SoTier

Don't confuse the Bills faithful with reality.

The Bills were not "competitive" in the second half. The Chargers eased up. I don't know their roster much beyond their starters, but my guess is that a lot of LA's backups got considerable playing time during the second half. There is absolutely no hope with this combo of HC and FO because they're going to make sure that Josh Allen, apparently the best -- and maybe only good -- acquisition they've made will never have a real opportunity to succeed as long as they're in charge due to their incompetence. Actually, if that statement isn't true, then what does that say about McDermott and Beane if they can't even accurately evaluate the performance of the players they've had on their team all preseason? Suggesting a conspiracy theory seems better than simply accusing them of incompetence because Williams and Alexander have stunk it up in both games.

I'm not sure that you got my point. I'm not knocking Allen at all. I like Allen, although I didn't like the pick originally. I think he's played really well given his inexperience and the putrid team around him. My point is that I don't think that Allen can be successful with the talent level around him, and I don't believe that McDermott and Beane will bring in the talent to help him. They suck at talent evaluation on both sides of the ball. They suck at just about every aspect of personnel management. They apparently don't understand offensive football, and haven't shown much interest in improving the offense as evidenced by drafting only 1 OLer (late in the 5th round) and replacing Wood and Incognito with bottom feeder FAs who wouldn't be starters on any other NFL team if either even made another NFL roster. Their attitude seems to be that Allen sinks or swims with whatever trash they put around him, and that's setting up Allen -- or any QB -- to struggle with no protection and no targets.

Marrone by a mile if for nothing else but that he was smart enough to realize he's not Bill Belichick or Andy Reid to be both HC and defacto GM at the same time.

I think it's irrelevant whether Allen has the goods or not. I think he's been set up to fail because McDermott and Beane are going to "fill holes next offseason" with the same kind of trash they've filled them with this past off season because they can't evaluate talent, are clueless when it comes to cap management, and are philosophically stuck in the 1970s.

One of the guys on one of the pre-game shows said that the three QBs who threw for 400 yards last week would repeat that feat this week. Fitzy and Rivers are looking good for it. Brees not so much ... only 132 yards in the first half.

They're playing for other teams ... Philly, Jax, KC, Cinci ...

Might? You obviously don't rush to judgement.

At least the Bills appear to be giving some effort under Allen, especially on offense.

And he just put the Chargers up by 14.

Mahomes just threw his second TD to Travis Kelce to go up 14-0 over Pitt in Pittsburgh after Sammy Watkins caught a nice pass to get them to the Steelers 20.

It'll be 5 years AFTER McDermott and Beane are shown the door.

Bills fans are true believers in killing the messenger.

Another McDermott/Beane excuse thread! The latest scapegoat for the total incompetence of McDermott and Beane is now the CBA, which is not only the same for all NFL teams but has been in effect for several years (since 2011 IIRC). Guess what, Bills fans? The current state of the team is not the fault of Rex Ryan or Doug Whaley or Tyrod Taylor or Marcel Dareus or Vlad Ducasse or the NFL/NFLPA CBA. It's the fault of HC Sean McDermott and GM Brandon Beane who don't know what the hell they're doing -- and the current Bills corporate food chain all the way up to the Pegulas who not only hired McDermott and Beane but gave them far more power over the team than either one should have given their lack of experience.

Then why did they release Washington in the first place? If they felt that they had to do this, then why didn't they just promote Thomas from the PS in the first place? What "good decisions" would those be, especially on offense? Trading away Darby for Matthews wasn't a good move. Neither was letting EJ Gaines walk away. Trading away Watkins who was the only speed receiver the Bills had and who could catch anything near him for a draft pick and then using a draft pick to get Kelvin, a much less talented receiver with chronically bad knees and apparently stone hands doesn't look particularly good either.

Reality is that quality OLers seldom hit FA unless they are prohibitively expensive. Most of the OLers available in FA are either at the end of their careers or they suck. The same with top WRs although the situation isn't as dire; there are usually a better selection of mid-level WRs. The Bills could have had two very good WRs in Woods and Goodwin for several more years for less than what 1 WR similar to Woods in talent will cost them in 2019. Another problem the Bills will face next year in FA is that they will have to again pay more than they should to acquire top FAs because of how badly the team is likely to be.

One doesn't have to be stupid in order to do stupid things, especially when one is engaged in a situation that seems overwhelming for some reason. In the case of McDermott, he simply doesn't have enough experience as a HC -- and possibly not the temperament -- to be given control of personnel. Bill Belichick or Andy Reid he's not. Beane is certainly not the guy to really help him since he has no professional experience evaluating or managing football talent/pro personnel. McDermott and Beane are desperate because they are overwhelmed. I've been saying this for a while. The details are somewhat different, but the general contours of the current regime is scarily reminiscent of the 2006-2009 Bills under Jauron.

What's not funny is an NFL HC selecting players to acquire or get rid of based on factors that are irrelevant to how someone plays football, and there is absolutely nothing more irrelevant than players' religious beliefs -- or lack of same. I don't know if McDermott is doing that, but he seems to be intolerant of players who don't fit his narrow parameters for acceptable attitudes and behavior regardless of their on-field play.

At the rate McDermott and Beane are creating holes and piling up dead cap space, there won't be enough FAs available to fill even half of them ... and that will just be on the defense. Allen will just have to wait ... It all very S-I-M-P-L-E. McDermott and Beane are clueless when it comes to talent evaluation and personnel management and are throwing excrement at the wall to see what sticks.

This is all Whaley's fault, of course.?

A healthy JAG with 7 years in the NFL is likely to be much better than a rookie WR drafted in the 6th round who has never played in an NFL game ... and who is listed as questionable due to a knee injury that kept him out of Game 1.

You're very good at twisting what critics of the Bills say when you can't refute them honestly with facts. What I wrote was, "The most NFL successful teams don't hire inexperience HCs, give them control of personnel, and then hire inexperienced GMs without experience in managing personnel to do their bidding." Comparing what the Ravens did to the Bills are doing is a f$#&ing joke. In fact, it is the exact opposite, which may be why the Ravens have won 2 SBs and fielded playoff teams with regularity while the Bills missed the playoffs for 17 straight years in that same time span. FYI... Ozzie Newsome was the VP of Player Personnel (defacto GM) back in 2000 when the Ravens won their very first Super Bowl. John Harbaugh wasn't hired as Baltimore's HC until 2008, and he was not given control of player personnel. That remains squarely in the hands of Ozzie Newsome, who is retiring after this season ... and he'll be succeeded by his assistant GM next year. The Ravens (formerly the Cleveland Browns) has never had the HC in charge of player personnel, and have gone 190-162 with 2 Super Bowl wins in the 22 years since they moved to Baltimore. Apparently former owner, the late Art Modell, learned his lesson about giving personnel control to HCs after his experience with Bill Belichick (36-44, 1 playoff appearance in 5 seasons) as defacto GM during the Browns (later Ravens) last years in Cleveland. Modell promoted Newsome from Director of Pro Personnel with the move to Baltimore, and there he's been ever since while the Ravens have gone through three coaching regimes: Ted Marchibroda (3 years), Brian Billick (9 years) and John Harbaugh (10 years). Billick was fired IIRC because his teams didn't perform up to snuff despite a SB win, and rumors persist in the NFL that Harbaugh will get the axe if his team doesn't at least make the playoffs this year. How is that anything like the Pegulas hiring McDermott, a rookie HC and giving him control of player personnel, and then hiring Beane, who was in charge of logistics or facilities or whatever as assistant GM in Carolina, to do McDermott's bidding?

Good post. However be prepared to be attacked by the resident Bills cheerleaders who take it as their mission in life to refute any criticism of whatever stupid moves McDermott and/or Beane make or have made ... Well you're right but not in the way you think. It's the same old Bills manure show that we've seen for the last twenty years, just new names and faces for the incompetents. Groy was playing between Incognito and Miller when all three were playing in a blocking scheme that suited their skill sets in 2016. He only played in 1 game last year in the new blocking scheme. It's playing between Ducasse and Miller that's the issue. Miller played beside Mills in 2016. Miller struggled in the current blocking scheme last season, which is why he was benched last season. That may be true of Mills as well. Again, that's on Dennison and Castillo who took a decent OL from 2016 and decided to force them into their own system even though the Bills continued to have a run-first offense.

The most NFL successful teams don't hire inexperience HCs, give them control of personnel, and then hire inexperienced GMs without experience in managing personnel to do their bidding.

Others' bigotry doesn't excuse yours ... or make it acceptable.