CincyBillsFan

Let me get this right: you're saying that the Finns will be more motivated to bounce back from an epic beat down and to deny the Bills a spot in the playoffs then by actually winning the division? Are you serious? And if the same Dolphin team that showed up against he Ravens shows up in Miami Sunday night then the Bills are likely to win and win big.

It also depends on what you're used to. If you're coming from a cold climate and you've acclimated to temps in the 30's, 75 in he sun can seem pretty damn hot. Sure it's not at bad as September but it could wear players down. The key as other posters have pointed out is getting the game out of the sun.

Bingo. We lucked out and got a rare talent at QB. The job was and continues to be to surround this generational talent with exceptional play makers, O line and offensive coaching.

Interesting question. First my disclaimer: McD deserves the credit for turning the franchise around and building a winning culture - that is undeniable IMO. The problem as I see it is that at this moment in NFL history defensive coaches are not getting to or winning Super Bowl games. Belicheck, the greatest defensive mind in NFL history, was the last with his masterful 13 - 3 SB victory over the Rams in the 2017 season. Since then the SB has been dominated by offensive minded coaches and franchises. As a defensive coach and a franchise which has focused the lions share of its resources on the defense, the Bills do not appear to be set up to make a SB let alone win one. Their competition in the AFC the last few years, KC & Cincy, have clearly road their offenses to much better outcomes. Even the Ravens made a definitive move to focus more on their offense (new coaches and some big FA signings). So yes, even after the Bills recent run I would favor replacing McD with an offensive coach. But now the caveats: * If the Bills make the SB obviously you keep McD and the theory that the NFL is now dominated by offensive minded coaches would be moot. * We may be seeing a return to defense as the more important factor then offense in the NFL. If so then obviously McD would have a leg up on most competition. * Could a defensive minded coach like McD who going forward supported focusing the lions share of the Bills FA money & draft capitol on the offense and who was okay with hiring an experienced "name" OC win a SB? For me this next game and any followup layoff games will determine whether the Bills should move on from McD. And I say "should" because I agree with other posters that Pegula will not fire McD no matter what happens this Sunday in Miami. McD job security will just be a discussion point on 2BD.

So are you advocating that we move on from Allen instead of McD?

One of the things that bugs me about the over the top criticism of Allen from a minority of posters that shows up on 2BD after Allen has an average game is just how perfect a fit his is for the Bills & Buffalo. I can't imagine any QB available since 2017 that could have replicated Allen's success with the Bills. How about 1st round picks in 2017? Let's start with the best of them in Mahomes. I doubt that he would have thrived as he has in KC under a defensive focused franchise with a defensive minded head coach. Sure Mahomes would still have been good but he lacks some of Allen's attributes (proactive running ability) that was a unique fit for a Bills organization without great Offensive skill players and spending draft picks & FA money on building an elite D. Sorry but Bengamin at WR and Clay at TE were not going to make anyone forget about Hill & Kelsey. Then there's Turbisky & Watson. Enough said or is someone going to argue for those two over Allen? In 2018 we have the busts like Darnold & Rosen and the average play of Mayfield. Then there is Jackson who is likley to win a 2nd MVP but has only ONE playoff win on a team that makes the playoffs a lot. No way he thrives on a Bills team that is unlikely to have put in a custom made O just for him. They haven't done it for Allen so why do we think they would have for Jackson? Burrow would have been nice but we would have needed to have the first pick in the draft to get him. And do people think he would have thrived in Buffalo versus Cincinnati that had all those great WR's? Or we could have waited until later drafts and grabbed "elite" talents like Zack Wilson, Justin Fields or Danial Jones (all of whom went higher then Allen). Even Trevor Lawrence doesn't look like he's going to be anywhere near as productive as Allen. Did I miss anyone? So Allen is the perfect fit for the Bills and the city of Buffalo. He is an elite QB who is ridiculously productive. Is he perfect? No. Can he play better, particularly cutting down TO's and being more consistent? Yes. But even if Allen stops improving he is the best QB option we could have gotten over the last 7 years and we're damn lucky to have him. And even if he doesn't improve any further he is more then good enough to lead the Bills to a Super Bowl win. So instead of worrying about what Allen needs to do to get a little better we need to focus on making sure the Bills - like the Chiefs, Bengals, Ravens and other teams with elite QB have done - focus the franchises resources against surrounding their top QB with all the necessary tools to optimize his performance. Anything less and we'll be crying about what could have been for decades.

Allen's production this year is equal to or better then previous years with an uptick in INT's and reduction in lost fumbles. The Bills O remains near the top of the league in offensive stats and the team is playing for an 11 - 6 record and a division title. Similar to previous season results. And they're doing this with a collection of offensive skill players that are not as good as those from previous years. I just don't see the evidence that Allen's off season activities has hurt his game compared to other far more likely explanations of his occasional struggles (coaching changes, injuries, uneven O line play, poor skill player performances, a D that has struggled due to injuries). One big issue that has impacted Allen IMO is the defenses performance as a result of all the injuries. Allen gave the Bills the lead with less then 2 minutes to play in 3 of the games they lost. Had they held the lead in just 2 of those 3 games (playing against very bad Offenses in Denver & NE) the Bills would be 12 - 4.

The KC offense runs through Mahomes & Reid so are we supposed to blame then for the Chiefs offensive troubles when its obvious where the problems are? Same for the Bills IMO.

And if the Miami pass defense from yesterday shows up, where Raven receivers were high school wide open, the Bills will beat the hell out of the Dolphins. It's a week to week league and what happened last week seldom impacts what happens the following week except fr injuries and the Finns seem to have had more then the Bills did.

Allen realizes that he could play better after games like yesterday - he clearly says so. But that is very different from saying Allen has something "wrong" with him. IMO what you're seeing is the normal variability that accompanies the play of even elite level QB's in the NFL. And this variability is exacerbated by the Bills not having a boatload of high end play makers on offense.

Agree 100%. Sure Allen did not play well today but what bugs me is when people take the occasional Allen off game and claim that it's representative of a much bigger problem. And for the record while Allen did not play well he did not come close to "sucking" today. He made the plays in the 2nd half when they were needed and the Bills won to raise their record to 10 - 6. It's like these hyper critics don't watch any other NFL games. If they did they would see that other elite QB's struggled at times this weekend: * Mahomes could only manufacture 1 TD, lost a bad strip sack fumble that led to a Bengal's TD and overthrew a wide open WR on a deep pass. But like Allen Mahomes made the plays needed and got a crucial win. * Last night Goff struggled throwing 2 bad INT's and missing multiple open receivers. But at the end he had the Lions on the cusp of winning the game. * Matt Stafford, QBing the hottest team in the NFC against a bad Giants team threw 2 INT's and only 1 TD. The Rams were lucky to win that game. * Tua threw 2 INT's today and we all saw what that score ended up being. Every week great QB's have rough games. And most of the time these great QB's overcome their poor game to have moments of excellence to steal the win. Allen had one of those today. And if people remember Kelly had a lot of games like that over the Bills SB's run. I'm just amazed how quickly people forget what bad QBing really looks like. During the playoff drought we saw a lot of QB's that truly sucked. Allen has QBed the Bills to 5 straight 10 or more win seasons in a row. And if the Bills can beat Miami it will also be 5 straight playoff appearances and 4 straight division titles.

You forgot almost immediate pressure up the middle on a number of plays. Nothing hamstrings a QB like interior pressure. Allen avoids the sack in ways that only a couple of other QB's can and then tries to make a throw while running for his life or getting clobbered as he releases the ball. Most QB's would have been sacked 3 or 4 more times today then Allen was. Ditto for the last game. Amazingly Allen's accuracy seems quite good when he actually has a pocket to throw from.

I mean think about the Eagles losing to the Cards today at home. One of the worst teams in the NFL goes into Phily beats them and probably costs the Eagles the division.

Lots of drops and very few great catches.

He did not have a clean pocket on that play. Maybe I'm wrong but he was pressured up the middle and had to bail out to his left making a throw to where Shakir was a risky proposition.

I thought the same thing. That guy was more wide open then Diggs was. The simple fact is that hitting those long passes is not easy.

I know I sound like a broken record but the problem with the Bill's O is that for the last few years it has been treated like the proverbial red headed step child. The lions share of FA money and draft capitol has flowed to the D. This past year things started to change with the Bills taking Kincaid (a budding superstar) and Torrenze with the 1st & 2nd picks but in FA the Bills were in serious bargain hunting mode on O and it shows. Look at the Chiefs, as Kelsey, much like Diggs, falls back into average territory and KC's long shot signings haven't panned out Mahomes is looking very ordinary.

With Diggs playing as an average WR are you surprised? Without Diggs in elite mode what are we left with? We don't have blazing speed and our WR's don't make very many great catches. Did people happen to see OBJ's catch today against the Dolphins?

He was also running for his life. Pressure up the middle is the worst kind of pressure for any QB. The interior O line better up its game as today they did not run or pass block well.

Yep. Look at the other games today: * The Eagles lost at home to Arizona. * The Rams, the "hottest" team in the NFL got lucky to edge the Giants 26 - 25. Stafford had 1 TD pass and 2 INT's. * I'm watching the Chiefs crapping the bed against a Bengal's team without Burrow. The win is all that matters. Now the Bills need to play a great game next week to do something most of us thought they had no chance at doing - win the division.

As I recall Allen got immediate pressure up the middle forcing him to slide to his left making a throw back to the right both ill advised and very difficult.

The O line didn't help particularly pressure up the middle which is bad for any QB. The drops didn't help either. The drop by Murry at the end of the half that would have given the Bills a first down was brutal.

So you thought the O line, particularly the interior O line looked good? IMO they were awful and the primary cause of the poor offensive showing today.

Well that's a relief as Diggs clearly didn't dress Allen for the game.

But the 49's game was what has propelled Jackson into the lead with respect to MVP. And for the record you would have to know where the takeaways happened between the two teams to better see which QB benefited the most from the TO.