Nihilarian

I agree. Now, think about what Patrick Mahomes would look like without TE Travis Kelce, WR Tyreek Hill, AND Not having Andy Reid setup the game plans and call the offensive plays. I highly doubt he would look anywhere near as good as he does. I even doubt he could carry the team with his arm without those people supporting him. Give those three men to Josh Allen and allow him to sit for a season and watch, learn under Reid and you might have a different view of Allen. Name any star QB that could carry his team with his arm and take away the other offensive stars on the team and see what happens. What did Brady look like this season without Gronk! Shoot, Matt Ryan had 11 games with over 300 yards passing with a completion percentage of 66.2. Ryan threw for 4466 yards in 2019, #1 in pass attempts, #3 in passing yards and the Falcons went 7-9. His WR Julio Jones played in 15 games. He clearly can't carry his team with his arm. Aaron Rodgers couldn't carry his team with his arm in 2017-2018 either. This list is endless when you don't have a balanced team. That last paragraph might mean that when Daboll called a balanced game Josh Allen really shined like in that Dallas game. 19 of 24 for 231, 2 TDs with a 120.7 rate. Mostly when Daboll had the run game working properly it took away the pressure to carry the game on his own (his arm, hero ball). As for that last sentence, excellent point. However, I would call it more than just "strange" play calling when your team has a 16 point lead and instead of finding a way to pound the ball to play keep away. You keep asking the playoff inexperienced QB to keep throwing it 46 times. It is also more than strange that the Bills had five attempts in or near the Texans red zone and came away with four FGs, one TD. This against the worst red zone defense in the league. Blame the QB for the ineffectual run game? Blame the QB for the ineffectual red zone offense? Josh Allen also ran nine times for 92 yards in that game. If Josh Allen has the ability to change the play every down or call an RPO when he feels the need then this OC is forcing way too much responsibility on that young, inexperienced QB. Either way, the buck stops with the OC for any offensive failure.

While he played on some great teams he also played on some bad ones at the end. Just goes to show that you can have an elite QB and is he doesn't have the supporting cast around him it's just so hard to win. Just ask Matt Ryan the last two years. Or Aaron Rodgers 2017, 2018.

he gets a ring if they win...

The only thing i can think of is that in 2018 the Bills led the NFL with the most deep passing attempts...this with one of the leagues worst offensive lines. Which gave Allen very little time in the pocket to complete those deep passes. Hence all the QB running. That, along with Allen's completion percentage which wasn't so great from all those deep passing attempts. The deep pass has a very low chance for completion even among the better QB's. So, in my view McD went to Daboll and wanted to change all this. The Bills brought in Cole Beasley to help with the short passing game which would intern help with the completion percentage. Now Robert Foster was injured at the start of the season and no idea when he was fully healthy. Then looking at how long it took this OC to get Duke Williams involved in the offense, who knows. The one thing I know for certain is the only way to get better at something is repetition, practice. The way the Bills offense failed at the deep pass this season tells me they simply didn't practice it enough. You would think that with the upgrades to the O line and the strongest arm in the league that they would work that deep passing game over and over this year. A lot didn't make much sense this season...particularly when the run game is working so well and they go pass happy. All in all this made Allen look much worse IMO.

I agree. If you at how things went this post season. The Vikings beating the Saints by running 40 rushing attempts which won the time of possession 36:56 to 27:24. The beat one of the very best passers in the league in Drew Brees who had a receiver who had 149 receptions for 1725 yards, 9 TD's this season. Sort of unreal when you think about it. Then the Vikings go to SF and that D line of theirs stuffs the Minnesota run game holding a top ten RB in Dalvin Cook to 9 carries for 18 yards, sacking Kirk Cousins 6 times. Meanwhile, in the divisional round that 49er offense runs right over that Vikings defense 47 carries for 186 yards. Two dominant running teams duke it out and the Niners pounded the Vikings. The Tennessee Titans go to New England and beat the Goat along with their #1 defense by having RB Derrick Henry, 34 rushes for 182 yards,1 TD. The Titans go to KC and get whooped by that Chiefs passing game. Tennessee had the 22nd or so defense so they really weren't a match for the Chiefs. Now the 2019 Buffalo Bills who are force feeding their young, inexperienced QB into learning to be a better passer by throwing him into the teeth of a defense when their run game could have actually helped win games... The Bills have RB Christian Wade waiting in the wings for this season. Now they need to beef up the D line and O line and find that #1 "go to" WR. I'm thinking that O line might be the bigger priority the way the Eagles, Ravens manhandled them. I kind doubt they would have had much success against San Fran this year.

m A lot of teams have been running the ball with great success this season. Baltimore #1, San Fran #2, Tennessee #3, Seattle #4, Dallas, #5, Minnesota #6 Indy #7, Buffalo #8, Houston #9. The reason as to why the Ravens were #1 is because QB Lamar Jackson had 1206 rushing yards at a 6.9 YPC avg. Ravens RB Mark Ingram had 1018 rushing yards at 5.0 YPC. San Fran was #2 had three RBs and none were 1000 yard rushers. You know what kills a great pass rush on the QB? Running the ball right at them!

The Minnesota Vikings with Dalvin Cook use that zone blocking scheme 66% of the time. (Ex Denver HC Gary Kubiak is the assistant HC at Minnesota. He also ran the scheme in Baltimore 2014.) 70.3% of Green Bay's run game is inside, outside zone concepts. The 49ers employ a zone scheme on 49% of their run plays. Baltimore uses the zone 55% of the time. Zone blocking is used to some degree by all 32 teams and at least half the time by all of them. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28353469/the-secret-nfl-best-rushing-teams-why-zone-blocking-here-stay It really is about building the line right, finding the right RB and having instilled discipline by the players to run it...without penalties. The 2019 Buffalo Bills had the right RB! Believe it or not Buffalo Bills RB Devin Singletary averaged 5.1 yards per carry this season. Which, BTW, was the same YPC as Derrick Henry had. The difference was the Titans ran Henry 303 times and the Bills ran Singletary 151 times. Gore got more carries with 166 and he averaged 3.6 yards per carry. Gore was basically almost useless the latter part of the season. Buffalo was also 27th overall in penalties in 2019.

Aaron Rodgers 21 of 39 for 326, 2 TD. WOW REALLY? A 300 yard passer, throwing 39 times... that lost! Jimmy Garoppolo 6 of 8 for 77 yards WTF? and they won 37 to 20? But, but it's a passing league? Niners RB Raheem Mostert 29 carries for 220 yards As others have put it, the Bills need more pieces, they need a better offensive line at certain positions. They need some better WRs, and a more dedicated OC to actually running the ball when needed. Mostert is only 5'10'' 205 lbs, so you don't need a Derrick Henry monster of a RB. The 49ers had three RBs on their roster and none were 1000 yard rushers in 2019. You just need to put some really good talent in front of him to block properly. That means using some first and second round picks on the O line. Utilizing the right run scheme too.

On 1/17/2020 at 5:18 PM, Shaw66 said: As for the best way to get Allen up the learning curve, they've been very clear that their plan was that Allen would sit the first year. They couldn't stick with the plan, and as they've said, Allen had a rocky first year, but he seems to have survived it. He was better in 2019, but he had his stretches where he still looked like a rookie. You actually missed one point I made in that not all QB's are the same entering the NFL from college as some are much more NFL ready as they played in big time college programs. It's those programs that initially start their development to be an NFL starting QB and without being in a big time program it's a much more difficult transition. The number of failed QB's in the NFL is almost countless over the years, from first round picks and so on. So much depends on their surrounding cast as even when they have somewhat good coaching, they still need a good O line, good run game, good receivers. A lot also depends on what scheme they ran in college and will they be able learn and properly develop in the NFL scheme they enter. Aikman, Manning and Elway all came from big time college programs. Josh Allen played at Wyoming. Not exactly a big time QB grooming college was my point here. I never said that JP, Edwards or EJ were ruined because they didn't get more time on the bench or that they were ruined by being thrown in to the fire too early. What I did say, What happened with JP was being benched after 7 games his starting season, changing HC's, OC's, schemes and ultimately was being benched again for Trent Edwards. The Bills hired quality, experienced DC's but were intent on promoting inexperienced OC's from within. From Steve Fairchild and his Mike Martz deep passing scheme to a WCO with QB coach Turk Schonert promoted to OC and he lasted one season before being fired two weeks before the 2009 season. Alex Van Pelt was the Bills QB coach at that time who was then promoted to OC. Van Pelt lasted only one season too. As for EJ he had Nathaniel Hackett as his OC and he too was benched after going 2-2 because the coaches had no patience in giving him to to learn and play as others have suggested. If your are going to go with a young inexperienced QB, stick with him as benching destroys confidence. See my point about the lame OC's? The Buffalo Bills also had some pretty crummy offensive lines from the early 2000's until somewhat recently. Tough to be in a deep passing scheme with a bad O line. Anyway, have no problem starting Josh Allen from the very first as long as he has the talent around him to help him succeed. Clearly because the GM changed 4 of 5 offensive linemen, starting WRs and the tight ends from his first season they realized he needed more help and he got it. Now they realize they still need to make more upgrades in certain areas. My only real fault with Brian Daboll is that he puts Allen to much under the gun by asking him to carry the offense with his arm against some of the better teams. Against those teams in which they lost and he was beaten down. Daboll didn't do this against Dallas, Denver or Pittsburgh and they won those games. Daboll has other faults as I pointed out in other threads. Yes, I don't like him because I think the Bills can do better for Allen. Don't get me wrong here as I'm very happy the Bills found McD and he brought in Brandon Beane. And Beane might be as good or even better than the best GM this franchise has even seen in Bill Polian. Yes, they both have made some mistakes as first timers in their respective jobs and both have corrected some glaring mistakes. Perhaps both Beane and McD feel that they haven't given Daboll enough talent on offense to succeed and are giving him another season. I honestly hope they are right and this OC steps up and gets the offense into the top ten. However, I remain dubious.

When Raiders GM and past NFL league draft analyst Mike Mayock did his scouting on Josh Allen he stated that he that the greatest potential of that years QB draft class. However, he also stated that Allen was very raw in coming from a college not known for developing QB's. Josh Rosen at UCLA, Sam Darnold at USC, Baker Mayfield at Oklahoma, Lamar Jackson at Louisville all were more polished to start in the NFL their first season and all were in big time college programs that allowed them to develop into NFL ready players. Josh Allen rated as very raw and needed some time on the bench to learn and develop. He was supposed to sit for a season and learn behind a veteran QB and instead he was thrown into the fray because the guy they had pegged as the starting QB (who got all the first string reps) was horrific. How bad was he? 5 of 18 for 24 yards, 2 INTs, 3 sacks in nearly three quarters of a game bad. (BTW, how did that "complex" offense work for Peterman?) Stating that, in his two games in 2019 QB Matt Barkley took steps backwards too In Daboll's scheme. 2018, one game start 60% completion percentage 117.4 rate, QBR of 83.4. 2019, 2 games 27 of 51 for a 52.9% completion percentage, a rating of 51.0, a QBR of 9.2. Barkley in his NFL career has had a completion percentage of 60% or darn near that in his five seasons...until this year. 2018 Peterman 0-2, 44 of 81 for a 54.3% completion percentage...296 yards, 1 TD, 7 INTs. 2018 Anderson 0-2, 42 of 70 for a 60% completion percentage...465 yards, 0 TDs, 4 INTs. So, it's not just Josh Allen with having difficulty in Daboll's offensive scheme.

How did that "complex" offense work against the Patriots, Ravens, Texans? Truth is it didn't! Come to think of it the 2019 Bills were still 26th in passing yards, 24th in passing TD's. About on par for Brian Daboll with his 6 years of experienced as an NFL OC with four different teams. Anyway, the Bills did attempt to defeat that cover o blitz by having Allen throw deep a few times early in that game and when he didn't complete any of those deep passes that Ravens defense that blitzed around 50% of the time stepped up their blitzes to 60% or more. Hitting a deep bomb against a defense using cover o works because there is no deep safety to keep that play from becoming a TD. Still, there is more than one way to defeat that blitz with screens, hot reads or the deep post. Simply step up the protections by adding extra tight ends, tackles to block the extra man if they have a star pass rusher. The Ravens and Patriots defenses work because they have such good secondaries that can run man coverage's. The Patriots cover o works well because as soon as a blitzer is blocked he drops into coverage. Bottom line: basically the Bills OC did try to defeat the cover o blitz and when his first plan didn't work he had no answer the rest of the game, 39 pass attempts, 6 sacks. This is a way to ruin a QB. We all watched as the Bills lame OC's ruined JP, ruined, Edwards, ruined EJ. Destroying a young, inexperienced QB's confidence and demoralizing him is not the way to forcing him into greatness. Can anyone guess how many QB's in the league can beat a blitz consistently, not many! Two of the greatest in defeating a blitz are Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. The late great Bill Walsh stated it generally takes four years of playing in the NFL to fully develop an NFL QB. When you force a young player into a sped up process, will that make him learn faster? I dunno, takes four years of undergrad degree, four years of med school and 3-7 years of residency to become a doctor in the US. Think forcing him to learn faster will make him a better doctor?

Russell Wilson is a very unique individual. Wilson went from 3 years at NC state after he was demoted to back up to Wisconsin where he led them to a big ten conference title an appearance in the Rose Bowl and set a single-season record for passing efficiency, with the highest quarterback rating (191.8) in NCAA history. “Listen, son, you’re never going to play in the National Football League. You’re too small. There’s no chance. You’ve got no shot.” These are the words that former North Carolina State head football coach Tom O’Brien uttered on a phone call with one of his quarterbacks in the spring of 2011 https://theundefeated.com/features/the-long-and-the-short-of-is-that-russell-wilson-proved-his-college-coach-wrong/ Don't get me wrong here as i'm not advocating for the Bills RB's to carry the team as I'm fine with a balanced attack. However, I simply think its ludicrous to ask the QB to throw 35-40 times a game when you have a perfectly good RB, run game. Particularly throwing into the teeth of a defense or if you have a lead.

This has more importance than many comprehend. A strong run game is exactly how Baltimore developed Joe Flacco. Over the years I've watched so many bad teams draft a QB with a first round pick only to see them fail mostly because they didn't have a strong run game to compliment the offense. However, it works both ways too, as the Detroit Lions had Barry Sanders and no QB. Matthew Stafford has had no dominant run game to lean on. It takes a defense, it takes a QB, it takes a run game, it takes special teams. Team sport! Like i mentioned earlier, Aaron Rodgers is looking so much better with a strong run game this season. 13-3 with a new HC calling the plays. Continuity? 2019 Atlanta Falcons with QB Matt Ryan, the #5 QB in the NFL this year. #1 in passing attempts, #3 in passing yards... 29th in rush attempts, 30th in rush yards and yes their defense is 20th. Still, the Falcons 7-9 with their top 5 star QB. @Shaw66How did that continuity thing work out for Rick Dennison?

Think about this. Your team goes 13-3, gets home field in the first WC game. Has one of the greatest QB's of all time behind center. Yet, still gets beat at home by a team that ran at them 40 times. Vikings RB Dalvin Cook gained 130 yards from scrimmage and scored two TDs. Saints HC after the game, "They made more plays than we did," Payton said. "They ran the ball better than we did." https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap?gameId=401131038 As bad as I feel being a Bills fan. Its gotta be even worse for Saints fans in knowing that this might have been the last hurrah with Brees at QB. The second straight season the Saints ended their year with an overtime loss. Anyway, my entire point was that NFL teams can still win by running the ball and with Buffalo having a young, inexperienced QB under center that perhaps that is exactly what they should have been doing every week. That even star QB's like Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan can have bad seasons without a great run game to help support them!

Absolutely! This was particularly accurate when you look at games against the Eagles and Ravens as both those teams dominated against the Bills O line like they were playing the 2018 Bills. I cannot understate the value of having a great offensive guard or two. Just ask the Colts who drafted OG Quinton Nelson #6 overall. The Bills drafted Cordy Glenn and while he became an adequate LT, Mike Mayock rated him as a future all pro-pro bowl offensive guard. This is what they have in Cody Ford at RT who would be even better at RG. The Bills need to draft a right tackle or find a top tackle in free agency. While the Bills greatly upgraded the O line in 2019 there is still room for improvement in my view. Perhaps a WR like Tee Higgins at 6'4'' with his huge catch radius. Although, he ran a 4.75 out of HS. Just saying, a WR with that #1 at 21 is it? Wouldn't be so bad either.

Thank you! For objectively stating the obvious to those to can't see what some of us do see. @Shaw66You are really too nice a guy in thinking that things will change for the better by just adding a few new pieces and another year of development and experience. Look at the 2016 Los Angles Rams with Jeff Fisher, John Fassel and Rob Boras as the OC. That year the Rams drafted QB Jared Goff #1 overall and he looked horrid after starting him, going 0-7 with a 54.6 completion percentage and 5 TD's, 7 INT's. There were big questions after this season as if the rams had made a tragic error in selecting Goff #1 overall. The Rams even had RB Todd Gurley and ran him 278 times that season. The next season the Rams hire Sean McVay as HC and Matt Lefluer as OC and suddenly that QB who looked so bad as a rookie started looking like that #1 overall that they were hoping for with Goff going 11-4. It also helped the Rams successfully pounded the rock with Todd Gurley at RB to help out Goff. Gurley got about the same carries as the year previous but saw far more success with the new coaching staff. The #1 offense in points scored. The next year #2 overall offense and 13-3. It doesn't take a full season to develop "continuity" in any aspect of an offense as that is why they have OTAs, training camp and four full games of pre season. I heard this same excuse for Chan Gailey over and over, along with others who failed. Marrone with Hackett, etc. How did "continuity" help Aaron Rodgers with Mike McCarthy as HC/play caller? The 2019 Packers 13-3 with a new HC who also calls the plays. The Packers are also running the ball more successfully this season and helping out Rodgers by taking pressure off of him to not have to carry the game with his arm. Look at the 49ers this season, 478 passing attempts vs 498 rushing attempts and this without a 1000 yard rusher on the team. They have three different backs all over 500 yards. The 2019 49ers 13-3 and a good bet to win the super bowl this season. Oh, but it's a passing league...the 14-2 Ravens, #1 in the league in rushing...were handily beaten by a team better at rushing the ball with the leagues leading rusher... This Bills OC is bad at the majority of the offense. Bad at O line blocking schemes, protections against the better teams and most of all the O line penalties against nearly everyone. Bad at finding ways to run the ball in any situation. Bad at properly developing a young QB (by ever asking him to throw more than 35 times a game as that's usually what losing QB's do). Bad at game situational awareness and making adjustments during games to counter what the opposing defense is doing. Bad at seeing the talent at hand and recognizing if a player can do his job or not. Bad at maximizing the talent on the roster for success. Its rather clear to me that when the Bills pounded the ball on the ground and ran more than they threw the ball, they usually won every game. Conversely, when they asked the QB to carry the game with his arm by throwing more than running, they usually lost. The larger the disparity in throwing over running, the worse it looked for Buffalo. Don't blame the QB, how did the 2018 6-9-1 Green Bay Packers look with Aaron Rodgers at QB? How have the Atlanta Falcons looked the last two seasons 7-9 with Matt Ryan at QB?

Thank you for this post as it gives some insight into whats happening with specific players in games. I think you can say that both Knox and Singletary were somewhat of a detriment to the blocking assignments considering both were rookies and picking up blitzes takes time to adjust to at the NFL level. Perhaps if the defense saw Singletary in the backfield they knew it was a bigger chance for a run. What does stand out greatly to me is the lack of ability to quickly make adjustments on offense during a game. Scheme, line, protections, blocking assignments. That is, if something is not working as defenses have adjusted to that scheme. Simply switch to something different that will work. The Bills literally had no answer for what Baltimore was doing on defense with that cover zero blitz. Yet, they had extra time to prepare against it. We all saw Josh Allen getting hammered by the Ravens defense...so why keep asking him to throw it? Doesn't it make more sense to keep pounding the ball even if it doesn't work all that effectively at first. To instead have the Bills RBs hammer at the Ravens defense to wear them out. This looks to be another flaw in having an OC that doesn't recognize his players limitations and adjust the scheme accordingly to be able to make the offense work no matter what they throw at you. I think its kind of crazy that the Texans had the very worst red zone defense in the league and the Bills couldn't find a way to get a TD on four of those five red zone chances. Another thing that bothers me is the way the Tennessee Titans basically destroyed the Baltimore Ravens in that playoff game in Baltimore by running the ball down their throats. While using the Bills defensive scheme to shut down that high scoring Ravens offense. Do the Titans have that much of a better offensive line? They sure do look like they were coached better.

There is no question in my view that McD and Frazier are downright brilliant at what they do on defense. By the same token I think McD is literally "hands off" on offense and leaves everything to his offensive coordinator and assistants. I'm hoping this off season McD takes a long hard look at the Bills offense and game plans. This seasons ending wasn't on Beane, or McD in my view.

A few games come to mind with Josh Allen being thrown into a raging torrent to see if he sinks or swims. Against the Browns with Myles Garrett the leading or near leading pass rusher at the time and asking Allen to throw 41 times in that game. Meanwhile, Singletary gets only 8 carries. Daboll stated after the game that the Browns were stacking the box. What utter Bullcrap! With 18 passes by Allen in the first half and only 3 runs in that first half by Singletary. Those three runs by Motor, 1st for 4 yards, 2nd for 9 yards, 3rd for 8 yards. The Broncos week 12 and the Denver strong point at that time was their run defense which was top 5. Daboll calls for 47 runs against them?? The Bills answered with 244 yards on the ground, Singletary 21 rushes for 106 yards. Gore had 15 rushes for 65 yards. Looking back its almost like Daboll purposely has his offense go against the strongest part of a defense. The Ravens, with it known that they run that cover zero blitz 50% of the time before the game. The Bills played on Thurs and had extra time to prepare, watch film. And here is Daboll asking Allen to throw a few deep at first while knowing Allen's deep ball placement has been off all season. He missed those deep throws so the Ravens defense went into a cover zero frenzy by blitzing 60%, 6 sacks on Allen. His stats, 17 of 39 passes for 146 1 TD. a QBR of 14.3. A great way to demoralize a young QB. The Texans game was the end of it with a 16 point lead and asking Allen to throw 48 times in that game is ludicrous! The lead target in that game was Duke Williams with 10, which wouldn't be a big deal if the guy had been taking first string snaps most of the season instead of just the last two games. What the Bills should have done was worked that run game hard in the second half. Once they saw Gore was ineffective they should have run anyone but him, McKenzie, DeMarco, Allen, Motor...hell, hand it off to Knox. I don't know it for certain, but sometimes I get the impression that Daboll gets on the phone to Josh McDaniel's after some games so they can have a good laugh together on how he screwed the Buffalo Bills. He knows this is just a temp job with a former hated rival. If I were McD I'd fire his arse and see if Jim Caldwell wanted the job as Bills OC.

The first team to have an interest in Daboll were the Carolina Panthers who fired their HC Ron Rivera on Dec 3rd 2019. It was leaked after the firing that the Panthers had an interest in Badoll probably because of the run the Bills made by beating the Dolphins 37-20, next beating the Broncos 20-3 and finally against Dallas on Thanksgiving day. @Kirby Jackson who posted in a thread about it. That Cowboys defeat on national TV made the NFL world stand up and take a long look at Buffalo, Josh Allen. And Allen looked brilliant in that game going 20 of 25 for 259 yards 2 passing TDs, one rushing TD, he had a rating of 120.7. Knowing the strong Carolina connection I wonder if the Panthers new owner had targeted Daboll as his next HC at that time. There was probably still interest after the losses to the Ravens and Patriots. Its my thinking that the epic meltdown on offense to the Texans after going up 16-0 and all the teams lost interest. Carolina didn't even bother with an interview after all. After how this season ended for Buffalo on offense it really makes me question as to why this HC/GM want to keep Daboll at all. Beane blaming himself, really? After all the upgrades to the line, receiver corps, future star RB in Devin Singletary. Nine of 11 starters upgraded on offense? Perhaps he felt he let the team down in not acquiring Emmanuel Sanders? Jadeveon Clowney? AJ Green? The one guy I'm glad turned down Buffalo was the head case that went to the Raiders, Patriots in AB. Thank the Lord! Could Amari Cooper be in his sights should Dallas not re sign him? Anyway, 2020 should be better if Duke Williams gets a full shot as a starting WR in training camp. Also, lets not forget about RB Christian Wade who looked brilliant in pre season last year.

I agree! I wouldn't complain about the guy had the Bills passing offense taken a big leap this season. All those upgrades to the line, receivers corps and at RB with a rookie that averaged 5.1 YPC. The offense should have been top 10 or so considering the opponents the Bills faced with new HCs, bad QBs, bad teams. Welp, The Bills could have allowed him to leave and not take the hit on his contract, whatever that might be. This may turn out to be McD's undoing. I hope I'm wrong and a new #1 WR, better upgrades for line make this years offense a top ten unit.

To me this is what was most maddening to watch the Bills run all over the Washington Redskins 39 rushes for 122 yards, 2 TDs and passing only 20 times in week 9. Only to watch Dr Jekyll revert to Mr Hyde (Daboll) against the Browns the next week with only 20 rushes and 41 passes! This fed right into the pass rush leader Myles Garrett at that time. Against Denver, who had a top 5 defense against the run in week 12 and the Bills ran it 47 times for 244 yards on them, meanwhile Allen only threw 25 times, 2TDs, in INT for a 92.9 rate. Against Dallas the next week Bills 34 rushes for 124 yards, 1 TD and Allen 25 passes. Allen went 19 of 24 for 231, 1 TD with a rating of 120.7. Brilliant right? Now Baltimore comes to town week 14 and Daboll reverts again by asking Allen to throw 39 times against that cover zero blitz...which, btw, Daboll had no answer for! Allen sacked 6 times with a rating of 62.6. NOW, don't tell me the Ravens were stacking the box or the run game wasn't working, 17 carries for 89 yards a 5.2 YPC avg. I've made mention of this in several threads, the Bills offense in the first series of the second half handed the ball to Singletary SIX straight times for two first downs and Allen ran for another the result of that series was a FG. Then, inexplicably, the Bills go back to the pass, Allen sacked on 3rd down and 10, Punt. This theme over and over the rest of the game. And no, Singletary was not hurt as he had a 38 yard burst off right guard in the fourth quarter and this series ended in a passing TD. Should the Bills have trouble running the ball occasionally Daboll would simply stop calling for runs and go pass happy. Instead of attempting to figure out a way to get the run game working, he gives up on it. Pittsburgh was another game Bills 38 rushes vs 25 passes with a Bills win 17-10. In bringing up Peterman starting the season. The kid couldn't make certain throws that were called. Now the Bills OC doesn't see this when most Bills fans do see it? This isn't at all on McD, because if the OC goes to the HC and tells him a player is unacceptable to start, he doesn't/shouldn't start! I also brought up Benjamin because its the OC's responsibility to watch, see and understand what a player can and cannot do in practice. If the guy can't catch for crap he shouldn't be on the field, period! As with Knox, tell him to work with the Juggs until he gets better or he doesn't play. Both Zay Jones and Robert Foster regressed under Daboll and his schemes. You have a QB with the strongest arm in the NFL and yet can't hit a deep ball to save his life in 2019. Yet, was doing better in 2018 with the same players. Foster was injured early the season and yet Allen over threw him and Brown almost every deep throw. If a coach sees that a play isn't working you keep working it until it works to perfection. Frank Gore either hit the wall or was injured later on this season and yet he kept playing, why? This offensive coordinator simply can't recognize what he has in player talent at times and simply can't coach players up to improve for some reason. We see Allen improving because he is working like an animal on his own with a very high level work ethic.Other players who don't have Allen's work ethic fall by the wayside. Bills fans clamoring for WR Duke Williams all season and he finally gets a nod the last two games when clearly he hasn't been practicing with the first team all season. Of course he isn't going to look as special as he is without more practice with the first team. My point here is I think Daboll is very limited in many ways as an OC. Okay, he has some ability to sometimes call a good game and be a little innovative in the passing game. In my view he simply isn't good enough...never has been... and in all probability never will be. The players love him, big deal. They loved Dick Jauron and Chan Gailey too.

I didn't purposely want to rain on anybody's parade as its just how I see things for the upcoming season. The AFC East Division. The Miami Dolphins should be significantly better with all those draft picks and cap space. If they can go 5-11 with a gutted team, with a has been at QB that beat the Patriots IN New England with home field on the line. All I can say is watch out in 2020. The NY Jets should be better and the Patriots didn't lose anyone besides their ST coach. The Bills are going to have a very tough time in 2020. Chiefs, Chargers, Rams, Seahawks, Steelers, Cards, Broncos, Raiders, 49ers, Titans. Besides 2x Dolphins, Patriots, Jets. Now the 2019 Buffalo Bills beat the Titans in week five 7-14 with Marcus Mariota at QB and four missed field goals, The Titans changed kickers and their QB. If they faced them now that win is a big question. The 2019 Bills should have been crushing bad teams like the Bengals, Dolphins Jets. That first Jets game was a lucky win with the Bills playing like crap having four turnovers and pulling out of a 16 point deficit to win 17-16. The Bills had some outstanding wins against decent teams like the Cowboys, Steelers. And yet the Bills didn't face Big Ben as they faced a 3rd string QB named Duck Hodges. The Broncos was another team starting a bad QB in Brandon Allen with Flacco out and Drew Lock not starting yet. Lock went 4-1 as a starter. I simply don't see easy wins in 2020 for the Buffalo Bills. The Bills were incredibly lucky in 2019 in who they played and also with injuries as they had very few serious injuries that landed players on IR. With all the upgrades the Bills acquired last off season the Bills offense should have taken a huge leap forward from 2018 to 2019. While they did go from 30th in points, yards to 23rd in points, 24th in yards, those are simply not good playoff team numbers for an offense. Simply by utilizing RB Devin Singletary more often in games while limiting the passing the Bills should/could have for sure beaten the Browns and perhaps even the Patriots, Ravens. While the Bills had a decent run game at times. They were bad in scoring TDs by the RBs at 18th. Their run game also failed them at critical times. Daboll needed to find a way to make that run game work in any situation. As tricky as he was in the passing game he should have been more innovative in the run game. Have a look at the 49ers, Vikings game to see San Fran ran the ball 47 times for 186 yards and 2 TDs. Meanwhile Jimmy G went 11 of 19 for 131 yards and 1 TD, 1 INT. We all know what the Titans did to the 14-2 Ravens by running the ball down their throats 217 yards on 37 carries and not allowing that Baltimore cover zero Blitz to get after Tannehill like they did against Allen. As good as that 49er defense was all of 2019, their offense was even better as they were a top four offense. Mostly because of their run game and they didn't have a 1000 yard rusher either. Plus, they had 17 players on injured reserve... BTW, Josh Allen threw for 3089 yards with 20 TDs, 9 INTs and 9 rushing TDs with 510 yards rushing. I don't see Allen as the biggest issue with the offense. Its the lack of called run plays for the second year. The lack of discipline with all the penalties for the second year. Last season the Bills had an excuse for not blowing people off the line on offense with such a bad line. Bottom line: Josh Allen had two areas in that he wasn't very good, deep ball completion percentage at around 25% and under pressure completion 17.5%. So, stop asking him to throw deep and asking him to throw under great duress. Play action completion percentage 63.6, and clean pocket completion percentage 67.0%. Take the load off the QB to carry the offense and run the darn ball more.

While you make some key points for keeping Daboll. I'm of the frame of mind that adding better talent to the O line, receiver corps and even adding another top RB will only prove to show exactly how lame this man is as an OC. Throwing the ball over 30 times a game with a perfectly good star RB in the backfield is what losing teams do all the time. They get behind in points they throw, they get the lead they throw... Perhaps Allen will take a huge leap forward in his development this off season and Daboll's passing schemes, game plans will work to perfection. Again, I'm thinking no. Simply because this years schedule is much, much more difficult and they will be no more barely beating bad teams like there was this season. My thoughts are the Bills could have the Titans O line, RB Derreck Henry and Daboll will still be trying to prove he is the best passing coordinator in the league. It's what he did against the Texans in knowing he had a job interview the next day. IMO The first red flare going up that Daboll has no clue was (first) when the team started Nathan Peterman over Josh Allen in 2018 and (second) asking Peterman to throw passes he was literally incapable of making. At some point this season as either Frank Gore hit that proverbial wall later in the season or was somehow injured and didn't say anything. Yet, kept playing him up until the last game. Its the offensive coordinators job to make the offense work with the players on the roster and good coaches will do this. Kelvin Benjamin was flushed, both WR Zay Jones, WR Robert Foster while having decent seasons last year were flushed this season. Didn't utilize WR Duke Williams until the last two games. The Buffalo Bills offensive player starting cast greatly improved in 2019 over 2018 (new RT, new RG, new highest paid in the league center, new LG. New RBs, three. New TE's along with some top free agent WRs (NE wanted Beasley) and O line players. Basically 9 of 11 new starters on offense. It doesn't take a full season to gain continuity on offense as that is what the pre season and training camp are for... Yet the Bills offensive line grade only went from 27th to 24th under this OC. The lack of discipline with Buffalo being 24th in penalties with the O line at the most inopportune times and again were 27th in 2018. Everything falls on the offensive coordinator to make the offense work in unison and this man falls on his face. With a new, young future superstar at RB that averaged 5.1 yards per carry this season the run game stayed about the same as 2018, save rushing TDs was worse this year 11 in 2018, 18 in 2019. (Derrick Henry averaged 5.1 yards per carry this season too). 2018 Bills passing offense 28 attempts, 31st in yards, 32nd in TDs. 2019 Bills passing offense 24th in attempts, 26th in yards, 24th in TDs. My only hope is that Josh Allen survives this next season and the GM realizes things need to change.

The Buffalo Bills played the Tennessee Titans in week 5 at Tenn and held Derrick Henry to a 3.9 YPC avg. 20 rushes for 78 yards, 1 TD. The Titans were also starting Marcus Mariota at QB. Who was benched for Tannehill after week 6 for going 2-4. Tennehill went 7-3 this season.