All_Pro_Bills

I've watched the final 4 plays several times. 1st and 10 from the 29, Allen screen to McCoy for 4 yards, 2nd and 6 from the 25, false start, 2nd and 11 from the 30, Allen under pressure throws the ball away to the left sideline. Blow to the helmet of the QB by #50 of Dolphins not called. Should have been 1st and 10 from the 15 on a 15 yard PF. 3rd and 11. Allen pass to Z. Jones to left sideline to the Miami 6 ruled complete. Reviewed and over turned But should have been defensive PI at the 6 for first and goal. You can argue the non-call but the defender has his arms wrapped around the receivers chest prior to the ball arriving. That looks like PI not playing the ball. 4th and 11 Allen scrambles for about 12 seconds and throws the ball across his body to the right while running left/parallel. When he releases the ball Clay is all alone 6 yards deep in the end zone as Miami's defenders had all drifted to the left side. In fact the Bills had 3 receivers in the end zone at that point when they needed 11 yards, not 30. None of them came back to the QB on the scramble. McCoy did follow and run his pattern to the left side but was covered. When the ball was released Clay ran out of the end zone but stumbled and missed the catch. Should Clay have caught that? I think so but the ref's missed two calls, it was a tough pass across the field and the receivers should have worked their way back out of the end zone when the play broke down and Allen started to scramble. My point is this, I do blame Clay for dropping that pass, which a good receiver should come up with, but there were a host of other circumstances that could have changed the outcome. Another, maybe discussed elsewhere how the Bills defense folded right after the Bills took the 17-14 lead.

This and the fact that nobody respects the Bills passing game so defenses are bringing extra defenders into the box and daring the Bills to throw the ball. And with the exception of the Jets game the Bills pass offense has been terrible. As noted this was McCoy's best game statistically. No coincidence. Ivory's running style is better suited for the offense at this point in time because of his battering ram style.

When your winning this trash talk sounds brash and shows some swagger. When your team is losing you sound stupid. Hey Jalen, don't sound stupid!

You're on to something here. How many of these offensive geniuses are doing it without a competent QB, a solid offensive line, and a group of good to great RB/WR/TE's? Which of these offensive guys would turn the current Bills offensive roster into a 34 point a game offensive machine? And take last night's KC/LA game for example. You transport the Chiefs or Rams offense onto the Bills roster without the offensive genius coach and all of a sudden those offenses won't be able to score because McDermott is their head coach? The genius needs to be the guy finding and getting the players.

I don't recall him and the Bio states he also played for Miami and Seattle but of course the story has him pictured in a Bills uniform. And maybe its me but whenever I see player career highlights from the past the networks always show somebody either throwing, running, or catching a pass for a TD or big play against the Bills.

Well said. The NFL is not like some little league team where your dad is the coach so you get to pitch. These players are paid professionals that are the best of the best at their sport. I rooted for Tyrod too. I thought he was a stand-up guy who came to work every day and gave it his best. But his game has some obvious limitations. I think the problem with Kap is that he's just not that good vs. other options at the position when weighed against the drama that would come with him.

Generally I believe that most national writers and sportscasters do not watch any Bills games in whole or in part.

Whenever I see a Mahomes reference I recall how a lot of posters were moaning and groaning about how the Bills passed on Dak Prescott.

You are right about this. So the real question is given the potential veteran FA QB's available at the time did they make an error in judgement by signing McCarron and being put into a position where trading him for a 5th and taking a $2.1M dead cap hit was the best option? Given the drafting of Allen was an older veteran 'mentor' (e.g. D. Anderson) a better option from the start of the season? My view, they screwed the pooch with their handling of the QB position from the start but maybe, just maybe they stepped in it with Barkley. But with just one game against the Jets the jury is still out on that.

Take a knee three times and punt using the 'Waterboy' strategy!

From an opportunity perspective the NFL has a lot of rules in place to drive competition, the salary cap, free agency, the draft order, revenue sharing, roster and practice squad limits, etc. But that can't control the decisions and approaches taken by ownership, front offices, and coaching staffs. Not to pick on the Bills but look at the series of decisions made by ownership regarding GM and HC decisions and how those management teams made decisions on players drafted, and players signed as free agents. Then compare that to teams that have been consistently successful at winning on the field. Why are the Bills near the bottom? Currently they have almost $59M in dead cap space representing 45 players. 45! Each one of those represents a 'bad' personnel decision. The Patriots have $7.3, Steelers $6.3, Saints $19.5, Ravens $13.1. Looks at the Bills draft history. Although the last 2 under the current regime look to be breaking the trend the overall performance of the teams scouting and draft process has been awful. The Bills offense is bad. Well the three highest paid players Clay, McCoy, and Benjamin and the team neglected to address certain areas of need in the off season. Bad teams are bad because they consistently make bad decisions and good teams are good because they consistently make good decisions. You can change as many rules as you like but short of the league regulating and ruling on teams front office and coaching hiring decisions, vetoing trades and free agent signings there's not much they can do to stop teams from making poor decisions and choices.

Jets coaching staff has instructed defensive backs to drop all interceptions.

When you run into some situation where you don't know what you're doing you have some choices to make. Keep doing it your way and fail, get somebody else to do it, or do some learning and develop the needed expertise. So to me we need to see if he's smart enough to take a look at his performance and learn from his mistakes. Based on behavior and tendencies from year 1 to year 2 right now the answer seems to be 'No'. But the light might go on and coaches can develop just like players. Bill Belichik was fired from his first head coaching gig but now he's arguably one of the best coaches of all-time (sure getting TB helped). Will McDermott follow that path or cling to his 'process' in season 3? Some dreadful personnel decisions on the offensive side of the ball doomed this group before the season started. From botching the QB situation, to doing nothing about offensive line and retirements, and settling for poor receiving group this dumpster fire of an offense was lit before the season. That's my gripe more than in-game decisions or tendencies. It was obvious this offense was a disaster in the making. Obvious to everyone but the guys in the front office and the coaching staff that could do something about it. If McDermott truly has that much control over personnel decisions then he's his own worst enemy here and better step back, focus on coaching, and let the front office do the player evaluations and personnel decisions. Otherwise he'll be out the door end of year 3 and we'll be back to the start of this time loop the Bills are stuck in for forever.

Well, we can agree to disagree. Stranger things have happened (and if you're old enough like me!) like when the Pats gave up on Jim Plunkett, because he sucked and threw 87 INT's over 5 seasons, but he pulled it together later in his career and lead the Raiders to the SB XV. Any confidence Peterman had is shot and his stats and play show he shouldn't see the field again in a Bills uniform. I don't think even a HOF QB could lead this sorry offense to the end zone. This offense is a joke and with Peterman just to a higher level. Like the joke, how do you keep the Bills offense out of your front yard? Draw a goal line..

I'll go you one better. I'd say if you put Peterman under center the Chiefs still put up 24 to 27 points game with that supporting cast and coaching staff. That's how much the Bills offensive line up sucks. Even funnier, and a total long-shot, would be when the Bills release him Andy Reid picks him up and turns him into a serviceable back up!

The OP is dead on, the supporting cast on offense is awful. I thought Peterman could have been a serviceable back-up pitching in for a game or two when needed but playing behind this pathetic excuse for an offensive line and with this can't catch, can't get separation receiver group has ruined him. His confidence is shot. Cut him loose in the off season.

That's why I'd be happy if they shut Allen down and he doesn't see the field again until next season. You don't want to ruin the guy (like what has happened with Peterman and any confidence he might have had which is totally destroyed) by putting him out there with limited experience behind a porous offensive line and receivers that can't hold onto the football or get any separation from the DB's. Not much value getting experience losing. A top 3 draft spot would be great but it doesn't guarantee anything. Just looking at a few teams in the AFC, Pittsburgh, New England, and Baltimore. They consistently draft in the 22 to 32 spot year after year and have solid rosters. They are have a few things the Bills don't. The first of which is stability at the QB position. The 2nd is a commitment to protecting that investment with a good to great offensive line group. The 3rd is providing the QB with a great group of players to distribute the ball to at receiver and running back. Seriously. I don't think a HOF QB would be able to generate any points with offensive group the Bills are putting out on the field. Unfortunately Beane and McDermott have been focused on re-shaping the team in their own image by purging some good players off the roster and replacing them with inferior talent and dead cap space along with acquiring some 3rd day of the draft picks. They better move to the building part of 'the process' pretty quick next off season as I suspect they have one more year to put something together.

The best thing is to be in a draft spot to pick an elite player at a position of need. In the Bills situation a dominant offensive lineman or a game-changing WR. Absent that my approach would be to look at BPA relative to the magnitude of the addition of that player compared to who you have in that spot now. That all assumes you've got some analytics and grading system in place that works. But if picking a CB that grades at 90 makes my pass defense 10% better or an OT that grades out at 85% that makes my pass blocking 25% better I take the OT. And again this all assumes you've got some competence at player evaluation which you'd expect pro front offices to have. Or not!

I think McDermott is a good coach but he's got some conservative tendencies that he needs to adjust if the Bills are going to be successful in today' NFL. But will he? But the frustrating thing here is the defense has played well enough that with just an average offense the Bills could have scored W's against the Texans and Patriots. With that they'd be sitting in a good spot at 4-4. The disparity between the level of play between the offense and defense is almost impossible to believe. If both were bad then it might be easier to explain. Right now all I can figure the cause is neglect. McDermott is kind of like a parent giving one child all the attention at the expense of their sibling. If you look around the league you see a lot of innovative offensive minds but the Bills with Daboll lack that trait. The thing I don't know is what constraints McDermott has put on Daboll, if any. At this point the season is more or less over so why not step out of the comfort zone and open thing up?

2 TD passes. Watching the game I wondered if we'd see a topic here on Mullens. And here it is. Here's the thing. The Raiders suck and are likely demoralized from having the team stripped by Gruden. The Bills have faced about 6 teams that arguably will be in the playoffs. Yeah the offense is putrid but they haven't faced any bottom feeders on defense and won't get a break against the Bears here this week.

Yup. Now the Bills have Chicago just where they want them. Switching punters has rendered all their game planning unless. I can envision the scene at the Bears facility where all the coaches are silently sitting around the table, searching for answers, sweat pouring off their faces, and then somebody yells out at the head coach (just like Rocky's wife in the movie) "You can't win"!

I'll wager you're not an expert at labor relations or contracts either. See collective bargaining agreement article 42 club discipline, conduct detrimental to the team.

Agree with most of what you say. I believe individuals have the right to engage in social or political causes but your constitutional rights to protest or express those views do not generally translate to the workplace. For example, I cannot walk into the break room at work and make a speech to fellow employees present about one issue or another on one side or the other. I would be disciplined or fired, for cause. NFL stadiums are places of work for professional football players. There are workplace rules and code of conduct rules in place. Just like at all our jobs. If players want to protest, join specific causes, or make social statements on their own time in a public place or a private place that supports those beliefs then there's nothing wrong with that.

It's hard for me to fault any single play the defense didn't make considering they held NE to 1 TD and 4 FGs. I thought the worst play of the game, and a real momentum killer, was Benjamin's PF call on Shady's big gain.

The offense needs a complete makeover. Besides Dawkins, McCoy if he's not traded, Allen if he progress, and maybe Clay, which of the other 7 starters would you want back? Getting this done in one off season is going to be some heavy lifting..