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The Buffalo Bills entered Week 14 coming off a brutal loss to the Patriots, during which New England attempted a total of just three pass attempts. After a loss in which their opposition spurned the passing game, the Bills tried to flip the script in Week 14, opting to completely abandon the run game in the first half.
The Bills did not rush the ball with a running back a single time in the first half against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, instead trying to pass the ball or even run with quarterback Josh Allen. The results, put simply, were disastrous, as the offense accomplished next-to-nothing prior to halftime.
The #Bills did not have one handoff to a running back in the first half against the #Buccaneers . It's the first time since 1991 that a #NFL team has played the entire 1st half and had NO rushes by a running back.
— Scott Pioli (@scottpioli51) December 12, 2021
As Scott Pioli points out, this is the first time in NFL history a team has failed to run the ball with a running back in the first half of a game.
McDermott's unique strategy saw the Bills fall into a deep 24-3 deficit by the end of the first half, though he didn't implement too many more plays for his running back the rest of the way. Allen maintained his status as the team's primary rusher, with Devin Singletary and Matt Brieda receiving only a handful of carries between the two of them. Meanwhile, Zack Moss was inactive for Sunday's game.
To put the Bills' lack of running back utilization into perspective, 44-year-old Tom Brady had more rush attempts (six) than the Bills' running backs (four) by the end of the third quarter. Brady entered play with 19 rush attempts on the year, yet somehow Bruce Arians' game plan involved the oldest player in the league rushing more than Buffalo's running backs.
Regardless of the reasoning for McDermott's blueprints, the Bills offense failed to achieve the desired result in the first half, but Allen's remarkable second half made up for any damage.
