The Bills scored the winning goal with the Chiefs to take a 36-33 lead and all but win in Sunday’s AFC knockout. They only had to control the Captain’s offense for 13 seconds to claim their second consecutive ticket to the AFC Championship Game.
They cannot do that. The captain picked up 44 yards in 10 seconds to set up a close-up effort from Harrison Butker. He nailed it and Kansas City went on to win in extra time, 42-36.
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After the game, there were many questions raised about the Bills’ defensive strategy towards holding the final rule. However, one stood out to fans: Why didn’t the Bills call for a push to get the Leaders to waste time on a potential return?
Hypothetically, that approach would send the chiefs running out of time by at least a few seconds and put them in a more gruesome time slot than that.
Instead, Buffalo’s Tyler Bass hit the tee off the end of the field and allowed the Captain to receive the ball at the 25-yard line without further delay. That left enough time for Mahomes, equipped with three timeouts, to run two full innings and go into range.
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So why did the Bills choose deep mining? Coach Sean McDermott declined to explain his logic during his post-match press conference.
“I don’t really want to go into specifics,” McDermott said, per CBS Sports. “Overall, there were things we talked about and we could have done better. That started with me and went all the way down,” McDermott said. “I don’t want to go into specifics now. I’m really proud of the boys and their efforts. Obviously, they’ve made a few games in the long run, so I’ll just let it be. it’s there.”
McDermott also repeatedly pointed the finger at himself for the Bills’ poor defensive action during the stretch and lamented that the game had only 13 seconds left in which the Bills could not stop the Chiefs.
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“Again, I’ll do it at this point and myself. I’ll leave it at that,” McDermott said. “I’m proud of all of them. These guys have come through a lot. They really did and to come out here and the game was pretty much 13 seconds, I think they all feel the same way I do.
“We all had stomachaches and it was very painful. We worked so hard to get here, number one. I know the fans are very disappointed and I wish I could take that off. I I wish I could take it off team, but we can’t. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and this makes us stronger. It will take some time, but it will. We’re stronger.”
