Had Leonard Floyd been absent from the field on Monday night, the Broncos would have celebrated a 22-21 victory over the Bills. Instead of holding a 5-5 record, the Bills would now be at 6-4, and Ken Dorsey might still be their offensive coordinator.
Floyd played a pivotal role as the 12th man during Wil Lutz’s 41-yard field goal attempt, causing it to go wide right. His penalty gave the Broncos a second chance, and they seized it by converting a 36-yarder on the final play.
Reflecting on the incident, Floyd attributed it to a communication breakdown, underscoring the need for improvement. He admitted, “From my perspective, it was just a communication issue – plain and simple. It has to be better. We’ll be better. Plain and simple, just miscommunication.”
In the game’s closing moments, the Bills’ dime defense was on the field for Russell Wilson’s final kneel-down. When the team sent out its field goal block unit, only five players left the field out of the six who had entered from the sideline. With no timeouts remaining, the Bills couldn’t have stopped the play even if they had noticed the extra player.
Despite the unfortunate turn of events, Floyd maintained a pragmatic perspective, saying, “I really don’t care about the blame, just disappointed we lost. A loss is a loss… We’ve just got to correct it, man, and be better next time.”
The Bills faced a dilemma in their approach to special teams coordination. While they had kept their entire starting defense on the field for Lutz’s 40-yard field goal attempt at the end of the first half, special teams coordinator Matthew Smiley chose to send out the kick block unit before the final play of the game.
Explaining the decision, coach Sean McDermott said, “At the end of the game, there’s two schools of thought… And unfortunately, a certain amount went in, and not the equivalent came out, and so we ended up with one too many.”
