HappyDays
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Posts posted by HappyDays
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4 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:
They didn't get whipped up front and the Bills just played a horrible game. The players stunk on the day. It happens. They played their worst game of the year. It sucks, but it is what it is. The Ravens defense is talented... you could have a discussion there, the Chiefs D I agree is less talented overall than ours but both just played better on the day. Coaching isn't blameless. But the fact is the players just played a really poor game.
If the Ravens and Chiefs had a similar game plan as us I would agree with you. But they didn't... We played passive defense, as usual. The Chiefs were pressing their receivers and throwing the kitchen sink at them in terms of pass rush packages. We did the same thing we always do, hope that the opposing offense makes a mistake over the course of a long drive and that just doesn't work against playoff offenses. Look what the Bengals did to us. Delayed blitzes, pressing Stefon Diggs despite an undertalented CB matched up against him. Other playoff defenses play physical. We play scared. I'm sorry I just can't buy into it anymore.
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32 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:
The Bills didn't lose to the Bengals because of coaching IMO. Not saying the coaching was good, there were certainly some questionable parts of their plan - but they lost because they were just totally outplayed on the field.
I don't believe the Ravens and Chiefs defenses are more talented than us, even with our injuries. They were both able to slow down the Bengals. Why not us? If it's not a talent gap there's only one thing to point to. Backing everybody up and giving Chase and Higgins room to work open was a horrible game plan. Running the same defensive looks and checks that we ran all year was lazy and easy to exploit. The Bengals constantly had a pulling guard running straight at Taron Johnson with Joe Mixon behind him. You could say Taron losing that battle is talent but really that is a coaching mismatch. We are not creative in the playoffs which is when it matters most. That's on coaching.
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3 hours ago, MJS said:
Just like McDermott took Tyrod and the Bills to the playoffs in his first season...
McDermott has proven himself to be a great regular season coach. But it is three years in a row now that his team collapsed in the playoffs despite having an elite QB. It goes back to the Colts wildcard game in 2020 where his defense made what should have been an easy victory a nail biter, and we really only won that one because Josh Allen pulled a couple rabbits out of a hat. Last year we know what happened. This year was the worst playoff loss yet. His playoff coaching if anything has been getting worse. Are you really convinced that he is creative enough as a coach to get us over the hump? Because for me after this last performance I've lost my faith in him. But he gets another year. If the same thing happens next year can we agree that this is just who he is?
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25 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:
Maybe now they feel the leash is shorter, but I suspect in the building they are still more wedded to the regime than almost all fans (including those, like me, who are against firings right now).
It's always easier for fans to want the coaches fired than it is for the owners. We don't have to look McDermott in the eye and work with him on a daily basis for six years. We don't have to meet his family and get to know him on a deeply personal level. So I suspect that you are correct, it would take a lot for the Pegulas to move on from him. I'd like to think another similar playoff exit last year would be enough to make them pull the trigger even if they don't want to.
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3 hours ago, BuffaloMatt said:
The team will do some introspection and there will be adjustments.
Three years in a row of consistent defensive failure in the playoffs. When exactly are these adjustments coming?
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What does all the adversity they faced this season have to do with the coaches coming into the Bengals game with the completely wrong gameplan on both sides of the ball? What does it have to do with Beane failing to properly address the receivers and OL in the offseason?
I thought we had the right game plan against the Patriots and Dolphins the previous two weeks, any failures in those games I placed more on the players than the coaches. Did something change in the week of the Bengals game that caused the coaches to lose their heads? Adversity didn't make Frazier and McDermott give free releases to Cincy's talented receivers and call the same vanilla nickel defensive plays that we called all year which Burrow easily dissected. It didn't make Dorsey refuse to have a quick pass game plan against a potent pass rush.
Really this goes back to last year's 13 seconds failure. That wasn't adversity. It was the continuation of an ongoing trend that our coaching staff led by McDermott is never ready for playoff football against top tier contenders.
Everybody gets one more year. I don't want to hear any excuses though. Either get your team led by an elite QB ready for championship contention, or we find someone that can.
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4 hours ago, Shaw66 said:
Happy - the problem with your plan, although I like it, is that it likely would require dismantling the roster. It would mean a rebuild - not a full rebuild, but as the style changes to suit the coordinators, the players necessarily must change. So you have to weigh that against letting McDermott continue to build on his scheme.
I don't think it would require a rebuild. We aren't in cap jail and Beane hasn't been loose with future picks. It would probably take what it took Siranni when he took over the Eagles, one year of fine tuning the roster but nothing crazy. Our defensive scheme isn't so complicated that we have accumulated specific types of players that only work in one scheme. It's just Tampa 2 with a lot of double A gap looks. Our core of Milano, Edmunds, Hyde, White, Elam, Rousseau, and Miller fit into pretty much any 4-3 or nickel heavy scheme.
On offense we need a rebuild no matter who our coach is in 2024. Our current core consists of Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs and to some extent Dawson Knox. Dawkins has fallen off a bit, Morse will probably not be here beyond next year, Davis and Brown haven't developed to the level we hoped. If McDermott can't get it done next year I would rather have the next guy in the room making decisions about the future of the offense.
I think the idea of a multi-year rebuild is only for teams that are looking for their franchise QB. We got the most difficult part out of the way. To McDermott and Beane I say thanks for all you did getting us Josh Allen and you made millions of dollars each for that success, but now as a franchise we need to take the next step and I'm losing faith they can get us there.
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23 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:
In part not because the chances are very good that if you replace McDermott, you won't get someone as good. I wouldn't trade him for McVay or for Payton. Don't know about Siriano or Zac Taylor. But none of them is available. The only guys available are big, big crapshoots.
Personally I would go the route that has been successful for most of the recent contending teams - hire an up and coming offensive coach. Nick Sirianni, Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Zac Taylor. Throw in Andy Reid and you have most of the last two years' conference championship and Super Bowl contenders. That's the group I'd like to be in.
The best part is we should be able to easily attract any offensive coach we want. "You want to get your head coaching career started on the right foot? Here's Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs and cash-rich owners. Have fun." My personal preference is the Lions OC Ben Johnson. He's about the same age as Sean McVay and he looks like a true innovator with a knack for maximizing his talent. I saw what his offense did to our defense despite being ostensibly less talented than us and with a limited QB. Give him the keys to our offense, let him hire an experienced DC, and see what happens. You're right there is no guarantee he is better than McDermott. But one more year with a disappointing early exit from the playoffs and I'm done playing it safe.
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2 hours ago, Shaw66 said:
Andy Reid won his first conference championship game in his sixth year and didn’t win another one until more than ten years later. Zac Taylor has already lost a Super Bowl and a Conference Championship game. Sean McVay is looking more lucky than good. Kyle Shanahan doesn’t have a Lombardi.
The difference in these situations is they didn't have Josh Allen at QB. That's why I'm growing impatient with this regime. We have an elite QB and haven't even sniffed a Super Bowl appearance yet. I mean last year Josh Allen arguably had the greatest postseason run of any QB in history and we didn't even make it out of the divisional round. Why? Because our defensive head coach's defense fell apart yet again, and a huge coaching mistake cost us in the final 13 seconds of the game. I can't look at that outcome and what happened this year and compare it to Kyle Shanahan leading a who's who of mediocre QBs to a Super Bowl and conference championship. The Chiefs have now made it to 3 Super Bowls and always the conference championship since Mahomes took over. Mahomes may be better than Allen but he isn't that much better. The difference is coaching on both sides of the ball and at the top.
So McDermott gets another year to prove he can finally adapt to playoff football. But I won't have any great expectations regardless of how the team looks in the regular season. We have seen them falter when it counts too many times and I have to start thinking that maybe that's just who this team is under McDermott. A team that wins a lot of games because of elite QB play but never gets over the hump.
As usual your posts are much appreciated.
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Dorsey. Not because I thought he was particularly bad this year but because I think an offense led by a prime-of-their-career Allen and Diggs is too good to be led by a green play caller. I said this before we hired him too. There is no reason an offense with that much talent at the most important positions should be a vehicle for a rookie OC to get his feet wet. When you get deep into the playoffs against defensive coordinators that have been around the block, experience matters. Dorsey was taken to school by Lou Anarumo. If we had made it past the Bengals he probably would have been taken to school by Steve Spagnuolo.
We could have had our pick of the litter at OC last year. It's an easy sales pitch - come coach an elite QB and an elite WR with two years of experience together and use the opportunity as a career stepping stone. Instead we went the McDermott family route of a guy getting his shot because he "earned it the right way." Dorsey should have gone the Daboll route and learned the ropes coaching bad offenses for a few years, then eventually gotten an opportunity with a young QB.
Personally I think Frazier is not the problem on defense. This is McDermott's defense. If it doesn't get fixed in next year's playoffs we aren't going to solve the problem by firing the wrong guy.
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14 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:
I am convinced that was an off the field thing with Elam. I am absolutely convinced it was. Don't know what, but he was late to a meeting or missed a team bus, or had a row with a coach or something.
I have a premium membership with Cover 1 which gives me access to a private channel where Erik Turner sometimes drops hints of things he has heard directly from players and other sources with the team. In his words, "directly from the source" it was not an off the field issue or injury or anything like that. Just a normal healthy scratch. Erik was as perplexed by it as anyone.
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None of these players would have started for the Bills. Not because they aren't good but because this coaching staff for some reason refuses to develop its rookies on the field. McDuffie a man only corner would have been made inactive at one point for washed up Xavier Rhodes. Mind you I'm not saying that would have been a good decision but that is the reality of this coaching staff. I saw plenty of flashes from Elam, Cook, and Shakir but they didn't play.
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1 hour ago, UKBillFan said:
He is unusually good at escaping pressure but, by this time, his default is to look deep. He looks towards the end zone rather than short field. If the O Line held up, as it did pre bye, it’d open up more of the field for Josh to exploit.
Two examples from yesterday I will use:
1) 4th and 1 in the red zone, Mahomes has Smith-Schuster open in the flat for an easy 1st down. He instead tosses it to Kelce in single coverage downfield in the endzone. TD.
2) 4th and 6 at midfield, Burrow launches a deep ball to Chase in double coverage. Huge completion and sets them up for a TD.
Our version of that play - 3rd and 2, Allen launches a deep ball to Davis. Bounces off his hands and we punt.
What's the difference in those plays? Not the decision. Mahomes' and Burrow's guys made plays for them. Our guy dropped his. So of course our fanbase screams at Allen for being over aggressive. Yeah this stuff really bothers me.
Throwing deep in short yardage situations a lot of times is a good thing because the defense is overplaying the sticks. I don't ever want Allen to lose that part of his game. Instead I want Beane to draft guys that hold up their end of the bargain for him.
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3 hours ago, C.Biscuit97 said:
Pat Mahomes is the current goat. Not a great defense, bum ankle, a bunch of number 3 at best wrs (Kelce is a goat as well), and no running game. Every other qb is a level down from him. Allen and Burrow almost got there but still need to level up.
His not great defense held the Bengals to 20 points and carried him to victory after he personally made big mistakes on several drives in the 2nd half. His #3 WRs and no running game didn't stop Chad Henne from learning a 98 yard TD drive a week before. Sorry but the support system around him is much better. Allen has to play perfect for the Bills to have a chance against good opponents. Mahomes can leave the game for a quarter or singlehandedly cost his team 3 consecutive drives in the 2nd half and still end up the victor. Not taking anything away from his greatness. But greatness still needs support from time to time.
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51 minutes ago, Generic_Bills_Fan said:
Snakebit season….three most important players to this defense either out or playing hurt. Safety depth was a huge issue
no Daquan jones in that bengals game either
I can’t blame people for seeing it as making excuses after that disappointing loss but over time maybe it will be viewed differently
It is a reasonable excuse for this year, but not 2021 or 2020. We had a fully healthy defense when Philip Rivers on his last legs nearly pulled off an upset in the wildcard round. So our defense faltering in the playoffs has been a trend, not an exception. The Chiefs don't have an especially talented defense. Chris Jones is of course elite but other than him it is just a decent group of players. Yet they held the same Bengals offense we faced to just 20 points. The Bengals almost scored that much against us in the 1st quarter... To my eyes it was not because the Chiefs are that much more talented than we were last week, it was because their scheme was unpredictable from play to play and they took chances. We played the Bengals the exact same way we play every offense we've faced for the last 5 years. That makes it way too easy for them to figure out. I don't want to read too much into our first game against them but it was looking just as bad in that one, so with the added context of the divisional round I think it is fair to admit our defensive scheme simply does not work against talented well-coached offenses at the end of the season.
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9 hours ago, GunnerBill said:
But the biggest games is where that top end talent really matters. It is those moments where you need those guys to make plays. I know finding them when you are always at the backend of round 1 is hard.
Gay, Bolton, Humphrey out of rounds where we have ended up with Basham and Epenesa is where the difference is at the moment. 2018 and 2019 I think we outdrafted KC. In 2020 and 2021 they outdrafted us. 2022 too early to say.
The Chiefs traded away one of their top end difference makers and still made it back to the Super Bowl. They even did it while playing their last game and a half with Mahomes hobbled. They have multiple 6th and 7th round players playing key roles on their team. To me that is a sign of a major coaching discrepancy between us and them. Across the board I don't believe they are really more talented than us. But they keep getting it done when it counts.
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17 minutes ago, Lost said:
And sadly I think coaching and management will be the one thing that doesn't change this offseason. Look for more of the same next year while our division opponents keep gaining ground
It's two straight years now that poor coaching cost us at the end. I'm not asking for anybody to get fired now but if it happens again they need to pull the plug. I'm sick thinking about how many years of Josh Allen we'll have wasted if Pegula isn't willing to demand better.
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Can you imagine the Bills holding either of those offenses to below 24 points in a playoff game? Yet both of those defenses were able to pull that off despite being lower ranked than us throughout the entire regular season. I'm more and more convinced we are being held back by coaching. What other conclusion can you make?
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Just now, BuffaloRebound said:
He shoved him. Kind of was his fault.
The game was not decided on that one play, that's ridiculous. The kick probably would have been good from 55 anyways.
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That sucks for Ossai, it's tough to stop your momentum on that play. He's sitting there thinking the whole game is his fault.
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This has been the most one sided officiating half of football I have ever seen.
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There was a missed block in the back on that punt return. Chiefs homecooking has been strong this half.
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Oof that is an awful punt at the worst possible time
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Just now, HurlyBurly51 said:
LOS
I mean he was getting hit as he threw it. You could easily make the case that he was intending to throw if towards Perine and it came out of his hand awkwardly.
Tim Graham: Giving up on Bills coach Sean McDermott and staff isn't the answer
in The Stadium Wall
Posted
They are a top 5 team because of Josh Allen. Every team with a QB playing at a top 5 level automatically is in the conversation for best team in the league. Imagine if Mahomes had only made it to one AFCCG and no Super Bowls. Andy Reid would be questioned, rightfully so. Ditto for Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor. Brandon Staley is being questioned despite having his team in the playoffs this year. Having an elite QB raises the standards.