Sean McDermott took full responsibility for the disastrous clock management on Sunday that helped hand the Texans a 23-20 win over the Bills.
The Buffalo coach said, “That’s on me,” several times as he tried to explain what happened that caused the Bills to go to the air three straight times with the game tied at 20 and Buffalo back on its own three-yard line with 32 seconds to play.
Instead of going to the run game to force the Texans to use their timeouts — they had all three — quarterback Josh Allen unsuccessfully tried to pass the ball three straight times deep and only ate 11 seconds off the clock.
“That’s on me that the end-of-game situation on offense,” McDermott said. “Tough situation. They’re holding three timeouts, they have a good field goal kicker. We needed to run the clock and move the chains, and that’s on me. We didn’t do that there, and that’s my fault.”
The Texans were able to get the ball at the Bills’ 46-yard line after Buffalo was forced to punt and, predictably, the last-ditch drive by the Texans allowed Ka’imi Fairbairn to hit a game-winning, 59-yard field goal as time expired.
McDermott wouldn’t come out and say whether he supported the decision to pass the ball three times, coming back to his position where the buck stops with him — and the result landed at his feet.
“There’s a potential if the situation goes three straight runs you’re running six seconds off potentially each time and you’re maybe in a similar situation,” the Bills coach said. “Either way, we have to do a better job, and that starts with me, 100 percent.”
The Bills had erased a 17-point hole in the third quarter only to come up short in the end for a second consecutive game.
They’ll now get ready to face the Jets on “Monday Night Football” in Week 6.
