(This is the first of a two-part series on Bills’ coach Sean McDermott’s season-ending press conference)
By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
One of the impossible things to miss this season was the personality epiphany Buffalo coach Sean McDermott experienced.
He was more loose, quicker to show his sense of humor and seemingly more forthcoming in interview situations. For lack of a better word, he seemed happier.
When asked about it, he smiled and said, “Well, I got a new haircut before the season but most of you (media people) didn’t notice.”
Then, turning serious, he admitted, “I heard some of the talk and I appreciate it but it’s not like I did it one way and then I did this. To me, I know who I am as a person, I know who I am as a football coach and when you get to that level, and I’ve tried to impart this to our players, when you get to a certain point in your life, you know who you are as a person, you know what you stand for and what you believe in … that’s real powerful.
“That was a piece of it for me, arriving at that spot and knowing that the team was in good hands … the leadership council, led by Josh (Allen), was in good hands. We did a walk-through, the Friday before the AFC Championship Game and I can do that as a coach, which is not common (but) I trust our players, I trust our leadership group and I told them that at the end of the season.”
He continued, ” You can do some of these things to where it frees you up to be who you really want to be and it makes the job enjoyable. I think all of those things were kind of going hand-in-hand this year and it becomes a mindset.
“One of the things I felt was important was getting our players and coaches, those who perform on game day, to a spot where they would feel free to really cut loose and go for it. The challenge for these players and coaches is to continue to go after it. (But) it’s getting more and more difficult with the exposure when it doesn’t work out. What happens is like with happened to Baltimore and their player (tight end Mark Andrews dropped the game-tying two-point conversion attempt in the closing seconds).”
McDermott admitted, “The best thing I’ve learned that I can do as a coach is be exactly what they need me to be on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis … to meet them wherever they’re at. If they need confidence, I need to be the one to give them confidence, or try to. If they need me to be hard on them, I’m the one who needs to be hard on them or challenge them. If they need a sense of humor on a certain day, they need that. I feel that we were able to set a pretty simple and clear level of expectations for us within these walls.
‘I believe the players and coaches were able to cut loose because we’ve done this and we’ve done that and that’s the only thing we expect from ourselves. Go play free … knowing that the results are variable
and that’s the hard part of this business.”
OF COURSE, the aftermath of the Bills’ two-point loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game at Kansas City focused on the officiating: a 1-yard ‘tush push’ of Allen that appeared to make the first down but replay said ‘No’ and a seeming incomplete pass where Bills’ safety Cole Bishop and KC wide receiver Xavier Worthy both had their hands on a deep ball and when they hit the ground, so did the ball. Replay ruled it was a catch by Worthy.
“We went into the game and one of my messages is that we’re not gonna get calls,” McDermott said. “When you prepare a team, you prepare them mentally ahead of time for ‘this is the way it’s going down’ and you live with that (but) that’s not the reason why we lost.
“Part of my job in developing a game plan, a complementary plan every week, is ‘what are the things that could get in the way of us winning … or things that we have to be ready to deal with. When you play away it’s different than playing at home. This is the (officiating) crew we have this week … what are their tendencies?”
He concluded, “At the end of the day, the game was decided on the field and we didn’t perform well enough to get the job done.You start looking at (officiating) and you lose sight of all the adjustments you can make as a team. coach, player. What have you done to improve who we are and how we do things?
There’s gonna be some (officiating questions) and you have to be above that and play above that.”
BUFFALO general manager Brandon Beane, in his season-ending press conference, lamented the Bills’ failure to claim the AFC’s No. 1 seed and play the conference championship game in Orchard Park.
But McDermott isn’t so sure.
“I’ve been in that position before and lost,” he said. “Going back to my time in Philadelphia (under Andy Reid) … we were the No. 1 seed a couple of years running, had the first-round bye and a team comes in and beats you.
“I would like to play another round in front of the fans but, that said, I don’t think you can put everything into, ‘Hey, we’ve gotta have that No. 1 seed, because either way you skin it, you’re going to have to play with poise, you’re gonna have to overcome some odds, and play with mental toughness as well as physical toughness. To me, it would be nice to have, but when you get it, you can’t be, ‘Aww, we’re good,’ then a team comes in and takes it to you. I just think, overall, you have to have the right ingredients as a football team to weather the storm wherever you’re playing because there’s going to be a storm whether it’s at home or on the road. You’re not just going to roll through an opponent unabated because you’re at home.”
(NEXT: McDermott talks about acquiring elite players, losing playoff games on Buffalo’s last possession and the success the Bills have had over his eight seasons)
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
