This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! I hope you’re well. Did you have a good Thanksgiving weekend? That Black Friday shopping will take it out of you, man. Both your pockets and your energy.
Anyway, let’s talk about the Bills. After yet another excruciatingly close loss on Sunday to the Eagles, this solid Buffalo Bills team finds itself on the outside of the AFC’s playoff picture.
RELATED: Hear Tony Romo’s terrible color commentary on the game
This has to be one of the most frustrating losses of the season for Buffalo. I mean, the Bills had this one, y’all. The Eagles were cooked. Philly needed a 60-yard field goal to tie the game and get into OT. That doesn’t usually happen. It’s hard to blame the Bills for that.
But this is more of the same for Buffalo. The Bills are 2-6 this season in one-score games. That’s why the Bills are where they are. Usually, that points to a coaching problem.
On Sunday night that’s exactly what it was. There were two decisions McDermott made that just didn’t make a ton of sense.
Choosing not to try and get in field goal range with 20 seconds left on the game clock after Philly’s field goal makes no sense. He feared the Eagles’ pass rush, but it’d barely bothered Josh Allen all game. With that big arm, you’ve got to at least try.
Then, his call of a zero blitz in the red zone against a team that loves QB draws was an awful one. The Ringer’s Benjamin Solak broke down why that was an obvious mistake. Robert Griffin III called it “malpractice.”
The Bills got burned running Cover 0 against an Eagles Team that specializes in QB draw in crucial situations in the redzone. That’s coaching malpractice.
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) November 27, 2023
Close games come down to luck and decision-making. Those late choices win and lose games. McDermott lost the game for his team on Sunday night.
It’s too soon to talk about him getting fired when there’s still hope for the playoffs. But he’s got to be better moving forward — or else that will be more of a conversation come January.
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Texas A&M found their guy … we think
To be quite honest, folks, I’m not sure what’s going on at Texas A&M. I don’t know if A&M knows what’s going on, either.
The school is reportedly hiring Duke’s Mike Elko as its new head football coach, according to reporting from ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
This makes sense. Elko is a fine hire. He’s turned a basketball school’s football team into something at least worth mentioning. Plus, he was A&M’s former defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher from 2018 to 2021. There’s at least some history there.
This is great. Shoutout to Elko. But…I don’t think this is the guy A&M wanted. Initial reports connected Kentucky’s Mark Stoops to the school but fans threw a fit online which caused Stoops to remain at Kentucky.
Fans wanted a big swing. Instead, they’re getting a dude who might be fine but also has less experience as a head coach than Stoops and will probably top out at nine wins at A&M because A&M is just a nine-win school. It is what it is.
Meanwhile, it’ll still be paying its former head coach $76 million to go be a family man. I would say this is tragic, but it’s not. This is just Texas A&M.
Frank Reich is out?!?!?
The Frank Reich experiment in Carolina didn’t even last a whole season. The Panthers fired the head coach on Monday following the loss to the Titans.
Reich is supposed to be a quarterback whisperer. He was supposedly the perfect guy to work with Bryce Young. Obviously, things haven’t worked out. But to move on this quickly? Sheesh.
Charles Curtis has the fan reaction here. Folks are shocked.
We knew the Carolina Panthers wouldn’t be a playoff team in 2023, despite having the No. 1 overall draft pick in QB Bryce Young under center.
But this bad? Maybe we didn’t know that. And now, the franchise has let go of head coach Frank Reich as part of the blame.
That said, it’s absolutely shocking. You have to give Reich some time to build what he’s hoping to get out of this rebuilding team, and he won 40 games helming the Indianapolis Colts before he took this job. So maybe this was jumping the gun a little, even with some bad decisions this year?
More coverage is on the way.
READ MORE: Fans react to the Panthers firing Frank Reich
Quick hits: The best cellys in the NFL … Petty Booker … and more
— Prince Grimes ranked the best celebrations from the NFL weekend and C.J. Stroud’s Baby Boy reenactment is deservedly at the top. IYKYK.
— Devin Booker is hilariously petty. He called back to an old beef with Joakim Noah after hitting a game-winning 3-pointer over a double team. Bryan Kalbrosky has more.
— Tony Romo called Jim Nantz sexy on air and it wasn’t the weirdest thing he’d said all night. Charles Curtis has more.
— Find you someone who will show you love on IG like Taylor Swift shows Travis Kelce.
— Here’s the NFL draft order after Week 12 from Charles. The Patriots are climbing the ladder of suckitude.
— And here’s Christian D’Andrea with the worst quarterback performances of Week 12.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading TMW today. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic week. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️