Bills HC needs to see ‘more urgency’ from this ‘area of concern’ after Week 1

Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott wants to see improvement from his team's special teams unit after their Week 1 win.

Kyle Silagyi | Sep 9, 2024

Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

In this story:

Buffalo Bills | News, Scores, Schedules & Standings

Growing pains are to be expected at the start of each new NFL season, especially on the rare occurrence when an entirely new play is introduced. This is a struggle that the entire league is traversing as clubs embark on their respective 2024 campaigns, as the NFL introduced sweeping changes to kickoffs in the offseason in an effort to decrease injuries and encourage more frequent returns.

The Buffalo Bills experienced their fair share of early struggles with the new ‘dynamic kickoff’ in Week 1, particularly in the fourth quarter of their win over the Arizona Cardinals; they allowed the league’s first kickoff return touchdown under the new rules when the team saw Arizona running back DeeJay Dallas take a kick back 96 yards to the house. The Cardinals scored a two-point conversion after the return to bring the game to 31-28, with Buffalo’s special teams gaffe bringing a game that was firmly in its control back into flux.

The Bills’ special teams unit committed another blunder after kicker Tyler Bass nailed his second field goal of the game to give his team a 34-28 lead, as the specialist kicked the ball out of bounds to give Arizona the ball at its 40-yard line down six points with two minutes remaining. The wind within Highmark Stadium was unrelenting throughout the entire afternoon, but the error gave the Cardinals a late opportunity to win the game, this after the special teams unit provided Arizona an avenue back into the contest earlier in the quarter.

Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott spoke about the special teams gaffes during his Monday media availability, particularly touching on the return touchdown as he chalked his team’s errors up to both scheme and execution.

“I thought that there was too much return yardage to begin with before the returner was met with any type of confrontation, let’s call it, for lack of a better word,” McDermott said. “And then we had three or four guys right there to make the play, and we didn’t make the play, so we have to do a better job. I’ve got to do a better job of putting them in position, and then when they’re there, we have to make the play. We looked hard at that this morning.

“It’s an area of concern, it’s an area that we have to make sure that we shore up between now and the game here coming Thursday. There’s four plays right now, four plays on special teams that are big-time factors: punt, punt return, and now kickoff and kickoff return. That was a pivotal moment in the game for us.”

Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

Buffalo’s special teams execution wasn’t wholly poor on Sunday, as Bass was a combined six-of-six on his field goals and extra points, Sam Martin was solid on his scant punts, and Brandon Codrington looked explosive on his lone kick return. The Bills now have the benefit of having played a meaningful game with the new kickoff rules in place, which should allow the team to learn and evolve as the season progresses; regardless, McDermott wants to see improvement from this crucial phase of the game sooner rather than later.

“I don’t know what the research is on around the league from Week 1 yet, we’re still kind of gathering that, and I’m trying to sort through, right now, the other important information I’m dealing with,” McDermott said. “We’re going to make sure that we’re researching that and seeing what the trends are. It’s a new play, right? Right away, in Week 1, it wasn’t this way necessarily in the preseason, I would say, but we’re seeing in Week 1 that, hey, this is real, and in a pivotal moment of the game, that game changed fast. We can’t let that happen, number one, and we need to have more urgency there.”

— Enjoy free coverage of the Bills from Buffalo Bills on SI —