mjt328

Many fans are going to exhaust their blame on everyone else (coaches, O-Line, weapons) before they dare to point the finger at Josh Allen. And I get it. You can fix roster issues in a single offseason. You can even restart with a new coaching staff. But once your QB becomes the team's biggest problem, it's game over. A total rebuild is usually needed. It pains me to say it. But Allen is absolutely one of the biggest problems on the Bills right now. Yes, I totally agree with firing Ken Dorsey and upgrading Gabe Davis. We could do more to surround him with help. But I've seen Allen do more with less than what he's got now. His regression has been clear and obvious over the last season plus (Green Bay game last year). I don't care about leading the NFL in completion percentage. The big plays aren't there like they used to be. He's not running the ball anymore or striking fear into defenses. He's missing open receivers and telegraphing his throws. And he's good for at least one ridiculously stupid interception per game, at the bare minimum. None of us can see behind the scenes. But there are lots of hints that he's just not putting the work in like he used to. I think some fans just like the guy (who can blame them), and so they ignore all the warning signs. Over his first 3 seasons, all we heard about was Allen working on his mechanics off the field during the offseason. There is a reason that every single Bills fan knows who Jordan Palmer is, even though he's never been employed or played for the organization. Now we hear that Allen is resting/healing, playing golf, and obviously spending a bunch of time filming commercials. He's admitted in interviews to not being much of a film guy, which really explains a lot of the throws we've seen from him lately. Lots of people want to blame 13 Seconds for de-railing this franchise. But I think it was the ensuing offseason that really did it. The hype over this team was ridiculous, and people were touting Josh Allen as the NFL's next great QB. His ego swelled. His work ethic started to slack. And the organization itself decided to hire HIS choice for offensive coordinator, when they literally could have hired anyone to come and work with our quarterback. Dorsey has been a disaster as a play-caller. And instead of pushing Allen to be better, he's allowed him to lose focus and drive.

Lots of people see the Bills as a good team just needing to "wake up" from a slump. But this team hasn't been consistently good since Halloween last year. They have been complete trash for most of the 2023 season. The last two weeks, I've watched a ton of other teams. More than usual. It really opened my eyes to how far the Bills are behind the competition. If I was Vegas and judging teams on a neutral site, I would place the Bills firmly behind the Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals, Eagles, Cowboys, Lions and 49ers without even the slightest question. The only reason the Dolphins aren't on that list, is because Josh Allen seems to have their number. But Miami is absolutely the better team. The spread would be a little closer, but I would also probably put the Bills behind the Jaguars and Browns. That means I would have them ranked around 11-13, roughly in the same tier as the Seahawks and Steelers.

I watched quite a bit of football today, flipping between multiple games. It really opened my eyes to how bad the Bills really have been this season. I'm not confident in us beating anyone, honestly.

One of my frustrations with the NFL, is the refusal to recognize championships from before Super Bowl I occurred. Professional football in the NFL goes back to 1920. Not 1967. Here are some facts that not everyone may know: The Green Bay Packers have actually won more championships (13 overall) than both the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers combined. The Chicago Bears have the second-most championships (9) out of anyone in the NFL. Several teams who have never won a Super Bowl, have actually won multiple championships before that era began. They include the Cleveland Browns (4), Detroit Lions (4), Buffalo Bills (2) and Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers (2). As a fan of the Bills, I know the frustration that exists over never hoisting the Lombardi Trophy and awful feeling like they will never get it done. I often wonder if some of that could be alleviated if the NFL would just acknowledge more than 56 years of league history. The Bills last championship was in 1965. They have two overall. The New York Jets last championship was in 1969. They have one overall. The Miami Dolphins last championship was in 1974. They have two overall.

Being a good NFL coordinator is an art. There is a reason they say "getting in rhythm"... because doing it well is almost like playing music. You have to blend the talent/strengths of your offense, and match them up against the weaknesses of your opponent. You need to be able to adjust quickly to how the defense is playing against you. And more than just sending a play into the huddle for that down, you need to be setting things up for later in the drive/game/season. Ken Dorsey's playcalling is like a 5-year-old randomly smashing piano keys. No plan. No rhyme. No reason. BANG! Deep shot to Diggs. BANG! Shotgun hand-off. BANG! End around to random player. BANG! Uh, how about another deep shot to Diggs.

So almost winning a Divisional Round playoff game is enough to prove he can someday win a championship? Last time I checked, even if 13 seconds never happened...the Bills STILL would have needed to defeat the Bengals and the Rams to win the Super Bowl. I know that many Bills fans pretend this is a foregone conclusion, so they can feel better about saying the coach single-handedly cost this team the trophy. But it's just as likely the Bills would have been eliminated a week later against Cincinnati. I understand the blame directed towards Sean McDermott, Ken Dorsey and even Brandon Beane. But Josh Allen is making way too many mistakes to be absolved from the mess this team has become.

Josh Allen is always going to be a statistical monster. That doesn't mean he's got what it takes to WIN the Super Bowl. Dan Marino destroyed the record books when he was playing. Joe Montana was the one that won the rings. Tom Brady's stats were average compared to many of the other greats during his time (Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees). But he won more championships than all of them combined.

There are different levels of commitment. Just watch the Quarterback documentary on Netflix. Patrick Mahomes eats, sleeps and breathes football from the moment he wakes up. Then you have Kirk Cousins, who clearly puts in the effort to be good. But he's also dedicated to his family and doing charity work in the community. Then you have Marcus Mariota studying his plays on flash cards with his wife at the kitchen table. I don't think fans are accusing Josh Allen of being the second-coming of Jamarcus Russell. But that doesn't mean he's putting in the same effort as his peers around the NFL, or that he's putting in the work he did earlier in his career.

People are going to hate me for saying this. But I don't believe Josh Allen is putting in the work needed anymore to become a great Quarterback, and has become totally reliant on his physical abilities. His first couple seasons, all you ever heard was him working with Josh Palmer on correcting his mechanics and fixing his biggest weak points. Now he spends the offseason shooting commercials and playing golf. He's admitted to not being a film junkie. The other day he appeared in an interview with Tom Brady, and basically rolled his eyes while getting advice from the winningest QB to ever play the game. Yeah, I'm sure our offensive coordinator shares a ton of blame. But Allen continually makes terrible decisions on the football field, and generally looks confused/perplexed by what the defense is throwing at him. His body language is a deer in the headlights. Not a man full of confidence. It's not just endless turnovers. Anybody who watches the All-22 will tell you he's constantly missing open receivers on a weekly basis. I'm sure in 10 years, several NFL records are going to fall at his feet. And someday he will be inducted into Canton because of that. But I just can't see this guy winning us a Super Bowl.

The Bengals went through a rough 3 game stretch to start the season. But if you look at their past 15-20 games dating back to last season, they have been mostly a Top 5 team during that period. Not to mention smacking us down in the cancelled game, and then finishing the job in the playoffs. And now that Joe Burrow is healthy, they have won 3 games in a row, including two against legit NFC playoff teams. The Bills had a nice 3 game stretch from Weeks 2-4. But outside of that, they have looked flat, uninspired, inconsistent and sloppy for the same 15-20 games dating back to the middle of last season. And our last three games have been a total disaster against three teams who won't even come close to making the playoffs. In regards to the Hail Mary, it's very rare for a wide receiver to be left totally wide open and unguarded in the end zone. Chris Godwin simply turns around and looks, and we lose that game. So yes, we absolutely should have lost.

Nobody wants to hear it. But maybe the Bills are the ones overhyped. The last 4 games (which equals roughly a quarter of the season), the Bills have been absolutely terrible. Very lucky they weren't 0-4 during that stretch. It started with them totally flat in Jacksonville on both sides of the ball. They probably should have lost to the bottom-feeder Giants and were bailed-out by a no-call PI in the endzone. They were unable to stop probably the worst offense in the NFL and lost to the pathetic Patriots. The game that supposedly saw us get back on track? We failed to put the Bucs away, and honestly should have lost on a Hail Mary. To my eye, it was last Halloween (second half against the Green Bay Packers) that everything started sliding backwards. Not exactly sure why, but I know I'm not the only one who noticed a change in the Bills after that game. We've heard excuses about UCL joints, snow, Damar Hamlin, Josh Allen's girlfriend, etc. Since that point, we've played 19 games (including the postseason). That's a pretty good sample size. The only time we've looked good (on both sides of the ball) for a stretch longer than 2-3 quarters was during Weeks 2-4 this season. Raiders, Commanders, Dolphins. The rest of the time, we've either: - Struggled to move the ball on offense for multiple quarters - Struggled to stop the opponent's offense - Killed ourselves with stupid turnovers and penalties Lots of people want to call B.S. on the Joe Burrow injury excuse. But anyone who watched them play this year could tell he wasn't right the first handful of games. And they can tell he looks way different now. Everything about the last full season of play tells me that Cincinnati is the far superior team.

Playoffs aren't a guarantee at this point. Not even close.

Cost isn't bad for a starting caliber CB. Our 3rd Round Pick should be back-half of the round. The 5th Round Pick we get back should be top-half. The real question is, how much of a difference does Rasul Douglas make to this team's record? This team still has major problems in the middle without Matt Milano/DaQuan Jones.

McDermott seems to be a very analytical guy. He's extremely smart. But his brain doesn't process things very quickly. Give him an entire week to analyze film, and he will come up with a way to shut-down the hottest offense in the NFL. Hit him with something during the game that he wasn't planning for, and he looks like a deer in the headlights.

I understand why McDermott calls them. He wants to talk to the defense, calm them down, get the best play ready to go, and eliminate chances for a mistake or coverage breakdown. It definitely makes some sense from that perspective. The problem is... he's giving the exact same opportunity to the other team. In most of these situations, the offense is scrambling against the clock and running a 2-minute drill with limited plays at the disposal. By calling a timeout, he allows the Quarterback and Offensive Coordinator to collect themselves and come up with the perfect play. We've been watching McDermott do this for 7 years now. And more often than not, the defense lets up a big play after one of these timeouts. At some point, he needs to realize it's not a fluke or bad luck. It's not working. His defense is not responding well to the break from action, and he's allowing the other team to regroup.

One of the reasons 11 worked last night, was because the Bills have been going 12 for most of the season and it caught the Bucs off-guard. Opponents are going to catch-up eventually. Ken Dorsey needs to do a better job of keeping defenses guessing and off-balance. Switch things up depending on the opponent, and be willing to make adjustments in-game if needed.

I'm having a hard time pinning this one on Sean McDermott. The Bills had multiple chances to put the game away, and failed at each step. But not sure those failures can fall on the coach. - Two terrible holding penalties on punt returns, which cost us great field position. Three more points and the game is over. I know people like to blame penalties on the coaches, but how is it not the fault of the player? - Multiple punts from mid-field. Yes, they were extremely conservative calls. Yes, they were frustrating. But considering the score and how the defense was playing, were they really the wrong decisions? - Missed intentional grounding against Baker Mayfield, when Von Miller was holding his leg. Refs fault. Had potential to kill that scoring drive. - Illegal contact on Taron Johnson. It wasn't flagrant, but it was the right call. See above. This is the player's fault. No penalty and the Bills win by 14. - Facemask on Jordan Phillips. Same thing. This is the player's fault. Sack would have ended the game and the Bills win by 14. - Ball bounces off Christian Benford's helmet into the arms of Mike Evans for a touchdown, after the receiver pushed off. They held the guy in check all day, and once again had decent coverage. Fluke play, plus another miss by the refs. - Two-point conversion was a tipped pass that fell in the arms of the Bucs. Consider our tipped pass earlier in the game also fell in the arms of the Bucs.

The shotgun snaps on 3rd/4th and short need to stop. Too many NFL teams (not just the Bills/Dorsey) try getting creative in these situations. It's stupid and ridiculous. They know the defense is expecting a quick run or sneak up the middle, so they try to do ANYTHING but that. The most successful short-yardage team in the NFL is the Eagles. Every time they face 3rd or 4th and 1... they line up in a bunched formation, and have the guys behind Jalen Hurts push him forward. The defense knows it's coming. But it works 99-100% of the time. And if other teams in the NFL spent the time to practice that play and do it right, they would have just as much success. Especially a team with a QB the size of Josh Allen.

The 49ers won with a QB like Joe Montana. Then they switched it up, and won with a QB like Steve Young. I think the Bills regime (former Panthers as we all know) is scared of watching their star QB have a shortened career like Cam Newton, and have decided to buckle-down on the unnecessary hits at all costs -- and we are seeing the early results. The problem is... instead of seeing a Cam Newton career arc, they are going to turn Allen into Russell Wilson. An elite NFL quarterback until he stopped using his legs, and tried to become an immobile pocket passer.

My feeling is that Buffalo's coaching staff came into the season telling him to run less. Again, it's not JUST the yardage he picks up with his legs. It's how the THREAT of running forces defenses to play against the Bills. It wasn't until the Jaguars game that defenses began realizing... "Hey, Allen isn't running much anymore. Let's adjust how we are doing things." Now everyone is picking up on it.

Listen to the people doing All-22 breakdowns. More and more, they are starting to criticize Josh Allen for missing open receivers and mental errors. Fans don't realize how much the THREAT of a running QB changes things for a defense. They force you to utilize secondary players as spies. They cause pass rushers to play more contain. Defensive backs are worried about things happening behind them, instead of just coverage. It helps open up things for the passing game. Without his mobility, Allen is still a good quarterback. He's just not elite. And without an elite quarterback, our offense is average (at best).

Some fans are living in a fantasy world, and are going to be really disappointed in the coming weeks/months. This isn't just a case of the Bills playing down to an opponent. They haven't just hit a rough patch, and need to flip a switch. The injuries on defense are a MAJOR issue. You can't just replace Matt Milano with Dorian Williams and hope to keep playing at an elite level. We've seen over the years how this run defense operates without a good 1-Tech, and we no longer have DaQuan Jones. Our performance against the Patriots wasn't a fluke. Teams are figuring out how to attack us, and I think it's going to get worse in the coming weeks. The offense hasn't been consistently good since the middle of last year. And now they are trying to turn Josh Allen into a check-down pocket passer. Defenses can just double Stefon Diggs, and dare someone else on the Bills to do something. Most of the time they can't. Everything about this team is screaming 9-8 right now.

Josh Allen is not going to be hugely successful as a pocket passer, who breaks down defenses quickly with his mind. He's not Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. If the coaches are going to take away his legs, we no longer have an edge at the QB position.

Josh Allen is a good pocket passer. But he just doesn't read defenses good/quick enough to be great. The thing that has always made him special is his mobility, and the threat of him breaking off big runs. It's pretty clear the coaching staff is purposely taking away this aspect of his game, in hopes they can extend his career with less hits. The smarter play would be to keep letting him run... but drill it into his head to slide and/or get to the sidelines. Not completely neuter him. Without the threat of Allen running, this offense is extremely one-dimensional. It took a few games of film, but defenses have figured this out. Stefon Diggs is the only legitimate threat on the offense. All the other receivers and running backs are complimentary pieces, and nothing to be concerned about. Focus on stopping Diggs, and the Bills have nobody else that can stress a defense. Nor do they have a coordinator capable of scheming people open regularly. Opponents are also starting to figure out the Bills weaknesses on the other side of the ball, and learning where to attack our injury-depleted defense. Letting up nearly 30 to a pathetic offense like the Patriots is unfortunately only the beginning. Things are really going to get ugly once we start playing real offenses again in a couple weeks. Without Milano, White and Jones, we just can't count on the defense to bail us out. They are now a liability too, and will be so for the rest of the 2023 season. If the Bills are going to have a prayer at making a postseason run, this offense now needs to consistently put up 35-40 points weekly. I'm not convinced the coaching staff is smart enough to figure out the problem until it's too late.

One of the following is true: A) The Bills have good weapons on offense, but Ken Dorsey is unable to properly utilize anyone except for Stefon Diggs. B) The Bills have good weapons on offense, but Josh Allen doesn't trust throwing to anyone except for Stefon Diggs. C) The Bills don't have good enough weapons on offense.