The Buffalo Bills edged past the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night, 37-34, due to an excellent special teams effort to block Harrison Mevis’ field goal attempt in overtime.
Whilst the Bills ultimately took home the win, the team took a mostly unnecessary risk by not draining more time off the clock prior to Tyler Bass’ 45-yard game-winning field goal.
With 2 minutes to go on 2nd-and-10 coming straight out of the two-minute warning, Buffalo decided to kick the 45-yarder. Had Bass missed, the Rams would have had the ball on their own 25-yard line and with a full two minutes to march down the field and go for another score.
Bills Should Take Taken Two Knees Before Field Goal – Brady
Speaking on Tuesday, the day after the game, head coach Joe Brady admitted that he had made a mistake by not running out the clock more on two consecutive quarterback kneels and adding a couple of yards to the kick in order to hedge against a missed field goal.
“Bills HC Joe Brady confirmed they probably should’ve taken two knees before attempting the game-winning FG last night to drain more time in case they missed and the Rams got the ball back.” Avi Meirov reported, summing up the head coach’s interview. “Brady says a 45-yard FG and 47-yard FG isn’t a big difference in that situation.”
The clock could not have been stopped by the Rams, as they were all out of timeouts.
Joe Brady Will Need to Improve Situational Awareness For Playoffs
The end result did not change, but it is things like that which can often differentiate top and mediocre coaches in situational matchups.
An area that coaches like Bill Belichick excelled in and others like former Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett struggled with.
Brady should be commended for understanding and recognizing the potentially costly mistake, but if the Bills compete in close games in the forthcoming playoffs this winter, the head coach’s situational awareness will need to be such as to avoid decisions like that one.
Bills’ Joe Brady Regrets Poor Situational Decision Ahead of Field Goal