The Bills have a Chiefs issue, and Sean McDdermott knows it.

For the fourth time in five years, it’s the Chiefs that are sending McDermott, Josh Allen, and the rest of the Bills to an early vacation.

“This is obviously a challenge for us, but we’ll figure it out.”

Will you? You sure about that? What’s going to be different about this offseason than last year? Or after 2021? Or after 2020?

McDermott, it starts at the top, and the reality is that in every matchup that has mattered between your Bills and the Chiefs, the team on the opposite sideline has been better prepared, has executed better, and has had a better gameplan heading into the game than the Bills have.

This game was a good game, and what leaves the most bitter of tastes in the mouth is just how close it was, and how many chances the Bills had to capitalize and put this game to bed. They simply weren’t able to do so. Sure, officiating was suspect, but if the Bills had performed at a better level, they wouldn’t have been in position for a call or two to sway the outcome of the game.

I’ve been firmly in the camp that McDermott is the man for the job all season. What he did with a roster this year that many people, myself included, thought was going to be a retooling year, to get them to perform as cohesively and effectively as they did this year, was a great piece of coaching.

But year after year, McDermott gets out-coached in the playoffs, and it sends them home short of their ultimate goals. The leash for McDermott is a long one, but at some point, the results have to be there. If not, he could be on his way out.