transplantbillsfan

1st full year as a coordinator and 1st opportunity in Buffalo to implement his own offense.

I don't care what their regular season record is. I care what they do in the playoffs. Pretty clear the Chiefs were playing with their food all season and holding things back only to open things up in the postseason. Brady's mistake was the whole idea of "we're going to be exactly who we have been!!!" so adamantly in the postseason that he didn't throw any wrinkles in there. I've said it in another thread, but this offseason priority number one for Brady should be to study Andy Reid's use of timed misdirection. Brady was new, too. He became interim last season and basically had to use Dorsey's offense. So this year was his 1st year implementing his own offense as the play caller/ offensive coordinator. When I said "new" I was talking about new to the team, not brand new as someone who's NEVER called an offense or defense.

2 brand new to the team as full time coordinators/play callers in both Brady and Babbich. Yep. McDermott hired them. Credit to him for the hires. When I said "brand new play calling coordinator" I was referring to the idea that they were brand new to the team they were calling plays for. Babich is obviously completely brand new, though.

Here's the comfort I take in this right now: Buffalo had 2 brand new coordinators to the team (both pretty young and one of whom has NEVER called plays at all) who were actual play callers (not coordinators only in name the way Matt Nagy is in Kansas City) and we were 3 points away from the Super Bowl. I don't believe in the history of the NFL(certainly not in the "modern" era) any team in this situation has ever won a Super Bowl. Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but since 2000 I believe Dan Quinn with the Seahawks is the only brand new play calling coordinator to a team who won a Super Bowl. The Eagles have a shot to do it this year with Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio... but let's be honest, we know the Chiefs are winning and Fangio is a Football lifer who probably doesn't count. And other than Moore and Quinn (and Fangio if you want to count him), I don't even think you can find many (if any) instances of a brand new coordinator and play caller making the Super Bowl. Throughout history you could get to teams like the 49ers with Shanahan & Holmgren, but we all know Walsh was the play caller. Now, the Eagles recently both won and lost 2 separate Super Bowls with a 2nd year coordinator in Frank Reich and Shane Steichen. In Reich's 2nd year he won it. We got outcoached against KC, but pinning it on McDermott is unfair considering he's consistently said throughout the year that Brady and Babbich are the play callers and he trusts them. I loved his decisions to go for it on 4th downs, but wished we mixed up the play calling a bit. That's on Brady. During the offseason I think both Brady and Babbich are guys who are driven enough to learn from this season and improve a lot. And before the cynics come in with anything like "yeah, they sure need to!" let's remember the expectations for this team before coming into the season (except I thought we would overachieve those expectations... thanks again for pointing that out @FireChans ) and the fact that Brady is probably the 1st or 2nd biggest reason (Allen is obviously the other) this team had a historically awesome offensive year. And although our D underwhelmed in a lot of ways, they led the NFL in taking the ball away. Based on Beane's and McDermott's presser yesterday, I think they're gonna actively pursue a game changer on Defense (Crosby...???) and with the growth of both Coordinators, next year could actually be the year... hopefully... Go Bills!!!!

Based on Beane & McDermott yesterday, I would almost expect we go after someone like Crosby this offseason. And Crosby isn't a consolation prize. Dude's a stud

I believe Kubiak's final statement strongly, but with 3 straight playoff games vs KC where it was so close that all we needed was a single call (or a single bounce) I'm starting to get a little worried (honestly... terrified) that we're cursed and Allen is going to get the Super Bowl (honestly... multiple) that he deserves. Allen deserves a Lombardi.... even more than long suffering Bills fans

Brady was really good this year. Despite having 1st year OCs and DCs this team wound up a few minutes from the Super Bowl. As much as we might want to criticize the choice of 1st year Coordinators because of the end result, they could also very well be the main reasons we were as successful as we were overall this year.

See comment above... McDermott put more faith in his Coordinators this year than years past. He said it throughout the year. I actually view that as an area of growth on his part. I think Brady is the guy who really needs to spend the offseason working. He needs to study Andy Reid more for offensive play calling in terms of timing and misdirection especially

Really? How many times in the back half of the season was Keon supposed to get on top of the CB but he allowed the defender to get his hands on him and he couldn't get around him? So many ridiculous wasted passes by Allen where the ball went to a spot Keon was supposed to be but wasn't because he was out-physicalled by a smaller defender. I think the criticism was dead-on. What about our loss on Sunday should be pinned mostly on McDermott? I understand he's responsible for everything, including offensive and defensive game plans. However, he's said throughout the year he's been more hands-off with Brady and Babbich to let them call their plays. So if you thought the Bills shouldn't have gone for all of those 4th downs in the game, I'd put that on McDermott. If you thought we should have gone for them, but should have mixed up the playcalling, I would put that more on Brady.

There's not a chasm between the Bills and the Chiefs. There's absolutely no need to tear it down and anyone who thinks there is should go hide in a Cave until the playoffs next year. Remember the expectations coming into this year? Remember where we actually ended up? This game was especially frustrating because it's one of the few times I side with the conspiracy theorists and believe the refs were just trying to screw us. There's no need to tear things down. I'm sure Beane knows he has work to do this offseason, but it's not because we're so far away from the Chiefs... it's because we're so friggin close!!! I hope that we use some of our draft capital to trade for some veteran players rather than using all of them in the draft. It might be a Pipe dream... but if we can acquire Mad Maxx this offseason that would be a huge difference maker. Or use them to trade up for a blue Chip player. Pass Rusher, Space Eating DT, CB, WR If we can fill those spots with some good players and a couple blue-chippers I think we should all be happy. Tearing down a 13 win team that made it to the AFC Championship game is just stupid. I'm glad he said it. That was one of the most frustrating things in the back half of the season. I was legitimately excited about Keon in the front half of the season. He played small in the back half of the season, yet Allen still kept throwing him the ball and every throw was a waste of a play. I hope Keon really works this offseason.

This was my gut reaction as well. However, I think maybe we should consider that our final drive was ultimately going to be more of a passing drive than running drive. Or at the very least there needed to be more freedom on the drive for the team to run or pass. I think James Cook is a fantastic RB and I've changed my tune on the idea of re-signing a RB. I hope we keep him in Buffalo beyond next year on a deal that is both fair to him and fair to us. I'm sure whatever it is some are going to react that we've overpayed him, but he's clearly so valuable to our offense. HOWEVER... Cook is a detriment to the offense in one critical aspect: pass blocking. That's really the reason I think they had Ty Johnson on in that final drive. If you listen to Joe Marino's All-22 breakdown he actually describes one play (and I think it was one of those plays on the last drive Cook came in for) where Cook was on the field for a passing play and he totally whiffed on his block, causing pressure to get in Allen's face forcing a bad throw. Love Cook. Hope he spends some time with Ty Johnson in the offseason to get better at that one critical part of his game.

Thanks for pointing out that I was correct

I still firmly believe Allen will get his Lombardi. I used to believe it would be more than 1, but now I just think it's possible. I've noticed you've become a bit of a Negative Nancy lately. I get it. I just really think we need to look at what our expectations were going into this season. Also, Josh and Keon need to have multiple weekend getaways at bed and breakfasts in the offseason. That connection devolved into something truly ugly in the back half of the season.

Ummm... how can it get worse? Are people forgetting that EVERYONE on this message board would have almost certainly been happy with getting back to the AFC Championship game this season based on our roster? Did we just forget that???

Brah... Big Ben led the league in passing yards in his age 36 season and he was notorious for taking atrocious care of himself in the offseason. If Big Ben is the measure, at least 7 more seasons of "window open" with Josh.

Please stop. No it's not. Don't ever wish that miserable drought back. Josh just finished his 5th year as an actual Elite QB and he's made the division round 3 times and the Championship round twice. He'll still be in his 20s next season and in his prime. This sucks. I'm miserable. We're all miserable. We need to accept that Josh won't catch up to Mahomes. But his career isn't even halfway over. If the Eagles also lose to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl AGAIN do you think they'll feel any better? This is the fun and pain of a single elimination Sport. Sorry but I don't miss the days when our season was over by Halloween.

Not me. Super nervous.

Practice Squad elevations?

He is???

Exactly what I thought and I thought it was cool because that tells you the unique QB/Coach relationship. You could almost see Josh trying to hurry things up by clapping even earlier when you watch the whole thing play out. Cracked me up.

Did anyone else watch this live on the broadcast and just keep rewinding and cracking up?

It's gonna go exactly like the last 2 weeks for me. Head vs Heart. Confidence objectively looking at the game early in the week. I thought the Bills would blow out the Broncos and I thought our Defensive players we got back would lift us to a W. Crazy nerves and self doubt on game day. Any Bills fan knows this. I feel the same way about the Chiefs except even though early week I feel confident we should beat them I already acknowledge we probably won't because of the refs and black magic.

Here Watch this and especially listen to Robert Mayes in his breakdown of the game for the 1st segment. I love listening to the show. He knows his ball and goes into some interesting stuff not touched upon by the media consistently.