jrober38

Let me rephrase. I think they intend to score points, but as soon as something detrimental happens to a drive, like a penalty, or loss of yards on 1st or 2nd down that puts them behind the chains, that he immediately starts playing defense with his offense. It's like we no longer try to keep the chains moving, and revert to trying to limit the damage our offense could do by figuring out how to conservatively try to come close to getting a first down by not putting the ball in danger and being totally fine with punting and playing field position. When the Bills get into 3rd and long they almost always throw short of the sticks. Just avoid the sack, check it down, and hope your receiver can break a couple tackles and convert the 1st down. We never put the ball in danger by forcing it down the field into coverage in a spot where a catch will move the chains. It's the same type of offense we saw from Dick Jauron when he had Trent Edwards. Play super conservative, and take the check down whenever possible. Play field position and let your defense try to force a turnover to give your offense a short field. We saw the same thing from this offense even when Allen was on the field. His YPA is pathetic, and most of his throws a dink and dunk check downs. Despite having a howitzer for an arm, we haven't thrown the ball down the field at all this season and I think that's a product of how the coach over values protecting the football.

So they couldn't ask them to tank last year, but they can ask them to do it this year? This is the part of the equation that doesn't add up for me. McDermott hates losing. I think they made the most of their situation last year, and legitimately thought they'd be better this year. I think that they thought getting rid of Tyrod would be an upgrade at QB, that the OL would gel, that a healthy Benjamin and a 2nd year Zay Jones would be fine at WR, and that the running game would be solid like a year ago. I honestly think that they brought back Kyle Williams, and Lorax, because they thought they'd be better this year. I don't think there's any chance that behind close doors they expected this team to take the step backwards that we've seen.

I'm not frustrated at all. I expected this team to be a bottom 5 team and that's what we have. The issues I have are with how we've gone about "rebuilding." The things they've done mostly haven't made any sense. If we were rebuilding, why didn't we tear the team apart last year and do what you guys are suggesting we're doing now, a year ago? This team would be exponentially better off if they'd "tanked" in 2017, got their own 1st round pick in the top 5 and not had to trade away all our draft capital for Josh Allen. Imagine if we'd walked away from the 2018 with a QB, Edmunds and two second round picks. If we'd tanked in 2017 and not won 9 games that's likely what we'd have.

Your chart clearly shows we didn't go for it 90% of the time on 4th and short when between the opponents 31 and 37 yard line.

Serious question - when has a total tear down ever worked in the NFL? It's worked in the NBA, but tanking in the NFL doesn't have much, if any track record of success.

Nothing about what I'm saying is short sighted. We have a coach who doesn't understand basic probabilities who punts on 4th and short in opposition territory all the time. Our head coaches philosophy doesn't work in today's NFL. That's not going to suddenly change. We're talking about a guy who punted, and consciously played for a tie against the Colts last year instead of playing to win, even though a tie would have eliminated us from playoff contention. This is a guy who time and time again will not budge from his philosophy and it's a philosophy that doesn't win in the NFL anymore.

Last year the line was good and we had LeSean McCoy and McDermott still opted to punt on 4th and short in opposition territory 90% of the time. What you're saying isn't in touch with what this coach has demonstrated numerous times over the past 26 games.

You obviously have a different definition of non competitive than I do.

Don't we have a bunch of cap space and 10 draft picks? How are McDermott and Beane going to convince any free agents to want to come here?

If this was true they wouldn't have been trying to win in 2017. This is not a tank. These guys didn't go into this season thinking they'd be looking at 12 or more losses this season.

The team isn't competitive because the GM and HC have made the team non competitive. We have the worst offense in the history of the NFL adjusting for era. This has been a colossal failure and there's nothing that suggests these guys are going to get this team going in the right direction anytime soon.

The question then becomes who hires the OC? I'm fairly certain it's McDermott, so do we really want to let him hire a 3rd OC in 3 years? Probably not. No, we're the laughing stock because we have the worst offense in NFL history adjusting for era. The team, and our inability to score points is why we're the laughing stock of the league right now.

No, it's most definitely a fact.

This goes back to last year though when we had a better line and LeSean McCoy and still refused to go for it on 4th and short in opposition territory. We're talking about a coach who time and time again has shown that he doesn't get the basic math behind certain situations. This is a coach who made a conscious decision in the Colts game last year to play for the tie, which was a result that would have eliminated us from playoff contention. At this point all McDermott is is a motivator. He gets his guys to play hard, but he doesn't understand or isn't willing to do the things needed in certain situations to increase his teams chances to actually win football games. He's Dick Jauron 2.0. I can't read the link. There are twitter icons and adds all over the data. All I can see is that we went for it 10% of the time when facing a 4th and short between the 31-27 yard line in opposition territory. I can't see the overall context because the page is a mess, but I don't think that's good enough.

It's hard to win if you're the "worst" on either side of the ball, but if you're talking top 5 O + bottom 5 D vs bottom 5 O + top 5 D the team with the top offense is winning a lot more often than the team with the top D in 2018.

Cleveland was never this bad on offense. Adjusting for era, we may have the worst offense in NFL history.

I can see the connection to the Cowboys, but not the Titans. I think Vrabel is actually a forward thinking guy. One thing I'm sure of is that we're not trying to play like the Cheifs, Rams or Saints. Sean McDermott has not shown he wants to play football the way those coaches do.

I hope our franchise isn't as inept as Cleveland.

To see where the NFL is going people should watch the Saints-Rams game from Sunday afternoon. Those teams are playing a different sport than the Bills. They value possessions, and try to score every time they get the football. Our coach has nothing in common philosophically with Sean Payton or Sean McVay, and that's a major problem in my eyes.

All of it is true. He says all of those things all the time and demonstrates his philosophies every game we play. He might want a better QB than Tyrod, but that doesn't change how he approaches the game of football and what he thinks a team should do to win games. We could have Tom Brady and McDermott would still be punting on 4th and short on the opponents 40 yard line because that's who he is.

I couldn't care less about making the playoffs. I care about having a GM, Coach and players who can win a Super Bowl, and right now there's nothing that suggests we have any of those things. Our coach loves to punt on 4th and short in opposition territory. He does it pretty much every opportunity he gets. That's all you need to know about Sean McDermott's philosophy to coaching. That's not something any of Bill Belicick, Andy Reid, Sean McVay or Sean Payton do.

Agreed. The Bills were run off the field by halftime. There are no moral victories in a 41-9 beat down.

I don't understand how a HC can survive presiding over the worst offense in NFL history.

It's hard to imagine there was any real upside with only Nate Peterman and Josh Allen as the only QBs on the roster at the beginning of the season.

Sean McDermott has nothing in common philosophically with any of the top coaches in the NFL. He's conservative, and believes in running the ball, playing defense, establishing the line of scrimmage and playing field position. He constantly ignores basic probabilities by always punting on 4th and short when we're in opposition territory. In a league that's becoming more and more innovative and aggressive on the offensive side of the ball, our coach is holding on to the way things used to be 10 years ago, and accordingly isn't cut out to be an NFL HC right now.