WIDE LEFT
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Posts posted by WIDE LEFT
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What Warner and the OP are actually stating is that the current D scheme employed by the Bills just doesn’t cut it when get into playoffs v hi quality QBs. It’s a solid D scheme, produces enough during regular season, but in the end, it has a low ceiling. Andy Reid recognized this when he fired McD - he saw the limitations. Similar to when he jettisoned a good QB with a low ceiling, Alex Smith, for Mahomes
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I hate myself for even thinking this but I have to be honest - maybe it was a good year for the Bills to have missed out on the Super Bowl. Eagles appears to be on an all time heater. For example, could the Bills have shut down Barkley like the Chiefs did? And they still get clobbered.
Go ahead and trash me. I deserve it
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8 hours ago, ganesh said:
What I find interesting is that everyone assuming that the Ravens will be able to drive 99 yards (In Highmark Stadium) with the game on the line.
They drove 88 yards for their touchdown - would not have needed to go that far to kick a field goal for their touchdown win
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Thought it was curious when Brady explained his 3rd down run call on last drive - call was Josh run and even if he just gets it to the one yard line Brady knows they are going for it on 4th down. Really? I’m not certain McD would make that decision. The chance to take an 8 point lead in that situation certainly makes going for it on 4th down a tough decision; certainly not a no brainer. Had the Bills gone for it on 4th & 1 there, and were stopped, Ravens very likely win that game.
In situations like that the OC should know and be certain as to what the head coach intends to do on 4th down. That should be communicated before the call. As Brady himself explained, “knowing” that McD would go for it on 4th & 1 there affected Brady’s play call. It’s my hope that it wasn’t just an assumption on Brady’s part. It certainly shouldn’t be. Quite frankly, in that specific situation, I would have kicked the field goal if it was 4th down at one yard line. I suspect that McD would have too. But I really suspect that at the time that 3rd down call was made, McD himself hadn’t made a decision as to what he would do on 4th and 1.
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7 minutes ago, ColoradoBills said:
The OP drops this turd and then never showed up again.
It's a troll move. He's done this before I believe.
He WAS on my ignore list, but I gave amnesty to all a while back.
He will return to the ignore list with the other trolls.
7 minutes ago, WIDE LEFT said:Had to play? Did u ever hear of Shakir, Ingram or Lewis. All available & playing. Ever hear of a thing called the practice squad, where u could have elevated a CB or 2 for a nothing game, rather than risk your specialist
Here - definition of a troll by the fan boys that dominate this board - Anybody who dares whisper a word of criticism of their team. They can only tolerate praise - their idea of the perfect message board is 1000 posts of “Go Bills”. Grow up and learn a bit of tolerance. Diversity of opinion is not trolling
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1 hour ago, Simon said:
I disagree.
Codrington had to play corner to protect the guys above him on the depth chart and also didn't return a single punt all game.
The OP has no valid point whatsoever and has a history of posting nothing but pointless rants complaining about various members of the Bills.
I try to err on the side of welcoming all opinions but this guy deserves every bit of mockery he's going to get.
Had to play? Did u ever hear of Shakir, Ingram or Lewis. All available & playing. Ever hear of a thing called the practice squad, where u could have elevated a CB or 2 for a nothing game, rather than risk your specialist
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When playoff time rolls around, a constant theme is Coach McD & bad decisions. 13 seconds, clock management, head scratching decisions to punt, or fake punt, at the worst times etc etc. His latest blunder, right as the playoffs are about to begin, ranks right up there. He has had ONE, and only ONE, player return punts all year (kickoffs as well). This player has done very well, unlike the rest of our special teams. So the decision to use this ONE player in a meaningless game RIGHT before the start of playoffs boggles the mind. Even worse, he EXPANDED this players role in this meaningless game, as he had him not only returning kicks, but used him as a DB as well. And now he is injured. And now the Bills have to scramble to find a punt returner just as the playoffs are starting. A yet to be named player who hasn’t returned a punt ALL year. A wiser choice may have been to sit our punt returner, and let another player get a bit of experience returning punts in this meaningless game, just in case our #1 guy got hurt sometime during the playoffs. But wise decisions come the playoffs is not the McD way. Quite the opposite actually.
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A big part of the problem with our RB screens ( and I can’t figure why Brady doesn’t see this) is that teams often defend the Bills using a “spy” on Allen. Since a screen is a slower developing play, it’s easy for the spy to recognize and disrupt it. Here’s a simple solution - stop calling that play. It hasn’t worked all season. If you don’t recognize WHY it doesn’t work, just accept that it doesn’t and move on to more effective plays. We have the best QB in football; he doesn’t need that.
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38 minutes ago, Saratoga Fan said:
Thank you for your insight. What do you recommend?
The only thing I recommend is what my OP stated - it’s not that hard to comprehend- nobody should be convinced that the inconsistency displayed by our kicker this year, and towards the end of last year, is solved, suddenly, by him making a 61 yard field goal. Especially in the same game where he missed an extra point & barely made another. For so many fan boys out there, reality = negativity.
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16 minutes ago, blacklabel said:
For cripes sake. This is what's on your mind on a Friday night? You must be a blast at parties. "Hey, I know Bass set a franchise record and won the game last week but I just wanna remind everyone he missed one and doinked another!"
We knowwwwwwww. What do you propose they do about it? He's on the roster for a reason....because there isn't anyone else available that's gonna be any better.
Nobody says a better option is available. It’s a simple point, which apparently u can’t comprehend- his inconsistency all year does not disappear because he made a 61 yard field goal. He was inconsistent in this game as well. The DEFINITION of inconsistency is when u make a 61 yarder & miss extra points.
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Everyone seems to think that the great 61 yard field goal solves what was a major problem. Sorry, but no, Bass is still a huge question mark, and could be a fatal flaw in the playoffs. Prior to that great kick, he missed an extra point. Then clanked ANOTHER extra point off the post. After the extra point he barely made, he mishit his kickoff, allowing a return at the worst possible time. So three consecutive shaky kicks, then one spectacular kick, and problem solved? I don’t think so.
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37 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:
Ok. So are you advocating for a squib then? Correct me if I'm wrong but the squib is not the same as it has been in the past.
The ball must land in the land zone so it's not really a squib anymore and as you saw when he tried it they got the ball at the 40. I'd argue it'ds probably much harder to try and kick it low and land in the landing zone than it is to kick it low and deep.
I guess my point was this was not a strategy fail, it was an execution fail.
That too!
The Bills did the new & recent version of a squib kick on their final kickoff. Why do you think they did this? Because they realized (too late) that a regular kickoff into a wind that’s too strong to reach the end zone creates the risk of a long return. Their squib kick resulted in a penalty but that would have been preferable to a TD return. But a squib kick, even one that stays in bounds, has less chance to be returned for a TD, but also is likely to result in a return longer than which results from a standard kickoff.
Am I advocating for squib kicks, generally no, of course. But we are talking about game management here, and yes, if I grab a two score lead late in the game and cannot reach the end zone, yes a squib kick reduces the chance of the one thing I cannot have - a return for a TD. That’s the choice the Bills made on their last kickoff, and it’s the strategic choice they SHOULD have made on the kick retuned for a TD
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36 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:
Maybe Elam and Gilliam could just tackle the guy. How about that? Bills waste tons of cap space on players that come up small in the big moments. Matakevich last year was on the team for the sole purpose of being on punt team and yet they give up a punt return TD to lose game 1.
I loathe this regimes over emphasis on special teams, but McDermott didn't miss those tackles.
Also I dispute the thought Bass couldn't kick it into the endzone. He didn't even try. He had a 4 yard run up. He should have kicked a low line drive kick that cut through the wind. You better teach him how to do that because the weather isn't going to get any better.
Oh yeah and this should piss people off. I'd rather have a second kicker that only boots it out of the endzone than Gilliam on the roster. If you think about it that would be far more valuable than the 4 snaps Gilliam was on offense.
Rant over....lol...Go Bills!
Okay so both kickers in that game kicked it into the end zone when the wind was at their back. Neither kicker could reach the end zone when the wind was against them. The suggestion that Bass “didn’t even try” is just ridiculous. As is the idea that somehow you can “learn” to kick a low liner into a strong wind by somehow “cutting” it through the wind. Sure
And yes, it would be great if nobody ever missed a tackle on special teams, but that doesn’t happen anywhere, anytime in the NFL. They are human beings who aren’t perfect. So devising your strategy based on the assumption that nobody should miss a tackle is just foolish. In golf terms, you can always avoid the big miss if you just hit the ball straight EVERY time. That’s never going to happen, so basing your strategy on the expectation of perfection just will not ever work.
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Hank Haney, Tiger’s golf coach for many years, detailed in his book “The big miss” his course management strategy- avoid the big miss. If all the trouble on a hole is on the right side, construct your shots to take that trouble completely out of play. If you have a very long putt, don’t try to make it, just focus on getting it close enough to the hole so that a three putt is out of the equation.
I wish the Bills would adopt some of this philosophy when it comes to their game management strategy, which currently can be characterized as poor to non existent. As an example: Jets v Fish last year. Tie game, less than 20 seconds left, game heading to OT and the Jets are punting. What’s the big miss here? The one disaster u must avoid? A long punt return obviously. Avoiding the big miss here would be to punt the ball out of bounds. Instead, punt is returned for a TD and Fish win
So Sunday, Bills take a two score lead, and are kicking off, with not a lot of time left in the game. What’s the big miss here? Well now we know. The wind was too strong for either kicker to reach the end zone. What do the Bills do. Line drive kick to returner with a disastrous result - the big miss. Best game management decision would have been to do what they did on their last kickoff, squib kick - even if the result is a penalty placing the ball at the 40. It’s often the case that you have to sacrifice something in an effort to avoid disaster (the big miss). In fact, Bills chose to do that (squib kick) on their very last kickoff. But that was one kickoff TOO LATE. I remain a supporter of McD, but too often he comes up short in game management, especially towards the end of games.
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34 minutes ago, beebe said:
1) Allen threw 28 of his 39 passes within five yards of the line of scrimmage and completed zero passes of more than 15 yards (only attempted four of them) working against a KC secondary without two of their top 3 safeties (a 4th round rookie played every snap but one) and a LB corps without their best coverage linebacker (Willie Gay). Buffalo's offense went 4.7 yards per play, the lowest output other than the season opener vs the Jets (4.6 ypp), and Allen - not McDermott - was on the field late with a chance to win the game and couldn't do it. Allen very nearly fumbled the game away on a 3rd-and-10 on the final drive.
2) Kelce caught only two passes the entire game vs Klein, one in the first quarter and another early in the second quarter. The first TD pass he caught was the result of busted coverage by Johnson, Hyde and Poyer (Klein was on the other side of the field). Kelce caught just five passes all game, tied for his all-time playoff low in the Mahomes era, and caught just one pass (vs Poyer) in the final 26 minutes of the game.
3) Chris Jones moves to the outside regularly on passing downs. The Bills weren't caught off guard here and it certainly wasn't a coaching error. Jones just made a great play, as he has done late in games throughout his career (including the AFC title game vs Bengals last year; and the Super Bowl this year.)
4) Thuney exited in the third quarter and a former 7th-round draft pick took over at LG. At what point do you hold the players accountable? Or at what point do you give credit to the elusive Mahomes, who is elite at avoiding sacks. (Josh Allen is his equal in this regard, and took zero sacks in this game also.)
5) Buffalo's offense didn't score in the final 18 minutes, 23 seconds, after taking a 24-20 lead late in the third quarter. They ran 23 plays for 59 yards on their final three drives, a whopping 2.56 yards per play. Two of the three drives were 3-and-outs. The third drive required converting a 4th-and-3 and recovering an Allen fumble just to get them within range of a missed Bass field goal.
6) Buffalo's defense struggled all day but did make two critical stops late in the game - forcing the Hardman fumble after KC took over a short field, and forcing a punt on the next drive after overcoming a drive-extending penalty - and the offense couldn't put points up on the board as they attempted to dink-and-dunk their way down the field.
7) Spags is a great defensive coordinator, but the idea that he pitches playoff shutouts on the regular is a myth. In 12 playoff games prior to this year, KC's defense allowed 31, 24, 24, 31, 36, 27, 35 in seven of their games. This year's playoff performance was the outlier. KC has had playoff success in the Mahomes era because the Chiefs routinely score 30+ points and average 29.5 points as an offense. This was the first year the defense outplayed the offense in Mahomes' six years as starter.
You failed to mention that when the KC defense came out of its shell Allen threw 3 bombs that were dropped. You dink and dunk until the D abandons its shell then you hit them deep. Of course, you actually have to catch the ball. To throw out stats like Allen only averaging small amount of yards per completion, without even a mention of the dropped long passes is classic.
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While the national media worships at the feet of Patrick Mahomes, a closer examination and a more nuanced analysis reveals Allen to be the better QB. Allen “can’t beat” Mahomes (in the playoffs) simply because it’s a complete coaching mismatch on both sides of the ball. Just watch the playoff loss to KC. Allen is forced to throw darts into the smallest of targets while Mahomes is consistently throwing to wide open targets, ie the TD pass to Kelce, among others. This is not surprising, Reid is a hall of fame offensive genius while Brady is still getting his feet wet. But Allen was the better QB that day, and almost every time he has played KC
Whats disappointing is the coaching mis match on the defensive side of the ball. Anybody think Spagnola would have lost that lead with 13 seconds to go. He is constantly making in game adjustments while McD is like a deer in the headlights. Chris Jones ruined what would have been a go ahead TD via his pressure/hit on Allen. Jones had been moved from his DT position to DE on that play. Nice adjustments. In the meantime KC all pro guard Tuney just ate up Ed Oliver all day, but no movement or adjustment. Oliver had zero impact all day. And BTW, you don’t have to be a Reid level offensive genius to recognize & exploit the fact that AJ Klein CANNOT cover Kielce.
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4 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:
Are you guaranteeing that these 3rd round WR picks would have been successful?
Are we really a ground and pound philosophy? I ask because Josh Allen has had the 3rd most passing attempts since 2019, the first year of the 3 RB's drafted in early rounds and that includes all the games that we blew out teams early and stopped throwing the ball or Allen is sitting in the 4th. We are a very, very pass happy team.
The above is from 9 years ago but the numbers have not changed much.
"The third round has the second highest number of receivers drafted with 52 but only a 25% success rate."
Nobody, not even NFL people who do this for a living, can guarantee anything about the draft. But it’s a SECOND round pick ( two 2nds if u count Basham) and the two thirds where if WR were picked, a strong possibility that one of them could be that difference maker. Pass happy team yes, we should be since we have one of the most talented QBs ever. We have had our most success that way. My point is Allen needs weapons. You don’t acquire those type of weapons by wasting high choices on RBs. You don’t need to, they are easy to find. Johnson for example. The main point is you are wasting Allens talents by not providing him sufficient ammunition, you know like the receivers Tua and Burrow have. A lot of NFL analysts, from Chris Simms to Greg Cosell have commented on the lack of talent on Bills offense. But that’s easy to explain when look at how the Bills have drafted
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On 9/8/2023 at 6:44 PM, Simon said:
Since we don't need a new thread every time some needy media personality says something to draw attention to themselves, I'm just creating this thread to have a place to drop them.
1 hour ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:But is he wrong? The offense has been good and has the 2 best players on the team. If only they picked other offensive positions over the 3 RBs in the 2nd and 3rd rounds I think we’d have a different view on this.
The offense should be better than good. It has a superstar QB. Yes if they picked other offensive positions besides RB ( like, maybe wide receivers) the view would be different. Taking 3 RBs in early rounds is a defensive coaches philosophy, since a ground and pound offense protects your defense.
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If you think McD doesn’t have a huge voice in draft picks I just can’t help you. Maybe listen to a podcast or two, as in a Bill Polian interview where he lays out how the process works. I mean really, all those defensive minded picks & free agents, and you think it’s just a coincidence, that Beane is drafting completely on his own. Because he just loves defense. That the head coach, whose specialty is defense, didn’t have a huge say. Please
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If I was Pegula I would put strict limitations on McD’s role in drafting players & signing free agents. I will give McD a pass on his decision not to draft Mahomes (which Pegula wanted to do). But draft decisions since then reflect a defensive minded bent, and have negatively impacted Alllen’s career. In an era where you can get a quality RB anywhere, we used (wasted) two third round picks and one second round pick on running backs, two of whom no longer play for Bills. Imagine if those three picks had been used on wide receivers. It’s a good bet that at least one of those WRs would have developed into that field stretching quality threat that Allen so desperately needs. Bills O faced man to man coverages more than any other team in the league - our WRs can’t separate consistently.
Then there’s the recent draft where TWO defensive ends were taken in rounds 1 and 2. Huge free agent signing -Miller - defense. And DB Elam with a round one pick. So running backs (to ensure a strong ground game) and multiple picks and signings of defensive assets. A defensive coach’s dream!! But that’s not NFL 2024. Even with all these assets being devoted to defense, it’s been the defense which has repeatedly failed in the playoffs. Stop wasting Allen’s career, give him the weapons he needs and deserves, and let’s go outscore everybody. Step one, keep McD’s role in talent acquisition to a bare minimum. He has earned that
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PFF isn’t perfect, but they do extensive film work in breaking down individual performances. And use people with a modicum of experience & expertise in player evaluation. But here we have the typical fan; watches the game ONCE on tv, pounding beers, but somehow knows more
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Any QB’s turnover issue really requires more nuanced analysis than is generally given. The REAL turnover problem is the “judgement” turnovers, which generally fall into two categories - interceptions thrown where the QB doesn’t read the coverages, throws interception on a pass play that is covered. A subset of this is just an errant throw to an open receiver. The second category is holding the ball too long, not sensing and/or reading the pressure - resulting in a strip sack. For all the national media whining about Allen’s turnovers after Monday’s game misses the point that after 4 quarters of play Allen had a grand total of ONE judgement turnover - his 2nd interception. His first “ interception” was a perfectly thrown pass to an open WR.
A non judgement turnover is generally less problematic- fumbled snap, ball punched out on a designed QB run etc. These things happen to all players, and a QB’s judgement really not an issues in these type of TOS.
BUT - Allen has a fairly unique and troubling problem with non judgement turnovers. I can only speculate that he gets too hyped up in big pressure situations & fails to execute routine things. Minnesota game last year - ball on 1 yard line, game in hand. Allen has taken thousands of snaps in his career, but at this very big moment fumbles a routine snap that went directly into his hands. Jets game this year, big moment, in control of game in the 4th quarter and he fumbles away a routine shotgun snap. Again he has handled thousands of these, but again a pressure moment and he messes up the routine. And Mondays game - again he completely mishandles a routine handoff in a huge, pressure moment. This is a pattern here, and it’s a BIG (and fairly unique) problem.
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“Random talking heads”. - Cowhert take that was posted was brilliant and spot on. Now thanks to our genius moderator, it’s very difficult to find. That random talking head makes millions of dollars talking sports, and his takes are way more intelligent than 99% of the posts here. And certainly more intelligent than this moderator.
“Random talking heads”. - Cowhert take that was posted was brilliant and spot on. Now thanks to our genius moderator, it’s very difficult to find. That random talking head makes millions of dollars talking sports, and his takes are way more intelligent than 99% of the posts here. And certainly more intelligent than this moderator.
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So this genius calls into Sal’s show this morning with this wonderful take. “Before the trade deadline Bills should trade for a QB”. His reason - Josh Allen needs competition so he doesn’t get too comfortable & and doesn’t get too careless ie turnovers. Initially Sal thought this was a joke, but no, our caller was serious. When he picked himself off the floor, Sal pointed out that JA was having an MVP like season. But there is so much more wrong with this take. Let’s start with the fact that what team with a QB good enough to give Allen competition would trade that guy. Who is this great QB that could threaten Allen, but doesn’t start for his own team. Unsurprisingly our genius caller did not name a candidate. You have to wonder how long this guy waited on hold to share this wonderful idea.
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McDermott not in Top 10 of NFL coaches per PFF.
in The Stadium Wall
Posted
When McD, in Houston game last year, had Allen throwing 3 passes out of his own end zone at end of game, allowing Houston to win game with field goal, Mike Greenberg commented “It may not be the worst decision made this season, but it will be the dumbest” I agreed. McD then went on to make the WORST decision of the season, 2nd & goal with less than 50 seconds, calling a timeout which insured that the Bills had to recover an onside kickoff for a chance to tie or win game. Tom Brady, calling the game immediately said you just can’t do that. Eight years as head coach with a history of head scratching decisions- makes the dumbest and the worst decision(s) of the 2024 season, and we are wondering why he is not a top ten HC?