More urgency needed in two-minute situations
Even after the Bills fell behind with under two minutes to play, they still had a chance to go win or at least tie the game with a final drive. While the Bills only had one timeout at their disposal, they still had plenty of time with 1:44 to go. A 21-yard Josh Allen to John Brown completion got the Bills rolling, and one play later, Allen found Isaiah McKenzie for an 11-yard gain to put the Bills at the Cleveland 41 with 1:05 to go.
At this point, the Bills still had a timeout to use and over a full minute, plenty of time to gain 41 yards to put the ball in the end zone to win the game instead of settling for overtime.
The worst thing the Bills could have done at this point is get conservative and settle for short gains that put them in a position where they have to think about kicking a long field goal to try and tie the game. Stephen Hauschka has been a good kicker for the Bills since the signed him in 2017, but he hasn’t made a 50-plus yard field goal yet in 2019 and missed from 34 before halftime earlier in this game.
What Buffalo needed to do with 1:05 left is continue to keep up the fast tempo on offense and push the ball downfield to try and score a touchdown. Instead, the Bills settled for short passes and a low-percentage throw on third down from the Cleveland 35. They also made a couple bizarre coaching decisions to huddle up, burn the clock, and then try to draw Cleveland offsides on fourth and 4.
It was maddening to watch the way the Bills played the final minute. They seemed uncertain of what they wanted to do once they got to third down. After catching a six-yard pass from Allen on second and 10, Devin Singletary failed to get out of bounds, which kept the clock running. The Bills elected not to use their final timeout, which is understandable, but they made the inexplicable choice to huddle up instead of going quickly to get a first down and keep a hurry-up drive to the end zone going.
By going slow, the Bills wasted a full 30 seconds between the two plays. This all but squashed any chance the Bills had at getting a chance for a touchdown, and that’s even before Allen’s back-shoulder throw for Brown fell incomplete.
The Bills will want that third down play back as Cole Beasley was wide open on the left hashmark for what would have been an easy first down.
Instead, Allen looked downfield for Brown all the way. The throw he attempted is a low-percentage throw and had little chance of being completed.
It was a shot play, if anything. By trying that play, the Bills were essentially saying they felt comfortable kicking from where they were on the field. That’s perplexing considering Hauschka’s struggles from beyond 50 this season.
The Bills then made themselves look ridiculous by lining up their offense and trying to draw Cleveland offside. Sean McDermott has had his teams try this move in several other instances since 2017 and it never works. It certainly wasn’t going to work here. It’s just a waste of time.
What the Bills should have done is shown more urgency once they reached Cleveland territory. Playing for a field goal should not have been the game plan. They should have continued to run their regular passing offense and trust the likes of Brown and Beasley to get open on intermediate routes like they’ve been doing all season long. They should not have been trying to run the clock down like they did on third down.
Once they got to the fourth down situation, they should have also considered going for it. They were not close enough for Hauschka to come on and kick. The offense should have been out there not to draw Cleveland offside, but to pass and try to get four yards.
The end-game coaching highlights a problem the Bills have had throughout the season in two-minute situations: a lack of urgency. There have been too many instances where McDermott has chosen to forgo a two-minute drive and simply run out the clock before halftime. The lack of aggressiveness was bound to become a problem when the Bills needed it at the end of a game, It was hardly a surprise to see a lack of urgency in an end-game situation like Sunday’s.
While coaching wasn’t the only reason the Bills lost on Sunday, it was a big factor in self-destructing Buffalo’s last-ditch effort to pull out a win.