Pollock: Question of McDermott after loss missed the point, stop rearranging chairs on the Titanic deck

A column by CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist

It was interesting listening to Sean McDermott’s postgame press conference Sunday night in Los Angeles after his Bills had endured a painful 44-42 loss to the Rams at SoFi Stadium.

The tenor of many of the questions was interesting, if misguided.

McDermott was repeatedly asked about clock management in the final minute when a Josh Allen quarterback sneak on first down was stopped from the 1-yard line, resulting in use of a critical timeout. Why not have him jump up and spike the ball, then try again? Shouldn’t the Bills have attempted a field goal earlier in the drive from the 23-yard line, trailing 44-35, then tried to stop the Rams after the subsequent kickoff with those three timeouts? Why not pass rather than go with Allen sneaks? And on and on.

Talk about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

It was ridiculous.

Those questions had a degree of merit, but totally missed the point.

Yeah, there was a degree of clock mismanagement in that final minute, but Buffalo’s real problem was what happened in the preceding 59.

“CREDIT TO the Rams, they did a great job of controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” McDermott said in an major understatement. “As you could tell, defensively and special teams, neither of them were good enough to help us win this game.

“Offensively, we scored a lot of points and moved the ball, particularly through the passing game … still I’d like to have seen us run the ball a little bit more with our running backs.”

Quarterback Josh Allen scored three times on 1-yard sneaks and added 79 yards on seven scrambles. Feature back James Cook had a mere six carries for 20 yards and was virtually invisible the whole game.

McDermott continued, “They converted a lot of third downs (11-of-15, 1-for-1 on fourth) and we’ve got to get off the field and get the ball back to Josh … you saw what he can do (six touchdowns, three passing, three rushing). Incredible, incredible, so we’ve got to do a better job around him. I thought we lost two of the three phases (defense and special teams) today.

“I didn’t feel like we came out very urgent … when you come out and you don’t win the line of scrimmage, that’s not a great way to start a game. Whether we were urgent enough or weren’t urgent enough, at the end of the day, we didn’t come out and win the line of scrimmage like we needed to … to win the game.”

But, as coaches often do, McDermott tried to milk the best out of such a tough loss heading into a game against the NFC’s best team next Sunday in Detroit.

“Sometimes, if you look at it the right way, and you make the adjustments you have to make, this can be, as hard as it is, a reminder of what you need to do in this league and how we have to adjust as a football team,” he said.

“This week is a challenging game against a really good football team on the road (the Lions are 12-1) and we’ve got to work out (the issues that materialized against the Rams).”

(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)

Read more on the Bills and Bonnies from Chuck:

• We did not expect the Rams-Bills results as Josh Allen sets major records

• Will the Bills be motivated against the Rams?

• Schmidt doesn’t want the Bonnies to get caught up in 12-1 talk

• A look at the rise under Sean McDermott

• The snow and the Buffalo Bills were too much for the 49ers

• St. Bonaventure Bonnies put unbeaten hoops record on the line in ESPN Tournament

• Pollock Prediction on San Fran at Buffalo Sunday night game

• A look at Terry Pegula’s beginnings in Olean and his competitive drive to win

• A look at McDermott’s smart play-calling and why aren’t we talking more about James Cook?

• Can the Bills do this to the Chiefs in the playoffs? Josh Allen touchdown run seals victory