Shaw66

The point about small ball is a good one. Bills intentionally developed the short passing game this season, and it naturally leads to more YAC. And I've been meaning to come back to my earlier post. I don't pay much attention to YAC, and all I did was go grab the stat and post it. I looked again later, and although the Allen was, in fact, 6th in YAC, he was 19th in YAC per completion, which is probably the more relevant stat. So, even though is YAC improve considerably, given the number of passes he completed, he still wasn't generating a lot fo YAC. Having said that, I don't care about YAC. Coaches do, in some sense, but I think it's one of those stats that is illuminating about some aspects of a guy's game, what matters is completions and yards and touchdowns. If Allen improves his YAC per completion to top 10, it's still going to be only maybe 300 more yards per season. That's nice, of course, but that's not what will make the difference between what we got this season and what we all want. 300 yards is 300 yards, and if they get 300 more yards more from the receivers and not one more yard of YAC, it's the same 300 yards. Or 300 yards from special teams. Or 300 yards in INT returns. YAC's a detail.

Umm, isn't Josh like the best quarterback in the league? Doesn't he look super-human when he's in his comfort zone? Why would your want to make him uncomfortable?

You making this stuff up? Josh had his best season ever for yards after catch - just under 200 yards. He was 6th in the league.

Thanks. I don't know either one of them well at all. I have a lot of confidence in Beane and McDermott. I'd expect interviews to be rigorous - I'd expect McDermott to evaluate in depth the philosophy and the specifics that each of these guys would seek to implement. The Bills have an established offensive line that plays a particular style - they aren't bulldozers, generally, but they've been effective. They have a running back with a particular style. And they have a unique quarterback. I'd expect McDermott to ask for details of the offense they'd implement with those particular assets, and I'd expect McDermott to be listening with his DC hat on, questioning whether he thinks the offense the guy describes would give him trouble. I don't dislike Brady, but I'm hoping it's someone else, because that would mean McDermott found someone he really likes.

Personally, I don't know what to think of Brady. But I watch the year-end pressers and try to read between the lines, and I didn't hear a ringing endorsement of Brady from McDermott. Made me think he is not a lock. Any hot, up and coming guy would love to have a chance to call plays for Josh. I wonder if coordinators like working for McDermott.

Great stuff! And love the video.

After the game, talking about the play, Josh sort of mumbled something about pocket management. I think Josh was aware of Dion and Jones and thought he had time to make the throw. If he'd reset himself, the window might have closed. He probably could have stepped up and made the throw. Tiny nuances that he'll think about and maybe do a little differently on some future play, but nothing at all to complain about. Credit to Jones.

Uh, yeah. This is EXACTLY why he should be a safety. Hyde and Poyer play all over field because they do all of what you said. Before Taron arrived, the Bills never thought of moving Hde or Poyer to slot corner. Why not? Because safety is a more important position. Have you ever seen a team draft a slot corner in the first round? I don't think so. But teams take safeties in the first round. Why one and not the other? Because safety is a more important position.

That all may be true, and Josh may never win a Super Bowl. Matt Stafford lucked out. Nothing is promised anyone. The problem I have with all of this ruminating is that I don't think anyone here can tell me what person the Bills should hire who is going to take Allen and win a Super Bowl with him in "this brutal league." It is a brutal league, and what it takes to win includes a lot, really a lot, of luck. I'm betting on McDermott and Beane. They are more determined, more purposeful than anyone else I see in this league, and McDermott is not going to keep doing things that don't work.

Hey JR. Grew up in Buffalo, never skated, never played hockey. Went to see the Bisons once in a while at the Aud. Moved from Buffalo in 1968, so I never had any reason to get attached to the Sabres. I live in Hartford and saw the Sabres play the Whalers a couple times. Felt guilty rooting against the Sabres.

McDermott's defense us driven by the safeties, not the nickel corner. Safety is the most important position on the defense. When McBeane arrived, did they sign a free agent nickel corner? No, they signed two safeties.

Taron Johnson - Pros - Smart, knows the defense, hard hitter. Cons - creates another hole to fill.

I can't disagree with any of that. Maybe they drafted Elam in the hope that White and Elam would give them two cover corners. Elam hasn't made it, and White hasn't been able to stay on the field. McD always says that his D is predicated on getting pass rush from 4 guys. If you can pressure the QB with 4, you can afford to play more zone. Bills were fourth in sacks this season, but I think that was because McDermott blitzed more than he usually does.

McD or B had high praise for him. They said by the end of the season, he was the boss in the huddle. All the vets were following him.

Well, maybe they don't have clutch players in the right positions. Von Miller certainly has been a clutch player; whether he returns to form is still an open question. Shakir is clutch. Poyer is clutch. We thought Diggs was clutch, and Cook isn't, at least not yet.

I concluded the same thing yesterday. I think it's pretty simple. First, the defense let the Bills down on Sunday. Yes, it could have been nothing more than missing Milano and Bernard in the middle, but the others weren't good enough to step up. Hyde apparently is gone, Poyer will be gone soon enough, Jones likely is gone, too. White is a question mark. The defense needs help. The offense, on the other hand, is pretty well set. I'd love to have a better running back to pair with Cook. People moan about the receivers, but I think the moaning is way out of line with reality. The Bills had the eighth most passing yards in the league, only 30 yards a game less than the top teams. Kincaid now has his rookie season under his belt, and he can be expected to be better next season. Diggs was 13th in yards and 7th in receptions in the league. Shakir is coming on. The offensive line was solid. Bills will need a center, and upgrades anywhere are always nice. However, compared to the defense, the offense is relatively set - it was one of the best offenses in the league. So, yeah, I'm all in with going heavy on defense in the draft and free agency.

I've been reading responses to this thread, and seeing so many people with similar feelings makes me think that I got it wrong. I don't think it's age. It's something different. My conclusion is that fan experiences differ, depending on the performance of the team. I think what I'm feeling, and what others may be feeling, is how it feels to be a Steeler fan. What I mean by that is that we have an iconic quarterback (like Big Ben) who is a threat to win any game, any time, and therefore we have a team that wins regularly and that always gives us hope. We also have a coach (who went to William & Mary, but that's just a coincidence) whom the players love, who helps the team win regularly, but who doesn't necessarily deliver top-notch performance from game to game. Tomlin's never had a losing season, he gets his team to the playoffs, and every once in a while they look like they might win it all. Sound familiar? I think this is a different fan experience for us because it's never happened to us before. A brief history of the Bills shows we've never had that kind of consistent winner experience: Kemp and Golden Wheels and Saban is ancient history, but it was about getting all the right pieces in place for a sprint to the top, followed by a collapse within a couple of years. Then there was OJ, but the team never looked like a champion. Then there was a ten-year decline, when no one thought the Bills were going anywhere - included in that period was the endless losing streak to the Dolphins. Then there was a true sprint to the top, truly glorious but hopelessly disappointing each time the Bills reached the Super Bowl. Then it was the slide into mediocrity, followed by the drought. Now, it's something we haven't experienced before, consistent excellence driven by culture (which is a way one might describe the Steelers). Not top of the league excellence like the Patriots, but excellence that suggests that the Bills will be one of a half dozen teams fighting for the Lombardi every season. We know a lot of things have to fall the right way, and so far things haven't done that, but the nature of the team, the owners, the GM and the coach, and the QB, tells us that all the pieces are in place. I'm not saying all fans feel that way. Some fans think there's a window that's closing, but I don't see it that way and it seems a lot of others don't see it that way, either. McDermott and Beane were asked about that in the pressers, and they both dismissed the window as a way to see where the Bills are headed. I will remind everyone that when they arrived in Buffalo, first McDermott and then Beane said that the sprint to the top and the "window" were NOT their model. What they intended to be a bout was to have a team that gets better every year, and it isn't hard to argue that that is what they have created up to now. I read a little bit of a book by this author McDermott likes, a book about the growth mindset. She says that people who think they got something wrong have more trouble succeeding than people who think they didn't get it right yet, "yet" being the operative word. "Yet" in this context means, "I am going to get it right, but it just hasn't happened yet." Thomas Edison is said to have tried 1000 different materials to be the filament in the first light bulb before he found the right material. When asked if he got discouraged with all those failures, he said they weren't failures - each time he tried he was able to eliminate another material from his list, which meant he was always getting closer to his goal. I feel like things are headed in the right direction, and it's only a matter of time. The Bills are building and growing. It's nothing Bills fans have experienced, even Bills fans who have been here since the beginning. With that mindset, I don't get discouraged.

Wrong. I only learned how to write 15 years ago. Before that, I just grunted and farted.

Not that anyone cares, but I’ve reached a new plateau in my fandom. I’ve been a Bills fan since 1960. When I was a kid, there was nothing more important to me than whether the Bills (and the Browns) won. There was no greater weekend in my life (to that point) than when the Bills and the Browns won the AFL and NFL championship games on successive games. A friend of mine came over to my house that Sunday night, and we talked and talked about one game, then the other, then the first, over and over. It was great. In the Super Bowl years, I absolutely ached for a Lombardi. It hurt each year when they lost, and it hurt doubly as I watched my kids suffer through the losses, too. When I began writing the Rockpile Review, I allowed the anxiety associated with the games to grow, as I watched and studied and reviewed, analyzed data, read other columns. Every season was a disappointment. Somehow, this season, a lot has changed. I’m still a fan, I look forward to every game, and I’m thrilled when the Bills win. What’s changed is that I’ve gotten more or less non-judgmental. I don’t think much about why some play didn’t work, and I don’t think much about who’s to blame. If the Bills win, great. If they lose, I feel bad for the players, but I tend to let it go. My attitude is sort of like watching my ten-year-old kid’s game – great if they win, sorry for my kid if he loses. I don’t how this transition happened, but I definitely seem to have entered a new stage to my fandom. And it’s nice. And so it was that I was sitting in Highmark Stadium, desperately wanting a win but knowing all along that if the Bills lost, I’d just drive home the next day and hardly give the game a second thought. When Bass missed the field goal, the irony of it being wide right didn’t even occur to me. I just knew the game was over, and the next day would be a nice day. So, if you’re looking for in-depth analysis, it ain’t here. Someone else can fret over whether Allen should have thrown underneath to Diggs, why they tried the fake punt, who blew the coverage on Kelce, but I don’t worry about it. It happened. Here are some thoughts about the game: I love going to those games. Crowd was amazing. Plays were amazing. It's actually better to go to a game like that if you aren't a fan of either team, because then you can enjoy the plays that BOTH teams make. Fundamentally, the Bills weren't good enough. KC's offense was fabulous - scored on every possession but one. The book on KC was to beat them you have to hold them under 20. That's when they lose. The Bills defense wasn't good enough. The real killer was the end of the game. Bills miss the field goal, they need the Chiefs to go three and out, everyone knows the Chiefs are going to run the ball, and the Bills gave them 8 yards on a run up the middle. Game ended right there. Just horrible. Do you want to know what the worst sound is that I’ve every heard in that stadium? Bass’s kick went up, and whole stadium went silent, except for the sound of about 1000 people cheering under the scoreboard. That’s where the Chiefs fans were, and they could see the ball sailing wide. It sounded like people cheering in some imaginary stadium next door. Horrible sound. I think the problem with the defense is that although it's very effective, it's very predictable. It's a bend-don't-break defense. They gave up a lot of yards during the season, but they were fourth in points allowed. That's a great defense for the regular season, but when you play against the best offenses, and the best offensive coordinators, it puts you at a disadvantage. The Bills need a playoff defense, and that’s something I’m sure McDermott will work on. Andy Reid is a special offensive coach, with decades of experience. With Mahomes at QB and against a predictable defense, Reid gives the Chiefs a big advantage. Reid always had a play to run, he seemed always to be a step ahead of the Bills. The result was all of those explosive plays, and the Bills didn't have answers. The Bills needed some defensive stops, and they couldn't get them. The best stop they got was a prayer, the fumble out of bounds in the end zone. On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs had one of the best defenses in the league this year, but there was nothing to complain about with the Bills offense. Well, James Cook dropped what should have been a touchdown in the red zone. Diggs should have caught the incredible bomb from Allen - I haven't seen the replay, but I think that was a 65-yard throw that hit Diggs on the run. Joe Brady wasn’t great in the red zone. He needed better answers. Allen was great. I think he's matured, and we're finally starting to see the complete package. Mahomes is the only guy who throws as well as Allen, Jackson is the only guy who runs better than Allen. He now is running the offense with discipline and intelligence. The mature Josh Allen began to emerge this season, and it was a sight to behold. He is an incredible gift to Bills fans. How about the future? It’s bright. Yeah, yeah, Bills have an old roster and cap issues, but it's all just talk. When you have an old roster, you have more experience. I'll take Josh Allen now over Josh Allen four years ago because, well, he's older. All that young roster stuff is baloney. Rosters turn over all the time. Rams only had two guys on the roster from the team that won the Super Bowl two years ago. Think about that! So, yeah, some of the Bills will be gone. Hyde will be the biggest loss, but they have his replacement on the team. Poyer probably will be back. Von Miller is old, but he's still recovering from his ACL, and he can still play. Bills had one of the best offenses and one of the best defenses in the league, and they'll turn over parts of the lineup like they always do, and they'll be fine. They'll get two or three rookies who will play, and two or three free agents will play. Allen, Cook, Diggs, Knox, Kincaid, Shakir are all back, so they have their skill guys on offense, and the whole offensive line will be back. Milano and Bernard will be back at the linebacker spots, and the Bills should have both starting corners back, too. I listened to McDermott’s and Beane’s season-ending pressers, and it encouraged me. They’re on the job. They’re working actively to make the team better. They don’t talk so much about it anymore, but there’s a process, and they’re sticking to it. When McDermott talked about Josh and Bernard and Shakir and Kincaid, I could hear the excitement in his voice – those are the kinds of guys he wants on his team and he can build around. He didn’t talk about White or Milano, because they weren’t with the team at the end, but they’re the guys he wants, too. And Taron Johnson and Dawkins and, well, keep naming them. When Josh Allen finished his junior season in high school, do you think his coaches sat around bemoaning the loss of their seniors and wondering what they were going to do? No. All they thought was, “We have Josh Allen and the other teams don’t. All we have to do is work with the guys who show up at tryouts, and we’ll be fine.” That’s essentially what Beane and McDermott were saying. “We may not have Davis, but we’ll have someone. We may not have Jones at tackle, but we’ll have someone. We may not have Hyde at safety, but we’ll have someone. We have Josh Allen and the other teams don’t.” It’s incredibly difficult to win the Super Bowl. By the divisional round in the playoffs, all the teams are good. Packers were good. Texans were good. Every game is a tough game. All you can do is work at getting better, every day, every week, every season. That’s what the Bills do. The Bills will keep getting better. GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were every-day people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Why am I not surprised? 🤩

Mahimes had a better offensive coordinator all three games.

Well, yes, Belichick probably was wrong about Garoppolo. I think that's an open question, thought, because Garoppolo's failures in the league were based on his team's expecting him to be more than he was. Part of Belichick's gift was to win by building around guys who were good and consistent, and by not asking them to do things they couldn't do. There's no way to know whether Garoppolo would have succeeded under Belichick's tutelage. But my point wasn't that Belichick was right or wrong about Garoppolo. My point was that Belichick's system was to move on from talent a few years too early rather than a year or two too late. He did it with Gilmore and with the stud corner before him. Someone else, said that he also did it for cap reasons, which is true. But the point's the same - Belichick was willing to move on from talent before they were done. Look at Wilfork. They were paying him $7 million a year, declined their option for another year, and he signed with Houston for $4.5 million per year. So, they presumably could have kept him for $4.5 million and didn't bite.

Great stuff. The article doesn't quite say it, but I remember there was reporting at the time that Belichick wanted to move forward with Garoppolo. It was Garoppolo's contract year, and something had to be done. Bill wanted to go with his QB of the future, and Brady didn't want to go. Kraft decided Brady would stay. The year Jimmy left, the Pats lost the Super Bowl to the Eagles. The following year, still with Brady, they won it over the Rams. Now, some would like to say that history proved Kraft was right, but I think it's important to remember that Belichick had a long history of letting his top talent go after their peak but before they were ready to retire. Lawyer Milloy was the first, but there were a lot of guys along the way. Belichick was always moving younger guys into the lineup, and that's what kept him on top. He wanted to do it with Brady, because he thought he could get it done with Garoppolo, and maybe he was right. If he WAS right, the Pats would still have a franchise QB at the top of his game. (I know, Jimmy hasn't gotten it done elsewhere, but there are a lot players who played their best football when they played for the Patriots.) Thanks for posting this. It's interesting.

First, thanks for the analysis. I don't watch and evaluate the all-22, but what you describe is exactly how the game looks to me. And although the Bills don't have elite receivers (Chase, Jefferson, Hill, or a few other names) to really extend the field, it's a good receiving group. As I said, put Tyreek on the Bills, and it's a different story. But second, and it really isn't the point of the thread, the bolded part is what made me feel so good about the passing game last week. Allen was in complete control. He seemed to know, play after play, what he had and where the play was. His execution of the passing game was overshadowed by the TD run and other runs, but his work as a true field general was what impressed me.

I think it's just you, and you're romanticizing. I think we all do it - we tend to remember, or even imagine that we remember, a time when the passing offense exploded week after week. Well, there was no such time. Nobody's getting 300+ yards, week after week. I mean, sure, maybe 35 years ago when the Chargers were really explosive, maybe the greatest show on turf, maybe Peyton with two Hall of Fame wideouts for five years, but even those teams, if you look back, struggled. The defenses have caught up with the passing offenses. That's another factor. The Bills were 8th in the league in passing yards per game this season, 20 yards per game behind the Dolphins at #1. Dolphins did with Tyreek Hill, who's easily the biggest threat in the league, and Waddle and Gesicki. Trade Diggs even up for Hill, and the Bills would have been near the very top and the Dolphins would have been 8th. The reality is that the Bills get receivers open from time to time, and Allen usually finds them and hits them. That's about as much as any team can expect. If you can have two or three plays a game like Allen hitting Knox and Kincaid for touchdown, picture-perfect passing execution, that's a good game.