Sean McDermott details how Bills plan to combat penalty troubles

After committing a season-high number of penalties last week, the Buffalo Bills have a plan on how to cut down on fouls moving forward.

Anthony Miller | Oct 31, 2024

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The recurring theme of the Buffalo Bills' 31-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks last week was, unfortunately, penalties. The team committed 13 penalties for 85 yards in the victory, this after taking 11 fouls for 94 yards in a Week 6 win over the New York Jets. The penalties, in addition to making for a poor viewing experience, hurt the team, and Buffalo, thus, is focused on mitigating this issue.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott spoke on Wednesday about what the team is doing to combat their penalty woes, saying that it starts on the practice field.

“Well, you've got to be intentional about it," McDermott said. "A, it starts with truth and awareness of you can’t do this and the standard and expectation. And two is, we’re intentional about it, going out on the practice field. I’m one referee out there, right? And it’s hard to see everything and we had officials here through the spring and through training camp, multiple sets, and it was great to have them, but they all have their other jobs they're doing now so I have to referee out there and I can’t see everything.

"So the staff has to do a really good job in the film review, if not on the field, as well, but also in the film review after practice of not just looking at scheme and fundamentals, but also where we were with pre-snap and where we were with some of the techniques as it relates to the penalties that we have gotten.”

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In the win, the Bills had a season-high 13 penalties for 85 yards against the Seahawks. Buffalo and Seattle combined for 24 penalties, which is the most in an NFL game this season.

Buffalo is ranked 19th in the NFL, with an average of 6.6 penalties per game. That is an increase from last season when the Bills averaged 5.9 per game.

The Bills are lucky that they dominated every other aspect of the game against the Seahawks, as it could have been ugly for them. Buffalo fans can be ensured that the team can get those cleaned up and ready for its divisional rival matchup against the Miami Dolphins this weekend.

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