Consulting With The Coaches

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Bills HC Joe Brady looks back on OT game-management against Rams

Oct 13, 2026 at 05:45 PM

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The Buffalo Bills coaching staff met with the media via Zoom Tuesday afternoon following the team's Monday night's 37-34 overtime victory over the Rams.

Among the takeaways, Bills head coach Joe Brady dove into the timing of his OT field goal decision and why the Bills are staying out West this week.

Why Joe Brady would approach OT differently if he could do it again

Coming out of the two-minute warning in overtime, Bills kicker Tyler Bass drilled a game-winning field goal from 45 yards out. While the result was exactly what Buffalo wanted, Joe Brady believes the situation could have been managed differently.

In fact, Brady said Tuesday he believes criticism of his game management in that situation is fair.

"I do wish I probably took two [QB] knees and then we kicked the game-winner," he explained Tuesday.

Looking back, the Bills could have run two additional plays to drain the clock to roughly 40 seconds before sending Bass onto the field. The reasoning being to have as little time as possible left on the clock for the Rams in case of a missed FG.

In order to drain the clock, the options would have been a handoff, a QB sneak or a QB kneel down which would lose yards. Those scenarios were discussed during the two-minute warning, but Brady's primary concern was avoiding a turnover or unnecessary hit on Josh Allen.

"We had just fumbled on the previous one and look, I have all the trust in James [Cook] and I didn't want to run two QB sneaks with the thought process of putting the ball in harm's way, taking some shots on Josh," he said.

Instead, Buffalo elected to send Bass onto the field on second down immediately after the two-minute warning.

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"The conversation we had in the huddle and upstairs was like, 'Let's just go win the game right now.'"

Bass did in fact deliver the victorious blow from 45 yards out. But in reflecting back on the sequence, Brady believes a couple of kneel-downs likely would not have meaningfully impacted the difficulty of the kick.

If two kneels cost the Bills anywhere from 2-4 yards, it still would have been under a 50-yard attempt for Bass. The veteran makes 80% of his attempts from 40-49 yards and 70% from 50-59.

"The best thing would be to take two knees and saying, "Hey, the 45 and the 47 is not a big difference." It'd be a completely different story if the ball was a little further back," Brady said.

We're live with Defensive Coordinator Jim Leonhard following last night's win against the Los Angeles Rams. https://t.co/kM3JNOgYyu
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) October 13, 2026

Bills staying in California

The Bills are staying on the West Coast the next few days as they prepare on a short week to face the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

"There is a recovery component to it. And being out here, I think there could be a lot of growth, both as our football team and helping our recovery," Brady said.

Instead of flying back late Monday and arriving back in Buffalo early Tuesday morning, then flying cross country again Saturday, the Bills are setting up their headquarters in Irvine, CA.

Buffalo will practice at UC Irvine Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as they get ready for their Week 6 matchup. The team will fly to Vegas this Saturday then fly back home following their game against the Raiders. Buffalo has a bye in Week 7.

Brady believes this will be a chance to continue to grow closer as a team.

"We're together, they're together, they're going through all this together out here, kind of away from everything. Our job is still to go out and win this football game," he said.