McDermott decision making

[Augie]

10 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

That looked like a called option play for Josh to run and have the option to Hawes.

 

Nothing was open but the touchdown. Bummer. 

 

 

Josh also could have run it in, and someone else had a half step in the back of the end zone as well, I think. 

[fergie's ire]

22 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

We hired someone specifically for this recently (last year?).

 

Additionally, not challenging the spot in the Ravens game was the right call. Spots are almost impossible to change/overturn on replay. And even more subjective when you throw a slide into the equation.

 

Was a better decision to hold onto the time out.

Agreed.  In fact, if I understand the rule right, I think Allen was short.  The announcers kept talking about where his knee hit, but the rule says he is down where he "begins his slide."  I take it to mean that he is down the second he kicks his legs up in a sliding motion...before he lands.  I also seem to remember the rule was changed because Peyton Manning did like a Kung Fu kick where he went flying like 4 yards in the air in a sliding motion before he landed because he knew that defenders couldn't hit him once he was sliding, but could gain a bunch of yards before his slide landed.

[GerstAusGosheim]

On 9/19/2025 at 12:25 PM, billvernsays said:

Tonight I have McDermotts actions directly leading to 11 points for the dolphins

 

So you're saying the architect of the :13 meltdown who also used 9-1-1 jihadists as an example of good teamwork makes bad decisions? You might be on to something...

[Einstein]

3 hours ago, Augie said:

 

Nothing was open but the touchdown. Bummer. 

 

tough times 

19 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

On could we use play action more? Sure. 

 

We could double our play-action usage and I would still want more.

 

Its deadly. Especially when you have Cook running as well as he has.

Also, I agree with you. Hard to second guess giving the ball to Cook on 2nd and 8. 

[chris heff]

4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

For sure Josh is the best player. Cook is the second best player (and he is better than just "good" that is established by now) there is a significant gap after them. I wouldn't have hated on them rolling Josh out there. I can't hate on them giving Cook the ball there. Either of those play calls were totally reasonable. The Dolphins made a play. It happens. It is resulting to claim it was a stupid play call.

Bill, didn’t intend for this to become contentious, I enjoy your posts. By the way, the guy that Brady decided not to pick on is Ethan Bonner, in three years he has one pass defended.

[T master]

On 9/19/2025 at 12:25 PM, billvernsays said:

By not having a (good) process in place to challenge plays e.g. Tyreek’s Bobble, Josh Allen’s 1st down against the Ravens, we are at a big disadvantage especially when we play better teams/coaches. 
 

I see those 2 non challenges as big mistakes on Sean Mc and without timely mistakes from D Henry and The Dolphins we could easily be 1-2 vs 3-0.
 

Tonight I have McDermotts actions directly leading to 11 points for the dolphins (challenge would have put them 4th and 4 on the 1st drive - 7 points , and the bizarre time outs at the end of the half allowed Miami to go for a TD when they were content running the clock to keep Josh off the field - 4 extra points) Without that gift of the roughing the kicker penalty we could’ve easily lost last night because of these decisions. 
 

Does this concern anyone else or am I missing something? 

Can't tell your a hater !! 

[Marcus Aurelius]

8 hours ago, GerstAusGosheim said:

 

So you're saying the architect of the :13 meltdown who also used 9-1-1 jihadists as an example of good teamwork makes bad decisions? You might be on to something...

Geh ins Bett!

Du bist betrunken 🥴

[SoTier]

23 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

I agree, I'm surprised there has been so much uproar about that non-challenge. During the game watching the slow motion replay back it looked to me like his first foot was still touching the ground when he regained possession. Then I looked in the live game thread and everyone was saying he obviously didn't complete the catch? In any case that is not a call you feel confident they are going to overturn. They stick with the original ruling on the field if it isn't clear and obvious.

 

 

12 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

For sure Josh is the best player. Cook is the second best player (and he is better than just "good" that is established by now) there is a significant gap after them. I wouldn't have hated on them rolling Josh out there. I can't hate on them giving Cook the ball there. Either of those play calls were totally reasonable. The Dolphins made a play. It happens. It is resulting to claim it was a stupid play call.

 

This is a McDermott crucifiction thread.   You are wasting your time trying to reason with zealots.

[mikemac2001]

On 9/19/2025 at 11:36 AM, Freddie's Dead said:

The TOs at the end of the first half were the stupidest use of TOs.  You didn't have the third TO to use on 3rd down, so why not let the clock work for you?  Get the Fish to use their TOs and let them run out of time or kick the FG.  Stopping the clock there gave them the time to score the TD.  Just ***** stupid.

Totally agree you are in power when you have timeouts 

 

idc if he saw something he didn’t like save the timeouts control the clock and if they score early you can counter with Josh and three timeouts 

 

I side with McD a lot but that timeout was dumb 

[GunnerBill]

2 hours ago, mikemac2001 said:

Totally agree you are in power when you have timeouts 

 

idc if he saw something he didn’t like save the timeouts control the clock and if they score early you can counter with Josh and three timeouts 

 

I side with McD a lot but that timeout was dumb 

 

You are not in power if the Fins have already run the clock out. You walk off the field at HT with 3 timeouts in your pocket. As it happened you used them and the Fins still ran the clock out but make no mistake the plan for the Fins on that drive was score (TD or FG) AND leave no time. The only way the Bills could stop that was stop the clock and make a play on defense. The play on defense was the bit that let them down. Not the clock management.

[BananaB]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You are not in power if the Fins have already run the clock out. You walk off the field at HT with 3 timeouts in your pocket. As it happened you used them and the Fins still ran the clock out but make no mistake the plan for the Fins on that drive was score (TD or FG) AND leave no time. The only way the Bills could stop that was stop the clock and make a play on defense. The play on defense was the bit that let them down. Not the clock management.

If we didn’t use the timeouts it puts more pressure to move quicker.  The way they were moving it didn’t look like they even had enough time to get to the endzone and settling for a FG would have been a bonus. Oddly enough the clock was stopped 5 times and they still barely got there. You can’t say McDs timeouts didn’t help them. We just missed a FG, we didn’t punt and had 3 long drives and were up 14-7, holding them to a FG would have been better and going in half  the lead makes more sense. You’re getting the ball back and have a chance to go back up two scores. If you don’t stop them it is what it is, coming out forcing the ball downfield looking for points in a tie game is unlikely to happen with McD. Against the Ravens we were down two scores and chasing points. Big difference 

[GunnerBill]

1 hour ago, BananaB said:

If we didn’t use the timeouts it puts more pressure to move quicker.  The way they were moving it didn’t look like they even had enough time to get to the endzone and settling for a FG would have been a bonus. Oddly enough the clock was stopped 5 times and they still barely got there. You can’t say McDs timeouts didn’t help them. We just missed a FG, we didn’t punt and had 3 long drives and were up 14-7, holding them to a FG would have been better and going in half  the lead makes more sense. You’re getting the ball back and have a chance to go back up two scores. If you don’t stop them it is what it is, coming out forcing the ball downfield looking for points in a tie game is unlikely to happen with McD. Against the Ravens we were down two scores and chasing points. Big difference 

 

Miami still had one timeout in its pocket. They were playing to score right at the end of the half. That was their entire strategy on that drive. Had the Bills not used timeouts they'd have used theirs differently. But there is zero doubt in my mind they'd have still bled the clock. Might they have had to settle for 3 instead of 7? Possibly but there is no reason to believe that would have been the case. 

 

The problem on that drive was NOT clock management. It was the defenses inability to make a stop. 

[boater]

We defeated a Top-5 NFL team, we're 3-0, scoring over 30 points each game and we still have threads dog-piling McDermott. There must be a psychological personality type behind this phenomena.

[DCofNC]

McD = Tony Dungy.  He’s too nice to fire unless the owner grows a pair and history says that’s not happening.

[Since1981]

HC is lucky to have proper OC DC MVP QB. 
I will say he out coached Ravens HC. Our HC isn’t made for spit second decisions to beat the Final 4 (AFCC/NFCC)

[DCofNC]

1 hour ago, boater said:

We defeated a Top-5 NFL team, we're 3-0, scoring over 30 points each game and we still have threads dog-piling McDermott. There must be a psychological personality type behind this phenomena.

Ever heard of causation vs correlation?

1 minute ago, Since1981 said:

HC is lucky to have proper OC DC MVP QB. 
I will say he out coached Ravens HC. Our HC isn’t made for spit second decisions to beat the Final 4 (AFCC/NFCC)

Haha, yeah he had it all worked out, just sit back and wait for an all time record comeback in the last 4 minutes.   Let’s be honest, there are 2 plays in the last 2 Raven games that have allowed the Bills to win games they really shouldn’t have.   Andrews drop and a very unlikely fumble by Henry, let’s not act like McD had it all under control.

[balln]

56 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

Ever heard of causation vs correlation?

Haha, yeah he had it all worked out, just sit back and wait for an all time record comeback in the last 4 minutes.   Let’s be honest, there are 2 plays in the last 2 Raven games that have allowed the Bills to win games they really shouldn’t have.   Andrews drop and a very unlikely fumble by Henry, let’s not act like McD had it all under control.

The 4th down tip pass for Keon td was THE most improbable as well

[mikemac2001]

7 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You are not in power if the Fins have already run the clock out. You walk off the field at HT with 3 timeouts in your pocket. As it happened you used them and the Fins still ran the clock out but make no mistake the plan for the Fins on that drive was score (TD or FG) AND leave no time. The only way the Bills could stop that was stop the clock and make a play on defense. The play on defense was the bit that let them down. Not the clock management.

Yes you are the fins are not going to burn their own clock once it gets in the 30 sec range they will use there time outs . You then can use them depending on down and distance to save time or keep them to attempt to get a FG.
 

Having three gives you a chance to save clock once you use one you lose all clock control power because they can run it down no matter what 

 

 

[GaryPinC]

7 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You are not in power if the Fins have already run the clock out. You walk off the field at HT with 3 timeouts in your pocket. As it happened you used them and the Fins still ran the clock out but make no mistake the plan for the Fins on that drive was score (TD or FG) AND leave no time. The only way the Bills could stop that was stop the clock and make a play on defense. The play on defense was the bit that let them down. Not the clock management.

I have no problem with utilizing our timeouts to try and double dip before the halftime IF the situation is right.   But the situation was not right.

 

I agree the defense let us down in that situation.  But our entire gameplan was to play a grind-it-out possession game, and in a close game with a struggling Miami offense just outside the redzone with about a minute to go, you don't start handing them timeouts and chances to catch their breath and plan their next plays. 

 

For me, you let them spend their resources first, let the clock pressure a struggling offense as much as possible and see how things play out.  As Simon mentioned, if they quickly get it to a first and goal situation, then you can try to preserve Josh an opportunity.  Otherwise, pressure them with the clock to preserve a lead.  Instead, you gave a struggling team hope and additional motivation as handing them extra time outs up-front bordered on arrogance.

 

Complementary football.  Every coach likes to discuss it, but they never include the coaching in that.

 

It was disappointing to me we never took advantage when their secondary took two more hits or pressured the O-line more right out of the gate.  Tua was holding the ball too long at the outset but they found their rhythm in-part thanks to our conservative defense.  It put more pressure on Cook and the running game and took away opportunities for our receivers to hone their game against a very weakened secondary.

 

And it again demonstrates a lack of situational coaching/gameplanning.  Which is a big part of what ends our playoff runs.  I can only pray that this improves as our defense gains confidence and consistency.  

Edited September 21 by GaryPinC

[Since1981]

I’m trying to be balanced with this question. Seriously. HC has winning record, yes. 
After 8 yrs as HC, what unique has been added? You knew a Brady/BB themes. 
 

What is a Sean “defense” or o?

Is there some sign?