NFL RedZone host blasts Bills’ clock management gaffes vs. Texans: ‘I’m dumbfounded’

NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson could not believe what he was seeing at the end of the Buffalo Bills' Week 5 contest.

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Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott has taken blame for the team’s end-of-game clock management in their Week 5 loss to the Houston Texans, but having a figure at which to direct ire doesn’t make the individual decisions any less baffling.

A penalty forced a Houston punt with roughly 40 seconds remaining in the 20-20 game, with Buffalo ultimately receiving the ball on its own three-yard line with zero timeouts remaining. Rather than attempting to run out the clock and force the game into overtime, the Bills promptly threw three incomplete passes, taking only 16 seconds off the clock before punting the ball back to the Texans. Houston quickly picked up a few additional yards before Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked a 59-yard game-winning field goal to secure the 23-20 win.

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It was simply an absurd stretch of plays that made no sense in real time and make less sense in hindsight. The Bills weren’t guaranteed to run out the clock and force overtime by keeping the ball on the ground, as Houston had all three of its timeouts remaining; that said, it was certainly a more auspicious strategy than relying on their, to that point, lackluster offense to perfectly execute four or five plays in 30 seconds with zero timeouts to get into field goal range.

It was just bizarre, so much so that NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson could not believe what he was seeing. He grew progressively unnerved as the farcical situation continued to unfold, with Awful Announcing documenting his reaction in a Twitter thread.

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“What are they doing just throwing the ball up here?” Hanson said after the team’s second-down incompletion to Mack Hollins. “That is wild, ladies and gentlemen. Two dangerous throws from his own endzone for Josh Allen. I’ll tell you what, Sean McDermott’s got to be saying the same thing. I mean, ‘OK, aggressive is aggressive, but there’s only 20 seconds left to go in regulation and then we head to overtime. And there’s 95 yards in front of us.”

He grew even more impassioned after a third-down pass fell incomplete to Curtis Samuel, stating that it was as though Buffalo was unaware of the situation it was in.

“This is almost like they don’t know the score of the game here ladies and gentlemen,” Hanson said. “It’s tied at 20, and now they’re going to have to punt from their own endzone after three incomplete passes only took about nine seconds, 12 seconds off of the game clock. I am dumbfounded by these decisions here, but the Bills obviously feel convicted about what they’re doing, but look where their punter is lining up.”

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He later referred to the Bills’ game management as “astounding” (not in a positive way) after Buffalo punted back to Houston and set its opponent up for a game-winning field goal.

It was a frustrating stretch that prompted strong reactions from both the Buffalo faithful and Bills locker room. End-of-game clock management is something the team’s coaching staff will need to tweak moving forward, as this is a long-standing concern that has cost the Bills games time and time again over the past several years.

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