Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott’s message remained steadfast mid-week ahead of their next game against the Denver Broncos.
At a 5-4 record trailing the AFC East-leading Dolphins, with one more loss than their 2022 season total, and on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, he believes in his team’s ability to rise to the challenge ahead.
“I feel like these guys know what’s ahead of us, but they also know we got to take it one game at a time,” McDermott said. “I think they’re ready for the challenge. I know they’re ready for the challenge. And, you know, that’s what the Buffalo Bills do.”
In fact, in one word he expressed just how he feels about the team he has.
“Confident,” he said to the press. “Confident in our team. Confident in our coaches. Confident in our players. Confident in our staff. It doesn’t mean we don’t have work to do. It doesn’t mean we don’t have a gap to close.
“And there’s different things that make up that gap,” McDermott added. “And so we’ve got to continue to drill down on those areas and play better as an overall team, complementary-wise, and reset some things that we need to reset. You go back and re-teach certain things or re-establish certain things this time of year when you’re going through things. Even when you’re not going through things, it’s the right thing to do. But my confidence remains high in our group.”
Lack of execution and consistency across all three phases, along with some costly turnovers culminated in a loss last Sunday night to the Bengals.
Shoddy officiating and injuries didn’t help, but the coach has made no excuses, and instead taken responsibility for what he says they can correct.
“I think it starts with our level of execution, our level of complementary football,” McDermott said. “As I mentioned (Sunday) evening, it’s hard to win when you turn the ball over twice and you lose the field position battle by 12 yards approximately. There’s a formula here we’ve used for winning and we’ve got to execute that.”
While Allen and McDermott sounded like they may have felt unhappy with some of the offensive gameplan and overall inconsistency after the loss, McDermott has continued to throw support and place confidence behind coordinator Ken Dorsey.
Standing by personnel is nothing new for Buffalo’s head coach.
He did so early in his Buffalo tenure for both former Bills starting Quarterback Nathan Peterman as well as former assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier when questions arose about their performance.
Dorsey is confident in their team moving forward as well.
“I think they’ve got a lot of faith in who we are and what we’re about,” he said. “We’ve got a mentally tough group, a group of guys who have been through things together, been through some ups and downs and good and bad. We’re able to come together for one common goal and that’s win a football game.”
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