Bills Look Lost Under Sean McDermott’s Defensive Watch

The run defense remains a weekly failure without a fix for the Buffalo Bills.

The Buffalo Bills look stuck in a loop. No matter who they face or where they play, the end result mirrors the week before. The Texans pushed them around on Thursday, and the breakdown began where it always does. Sean McDermott’s defense wilted, then unraveled, and never controlled the trenches. And the troubling part is that Houston does not even bring a top-tier run game. It still ran the ball with ease and piled up yards after contact, exposing how soft and unprepared Buffalo looked in the most basic battles.

The pattern is impossible to miss now. The Bills give up huge rushing lanes. They get bullied off the ball. They look slow to react, late to fill and easy to shove aside. The run defense sits near the bottom of the league, and advanced metrics show the Bills ranking in the bottom tier in rush-EPA allowed—another clear sign the defensive structure is broken. That falls strictly on McDermott. The defense is his unit. He built it. He calls it. He shapes every part of it. When it keeps breaking, the blame goes to the top.

Opponents know exactly how to beat Buffalo. They line up and run directly at the front, daring the Bills to hold their ground. Week after week, the Bills fail that test. Missed tackles pile up. Gaps break open. Routine carries turn into long gains that drain the defense and the clock. Nothing about Thursday night was new. It was the latest rerun of a problem that never gets fixed.

This is not about injuries or random breaks. It is about coaching and preparation. A team that expects to win cannot keep getting pushed around in the most basic phase of the game. Run defense is about discipline, pride and detail. McDermott’s defense keeps showing none of it. When a unit looks this unprepared, the issue is not random; it is baked in.

The most alarming part is how predictable Buffalo has become. Teams used to fear its speed and edge pressure. Now they test its toughness and find a soft spot every time. Opponents slow the game, run downhill and wait for the Bills to crack. The Bills crack early and often.

Even when the offense gives this team a chance, the defense gives it back. It can’t get off the field. It can’t control short yardage. It can’t deliver stops when momentum swings. That is why this season feels fragile, and why McDermott’s seat should feel hot. Nothing about the defense says it is building toward a solution.

McDermott deserves credit for lifting this franchise out of irrelevance, but the league does not care about history. It cares about right now. And right now, the Bills look like a team carried by talent in spite of their head coach’s specialty. A defense this loose, this soft and this easy to attack drags everything down with it.

There is still time to salvage the season, but that responsibility starts with McDermott. He wanted control of the defense. He wanted ownership. That ownership comes with consequences. If the run defense stays this porous and the same mistakes keep repeating, the Bills will have to decide whether McDermott is still the right coach to lead them.

Right now, nothing about this defense suggests he is.