Success

I'm so torn on McDermott. He is, without doubt, a SOLID coach. We're in every game, and have winning seasons consistently. He gameplans well. And there is a lot of bad coaching in the league. It's hard to find someone significantly better than McD. I thought a few guys who would fit that description were available this offseason, and some might still be around next year. To me, it depends on that. I think AFCCG has to be the floor next year in terms of expectation. Anything short of that - and if it's not tied to some circumstance like Allen being injured - and I think they have to consider moving on.

The D comes up short in the playoffs. They've done well - as you pointed out - against bad QB's. The Bills defense has a "good QB" problem. Mahomes is part of that. Maybe we can agree on that, but in general, you've spent a lot of time mythologizing a QB who is maybe a tick better than Allen.

You took all the time to put this together - after implying that Allen's playoff victories weren't too impressive because he played against mainly back-up & mediocre QB's? Your arguments are pretty inconsistent. You're trying to support a narrative that isn't really supportable. Did you forget about this post before you posted your last post?

I don't feel like the window is closing at all in the upcoming season. It's as wide open as it was last September, before all of the injuries hit. The Bills are a pretty young team. Whenever I hear an opposing fan say we're getting older, I think it's because of Hyde, Poyer & Miller. If you look at the rest of the team, it's pretty dominated by guys in their 20's, and many who were just drafted in the past few years. If Beane can put together another very good draft, we should be in the top tier again this coming season. And that is repeatable. This has always been a team that Allen basically carries for a large part of the time. As long as he is surrounded by solid, capable players, with a few star-quality guys in the mix, we can beat anyone.

That's certainly fair. But in general, the Bills D has let the team down in the playoffs. They haven't played like their regular season ranking. I think their ranking is often inflated by how well our offense does, and Allen keeping them off the field for large portions of a game. This past season, I saw them as a true top 5 defense, and even top 3. But losing so many players obviously changed that by the time we played KC.

Know what they call that? A goalpost move. It's what people do when they're losing a debate.

Paper tiger. The Ravens basically stopped Mahomes. The Niners limited him much more than we did. Cincy made him look terrible after the 13 seconds game. And don't forget how they looked against Skylar Thompson. I'll give you credit. You're really trying.

And a defense that was clearly a paper tiger come playoff time. And with coaching that is clearly inferior to what the Chiefs have. You lost this debate when you tried to argue that QB's beat each other. They don't. Allen arguably played better than Mahomes in the 13 seconds game, and in this most recent playoff game. His team & coaches let him down MUCH more than what we have seen w/ KC. Regular season stats don't matter if certain units fold in the playoffs.

LOL The previous poster was 100% correct. You're trying too hard. Andy Reid made many NFCCG's and a SB. Pundit narratives are clownish much of the time. Spagnola stopped arguably the greatest offense in history to win a SB. And Veach has quite obviously built a top defense for that team - which, clearly, has allowed Mahomes to win more games without having to score as much as Allen. That big Mahomes offense didn't light up the scoreboard in the AFCCG & SB. You're wrong, quite simply. I'll say it again: football is a team game. No one would argue that Mahomes hasn't had better teams & coaches than Allen. No one.

They also happened to get a world-class HC in that time, a world-class DC, and a top GM. Big coincidence, eh?

Football is actually a team game. Quarterbacks don't beat other quarterbacks, or lose to other quarterbacks. If this was golf or tennis, your post would have more relevance.

NFL narratives have always been QB-centric, but that's gotten even more pronounced. I hear Pats fans say that Mahomes can never be GOAT, because Brady beat him both times head-to-head. One of those was Dee Ford being Offside, and one was a game where Mahomes was missing 2 key O-linemen and was playing a world class defense. And it's the same w/ Allen. He carried the team a few weeks ago against KC - but it felt like all of the coverage afterward was his decision to play "hero ball" and go for Shakir in the EZ (which was the right decision). And it was all "Mahomes bested Allen, again." I agree w/ you. I don't think Mahomes could carry some of the Bills teams Josh has had quite the same way.

Allen didn't get anywhere near the defensive support that most of the other playoff teams got. Watching KC & SF in the Super Bowl was eye-opening. That was much more of a defensive game. And it's really been like that almost every time in the playoffs. The Bills D is usually ranked high and plays well most of the regular season, but disappears in the playoffs. Against KC, the pressure was on almost every drive to score, because our D could not get stops.

They were much healthier than the Bills heading into the game. It's not really comparable.

But KC's receivers didn't have those drops against the Bills. They uncharacteristically made spectacular catches, all game.

Ah yes - the goal line fumble. The only mistake made in the game, apparently. Well, except for the 60-yarder to Diggs that was on a rope & dropped, or the similar pass to Sherfield. And the missed FG. I didn't hear "every pundit" say that the Chiefs looked like the better team. That was a coin flip game.

Love & kindness is going to win in the end. I'm sure of it. In the meantime, it's just brutal hearing about these kinds of incidents. Sending as many good vibes as I can to the good people of Kansas City & everyone impacted by this.

If we have lesser talent - but they're healthier when we get into the playoffs, we'll have as good or better of a shot as we did this past season. And here's the thing: we'll have a chance at that every season w/ Josh. There will be some years we'll have a SB caliber roster, but then some seasons we're not quite there - but if in those seasons, we stay relatively healthy, it works out about the same. Allen keeps us in every game, no matter who is playing w/ him. We'll have a chance for a title every year we have him, just like the Pats did w/ Brady, and KC does w/ Mahomes. Even Peyton Manning's teams had that, though he didn't cash in as much.

It's not one reason. Luck is a part of it - we really did have some untimely injuries this year. I hate it when people call that an "excuse." It's just reality. And the Chiefs are a real nemesis. They're better when it counts, at least to this point. They have more of a pedigree for that now, and more confidence. That's a big thing as time goes on. The Bills will just get tighter & tighter until we can overcome that, while the Chiefs play it pretty loose.

I could only watch it once. It was excellent - but too many painful memories.

If KC had been missing their top 2 CB's, their top 2 LB's, their #2 WR, and 2-3 other key players - does anyone think they would have beaten the Bills in the divisional?

Yes.

I feel like Allen has outplayed Mahomes in almost every match-up. But, they don't play each other. Allen plays against KC's defense.

We're going to turn the narrative on its head in the next decade, and the Bills will have a more prolonged & successful dynasty than KC.

Huh?