Bills observations: Why wasn’t Sean McDermott more aggressive against the Jets?

[Buddy]

Bills observations: Why wasn’t Sean McDermott more aggressive against the Jets?

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[mixum]

Cause he sucks and needed to be fired after 13 seconds. He will be first fired.

[shiva2999]

But, but, but Sean McDermott looks like a marine.

It has to be someone else's fault!

Where's Nate Peterman? Lets blame it on him!

[LIBills]

No, the question is……

Why didn’t Josh simply take what the D was giving him.

[theAteam]

They didn’t need to be aggressive. Their offense wasn’t getting shit done. We gave them the game by turning it over 4 times, at least two of which gave them prime field position as I recall. Even so they needed a miracle catch and overtime to win it.

A boring game where we systematically got 4 yards at a time down the field would have won it. We actually lost it BECAUSE of going too aggressive. 

[miamibillsnut]

1 hour ago, LIBills said:

No, the question is……

Why didn’t Josh simply take what the D was giving him.

the jets defense doesnt give anything.   They arent being compared to the 85 Bears for shits and giggles.  That being said, Josh needs to just eat it or throw it away when there is nothing, which there was plenty of last night, nothing.

 

And as for McDufus.  Everyone remember the FG in the first quarter on the 4th and 1.5 we settled for.   Should have gone for it. 

[HipKat]

 

It was 8:25 p.m. when Aaron Rodgers crumpled to the field with what the New York Jets fear is a ruptured Achilles tendon. Moments earlier, he’d run out of the tunnel with an American flag to a stadium full of flashing lights and ravenous Jets fans. This was the man who was going to finally turn them around, the one whose arrival turned the Jets into a runaway train of offseason hype.

And there he was, limping into a medical tent, then getting loaded onto a cart and staggering to the locker room. The moments that followed were a blur for Jets players. Jets cornerback D.J. Reed admitted players were “rattled.” Sauce Gardner called it a “roller coaster.”

This was a vulnerable Jets team. Zach Wilson replaced Rodgers, and shortly after, the Jets punted the ball back to the Bills. This was Buffalo’s chance to pin the Jets to the mat and wait for them to tap. Josh Allen led the Bills down the field until a sack knocked them into a third-and-15. Then he hit Damien Harris for a 13-yard gain to set up fourth-and-2 on New York’s 22-yard line. Allen and the offense were finding a rhythm. The Jets were cornered, trying to find their equilibrium while their franchise quarterback was getting X-rays. The crowd had lost energy.

This was Sean McDermott’s chance to set the tone for Buffalo’s season, to dictate the terms of the game. He knew this offense needed a jolt of confidence. That’s been apparent since the divisional round loss to the Bengals when Allen and company had no answers for Cincinnati’s defense. McDermott switched up his philosophy and played the starters in the preseason. When the first preseason game didn’t go well, he played them again.

Maybe that should have been a hint that McDermott was uneasy about his offense. But here was another chance to try to get the offense’s swagger back and show faith in the team’s $258 million quarterback. Instead, McDermott opted for a field goal to take a 3-0 lead. McDermott has been one of the most aggressive fourth-down coaches in the NFLover the last few seasons. In Football Outsiders’ aggressiveness index, which measures how likely a coach is to go for it on fourth down, McDermott ranked seventh last season and 13th in 2021.

So why not trust your 235-pound quarterback behind two new starting guards? Or why not hand the ball to Damien Harris or Latavius Murray, the two powerful backs Buffalo signed this offseason? McDermott’s mindset shifted when Wilson entered the game but not how it should have. Instead of being cutthroat when the Jets were exposed, he tried to get through the game the safe way. For most of the game, Wilson struggled enough to make that path to victory possible. The Bills went into halftime with a 13-3 lead after Allen led another long touchdown drive and then a Wilson interception gave the Bills a short field for an easy field goal drive.

“With all due respect to Zach (Wilson), they’re two different quarterbacks, just from experience alone,” McDermott said after the game. “And that’s when you’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re up 13-3.’ I think it was at halftime, and you’re saying, ‘Take care of the football, be smart,’ and we weren’t smart. And again, when you shoot yourself in the foot, it’s hard to win games.”

Part of that was Allen turning the football over four times, including three times in the second half. Part of it was decisions like the early field goal that allowed the Jets some life. Early in the third quarter, McDermott gave the Jets even more life. The Jets had third-and-13 at the Bills’ 25-yard line. They took a pair of penalties, one an offensive pass interference and the other an ineligible receiver down field. Accepting the offensive pass interference would have put the Jets in third-and-23 from the 35-yard line, giving the Bills a chance to keep them off the board entirely. McDermott declined both penalties, allowing Greg Zuerlein a much more manageable 43-yard field goal.

McDermott took over defensive play-calling duties this offseason, and the sentiment among players was that he would be an aggressive play caller. But instead of giving his defense a chance to knock Wilson out of field goal range, McDermott was happy to get out of the drive having just allowed three points. That made the score 13-6.

 

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) had four turnovers Monday night, including three interceptions to the Jets’ Jordan Whitehead. (Robert Deutsch / USA Today)

Allen and the offense just needed to lead one more scoring drive to make McDermott’s decisions a mere footnote. But Allen and the offense were a mess for most of the night against the Jets’ swarming defense. Allen was sacked five times, and the Jets hit him nine times. He hadn’t turned the ball over this many times in a game since the 2019 season opener on this same field. So maybe McDermott had reason to hesitate and take the points early in the game.

But it felt all too familiar. This was a coach who was punting from the opponent 41-yard line in a playoff loss to the Bengals. One who was taking chipshot field goals against the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game three years ago instead of going for touchdowns. On Monday night, instead of trusting his star quarterback to chase points or trusting his defense to make third-and-23 a nightmare for Wilson, McDermott tried to white knuckle his way to a 1-0 record.

That strategy fell apart in the fourth quarter when McDermott’s defense let Wilson go 3-of-3 for 41 yards and a game-tying touchdown — an incredible catch by Garrett Wilson. When the Jets got the ball right back after an Allen fumble, they quickly faced fourth-and-1 from Buffalo’s 18-yard line. Robert Saleh, who spends pregame running stadium stairs, decided to go for it and got the first down by running a quarterback sneak with his backup quarterback. The Jets would have to settle for a field goal anyway, but that decision allowed them to chew more clock. Saleh was putting the game in the hands of his players.

This game ended in overtime with Xavier Gipson returning a punt for a touchdown to give the Jets the improbable 22-16 win, but it never needed to get to that point. Allen and McDermott let the home team hang around too long and it’s beyond time both of them correct the issues that allowed that to happen.

“Look. it’s an entire team, it’s not just one person,” McDermott said. “It starts with us as a coaching staff and making sure we’re putting the players in the proper position and then taking care of the football. I thought we did some good things tonight at times and then there’s other times where there’s just too much handing them the game at times.”

Here are some other quick thoughts from Buffalo’s loss …

Allen’s awful night

Long after the game ended and Allen had spoken to reporters, he sat at his locker stall with a towel over his head, staring at the ground. He repeatedly took the blame for the loss in his postgame news conference and repeated familiar refrains about needing to take care of the ball. Teammates came up to Allen to console him as he slowly dressed and finally made his way out of the locker room. Asked if he ever worries about Allen’s confidence, McDermott said, “Sure, yeah. Everyone mentally is up and down. Like I said, the journey of a season.”

Allen’s confidence seemed unshakable at times over the last two seasons. That wasn’t the case Monday night. He too often didn’t look like he trusted his protection and also didn’t have enough receivers running open. That didn’t excuse two of his interceptions that were reckless heaves down the field with no obvious target. This was one game, and Allen is still one of the best quarterbacks on the planet. But his turnovers were an issue last season, and it’s one that hasn’t been fixed. It’s odd that these moments of regression are still happening for Allen or that his confidence could ever be in question. The Bills have to hope it doesn’t linger beyond this week.

Offensive line troubles

When the Bills got the ball first in overtime, they ended up in a second-and-15 due to a Spencer Brown false start. Earlier in the game, Brown got walked back into the quarterback on multiple occasions. Allen was only pressured on 26 percent of his dropbacks, a manageable number, but the pressure was significant. He was hit nine times and sacked five. On non-Allen carries, the Bills averaged 3.8 yards per carry. After replacing two starters on the interior of the offensive line, the Jets still were too much for the Bills to handle up front.

Run defense proves costly

Last we saw the Bills’ defense, the Bengals ran for 176 yards on 34 attempts. Against the Jets, McDermott’s unit allowed 174 yards on 28 carries. Breece Hall had runs of 83 yards and 26 yards that skewed the average, but those chunk plays ended up costing the Bills. It should have been easier to key on the run with the Jets down to their backup quarterback. Instead, the Jets were able to keep themselves in the game on the strength of their running backs. Inexplicably, the Jets had five plays of 20-plus yards in this game while the Bills only had one. Ed Oliver, Leonard Floyd and Matt Milano were all bright spots on a night when the defense was good enough to win.

What’s next?

The Bills return home to play the Las Vegas Raiders next week before traveling to Washington to play the Commanders and getting a home game against the Dolphins to round out the first month of the season. That’s not too rough of a schedule, so there should be a chance to reset after an 0-1 start. Week 1 isn’t a time to panic about a Bills team that has enough talent to make another run at a championship. The Chiefs and Bengals both lost in Week 1, too. The Bills can’t be too focused on that, though. They need to take the problems that popped up in this game seriously before it becomes too much of a pattern.

[shiva2999]

It was a pattern 5 years ago.

McD is a chicken and ass coverer.

[Victor7]

3 hours ago, theAteam said:

They didn’t need to be aggressive. Their offense wasn’t getting shit done. We gave them the game by turning it over 4 times, at least two of which gave them prime field position as I recall. Even so they needed a miracle catch and overtime to win it.

A boring game where we systematically got 4 yards at a time down the field would have won it. We actually lost it BECAUSE of going too aggressive. 

This. Everything here is correct. McD didn´t need to be aggressive yesterday. Who honestly thinks the D was an issue??

This game was lost on offense because Dorsey and specially Allen try to go big play hunting instead of being more methodical against a superb defense. 

[LIBills]

3 hours ago, miamibillsnut said:

the jets defense doesnt give anything.   They arent being compared to the 85 Bears for shits and giggles.  That being said, Josh needs to just eat it or throw it away when there is nothing, which there was plenty of last night, nothing.

 

And as for McDufus.  Everyone remember the FG in the first quarter on the 4th and 1.5 we settled for.   Should have gone for it. 

There are always guys open.

And please, there might be one player from the Jets D that would start for the 85 Bears, one of the best D’s ever.

[nealpellecchia@yahoo]

Because he's conservative and doesn't want to give them what they want. Letting deep guys get open.

[nealpellecchia@yahoo]

What does he do for the offense?

[StraightJ]

There was a pretty decent article on Buffalorunblings that put this lack of aggression to rest, for anyone who hasn't been paying attention.  Even Daryls has pointed it out, albeit as part of his anti-Sean shtick, so maybe folks have not taken it seriously?

Before that, I think I pointed out an article where the aggressiveness was based mostly on going for it on 4th.  I found it interesting these days Belichick ranked(IIRC) 2nd to last in that stat.

On defense, it's worth noting rather than the usual week of preparation, these guys were preparing quite some time to face Rodgers, and instead ending up facing a much more mobile Zach Wilson(one of the reasons the guy was selected #2 overall in the draft) which likely saved the NYJ from what looked like it was going to be a punishing night by the Bills front 6.  With a new "green dot" LB in Bernard calling the plays on the field for defense, one might think there will be a period of adjustment, but I don't recall reading any glaring condemnations of his first game assuming the role(of course I hadn'r read many of the post game threads on here lol).

With Dallas having demolished the now-worshipped Daboll and his team 40-0 on the same field the previous night, and having a week to prepare specifically for Wilson, odds look decent that those who are likely champing at the bit to go on another anti-Bills diatribe using that game as a comparison may be able to do so.  I still predict the NYJ will keep it considerably closer than the NYG did, but who knows. 

As for the NYG, not yet certain if their curse will be a one game thing or not.  I also hope to get official word in the Shoutbox(unlikely to re-enter this thread) from @daryls61 if TCOTDs has evolved to include things other than Bills injuries, such as the Rodgers injury which I think an argument can be made for that one game may have helped the NYJ due to Wilson's mobility and him completing a few passes when he absolutely needed to.  Either way, I am displeased with the injury to AR and await official declaration if the curse has morphed, being the team overall responded admirably to the unprecedented slew of impactful injuries, including about half a season for Josh Allen.

Go Bills.

(also @daryls61, let me know in the SB if you had made an official declaration on the off-season workout the NYJ had with Matt Araiza, which I can see being viewed positively or negatively based on things like their sincerity....  It was the same organization that at face value to the casual fan gave Tim Tebow a chance after he was run out of town for a Manning who was run out of town.  I suppose at least Denver got a SB win before the curse for those actions set in.  lol

[shiva2999]

Okay, that was much better.

McD got shocked out of last weeks fiasco and concentrated on the D and left the O to Josh and Ken Dorsey and took my advice NOT TO PLAY LIKE A BUNCH OF PUSSIES.

Good game.

Keep it up.