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WATCH: Bill Belichick raves about Bills HC Sean McDermott’s defense

Legendary head coach Bill Belichick was complimentary of Buffalo Bills sideline boss Sean McDermott's defense during a recent television appearance.

Kyle Silagyi

Winslow Townson-Imagn Images
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Bill Belichick made a habit out of defeating the Buffalo Bills throughout his decades-stretching tenure as an NFL head coach, constructing a 37-12 record against the team while at the helm of the division-rival New England Patriots for 24 years. The Bills were long a divisional doormat for Belichick and company, not posing much of a threat for nearly 20 consecutive years as the sideline boss built a dynasty in New England; things started to change once Sean McDermott took the reins in Buffalo, as he was the one who would ultimately coach the team that would dethrone the Patriots as the perennial division winner.

McDermott didn’t pick up his first win over Belichick until 2020, but he didn’t look back from that point forward, constructing a record of 7-2 against New England (including playoffs) from the turn of the decade until the legendary coach’s departure from the Patriots after the 2023 season. Belichick still leads his all-time head-to-head series against McDermott 8-7, but the Buffalo coach gave the mastermind fits in the latter part of his career, something he highlighted during a recent episode of The CW’s Inside the NFL.

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The six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach dedicated a segment to McDermott’s defensive scheme, breaking down two plays that the Bills’ defense dialed up in their Week 3 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars that serve as a microcosm of his strategy.

You can watch the full clip below:

Belichick praised the unpredictable nature of McDermott’s defense and the coach’s ability to disguise plays, particularly highlighting one play in which Buffalo disguised a four-man rush as a blitz.

“There’s no way that we can predict what McDermott’s going to call, we just don’t know,” Belichick said. “They have a lot of variety in what they do. They’re going to do a great job of disguising with the linebackers, and the corners are going to move on and off the outside receivers. We’re just not going to know what it is until after the snap.”

We’d be remiss not to mention that Bills defensive coordinator Bobby Babich calls plays in Buffalo, but he came up under McDermott’s tutelage and very much runs a version of the head coach’s defense. Belichick summarized his thoughts with a later quote, again raving about the incalculability of McDermott’s scheme.

Sean McDermott
Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“It’s just so hard to recognize this defense until after the snap,” Belichick said. “Then you know what they’re doing, but if you try to guess with them before the snap, you’re just going to guess wrong a lot.”

McDermott gets a lot of flak from the Buffalo faithful, often for good reason; that said, he’s undeniably a stellar defensive coach, so much so that one of the greatest defensive—and general—minds in the history of football dedicated an entire segment of a television show to glowing over his scheme.

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Kyle Silagyi
KYLE SILAGYI

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