If Leonard Floyd hadn’t been on the field Monday night, the Bills would have beaten the Broncos 22-21. The Bills would be 6-4 instead of 5-5, and Ken Dorsey is probably still the Bills’ offensive coordinator.
Floyd was the 12th man on Wil Lutz’s 41-yard field goal attempt, which went wide right, and his penalty gave Lutz and the Broncos another chance. The Broncos’ kicker made the 36-yarder on the last play.
“From my perspective, it was just a communication problem, pure and simple,” Floyd said Wednesday, via The Buffalo News. “Has to get better. We will be better. Plain and simple, just misunderstanding.”
The Bills’ dime defense was on the field when Russell Wilson took his final knee, and with the clock ticking down, the team sent out its field goal blocking unit. Six players from the sideline came onto the field, but only five remained.
The Bills had no timeouts, so they wouldn’t have been able to stop the game if anyone had noticed the extra player.
“I really don’t care about the blame, I’m just disappointed we lost,” Floyd said. “A loss is a loss. People try to find ways to blame this guy, that guy, but I’m not worried. It’s all football, man. Just go out the next game and fix that shit and go out and win. You type things in, I try to look beyond that. You will make mistakes. You can’t play the game perfectly. I don’t know anyone who plays this game perfectly. We just gotta fix it, man, and do better next time.”
The Bills left their entire starting defense on the field when Lutz attempted a 40-yard field goal with the clock running on the final play of the first half. However, special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley opted to send out the kick blocking unit before the final play.
“There are two schools of thought at the end of the game,” coach Sean McDermott said. “Either you do the same thing and rush with your defense, or you try to get your block out, your max rush unit. And that’s exactly what the coach tried to do. And unfortunately a certain amount went in and not the equivalent value came out, and so we ended up with one too many.”