The Buffalo Bills threw three consecutive deep passes from their own 3-yard line in a tie game with under a minute to play. None of them was completed and Buffalo ended up punting, giving the Houston Texans a chance to snatch victory.
Houston did just that, as Ka’imi Fairbairn hit a 59-yard field goal with no time left on the clock. The Bills knew the Texans had all three timeouts, but took the deep shots back in their own end zone anyway.
After the loss, Sean McDermott took the blame for the decision to throw instead of running at least once.
“The end of game situation — we needed to run the clock and move the chains,” McDermott said. “That’s on me. We didn’t do that there and that’s my fault.”
The Bills had 32 seconds left on the clock in a 20-20 game. McDermott nor offensive coordinator Joe Brady dialed up a run play to get the Bills out of their own end zone, or even try to run the ball to force the Texans to use their timeouts and kill the clock.
“That’s a situation if we go three straight runs, you run potentially six seconds each time,” McDermott said. “Maybe we’re in a similar situation. Either way, we gotta do a better job. And that starts with me. One hundred percent.”
Perhaps the Texans don’t have an opportunity to run a play on offense if the Bills run the ball three straight times then punt, since Houston burns all of its timeouts. Fairbairn would also have to kick a longer field goal. He still could have made the kick, but the extra 5 yards makes a difference.
There’s also the potential of a longer punt if Bills punter Sam Martin has more room to kick. Plenty of factors were in play just by running the ball.
“I probably should have run it on the first play and said, ‘Hey, where are we now?” McDermott said. “Either way, we’re probably gonna have to move the chains one time to not give them a chance. Those are situations and that’s on me.”
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