Bill Belichick Clears Stance on Sean McDermott’s Struggles as Josh Allen Sends Strong Message to Bills Offense

Bill Belichick was a nightmare to the Bills throughout his 24-year tenure as the Patriots coach. Boasting a 37-12 record over them, ‘Bad News Billy’ literally witnessed the Bills change course for the better upon Sean McDermott’s arrival at Buffalo. After the turn of the decade, McDermott had a record of 7-2 until Belichick left his post in New England. Done and dusted, you’d think? Yes, and no.

Remember how, just four months ago, NFL insider Tom Pelissero stated that Belichick intends to coach again? “He wants to pursue the all-time wins record. Those are things that matter a lot to Bill Belichick.” Generational talents like Josh Allen, who has a dual-threat playing style carry more risks of injury, meaning now is the best-case scenario for the coach to capitalize before his prime career gets cut short. No longer can the Bills shy away from calling themselves the kingpin after securing their fifth AFC East title, but how long should the Bills Mafia stare at a Super Bowl-caliber roster underachieving?

Fair to assume that the front office will be tempted to move on from McDermott. And wouldn’t that be a full-circle moment for Bill Belichick too? Regardless, when you are on the hunt for a Super Bowl, you can’t perform the way the Bills had been in their last few games, and the UNC head coach, for one, knows exactly what they are doing wrong. Specifically, their defense. In their Week 14 loss against the Rams 42-44, their defense gave up 37 points. While most metrics show the defense is doing fine, they have been struggling against good rushing offenses.

For instance, in Week 4, the Ravens pretty much lit them up for over 270 yards. While the Bills won their Week 9 fight against the Miami Dolphins, the latter racked up 149 yards on the ground. Some of these issues circle back to the team not having a big run-stopper in their defense. They don’t have someone like Chris Jones or Jalen Carter. Well, Bill Belichick spoke about their defensive issues on the Let’s Go Podcast: “You know, I think that the Detroit-Buffalo game and as a defensive coach, I don’t know how you can be comfortable giving up 40 points every week and feeling good about where your future is.

“And I know there are situations and things and all that. But Buffalo gives up 40 points two weeks in a row, it just puts so much pressure on your offense to go out there and say, ‘We are going to need 45 points to win.’

“At some point, you got to be able to stop them. And regardless of what their record is going forward, if Buffalo and Detroit can’t play better defense than they’ve played recently against good teams, I don’t think their season will last much longer.”

Now, it’s pretty easy to understand what Belichick is trying to prove with his point. Do you even remember the last team to ever win a Super Bowl after conceding more than 40 points in consecutive games? Well, probably not. The only team that managed to do so was the Giants in 2007.

However, Belichick isn’t the only one who bashed the Bills’ defense. Owing to a knee injury, cornerback Rasul Douglas watched his team in Week 15 on television as they clashed against the Detroit Lions. They won, but at what cost? “We won, but it wasn’t the Bills defense. We just got to do a lot better. We can’t be allowing people to score 40. That’s crazy, like, come on, man. So, we just got to get back to what we do.”

Well, it’s safe to say that the Bills’ defense didn’t allow those points the following week. However, if they don’t stop Super Bowl-chasing teams from scoring those points, Josh Allen’s MVP-esque season will probably go in vain once the Bills face yet another tough test in the postseason.

Josh Allen continues to impress amid the Bills’ defensive issues

Seeing the Bills’ Week 16 victory against the Patriots, you might be wondering if their defense is slowly turning it around. Well, a close look at their first half against Belichick’s former team will probably answer your question. Within the first few minutes, the Pats raced to a 14-0 lead.

But Allen still continued to produce what he had been doing all season. He completed 9 of his 17 passes for 78 yards. Now, in terms of his standards, this game wasn’t something he would look back upon anytime soon. While the Bills QB is averaging 237 yards per game, he only managed 154 against the Pats.

And those were nowhere near what he produced in week 14 against Los Angeles. He scored six TDs, three on the air and three while rushing on the ground. Allen not only racked up 342 passing yards, but he also led his team in rushing yards as he finished with 82 yards on just 10 carries.

So when his team still didn’t win, Allen couldn’t help but criticize his offense. “I hate losing. You lose by two, you lose by 100. It don’t matter. You’re still losing. And offensively we’ve got to find ways to score before the half and score after the half. So we didn’t do our part either.”

That game was probably an eye-opener for the Bills. It not only gave them a reality check but also warned them about what good teams could do to them. Well, if they don’t get their defense straight before the playoffs, who knows, the Bills may struggle to keep up against other Lombardi-chasing teams. And this time, their QB’s MVP-like showing might not be enough to give them the win every week.