The Buffalo Bills handed the Houston Texans a win on Sunday with some extremely questionable late-game clock management.
The Bills and Texans were tied 20-20 with 32 seconds left when Buffalo began a drive at their own 3-yard line. Houston had all three timeouts remaining. Given their field position, most expected the Bills to run the ball and — at the very least — force the Texans to use their timeouts. Instead, Josh Allen threw three consecutive deep incomplete passes and took a total of only 11 seconds off the clock.
None of the passes were even close to being completed. The Bills were then forced to punt from the back of their own end zone with 16 seconds remaining. Houston downed the punt at the Buffalo 46-yard line.
Since the Texans had all of their timeouts remaining, CJ Stroud was able to complete a short over the middle of the field and quickly stop the clock. Ka’Imi Fairbairn then came on for a 59-yard field goal attempt and drilled it to win the game.
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The Bills likely felt that they needed a first down regardless since the Texans had all three timeouts remaining. They may also have been concerned about a safety, which would have essentially ended the game. Still, they should have been able to design some safer run plays or even quarterback sneaks. That would have forced Houston to burn all of their timeouts and made it almost impossible for the Texans to get into field-goal range on the ensuing possession, assuming nothing went terribly wrong on the punt.
What made matters worse was that all three of the pass plays the Bills called were low-percentage plays.
Bills head coach Sean McDermott has had some notable clock management issues in the past. It may have been Buffalo offensive coordinator Joe Brady who called all of the passing plays, but ultimately McDermott is the one who is going to have to answer for the late-game mess.
