Bills Central

Stephen A. Smith blasts Bills HC Sean McDermott for ‘egregious’ decisions vs. Texans

ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith was critical of Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott during Monday's edition of First Take.

Kyle Silagyi

Tori Lynn Schneider / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The Buffalo Bills aren’t a team that’s historically spoken about ad nauseam on nationally televised sports debate programs, this a result of the market the team plays in and its, until recently, annual irrelevance. This has changed in recent years thanks to Buffalo’s return to perennial contention, and the Bills were again featured prominently during a recent edition of perhaps the most popular show of its sort… just not for a very flattering reason.

ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith blasted Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott during Monday’s episode of First Take, heavily criticizing him for the manner in which he handled the final moment of his team’s Week 5 loss to the Houston Texans. To recap: the Bills received the ball on their own three-yard line with roughly 30 seconds remaining in a 20-20 ballgame. Rather than attempting to run out the clock and force the game into overtime, Buffalo threw three straight incomplete passes, eating just 16 seconds off the clock before punting the ball back to Houston. Robert Woods returned the punt past midfield before C.J. Stroud found Dare Ogunbowale for a quick five-yard pickup, positioning Ka’imi Fairbairn for the game-winning 59-yard field goal.

Related: It’s too early for Bills to fire Sean McDermott - but the clock is ticking

There’s no guarantee that running the ball would have taken the final ticks off the clock and forced overtime, but that avenue certainly offered a higher probability of success than throwing the ball three consecutive times. Smith didn’t hold back when discussing McDermott’s decision, stating that he simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“I tried to give Sean McDermott a pass, and my God, how idiotic can you be as a coach, to know that you need to run the football and you’re going to throw the football not one, not two, but three times?” Smith said. “And oh, by the way, don’t have anybody in the backfield, everybody and their mother knew you were going to throw the football. I mean, you didn’t think it. You didn’t even do play-action! You did nothing! I mean you just dropped back and threw the ball not one, not two, but three times, and you ultimately give Houston the ball back and put them in position to win the d*** game.” 

Smith went on to say that he’s never been part of the camp that has called for McDermott to be fired, but his game management gaffes in Houston shed new light on his security and Buffalo’s general offseason strategy.

“I have never been one of those guys that looked at Sean McDermott and said he needs to go, like other people have been so ultra-critical of him, but I will say this: he did himself no favors [Sunday],” Smith said. “The only thing he did right [Sunday] was call his own d*** self out after the game, saying that it was on him, he messed up. I don’t know what the hell he was thinking putting Josh Allen in a position where you’re basically saying, ‘Come save the day for us.’ 

Sean McDermott
Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

“Suddenly we’ve got to look at everything with the Bills; we’ve got to look at you losing Stefon Diggs, we’ve got to look at you losing Gabe Davis, we’ve got to look at the absence of those guys for Josh Allen to throw the football to and look at you and go like this, ‘D***, what were you thinking? What was your organization thinking?’ And for you as a coach to put your team in that position at your own d*** five-yard line, where you’re going to drop back to throw the ball three times and not run the football once, when clock is on your side, was egregious.”

It was an ugly stretch of clock and game management from McDermott, and it’s not the first time that gaffes in this area of the game have cost the club. He’ll look to quickly learn from his mistakes as the team prepares for a Week 6 divisional clash that the national media will certainly have its eyes on, as Buffalo is slated to face off against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets on Monday Night Football. 

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Kyle Silagyi
KYLE SILAGYI

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