The Buffalo Bills rallied with 17 straight points to tie the game. They had the ball on a first-and-10 with 32 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Overtime seemed imminent.

Buffalo lost in regulation.

The Bills didn't run the ball once or force the Houston Texans to call any of their timeouts. They passed, passed and passed again. They might've passed up a chance at overtime because of it.

Offensive coordinator Joe Brady opted for three long passes - all fell incomplete - which ticked 16 seconds off the clock. Buffalo punted and the Houston Texans got a solid return with 7 seconds left. Houston made a 5-yard completion, called timeout and Ka'imi Fairbairn booted a 59-yard field goal as time expired for a 23-20 walk-off win.

Bills head coach Sean McDermott shouldered the blame.

“That’s on me,” said McDermott, who avoided placing the onus Brady. “The end of game situation on offense, tough situations. They were holding three timeouts, got a good field goal kicker. We needed to run the clock and move the chains and that’s on me. We didn’t do that there and that’s my fault.”

"I got to do a better job in that situation.”

NFL reporters and analysts agreed.

"Baffling game management decision by the Bills at the end of the game," three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and current CBS analyst J.J. Watt said on X.

"There will be worse losses in the NFL this year than the Bills just took," tweeted ESPN's Mike Greenberg. "But there may not be a dumber one."

The NFL Red Zone showcased the end of the game.

"What are they doing, just throwing the ball up here?" asked baffled host Scott Hanson. "That is wild, ladies and gentlemen. Two dangerous throws his own end zone from Josh Allen."

"This is almost like they don't know the score of the game here, ladies and gentleman ... I am dumbfounded by these decision here."

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Sean McDermott criticized for mismanaging clock in 'dumb' Bills loss