The Buffalo Bills are normally plenty aggressive.
On Sunday against the New England Patriots, though, head coach Sean McDermott was the opposite.
Twice, the Bills had a fourth down and less than 10 yards between the opponent's 40 and and the 50-yard line.
In the modern NFL, those are classic go-for-it spots, especially with a QB like Josh Allen.
Both times, the Bills punted. Even when the second one was already up against a 14-0 deficit.
MORE: Why Colts starting Philip Rivers is fun and doesn't deserve any hate
Why do the Bills keep punting?
It's not immediately clear why the Bills keep punting. Clearly, they feel playing the field position game has value.
Except, well, the Patriots had two smooth scoring drives to start the game up 14-0. Drake Maye was cooking.
MORE: Our 6 favorite baby names for Josh Allen and Hailee Steinfeld's 1st child
The Bills weren't looking like a defense set to get a lot of stops. So to keep giving up the ball without trying to score could work out poorly in the long run.
Eventually, Buffalo will have to go for it, particularly if New England keeps scoring. It may have been worth going for it earlier in this game, but for whatever reason, McDermott didn't want anything to do with that.
More NFL news:
- There are just 5 degrees of separation between Philip Rivers and 1st NFL season
- How the 6-7 meme sums up the Chiefs' season perfectly
- Jalen Hurts made the worst play in fantasy football history
- How the Buffalo Bills at home in the snow in December are an unbreakable streak
- Gronk reveals the 1 thing that would bring him out of retirement
- These 4 legends played in NFL, MLB, NHL as grandfathers before Philip Rivers