That FG Decision by McDermott

[Doc Brown]

3 hours ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

It’s like making a big fold at a poker tournament with your two pair on a board with straights and flushes possible.  Not fun, but right.  

Knowing McDermott he folded to Reid with a 2-7 offsuit. 

[Big Blitz]

Not only that FG call…

 

But the call to have Bass kick the 50 yarder - that’s no slam dunk call either.  
 

 

McD was fantastic today - he’s going to have to be better this week.  
 

A chat with Brady (maybe first one since the week 4 trick play to Josh) about TE screens to Knox on big 3rd downs and green zone play calls.  
 

FGs won’t cut it this week.  

[Hawaii50]

3 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Tyler Bass had a huge game. Needed every kick.

We likely lose if he didn’t make his kicks!

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

3 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

I still Hated it.

 

Needed two yards to win the game. If you don't get it, ravens need 98 yards.

It was an Andrews drop away from potentially being a disaster decision 

Disaster? Tie game with 1:30 left and two timeouts?  You’re makin it sound like the ravens would’ve walked off on that 2 point conversion lol 

[Mike in Horseheads]

3 hours ago, Warcodered said:

Interview week?

yes he was on the phone during the game with the Jets

[BigDingus]

4 hours ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

Brady was awful today.  Don’t understand a lot of what happened.

 

4 hours ago, Warcodered said:

Interview week?

 

4 hours ago, No_Matter_What said:

Let's hope so. He needs to be better next week.

 

It honestly could be. Look what happened to the Lions offense after Ben Johnson interviewed with the Bears!

 

I know they don't have to fly out & interview in person, but it's a weird spot to be in, interviewing for a HC spot elsewhere while still trying to stay alive in the playoffs.

[transplantbillsfan]

The FG was the right decision.what wasn't was the 3rd down playcall. Tush push 2x quickly right there into the EZ

[Lieutenant Aldo Raine]

5 hours ago, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

Should’ve tush pushed it twice and McDermott would’ve never been in that situation to begin with. Bills were VERY VERY lucky to escape this game. I didn’t like that goal line sequence one bit. Why move back from the LOS??? I hate hate hated that call by Brady

 

THANK YOU; crazy how this almost cost us.

[bmur66]

Kicking the field goal was the right call and quit calling it the "tush push". That's gay.

[Niagara Dude]

8 hours ago, SageAgainstTheMachine said:

Was the best and most important call of his career.

 

Everybody loves this unrelenting aggression on 4th down and McD shows a ton of it, arguably the second most after Dan Campbell. There’s also the common sense inclination that you let your best player win the game.

 

But the strategy of this game comes down to probability even when it’s boring.  Make your opponent be perfect.  You go up by 8 points, make them score the TD AND the 2 point conversion AND stop your final drive afterward.  Worst case scenario you take it to OT and accept your 50/50 odds there.  
 

It’s like making a big fold at a poker tournament with your two pair on a board with straights and flushes possible.  Not fun, but right.  

 

He made that decision with an entire city, many of whom hate him, watching over his shoulder.  Well done, coach.

I thought the FG at that time was the right call,  but a thought the play calling by Brady in the 3rd and 4th quarters nearly cost us this game.  The Bills were up 11 and came out way too conservative and that allowed the Ravens to get back into the game.  Ravens were #1 stopping the run and we kept putting ourselves behind on the sticks running on early downs

7 hours ago, Billsfanatic8989 said:

Baltimore was moving the ball too well. Just too risky imo. 

Just like Tony Romo said during the 4th quarter,  the Bills needed to put the game Allen's hand earlier.  Way too conservative play calling left us in a position to lose after going up 11 points to end the 2nd quarter.

[Pete]

8 hours ago, Mikie's Bills said:

Looking at the replay on the 2nd down run by Josh it looked like the ball should've been spotted at the 1. 

 

Wouldn't have minded McDermott challenging the spot of the ball. If it's at the 1 instead of the 2 I think we for sure tush push twice to try and get the score.

It was obvious to us the Bills got an awful spot.  That ball should of been on the 1 after Josh’s run 

[Pete]

24 minutes ago, bmur66 said:

Kicking the field goal was the right call and quit calling it the "tush push". That's gay.

In a happy way or derogatory way?

[GunnerBill]

5 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

From my view, you go up 8, if they score AND get the two point conversion, then you still likely have a potential FG drive unless they score with no time. Then you have OT with the TD rule. So the outs just keep going in that spot and so it made sense. If it was just to go up 7 maybe you really have a decision, but I don’t think it was a decision going up 8.

 

And the Ravens were down to 1 timeout. All things considered it made sense.

 

EDIT: also worth saying, the 2 point conversion rate is waaaay down in 2024. I always thought the more teams went for 2 the lower the success rate would be. It is at 31% for the year. Now the Ravens should have made that play, and the Bills got away with one, but another reason to feel good about going up 8. 

Edited 22 hours ago by GunnerBill

[BillsFan130]

5 hours ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:

Disaster? Tie game with 1:30 left and two timeouts?  You’re makin it sound like the ravens would’ve walked off on that 2 point conversion lol 

It would have been a massive letdown if you let the ravens come back to tie it, when all you needed was 2 yards to ice the game 

[stlbills13]

On the opposite end. Imagine going for 2 twice and not going to Henry either time 

[Man with No Name]

i'll reiterate that the fg was the right call. 

 

there's been some argument here on whether McD is allowed to challenge the spot on 3rd down. from what I've read, he can challenge, but we automatically lose a timeout, because technically you can only challenge whether it's a TD or 1st down. So obviously we don't get a first down, so technically lose the challenge, but they will spot the ball where it should be. 

 

So maybe we didn't challenge because we thought the TO was more valuable than the 1/2 yard or whatever it might have been? Maybe the bills weren't able to get a good look at where the spot should have been? God knows we didn't at home. CBS terrible on the replays as usual. 

 

 

[atlbillsfan1975]

9 hours ago, FireChans said:

I'm not worried about the KC defense having a blueprint tbh. I do need them to get Cooper involved more.

Even if you think KC has similar personnel as Baltimore on D and will try the things Baltimore did, then it is on Brady to have an answer. There is always a solution. I wanted to see more plays downfield and outside, we heard all week how boundary corners were the weakness of the Baltimore D. I’d give Brady a B- in play calling. Need A games next week from everyone. 

[DCofNC]

10 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

I still Hated it.

 

Needed two yards to win the game. If you don't get it, ravens need 98 yards.

It was an Andrews drop away from potentially being a disaster decision 

If they don’t get it, that TD beats them.  The D was praying for a turnover all day, otherwise Baltimore didn’t punt the whole day.  They had to take the points after failing to get the TD on 3rd.

[Golden*Wheels]

Kudos to Bass, who was icy yesterday.

 

We debated the kick vs going for it on our couch; since it was 8 we all wanted the kick.

[BillsFan130]

12 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

If they don’t get it, that TD beats them.  The D was praying for a turnover all day, otherwise Baltimore didn’t punt the whole day.  They had to take the points after failing to get the TD on 3rd.

By kicking the field goal, McDermott is basically saying he's trusting his defence.

 

But it just contradicts his actions.

 

If they don't get it, he doesn't trust them to stop a 98 yard drive in 3 minutes?