Shaw66

This is a load of crap. Egregious incompetence? McDermott is recognized around the league as an excellent coach. The fact that someone missed a detail, telling Bass to squib kick, is so far from "egregious incompetence," it's absurd. It was just a mistake. A "huge" difference between building culture and competitiveness and being a championship coach? Nonsense. The difference isn't "huge," and it is in fact a culture of competitiveness that makes coaches and players become champions. And you point to Andy Reid as some kind of paragon. Reid lost just as many playoff games in his first five seasons as McDermott has. Belichick was under .500 in his first five seasons and went to the playoffs only once. Grow up and find a better way to deal with your disappointment.

You know, I just don't buy this. The Bills have a guy, name's Gabriel Davis. Did you happen to notice how wide open he was against the Chiefs? And Beasley? He was wide open on several of his catches. In this league, plenty of guys on the good passing teams get wide open. That's why the passer ratings of QBs have gotten so high. It's not as simple as you say. If it was that simple, Knox would be wide open like Kelce was.

Thanks. I'm not challenging what you say here, but I'm curious: How do you know these things? Just from observation? Or have you read it or heard it somewhere?

I didn't want to watch that - I knew it would break my heart. But that's a good example. Those guys are playing at higher level than the Bills receiver, I suspect. And they're doing it because Reid and Bienemy taught them to do it and create the space for them to do it in.

I think you're right about this. Apparently, in the overtime, Mahomes was saying "I'm coming to you, 10." Mahomes knew he'd be open. Now, Diggs doesn't have that awesome top-end speed, so DBs can play him tighter, but there aren't many guys who can get separation like Diggs. There's no way Allen is saying "I'm coming to you, 14," because he knows Diggs may be blanketed. And I kept waiting for the ball to go to Knox downfield. Were the CHiefs doubling Diggs and Knox?

Thanks, Hap. I see this. They talk about how Kelce is a former QB and sees the field so well. It may be that Kelce runs a lot of option routes, where he makes the read and cut, and then Mahomes reads him. Still, why can't Knox and Allen do that? Is it really so hard? I think part of it is what I said, which is that the Chiefs create a lot of space for Kelce to work in, so that when he sees his option there's a lot of room to run. Kelce is just not so physically impressive, in terms of speed, quickness, or change of direction, that he should be doing things that Knox can't do.

And I agree with this. I'd take Allen right now, and I think he's going to keep growing. In a couple of years, he's going to be an assassin. Remember, Allen is a year behind in development. Mahomes has great athleticism, and he also understands their scheme and processes information really well. However, I think he needs a great offensive coordinator to create the scheme. The league will catch up with the scheme. Allen also has great, but different athleticism, and this was the first season where Allen really seemed to have mastered the scheme. He also processes really well. Unlike Mahomes, however, Allen just needs a good coordinator. A superficial example of this is that Allen played Mahomes even the other night, when the sideline battle was Daboll vs. Reid. That's not a fair fight, but Allen made it even steven. When Reid retires, I think Mahomes will come back to earth.

I'm interested in this. I get that Kelce's performance is a huge upgrade over Knox's performance, but why is that? Except for perhaps his brains, I don't see the difference. I mean, Kelce's a little bigger and maybe is a little better blocker, but that's not why Kelce is so much more valuable. Kelce isn't some superstar at getting separation - you watch his routes, and besides making good reads, he just isn't a guy who leaves defenders in his dust. I think it's scheme. I don't know what the Chiefs do, but I think they really take advantage of the fact that Hill gets doubled a lot. I think their scheme is to put a lot of additional speed on the field, forcing the defenses to respect deep threats on every play, besides Hill, and forcing them to respect their speed out of the backfield. I'm guessing that the result of showing that kind of attach is that there's a lot of middle for Kelce to run in. Depending on the leverage the defender plays, Kelce makes a cut, and Mahomes reads the cut and throws. Frankly, it's one of things that's kept me from being a big Daboll fan. It just seems to me that given the same kind of openings, Knox would catch a lot of balls. With Sanders, McKenzie and Stevenson, the Bills had the speed to play a similar game. I think it's coaching.

Well, it's strictly theory, I have no real inside information. But here's what I would guess ... 1. McDermott's whole philosophy is that players are trained to do their jobs. Everyone relies on everyone else to do his job. He's going to trust his defense to perform when the time comes. 2. His defense should be able to keep KC from gaining 20 yards in 2 plays. 3. So, he's comfortable trust his defense to get the job done. 4. Squib kicks are unpredictable, for BOTH teams. If the kicker hits it wrong, maybe it gets recovered at 35. His special teams may have practiced covering squib kicks, but they've probably never practiced a squib kick that bounces exactly like this particular kick bounces. So, there's a measure of uncertainty there, and McDermott doesn't like uncertainty. 5. Reid is the master of the innovative, unsuspected gadget play. It's a really good bet that Reid had a play for the squib kick. (you may recall that Tennessee had a play for squib kicks. I think they called it Touchdown Throwback.) If Reid had a play, you can be sure that the Bills had not practiced for it. 6. For all those reasons, McDermott probably figured that asking his defense to make one more stop was a better idea than asking his kickoff team to run an unpredictable play against a team that is going to a throw a weird wrinkle at you.

Yes, this whole miscommunication, and Farwell and Frazier BOTH being unhappy, describes a level of dysfunction that is completely uncharacteristic for McDermott's organization. It's just hard to believe that everything described by the OP could have happened within this organization. Maybe it did, but it seems unlikely.

You know, a lot of people are talking about why the Bills didn't do some kind of squib kick, rather than take the touchback, arguing that that would have run some time off the clock. Some people, like you, are saying that this game hurt as much as the Music City Miracle. People should recognize that if the Bills had taken the touchback in the Music City Miracle, instead of the squib kick, the Bills would have won. Reid is the master of the trick play. Squib kicks are unpredictable for the kicking team as well as the receiving team. There was good reason not to do the squib kick against the Chiefs, and painful history, too.

Ouch. I've said for years that Marv was outcoached. I don't know if I can get there about McDermott, but over a couple of beers I could make your argument. But as I've said, elsewhere, you can't evaluate a coach based on a play or series of plays any more than you can evaluate a player on one or a few plays. McDermott and Marv deserve credit for all the things that got them to the point where those plays happened. Nobody and no thing is perfect. And people learn and develop. Allen is a better player than he was two years ago. McDermott is going to be a much better coach ten years from now. What's happened, happened.

Yeah, and I think one place where McDermott/Frazier have fallen down is dealing with the unicorn, whoever he may be. Derrick Henry, Hill. I remember a few years ago when someone stole a page from Belichick's book against the Patriots and put two defenders on the line of scrimmage opposite Gronk. They wouldn't let him run a route upfield. Now, you can't do that every play, but you have to do something. As we saw last night, not surprisingly at all, Hill was able to break a long touchdown despite the Bills core design to stop big plays. People have said with 13 seconds left, the Bills should simply should have held receivers at the line of scrimmage, tackle them if need be. Let them run a play, complete a pass if possible, or take the five-yard penalty and a first down. Whatever, point is, it can't always be business as usual against special players.

I always thought heads was the top and tails was the bottom. Who would want tails?

Wow. Well, we're glad you're still with us. I'll write a letter to Coach McDermott and ask him to try to make next season's games less stressful.

This got me to thinking. Micah Hyde was corner/safety in Green Bay. How about making White a safety, to free him to make plays over the field? Trade Poyer for picks, draft a corner in the first round, or get one in free agency. Move White all over. He can take a good tight end, a Kelce or Kittles, man-to-man. He can move over on plays where you want him on an island on a wideout. He can blitz. Can he tackle as well as he needs to?

Wow. Thanks. And wow! Thanks.

Yeah, that's the point. With the Bills' offense, you're going to outscore most teams, even if you let them have a big play here or there. On the other hand, the teams with the really good offenses are going to take what you give them, and they're still going to hit with a big play here or there. You'll never stop them all the time - that's what makes them a good offense. But what you can do is smack them in the mouth once in a while. Put it a different way. We often talk about the Belichick "take away the one thing they do best" philosophy, but we always talk about in terms the defense trying to take away something the offense does. It's true the other way, too. Just like teams have to think about how they're going to take away Allen's running or Diggs's receiving, the some teams have an advantage on defense by forcing the opponent to work at neutralizing an Aaron Donald or a Watt or some other guy. When you have a big-play threat, you force the offense to narrow their game in some way. Tre'Davious White is the example. Here's this outstanding talent, and what the Bills have done with him is blend him into the defense to make the whole defense better. Well, that's nice, but in some ways it makes White less scary to the offense. Rather than turn him loose on the offense, a one-man gang of sorts, playing shut-down corner all game, or roaming the field, free-lancing, his big-play capability is kept somewhat under wraps. The Bills turn Allen loose, letting him throw and run and receive. The Bills need more of that on defense.

Thanks for this. I always have disagreed with the "closing window" philosophy, and I disagree with it here. McDermott and Allen are about continuous improvement. Belichick never cried "woe is me" when he lost a coordinator. I'm not worried. And I think the 13 seconds has to be understood in context. Or, more importantly, the "number 1 scoring and yardage" narrative. Something that I think McDermott has done wrong, and I expect he will correct it, is to build a defense that is consistent defense instead of a big-play defense. McDermott has been very successful building a consistent defense, and consistency gives you good numbers over the long-run. That's why he's always (except for last season) running a highly ranked defense. It's decidedly not a big-play defense. The problem with that is that when you need a big play with this defense, you can't dial it up. You can just say, "Okay, JJ, or okay, Troy, or okay, Kahlil, go make a play." So, for example, when Hardman had the big reception in overtime, it was because the Bills decided they needed a big play, and they blitzed. They got burned. When you're talking complementary football, I think you have to pair a big-play defense with a big-play offense. When you have an offense like the Bills have - when you have Allen, then the number one objective is to get the ball back in Allen's hands, even if that means giving up a score to do it. Having a bend-don't-break defense tends to run the clock without your offense on the field, and it plays into the hands of the other team - they want to run clock, because it keeps the score down. I think the Bills need a high-risk, high-reward defense. They need a stud defensive lineman who absolutely demands double teams, and they should blitz more, all in attempts to generate big losses on plays, and turnovers. The risk is that you give up more big plays but hey, more big plays means Allen gets back on the field faster. (It happened last night - the Chiefs are so good on offense, they scored too fast and let Allen have the ball with a minute to go.) Obviously, so far in his career, McDermott doesn't agree with me, so he has a defense built on a different philosophy. And it's easy to see that if that's his philosophy, then you don't blitz Mahomes, you don't even try too hard to rush him, because you want to avoid his running, and when you get down to the last 13 seconds you play really deep, because the only really, really bad thing that can happen is a TD. I get that thinking. It isn't horrible. However, when Josh Allen is your quarterback, I think the nature of his game demands that you reconsider your philosophy.

Yeah, I wasn't comfortable either, in part because we've seen McDermott get overly conservative in these situations before. But think about it: If, after the kickoff, the Bills had made a stop and held the Chiefs out of field goal range, if the game had ended with the Bills winning by three, all of Chiefs land today would be talking about all the critical mistakes Reid made down the stretch to allow the Bills to take the lead twice in the last two minutes. And every mistake any Bill, player or coach, made would be a footnote somewhere. The coaches make hundreds of decisions every game, and a lot of them don't work out well. No coaches make decisions that work out well 100% of the time (except last week against the Patriots!). The fans of the losing team always can find them, and then we can call them clever things like a "chorus of errors." What about the thousands and thousands of decisions that McDermott and his staff have made to get to the point where they have one of the very best teams in the league? He gets no credit for those? McDermott and his defensive coaches will spend the off-season thinking about what they might have done differently, they will learn, and they will change. That's the Bills' culture. I'm not happy today, but it doesn't make me feel any better to think about what should have been done differently.

Allen was incredible. Remember when the narrative was "Allen isn't accurate, and you can't fix accuracy"? He'll be better next season.

Happy, I love your stuff, but this is fundamentally wrong. This is HappyDays' definition what the whole offseason was supposed to be about. It most definitely does not describe how Beane and McDermott operate. Their objective is never changing. Their objective is to have the best football team they can have. They want to build their team to be better than the previous season, year after year. They do NOT go into the off-season intending to reshape their team to beat a particular opponent. Their objective is to make the team good enough to get home playoff games. They want their opponents, whoever they be, to come through Buffalo. They are confident that if they build properly, the winning will take care of itself.

I haven't entered the fray to talk who's fault it was, what might have been done differently, etc. I've seen several comments about the loss being on the coaches and how they did or did not manage the defense down the stretch. I have a variety of thoughts about all of that, and I might talk about it more later, but for now I want to respond this idea. I don't think I agree with McDermott's defensive philosophy, but this "deer in the headlights" thing is wrong. That's what people said about the defense when they gave up some drives in the Houston playoff game, and they completely ignored multiple stops the defense made in that game, stops that allowed the Bills to get back into the game. Last night, Hill had a humongus return late in the game, and the defense held on three downs and forced a field goal. A huge stand. The fact that the Bills defense can't stop two of the top five offensive players in the league, at will, any time, is NOT the problem. Did the Chiefs also have a deer in the headlights look? They couldn't stop the Bills, either.

You sound like the Eagles owner when he gave up on Andy Reid. No appreciation for how hard it is to win the Super Bowl. McDermott will be improving as a coach over the next 20 years. We haven't yet seen anything close to his best.

Excellent comments. Especially about the Chiefs. They're just so good.