Logic

Ah. So he helped MAKE the mess then 😆

Fair point, but I WILL say that the fact that the Chiefs have the best defense of the Mahomes era and essentially the same roster as last year's Lombardi winning squad (minus Smith-Schuster and plus Rashee Rice) makes them a bit different than the Bills. Their offense under-achieved this year and their receiving corps regressed, yes. But at the same time, their defense took a quantum leap forward. Unlike the Bills, they were NOT missing their best defensive player (and one of their top three players overall) all year. Losing Milano for the year would be the equivalent of the Chiefs losing Chris Jones for the year. The Chiefs were likely one Kadarius Toney Offside call from being the two seed again. All of that said, I do get your point. It was a down year for them by their standards, and here they are in the AFCCG yet again. I'm just saying I think they faced considerably less adversity (struggling passing game) than the Bills (defensive injuries, OC firing, Dunne article and its fallout).

God bless him. That's gonna be a very heavy lift. Tepper is the worst owner in the league and that team is in shambles in terms of roster construction and draft capital.

Good post. The answer is: not particularly, no. When our best defensive playmaker was lost for the year, I presumed it wouldn't be a championship season. It takes a lot to win a Lombardi. A LOT. When you lose a player the caliber of a Matt Milano -- when you lose arguably THE most important player on your defense -- for the year, it immediately puts a massive dent in your championship hopes. Just as I knew when Tre White went down with injury in 2021 and Von Miller went down with injury in 2022 that those were likely fatal blows to our defense, I knew that Milano's loss was likely a fatal blow this year. Now, obviously, that's too difficult and heartbreaking to admit that early in the season, so you tell yourself that they'll find a way, they'll overcome it, there will be reinforcements. Yes, every team suffers injuries, but no, they're not all created equal. Furthermore, the Bills have lacked a viable WR2 all season long, and they fired their offensive coordinator midseason. How many teams facing those circumstances -- particularly the midseason OC change -- go on to win a championship? Was it possible? Doable? Sure, probably. The ball bounces differently in the Chiefs game a time or two and maybe the Bills win, beat Baltimore, then beat SF/DET. But given the totality of all the factors mentioned -- injuries on defense, who those injuries were to, shallow WR group, midseason OC change -- it certainly wouldn't seem to any unbiased outside observer like a championship year for the Buffalo Bills. As painful as last night's loss was in the moment, when you stand back and look at the season as a whole, you see that the Bills were a flawed team both in terms of coaching and roster construction, and it would be hard to argue with a straight face that they were or are the best team in the NFL in 2023. Given the flaws mentioned, they likely OVER-achieved by securing the two-seed, and finishing as the fifth or sixth best team in the league seems about right.

Agreed. It was a verrrry questionable call in that situation, and I'll echo others in saying it makes more sense to just leave the offense on the field if you're not gonna punt. That said...it ultimately didn't cost the Bills any points, and they got the ball back with the chance for a game-winning or game-tying drive. That call is not the reason the Bills lost the game.

I have always been one of Gabe Davis's biggest defenders. I thought he was going to have a breakout season in 2022. When he didn't, and then I learned that he struggled with an injury all year, I thought "oh, okay, well that makes sense. 2023, then. Dude is going to have a breakout year in 2023!". Then...he didn't. Gabe Davis is an excellent WR4 -- that is, a guy that backs up all three starting WR positions and can come in situationally here and there for a shot play or designed, schemed up look -- that got his shot to be a WR2 and failed at it. If Davis was willing to re-sign at a WR4 rate and have his playing time and involvement limited as such, then great. Good guy to have on the roster. But that's not going to happen. Let some other team pay him like a WR2. Go draft a couple youngsters -- ideally, one in the 1st round and another later on -- and call it a day.

Who's Nick Wright?

The Bills aren't firing McDermott. I don't know what else to say. Any discussion of what coaches would or wouldn't consider Buffalo is moot this offseason, because McDermott isn't going anywhere.

Not only that, but I would further argue that the ONE major strength the Bills defense had exhibited since the bye week was well disguised pre-snap looks. It also happens to be the ONE thing they could've done that would have been most likely to limit Mahomes more than they were able to last night. The problem is that having your defensive play caller out with injury and replacing him with a street free agent who wasn't with the team two weeks ago greatly limits the complexity of the defenses you can call. It GREATLY reduces your bag of tricks. Romo even mentioned this during the broadcast. It's not just that the Bills had injuries on defense -- all teams have them at this time of year. It's that the specific injuries the Bills had (Bernard and Rapp, in particular), opened things up for a historically great middle-of-the-field offense in general, opened things up for Kelce and Pacheco in particular, and limited the Bills' ability to play mind games with Mahomes, forcing them to line up in fairly vanilla looks. Missing injured players is not an excuse, in and of itself. Missing the specific players the Bills were missing, though, certainly helps explain the Bills' defensive futility last night.

I'll just repeat what I said above. If the question is "Do you want the Bills to fire McDermott?", then okay. Vent. Get it all out. If the question is "ARE the Bills going to fire McDermott?", the answer is "No". It just is. Do you think differently? Do you foresee the Bills firing Sean McDermott this offseason?

What do we have, 9 picks? WR S S WR WR WR WR WR WR Then go into undrafted free agency and, yep, you guessed it, scoop up some WRs. I'm joking, obviously. Kind of. But in all seriousness, can they please, for the love of God, load up on offense this offseason?!

I advocated for it mid-season. After the way the season ended, there is zero chance it happens. Zero. So if the question is "do you wish the Bills would fire McDermott?", then okay, fine. But if the question is "ARE the Bills firing McDermott?", the obvious and unequivocal answer is "No. Not happening".

All I'm going to say is that your opinion is based on not one, but TWO assumptions. Assumption one: Had the Bills passed up the open touchdown and taken the drag route instead, they would still ultimately have been able to score a touchdown. Assumption two: Taking a four point lead would been useless, because the Chiefs would've scored a touchdown to re-take the lead anyway. Passing up an open touchdown based on assumptions seems foolhardy to me, but we can agree to disagree.

Just got an e-mail yesterday from Alaska stating that my flight for Wednesday was cancelled because all Boeing 737 Max aircrafts have been grounded. They auto-rescheduled me to a flight for the following day. I obviously didn't want to lose a day of my trip, so I had to call and sit on hold for an hour to talk to customer service to get it changed to a different flight on my original departure date. Gotta tell ya...as someone who has never had any fear about flying whatsoever... I'm not loving the idea of getting on an airplane right now.

I'm curious: if Dawkins holds his ground against Jones and Allen hits Shakir for six on that play, are you still saying it was a bad decision?

How can you say that, though? The assumption that the Bills would definitely still have been able to score a TD after securing a first down there is a very big assumption, indeed. The Chiefs have an elite red zone defense, and the Bills had only scored once the entire second half. Even the assumption that Bass would still ultimately have made the kick that sends the game to overtime seems like a big one, based on Bass's recent struggles even in-close. I just think the premise "the short throw for the first down is superior to the touchdown" in that instance is a flawed one, based on assumptions of future success that --- based on the way the season and game had played out -- seem potentially unfounded.

This is where I'm at. The Chiefs have an excellent red zone defense. There's absolutely NO guarantee that if you extend the drive on a hypothetical Diggs 1st down, that you'll have another shot at a touchdown as open as the Shakir route was. The Chiefs had also done an excellent job limiting explosive plays by the Bills all night -- 0 plays over 20 yards. So now, a receiver open in the end zone on an explosive play for a go-ahead touchdown -- how do you pass that up to go for a 4-10 yard completion instead, just based on the ASSUMPTION that you'll still be able to ultimately score a touchdown? In a vacuum, you can sit there and say "well, the smart play is to bleed more clock, continue the drive, take it down to almost no time, AND THEN score". But again, there's absolutely no guarantee that you're still going to get that opportunity. It's just hard for me to fault Allen for taking a shot to an open player in the end zone -- which, make no mistake, would likely have been completed had it not been for Dawkins getting walked into the QB -- for six, when the alternative would've been a mere 1st down and then hoping/assuming that you'll still be able to score a TD. If an explosive play for a touchdown is there against an elite defense to put you ahead with under two minutes left, you take it. That's where I'm at. Execution is what doomed the play, but I'm okay with the decision itself, because football isn't played in a vacuum.

Put simply: I agree with the premise of the post. I like Joe Brady and I think he has earned serious consideration for the OC job in 2024 and beyond. I do NOT think the Bills should hire him without interviewing other candidates, too. Brandon Beane always talks about "turning over every stone" to improve the Buffalo Bills. I see no reason that shouldn't apply to the offensive coordinator position. There should be no shortage of innovative offensive minds champing at the bit to work with Josh Allen. Interview them all. If Joe Brady is the best man for the job and convinces you he ought to stick around, then so be it.

I feel...mostly exhausted and sad today. Not devastated/heartbroken like in the past, just....ugh. Resigned. Disappointed. I think the reason is that there wasn't any blown call, fluke play, or baffling coaching decision to point to for the loss (yes, the fake punt was dumb, but it's not what cost the Bills the game. It led to no KC points and Bills got the ball back). Instead, the loss happened due to failures in all three phases -- offense, defense, and special teams. -- The offense was mostly great, but it didn't hit a single explosive (20+ yard) play, while KC had 8. At the end, when it mattered most, they couldn't seal the deal. -- The defense was carved up. Mahomes was the hot knife, and our defense was the butter. Yes, it was ridiculously injury depleted. Yes, the specific injuries -- Bernard and Rapp, out middle of the field defenders -- were particularly devastating against an offense like KC that eats up the middle of the field. Whatever reason you want to give, our defense offered basically no resistance all game. -- The special teams was bad the whole way through, culminating in a missed field goal. As for coaching, my only nits to pick would be that the defense was slow to adjust (I'm not sure how much they could've done anyway, when your defensive signal caller is out and you're starting a guy off the couch, it really limits how complex you can make your defense), and the fake punt was dumb. For once, I DON'T think coaching was the primary reason for the loss. Failures in execution are what doomed us. Not many, but enough of them in key moments -- Diggs' dropped pass, Sherfield's dropped pass, Dawkins getting walked into Allen, Bass's miss -- to spell defeat for the Bills. I think I'm just exhausted because I don't have an easy fix or an easy recipe to overcome this hurdle we can't seem to overcome. Mid-season I said that I wanted McDermott gone. Then he got considerably better at coaching. Started being more aggressive on 4th downs (to the point that he routinely goes for it on 4th on his own side of the field, even early in games), started coaching more aggressive and disguised defense, started being a bit looser on the sideline and in the locker room...in short, he seemed to make a concerted effort to improve on a lot of the gripes everyone had about him. He then coached six straight wins to get to the divisional round. While we can argue until we're blue in the face over whether McDermott should be replaced or not, the fact is that it's NOT happening this offseason. So what do the Bills do? Where do we go from here? They'll no doubt draft some exciting young players, sign a guy or two, lose a guy or two. They'll line up again next season top 10 or top 5 in Super Bowl odds. They'll probably win the AFC East again. But then what? I'm back to feeling like I felt last offesason: Nothing really matters until January. It's all just noise until the divisional round comes. And what should make me feel this morning like the Bills will have a better chance of clearing that hurdle next season? I'm just...exhausted. Sad, disappointed, dejected. Exhausted.

Sure, there are three rules. 1. Everyone must bring either good whiskey, good weed, or good cheese. 2. STFU during the game 3. Be nice to my cat I'll leave the front door unlocked.

I'm happy to watch the game with other fans in person that are as into the game as I am, or occasionally at a Bills Backers bar. But by and large, my days of watching the game with casual fans, people who wanna talk through the whole game, ask a bunch of questions, chat about unrelated topics, etc...are long over. It's the reason I've been doing "Super Bowl Party for One" for years. I just really love football and want to concentrate on the game. The nuance of it, the visuals, the audio, the commentary. I want to fully take in the game. There are plenty of opportunities to be social OUTSIDE of football. You want to watch the game with me? Great. Let's watch it. You wanna use the game as pretext to be social or to have a party? I'm really just not interested. I don't mean to be a curmudgeon, that's just how I feel. As for Tweeting or message board-ing during the game. I don't know. I've literally never tried it. Maybe I'd like it? I don't know. Perhaps I'll give it a shot next year during an early season game.

I'm not. I like checking in on the forums right up until 15 minutes before kickoff, and then right after the game ends (presuming it's not a loss, because this place is just miserable and intolerable after most losses)...but DURING the game? No internet, no Twitter, no talking to any other humans, really. Just locked in on the game. Pacing during commercials, unless someone hands me a book or magazine to read or I put Red Zone on the laptop. I'm a stress ball during games, to be honest, and the last thing I can do is think of pithy remarks to type on a message board.

You just keep doing it. You can't even SEE that you're doing it. How do you know, Scott? How do you know that this is as good an opportunity as they'll ever get? How do you know they won't go 15-2 next season, get the 1-seed and a bye, then face the Texans and Browns en route to a Super Bowl? You're convinced that if they don't do it this year, they likely never will. I'm not. That's fine. Like I said four posts ago, we can agree to disagree.

There's the "glass half full" vs "glass half empty" thing again. Sunday is "as best a shot as [the Bills] will get against KC", yet you go on to say "I guarantee you KC won't ever have this ***** a skills group around Mahomes again. But what about the Bills? Maybe the Bills will never have this poor of a WR group around Allen again. Maybe the Bills will never have this injury-depleted a defense heading into a playoff matchup with KC again. My point is that you seem to be viewing the Bills as being in their "this is the best shot the Bills will get" window, but why? Why does that thinking apply to Buffalo and not KC? Why do you go on to say that KC will assuredly be getting better around Mahomes in the future, but not apply the same assumption to the Bills, that they may be getting better around Josh Allen in the future? I fully agree that it's a huge game for the Bills, a "put up or shut up" moment, a legacy game, an opportunity to stake their claim to history. All of that. But this idea that people have that it's "now or never" for Buffalo, as if they're not gonna continue to be good under McDermott and Allen, as if they're not gonna have a bunch more cracks at it, as if only OTHER teams get better, while the Bills will only get worse and older. I just don't buy into it. Huge game this Sunday. HUGE game. But if the Bills don't win? Life doesn't end. They'll line up next season with a 28 year old Josh Allen under center and a top 10 NFL roster and once again be on the short list of Super Bowl favorites. Enough with the "this year or no year" stuff, in my opinion. It's overblown.

Honestly, I haven't seen enough from Joe Brady yet to feel totally heartbroken if he gets a job elsewhere. Don't get me wrong: I like a lot of what I've seen so far, and it seems like he may have a bright future. But he hasn't exactly proven himself to be an indispensable, unreplaceable, brilliant offensive mind that should have Bills fans weeping if he departs. If he gets the OC job here for next year, great. If he's hired away, so be it. I wouldn't hate a fresh mind with fresh ideas being brought in. There should be no shortage of capable offensive minds champing at the bit to work with Josh Allen.