Written By Intern Justin
Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane got hired (and since extended) in January and May of 2017, respectively. Ever since then, the Buffalo Bills have gone from a bottom feeder in the NFL to a perennial playoff team, and even a contender for the Super Bowl.
However, everything hasn’t always been sunshine and rainbows under “McBeane”, the nickname that Bills fans gave to the power couple. Many losses have struck a nerve with the Bills Mafia and some of those defeats still sting to this day.
5. 2017 Week 10 vs. Saints
This loss at home against the Saints isn’t talked about nearly as much as it should be. The Bills lost 47-10 in the worst defensive performance of a McDermott-led unit.
The defense gave up 482 yards (most under McDermott), 298 rushing yards (most) and 32 first downs (tied for most). Mark Ingram ran for 131 yards and three TDs, but he didn’t even have the most yards on the team. Rookie Alvin Kamara totaled 138 yards from scrimmage and ran in a score from five yards out too.
The 37-point skid stands as the second-largest defeat under McDermott.
Though the defense struggled to get stops, the offense didn’t help, either. With less than 200 yards of total offense, the Bills came out flat with Tyrod Taylor under center. Taylor completed just 50% of his passes and put up 83 total yards of offense before being benched for Nathan Peterman in the fourth quarter. This game also made the list because Peterman’s garbage time stats made the organization believe in him. The fifth-round rookie completed 70% of his passes for 79 yards and a touchdown and earned his first career start next week.
This made the list instead of the infamous Peterman 5-interception game next week because neither offense nor defense showed up against New Orleans and Buffalo saw that Taylor couldn’t be the long-term answer.
4. 2019 Week 4 vs. Patriots
It was a toss-up between this game and the following game against the Titans to make the list. Ultimately, I went with the divisional matchup because of how most Bills fans felt after it; dejected.
The Bills lost 16-10 and Josh Allen, a promising project of a QB looked to be just that, a project. Allen, in that fateful game, put up his worst passer rating and arguably the worst performance of his young career. His 24.0 passer rating came from 46.4 completion percentage with 179 total yards, one rushing TD and three INTs.
This matchup meant a lot to the Bills organization because Buffalo was 3-0 at the time and playing a Patriots team that had dominated them for almost 20 years. Tom Brady’s record against the Bills was 30-3 before the game and he hadn’t lost to them since Week 17 of 2014 (he sat the entire second half). This game proved another chance to beat the GOAT that again ended in a Buffalo loss. Luckily for the Bills, they proved themselves as the top dog in the AFC East in 2020 and Allen showed he’s a franchise QB.
3. 2018 Week 1 at Ravens
The 47-3 defeat was the largest point differential in a loss under McDermott and the most lopsided season-opening loss in team history. This game proved as an outlier for how that 6-10 season would go.
The ill-prepared Bills started Peterman who laid an egg against a stout Ravens defense. Peterman went 5-for-18 with 24 passing yards and two interceptions before being replaced by a rookie Josh Allen in the third quarter. Allen, being thrown into the fire, wasn’t much better than Peterman. Allen completed 40% of his passes for 74 yards and ran for 26 more in the rout. The offense put up 153 yards and the defense couldn’t stop the run or the pass.
Joe Flacco completed 73.5% of his passes for 236 yards and three touchdowns. Kenneth Dixon, Lamar Jackson, Javorius Allen and Alex Collins combined for 113 rushing yards and three touchdowns as well.
This game just proved how much of a better team Baltimore was then Buffalo at the time and the box score showed it.
2. 2021 Week 9 at Jaguars
In their most recent game, the Bills lost in a close game to the lowly 1-6 Jaguars. In order to understand why this loss is so excruciating, people have to understand the precedent of the McDermott regime.
McDermott’s record against teams that are three or more games under .500 was 14-5. A win percentage of 74% isn’t too bad, but his record against teams five or more games under .500 was 6-1. The only loss came in the mediocre 2018 season to the Jets, but the Bills could actually score touchdowns in that game. The Bills put up 23 points in the loss to the Jets in Week 14 of 2018, but put up a measly six points at Jacksonville on Sunday.
The NFL’s second-ranked offense last season that added Emmanuel Sanders unexpectedly struggled to move the ball. That same Jaguars defense gave up 300 or more yards in six of its seven games, including a 454-yard performance from the Titans. Jacksonville also hadn’t won a game on American soil in 420 days and only put up 218 yards of offense in their win.
The lack of Buffalo’s offense was surprising and unacceptable for a team that averaged 396.4 yards and 31.3 points per game the season before. The play calling was questionable, the run game was nonexistent and Allen was running for his life behind an abysmal offensive line. That’s a recipe for disaster and it led to one of the worst losses in recent memory.
1. 2020 AFC Championship at Chiefs
Here it is. The most gut-wrenching loss under McDermott’s leadership.
This loss left an empty feeling in many Bills fan’s stomachs because of how good the team appeared going into this game. Buffalo won all eight games after the bye week, including playoff wins over the Colts and Ravens, and looked unstoppable.
This matchup showed that the Chiefs were on a whole different level than Buffalo. Heartbreaking to watch, but it became apparent as the game went on. The Bills led 9-0 to start the game, but the lead quickly diminished as the game went on. By the end of the first half, the Bills trailed 21-12 and it went all downhill from there.
The Chiefs expanded their lead to 31-15 in the third and then capped it off with another touchdown early in the fourth quarter; they held on to win 38-24. Allen, much like in the Jaguars game, didn’t play terribly bad. He put up 375 total yards, two passing touchdowns and one pick, but he got sacked four times for 53 yards. The young QB did all he could, but the lack of offensive line output led to his team’s downfall.
This took the number one spot because of the expectation going into the game, that the Bills could’ve gone to the Super Bowl, and the realization that they’re so much farther away from their goal than many expected.