Dan

Yes.. i thought as most people probably did.. Allen was going to do this. My only concern was.. i hope he doesn't leave any time on the clock! But that's my point. Our defense against KC is so bad, that we all celebrate when they stopped KC for only a FG to take the win. That we all hope it doesn’t come down to the offense scoring with more than 13seconds on the clock. That we had no time to breathe between series because they let the chiefs right back in it with each score Allen made. That's tremendous pressure on Allen and the offense to be perfect. .. to not just score, but score touchdowns, to not just score touchdowns but do it while draining the clock. That's not playing complimentary football to steal a line for coach. How many times did they go for it when they could have punted and played defense? Or could have tried a FG? But we all knew… they have to score a touchdown because KC will if they get the ball back. Anyone even beginning to talk about Allen and the offense is completely under appreciating the level of pressure that is

By made a stop with 3:33, you mean allowed a fairly short FG?

Look at it another way.. last year… had Bass made the FG to tie the game, do you have any confidence that the Chiefs would have been stopped with the time left on the clock? Had Kincaid caught the 4th down pass and we go on to score with let’s say 50 seconds left. Do you think the chiefs wouldn’t score again? We’ve all seen it. Not only does Allen have to score on the last drive to take the lead, but he also has to do it with under 8 seconds on the game clock. There’s a tremendous pressure on him to be perfect because the defense is barely competent. That was a bit of the problem in this last game. Too many 3 and 4th downs that he had to execute to perfection. He literally had no room for error. And when he does do amazing and scores on 4th down…. The defense let KC move right down the field and score again without so much as making Mahomes break a sweat. At some point.. the McD has to own up to his failing as a defensive-minded head coach. And Beane has to own up to not getting a single difference maker on defense since he’s been here.

Figured it may be a bit cathartic to post my thoughts, just wasn’t sure this was the best place as there’s so many threads on what the Bills need to do next year to get over the hump. Well… here’s my thoughts to add to the heap of comments that no one will care enough about to actually implement: Offense - Honestly, I don't think they need to do much. The Offense was really only responsible for 1 loss this year. With that being said, I think there’s 2 things to do. (1) Boundary/speed WR. This position depends a bit on Cooper AND the role of a speed WR in Brady’s offense. Was Cooper used so little because Brady doesn’t gameplan for one? Or was it because Cooper just isn’t that guy? So.. keep Cooper or replace him with a younger, faster version. ?? Probably need to do one or the other. (2) Brady needs to design about 6 “easy button” plays. And practice them every single practice, beginning in July. About 3 of them are only to be used in the playoffs when we face KC! But, these are simple plays, run from an existing formation, that are practiced daily and will practically guaranteed about 5yds. KC has them, most good teams have them. You don’t use these plays until its absolutely necessary… like say its 4th and 5 and you’re down by 3pts in the Championship game and you know they’re going to be blitzing with a new look! Design these plays, practice these plays, perfect the execution of these plays, and ONLY use them against KC in the playoffs. We need something to throw at them that they haven’t seen. (I could add a 3 here… extend Cook and run him till he pukes.) Defense - This is where the real work needs to be done. First, I say hire new FO/scouting staff for the defense. Because whoever is selecting the defensive players is really good at identifying average players.. but sucks at bringing in true playmakers. So, I’d do that first. Change up the scouting so we actually draft someone that is a game wrecker. Von is washed. He needs to go and be replaced. Then, unfortunately, we need to look at each position group and find upgrades. Safety? CB? LB? DT? We have decent players across the board, but none of them are impact players. We need people that actually get sacks when they blitz. That actually make the tackle and don’t just slow the guy down. And so on. The defense has been surviving on scheme. It works. They do pretty well. But, against the big teams in the big games, they always come up a little small because no one actually makes the big plays enough. When you consistently let KC have their best offensive game of the year in the playoffs… you absolutely have to make some changes. Its overdue. Change up the FO defensive staff and bring in some play makers. We’ve given everyone outside of maybe this year’s rookies enough time to develop.. and none of them are consistent playmakers. They need to admit that and move on.

Yes. It’s time to stop using PFF grades and metrics to justify players. get players that actually make plays, get sacks, do things to win. Forcing a QB to side step before he throws for a first down or have a receiver get wide open before he drops the ball… make for really good PFF grades…but they don’t win the games that need to be won.

What are the odds! I live in Nampa… have to fly for a meeting tomorrow morning. Go Bills!

Was just sitting here thinkin…. What the flow of the game might be? I think the 1st quarter is going to be pretty tight. Both teams are going to come out amped up! I expect it to end 7-7, maybe 7-3. From that point on, it’s who makes the better adjustments and who keeps the intensity up. By 4th quarter both teams are gonna be going for it, and it likely comes down to who has the ball last. I hope that’s not how it plays out, but it just feels like this is gonna be a back and forth slug fest because neither QB has any quit in them.

To start the game… I’ll be 30,000 feet over somewhere on a plane. Will miss probably the 2nd quarter when we land and I get to my hotel in Oakland. Then in my room for the 2nd half. After the game… drinking! Either to celebrate ..or to commiserate.

Honestly… if that actually happened. I’d still be nervous!! ..just thinking There’s still a quarter and a half!! We need to stop them!

I know. I shoulda got my act together! If you have Babich’s cell number I’ll text him though. It’s not too late.

Yep

The Bills just have to win one more game this season. Don’t hold anything back!! Tomorrow is it!! I hope they put everything they have into winning it. ….Until 2 weeks from now! Then they would have a single game to be the best team ever. That will be the SuperBowl!

I know it’s a little late, and Babich doesn’t really have time to read my post and correct his game plan… so I guess I just have to hope he’s thinking similarly. As I see it, they had a great plan last week. They schemed and focused on stopping Henry, while containing Lamar so he couldn’t just take off and beat them with his legs. Add in a couple early scores and they forced Lamar to win the game passing. (Which he did a good job of and got close) This week, I see Kelce as the key player that drives their offense. So I really hope they have a plan to focus on Kelce and not let him sit all alone in a zone coverage with no one around him. Then they have to contain Mahomes so he can’t run for first downs. Essentially, don’t give up the easy first down tosses to Kelce or to Pat scrambling untouched. They still have to contend with the running backs, Worthy, etc. But every time Mahomes gets in trouble he looks #1 for Kelce and an easy catch. Or #2 to scramble for the first. Contain those two players and I think they contain their offense. Thats easier said than done! But that’s why they make millions and I don’t. Go Bills!

The other part of this narrative, that requires quite a bit more effort, is how many times KC had a drive extended by a penalty, or their opponent had one cut short. It’s amazing how lopsided it is when you look at raw numbers like number of penalties and yards. But how many times have we seen a 3rd and 10+ pass fall incomplete, but wait… defensive holding. 5yds and a first down. That’s a small penalty for yards, but extremely impactful. Or the opponent is trying desperately to get back into the game, finally gets a huge 3rd down conversion only to have it come back due to a ticky tack call. I suspect the penalty yards to be far more equal tomorrow with all this attention it’s been given, but it’ll be interesting how many KC drives are extended due to a BS call or how many times Kelce is allowed to push our defender down just to watch defensive holding called at a key time.

Every waking moment since Monday morning.

The at would make great viewing and pundits would be drooling. BUT…. I hope the Bills develop a game plan that allows Josh Allen to control a balanced game that leads to a win. I imagine that get less clicks though.

I know that won’t.. and shouldn’t play all man. But they absolutely have to play more man coverage than in the past playoff losses and time the coverages better! Patty will eat the zone up! This may very well decide the game.. how much man vs zone they play.

I very much agree. I just wasn’t so sure they’d play as much 4-3 and have that attitude that they needed.

Agree with so much of this. It was also impressive because the Ravens are such a huge mismatch for our personnel. But the game plan was sound, varied and well executed. Hopefully they have enough wrinkles in their game plan again to keep the Chiefs similarly guessing and off balance.

I think the weather and the fact we had the lead factored into the 2nd half play calling. And then when we got down to the 2yd line… the thinking by McD was go conservative to ensure the FG. That gives us an 8pt lead and ensures, at the worst, overtime. I would bet that they would have been more creative down there if it was a 1 or 2pt game.

why wouldn’t you coach the DLine to just fall to the ground when they feel they’re being held? If Dion is going to get flagged for a perfect block just because he knocked the guy down… seems like I’d be fallin almost every time they held me at all. Make it obvious. Same with their RT… if he’s moving early.. jump into him and make them throw the flag and have that discussion. I said almost the exact same thing to a friend an hour ago!

A point to consider for folks, as well, is Brady is well known to stick with what’s working. I think they realize pretty quickly in the first quarter that the run game was working. So why switch it to a passing attack? If I had to guess I would say the plan all along was to run more heavily in the third quarter. If you look at the splits, Henry always runs for more yards in the second. So I think they wanted to keep the ball away from him and continue pounding it out. Not really a bad strategy at all. Until the ravens adjusted and shut it down. But when we needed to in the fourth quarter they mixed it up and got some scores.

Look at the screen grab right above you. Zoom in. It’s 0, Coleman. (Unless we’re talking about different plays) Agreed.. I like the way they mixed it up. Has a defense ever spied 2 players? In this case I’m thinking Mahomes and Kelce.

That was Coleman.

I saw a comment like this and thought it was evidence of McD out coaching the Ravens. The Bills (1) developed a game plan specifically for the game that they weren’t expecting and hadn’t really prepared for. And (2) the Bills developed a game plan that was perfect for the weather - a cold, wet night - that would minimize mistakes and the chance for turnovers. I expect/hope that they’re developing a completely different way to attack the Chiefs to keep them equally off balance and unprepared. Although, I think that’s harder considering this feels more like a divisional rivalry game given the frequency that we play them the last several years.