many here. 

 

True.  We would have agreed with him.

[K-9]

51 minutes ago, Goin Breakdown said:

It was a little "play not to lose". It worked out so I'm ok. My only thing is that it seems like a small example of how the Bills get up and then take their foot off the gas. 

Playing not to lose? Really? What the Bills did in the final seconds of the game is the very definition of playing to win. 

[BillsShredder83]

Would have preferred he went down past 1st down (going forward).

 

But yes we saw cleveland lose by NOT doing this and i believe that was 10pt game inside 2mins

[NoSaint]

12 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Playing not to lose? Really? What the Bills did in the final seconds of the game is the very definition of playing to win. 

a lot of guys think it takes heroics and highlights to be doing to confident and correct thing

 

sometimes it’s being smart and well prepared with an attention to detail and not simply being flashy 

18 minutes ago, Maine-iac said:

For anyone who didn't see it  or catch it when I said it before McDermott made it sound like they had talked about this prior to the play.

 

it would be absolutely shocking if they didnt

[K-9]

3 minutes ago, NoSaint said:

a lot of guys think it takes heroics and highlights to be doing to confident and correct thing

 

sometimes it’s being smart and well prepared with an attention to detail and not simply being flashy 

it would be absolutely shocking if they didnt

Gimme smart, prepared, and attention to detail every time. 

[HappyDays]

Maybe this has already been mentioned, but the Dolphins tried to let us score. That proves we made the right decision. The opposing coaching staff wanted the ball back, we didn't let them have it.

[Doc]

3 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

Maybe this has already been mentioned, but the Dolphins tried to let us score. That proves we made the right decision. The opposing coaching staff wanted the ball back, we didn't let them have it.

 

Did they?  They tried to tackle Singletary.

[HappyDays]

3 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Did they?  They tried to tackle Singletary.

 

I thought they had left an open lane for him to run through intentionally, I could be wrong though. He went down on his own.

[Ta111]

6 hours ago, Jerome007 said:

I too thought he should have scored, I mean it was a TD and only 34 sec to go. I was also surprised by the following Josh kneeldown instead of another run attempt.

You obviously didn’t see the Jets Browns game earlier this year. You never give the opponent the chance to score a tying TD.

[Doc]

2 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

I thought they had left an open lane for him to run through intentionally, I could be wrong though. He went down on his own.

 

Two Dols defenders brought him down just short of the first down marker.

[Goin Breakdown]

1 hour ago, K-9 said:

Playing not to lose? Really? What the Bills did in the final seconds of the game is the very definition of playing to win. 

I respect that for sure. But I'm also sure that I was not the only one nervous about bass slipping or a botched snap. 

[eball]

100% the right call. Chip shot FG with one of the best kickers in the league. Motor would have scored with 35 seconds left, which is too much time when Hill and Waddle are on the other side. 
 

[NewEra]

18 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Two Dols defenders brought him down just short of the first down marker.

“Brought him down”??  
 

No-  this is incorrect.  Rewatch it.  Devin dove to the ground,  kohou lowered his shoulder but missed him.  He may have grazed him.  Holland was there, but didn’t touch him.  There’s a chance not one dolphin touched him once he broke the line of scrimmage.  If Kohou did, touch him, he barely touched him

40 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I thought they had left an open lane for him to run through intentionally, I could be wrong though. He went down on his own.

He definitely went down on his own.  Idk if they were trying to let us score though.  Kohou tried to hit him but whiffed becssue devin was taking a dive

[Rubes]

Interesting that there is a lot of debate on this. My friend, who is an unbiased observer (not a Bills fan), thought it was a horrendously stupid move by Singletary. I preferred running the clock out and kicking it, despite the risk, mostly because they were tied at the time (a miss would result in OT rather than a loss) and because it was a chip shot. He strenuously disagreed with me.

 

I think it comes down to how much risk you thought there was with the FG. My friend thought it was extremely risky given the weather conditions; I thought he was overestimating that risk. At the same time, I’m probably overestimating the risk of Miami taking the ball all the way down for a TD with no timeouts. But who could really blame a Bills fan for overestimating the risk of total collapse in the final seconds?
 

But that’s really the main issue: how much risk you thought there was in the FG with the conditions.

 

[Doc Brown]

Absolutely the right decision.  I did not want to sweat out a minute of Hill and Waddle possibly getting behind our secondary and tying/winning (2 point conversion) the game.  I'll take a chip shop field goal for the win with Bass any day in nearly all weather conditions.

[Zag20]

Moreover, if you’re confident that Bass can hit the extra point for a 7 point lead, then you’re confident he can hit the super short field goal to end it.

[dpberr]

I thought it was a smart play. It was a boot on the neck kind of play. Miami could only hope the field goal would fail. 

 

16 seconds allowed the MCM. 

 

13 seconds allowed Patrick Mahomes back on the field.