Bedard: A Belichick/Patriots masterpiece restores AFC East order, leaves McDermott & Bills reeling

ORCHARD PARK, NY — We sure hope Bills coach Sean McDermott really enjoyed last year's season sweep over the Patriots.

I mean, he did. He told us. At length.

“It gets me emotional,” McDermott said 13 months ago after his team barely survived Cam Newton and the lesser-Covid Patriots 24-22 at home. “I try to go through it one day a time, process, process, process, but we know what this game means to our fanbase. We wish they could have been in the building to experience it. It would have been crazy, I’m sure. I hope everyone at home enjoyed it.

“For myself, you work hard. You try to be consistent through the weeks and that’s important. This is an emotional win for our entire city. A lot has gone into this to get us where we are. There’s still a lot of work to be done and we need to get better as a football team. … I’m going to go home tonight and take an hour or two to enjoy this with my family.”

Hope McDermott got his fill after that one. It might just have been the high point of his tenure as coach, if it lasts all that much longer.

Rarely have I ever heard an NFL coach be so content over something so meaningless. 

Did he forget that if not for Newton fumbling, the Patriots might well have won that game? Or that the Patriots' roster was chock full of players who wouldn't be staying very long?

Trust me, that comment was noted. It was remembered.

And you knew it was going to come back to haunt them.

Enter Monday night's 14-10 victory by the Patriots.

McDermott and the Bills were basically outcoached, outplayed and pantsed by a team that decided they only needed to put the ball in the air three times to defeat McDermott's team.

It was an embarrassing display for McDermott in front of the fans and the nation.

Did he take his medicine, tip his cap and say he and the team have to be better?

NOPE.

Not only was McDermott unhinged during the game — if he spent less time bitching at officials and more time actually coaching his team, maybe they might have won this game — but he deflected all blame after the game and further embarrassed himself.

"Let's not give more credit than we need to give credit to Bill Belichick in this one," McDermott said. "Whether it's Bill or anybody else, they beat us. Right? But you sit here and you tell me when we start with average starting field position at the 40-yard line and he starts at the 23-yard line ... and we were one for four in the red zone and they're 0-1 in the red zone, give me that ahead of time, I like my chances. I like my chances. I don't think, with all due respect, it's not a Bill Belichick-type thing. It's what are you doing with the opportunities you got? We turned the ball at the plus 30-something yard line. Sloppy football. Sloppy football. So I'm very comfortable in that situation."

McDermott was asked about offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and whether or not he was doing a good enough job.

"Well, I didn't think honestly, we took advantage of opportunities tonight. I really didn't. I mean the ball's at the 40-yard line. We're one for four in the red zone. So we're gonna figure that part of it out," he said.t

Let's not also forget that safeties Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer took their frustrations out on the media after the game.

“What are you doing, bro? What kind of question is that?” Poyer said. “I think we gave up ... 14 points? 14-10, was that the final score? We made stops when we had to, they had one big run. They’ve got good backs. They kept coming back to a couple of runs. I mean, I don’t know how you want us to answer that question.”

“That’s funny,” Hyde added. “We’ll remember that. I’ll remember that.”

Sounds like it's going to be a fun week in Buffalo, which now has to travel to Tampa and Tommy on a short week.

Belichick had to be chuckling to himself on the plane ride back. It must be so comforting to know how much real estate you take up in another team's collective heads.

Let's just set the record straight right now and give McDermott a dose of reality.

You and your coaches got outplayed and outcoached for the entire nation to see.

Let us count the ways:

- Ask yourself this: Why did Belichick only choose to pass the ball three times in this game? The three pass attempts were the fewest by a team since Buffalo in Week 3 of the 1974 season against the Jets with just two attempts. It is the third time that has happened for the Patriots. They also completed just two vs. Miami on Dec. 12, 1972 and vs. Miami on Nov. 9, 1969. Part of it could have been a reflection on Mac Jones, we have no idea. He could have had a rough week of practice or had some sort of injury. We don't know. Likely, it was because Belichick knew the Bills wouldn't be able to score a touchdown in that weather against their defense — and that would have held true had N'Keal Harry not fumbled a punt (Belichick's lone mistake in this game).

- Belichick and McDaniels just kept pounding the Bills over and over again. Why? Because they knew the Bills did not have the personnel to match up. Their roster is chock full of finesse players on the edge, and their linebackers got run over. They only played two real interior defensive linemen. The Patriots ran just a few basic running plays. It was the equivalent of when Bum Phillips said of Don Shula and Bear Bryant, "He can take his'n and beat your'n and take your'n and beat his'n." Belichick and McDaniels basically put the Bills' defense — McDermott's pride and joy — over their knee and just kept spanking them with Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson. 

- McDermott, if he was focused on game management, could have taken the wind in the fourth quarter at halftime. Instead, he took the ball and promptly went four plays and punted. That wind basically decided the game when Nick Folk made his second field goal with the head, and Tyler Bass missed his going into it. That meant the Bills had to go for it on 4th and 14 instead of kicking the go-ahead field goal.

- McDermott wasted his first timeout challenging an unwinnable QB sneak on fourth down. The Bills wasted their second with 8:18 left in the game to set up .... drumroll ... a 9-yard Allen sack, incomplete pass to Dawson Knox, and Bass' miss. Those would have been handy when the Patriots had the ball with 1:55 left.

- The Patriots had so little faith in Allen coming through on 4th and 14 that they sent a rare all-out blitz, had their three defenders 7 yards off the receivers and Allen still threw it to the wrong receiver (Cole Beasley was open). 

- THEY ATTEMPTED THREE PASSES. According to ESPN Stats & Info via Mike Reiss: The Patriots had a rush attempt on 32 consecutive offensive plays from 0:43 in the 1st quarter to 7:24 in the 4th (excluding punts, field goals, kickoffs, and penalties). That's the longest streak of rushes by a team in a game over the last 40 seasons.

Belichick did everything short of holding up a sign that read, "We have no respect for your football team or you as a coach."

And McDermott still can't man up and take his medicine?

Incredible.

I had a rash of texts come in from NFL sources in the fourth quarter. This one summed it up perfectly:

"This is Bill’s best coaching job. It’s unreal."

This was something to behold. It was impressive. The Patriots themselves felt it, as they were heard being raucous in the visiting locker room. They should enjoy this one. All 53 of them and the entire coaching staff. Rarely do you get the opportunity to dominate an opponent so hard doing so very little.

Too bad McDermott couldn't acknowledge it.

Deep down he knows it. This is the type of loss that's hard for a franchise to shake. It's embarrassing, which is why he lashed out.

And the Patriots can just drink it all in on the bye week while they sit in first place in the AFC East, and the entire conference.