Bills suffer another heartbreaking loss, Rams win OT thriller vs. Bears
Prince Grimes is reacting to the chaotic NFL divisional round highlighted by Bo Nix’s season-ending injury and heartbreaking losses to the Bills and Bears.
The Buffalo Bills will not use Sean McDermott.
The team fired its head coach for the past nine seasons after the team’s recent playoff failure, losing 33-30 in overtime to the Denver Broncos on Saturday, according to multiple reports.
McDermott finished his tenure with a record of 106-58, including the postseason. However, his team never reached the Super Bowl despite the presence of 2024 league MVP Josh Allen. Saturday’s loss in Denver followed a pattern of heartbreaking losses in the playoffs, including two losses in the AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Allen, who committed an uncharacteristic four turnovers and broke down in tears in Saturday’s loss, took the blame for the Bills’ recent playoff failure, but McDermott quickly came to his defense.
“(Allen) has no issues,” McDermott said. The team trailed 20-10 at halftime, but Allen came back and almost won within regulation.
“We had a chance, all of us. And I’m very proud of him. He’s a great human being, a great leader, a great quarterback.”
However, Coach McDermott also lamented the game’s officiating, including Allen’s controversial interception in overtime. It was a play that led the Broncos to try for the winning field goal.
“I’m standing up for Buffalo, damn it,” McDermott said after the game. “I’m standing up for us.
“Because what happened is not what should have happened. They played football there for three hours and put their guts into it, and they didn’t even say, ‘Hey, let’s slow this down a little bit.’ That’s why it bothers me.”
Allen picked up his eighth postseason win (Buffalo’s first away playoff win since 1992) in this year’s Wild Card Round, when the Bills narrowly defeated the Jaguars. This marks the most postseason wins for a quarterback who has never played in a Super Bowl.
A series of playoff heartbreaks defined the McDermott Allen era in Buffalo.
This season’s wild-card team, the New England Patriots, ended Buffalo’s five-year run atop the AFC East. The Bills have qualified for the playoffs in eight of McDermott’s nine seasons at the helm, the longest stretch of success for the franchise since they famously lost four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s. The Bills have never won the Lombardi Trophy, winning it twice in 1964 and 1965. The Super Bowl was not held until after the 1966 season.
Aside from McDermott’s incredible regular season success in Western New York, another chapter from his stay should be remembered with gratitude. Buffalo’s Week 17 game of the 2022 season was called off in front of a nationally televised crowd on Monday night after safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field at Peiko Stadium in Cincinnati.
Despite the shock to the team as they waited for news of Hamlin’s survival, McDermott worked through his emotions and finally got ready for the game six days later as the Bills defeated the Patriots 35-23, ending the regular season with a 13-3 record.
Ironically, McDermott was fired just one week after his former teammate at William & Mary, Mike Tomlin, resigned from the Pittsburgh Steelers after seven straight playoff losses.
Buffalo becomes the 10th team to change coaches during the current recruiting cycle. Only the New York Giants (John Harbaugh) and Atlanta Falcons (Kevin Stefanski) are already at capacity.
This story will be updated.
