The Buffalo Bills offense just… doesn’t look right in 2021. It’s certainly not as consistent as it was a year ago.
Things appeared to have come to a crossroads in the Bills’ latest loss. Buffalo (7-5) fell 14-10 to the New England Patriots (9-4) in Week 13.
While the Bills defense wasn’t perfect, most looked toward the offense and their inability to preform against the Pats as a big reason for the defeat. Specifically, in terms of running the ball.
Following the loss, Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott made a remark about that which turned some heads.
It did slightly sound like he was taking a shot at how the offense has been running recently.
That’s something which can be taken as a bad indication for offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.
“I didn’t think we honestly took advantage of our opportunities tonight. I honestly didn’t,” McDermott said after the game. “The balls at the 40-yard line and we’re 1 for 4 in the red zone. We got to figure that part of it out.”
One day removed from that statement, both McDermott and Daboll tired to clear the air.
Are the two on the said page?
“Yeah, I think we are,” McDermott said via video conference. “Those are the things you work through. You work through your challenges… challenges are different every year. Those are the things we’re working through to get fixed and make sure we’re all on the same page. I believe we are. We’ve got to go out there and execute at a higher level so we can be more consistent on offense.”
Daboll echoed that but in a distinct way.
Traditionally McDermott will have a few trigger words or coach phrases. The word “physical” or “physicality” are among them, along with references to strong play from the offensive and defensive lines.
When saying he believes things are fine, Daboll dusted off similar references.
That likely was not by coincidence.
“I think we have a good understanding. We’re week-to-week, we want to be a physical offense and control the line of scrimmage. We have conversations daily on things we’re doing,” Daboll said via video conference. “We’re all working in this thing together and aligned in what we want to do.”
For now, this is the only reaction the coaches can give off.
McDermott is certainly not one who will sit on his hands, though.
He previously fired offensive coordinator Rick Dennison after 2017 when he wasn’t happy with the offense. That came despite saying he was fine with him throughout the season.
However, it seems unlikely that Daboll would have to worry about that.
His list of successes in Buffalo run far longer than many of his predecessors.
That doesn’t mean these two don’t have some work to do ahead of facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-3).