Surmising the Bills ugly performance by the Buffalo News
Coaching: F
Sean McDermott reiterated the same comment about 100 times in his postgame news conference: He needs to coach better. No argument here. What happened to the McDermott who showed such aggressiveness on fourth down last year? That went away in the AFC championship game against the Chiefs, and unfortunately didn’t return Sunday.
McDermott punted on fourth-and-1 from his own 46-yard line in the first quarter and again on fourth-and-3 from the Pittsburgh 43 on his team’s next possession. That’s absolutely inexcusable. To make matters worse, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll called a flea flicker on the third-and-1 play that came before the punt. With two chances to gain 1 yard, it's no time to get cute. Just run your 237-pound quarterback ahead to gain 3 feet.
That wasn’t the worst play call made by Daboll on Sunday, though. That distinction goes to the backward pass to Breida on fourth-and-1 at the start of the fourth quarter. The play was dead in the water, as Breida was blown up almost immediately. “I mean, yeah, I got to do a better job with that,” McDermott said. Again, no argument here. The Bills didn't look ready to play. That's on the coach. Now, it's on him to fix it to get a season with such high expectations on track.
Report Card: Questionable coaching calls, offensive failures lead to ugly grades in Bills' opening loss