CincyBillsFan

I seriously doubt it's this one. All season Allen has been force feeding Davis to little effect in game after game.

Even the best QB's miss wide open receivers all the time in the NFL. Was Allen under pressure that play? Where was Allen's first look supposed to be?

Especially since I don't remember Allen's mom posting about how unfair that a pass thrown by her son went right through the hands of Davis for an INT instead of a first and goal.

You are not stirring the pot you are reminding us of what is wrong with the Bills focus on defense at the expense of offense. And tonight we're seeing an example of this at opposite ends of the spectrum. First letting Hodgins go was a big mistake for a WR starved team. Second I'm watching D Hop make one great catch after another. Sure he wouldn't have come cheap but from what I'm seeing tonight he would have been worth it.

Twenty yards down field to boot!

I agree. And though I believe moving on from McD would be in the best interests of the Bills going forward I did feel for the guy at the end when after the Bills stopped the Chiefs they showed McD on the sideline almost keeling over with relief. And it was clear that the Bills played for McD yesterday. Say what you will but he hasn't lost this locker room. With that being said though we still saw the issues of a Bill's offense that has been neglected over the last few years, particularly on the O line & at WR. As I look around the league the most successful caches & organizations are those that prioritize the offense. And in the end the D did give up a TD that might have led to another excruciating loss. But this WAS great win there is no denying it. And if McD can get the Bills into the playoffs and then in the off season reset the draft & FA priority towards strengthening the offense I would be very happy to have been wrong about McD.

Was there someone saying we should trade Allen? I avoid the game day threads and focus on the post game stuff so did I miss this insanity?

During last night's game offensive off side was called on the Eagles. Should the refs have warned the Eagles guard when he lined up off side prior to the TUSH push? Tooney was in a bunch formation which means the sideline ref was what, 15 - 20 yards away. Is he supposed to yell at #19 to get on side? So what happens when the ref is screaming at Tooney and Bills players look up at the ref to see what he's yelling about as the ball is snapped? You can't have a ref distracting things at that moment of the game. And for the record offensive off sides is called a lot in high school football and on occasion in college ball. Usually by the time they reach the Pros the players on offense know how to line up.

I don't understand this mindset at all. Of ALL the penalties in the book offside is the most fundamental and least subjective one. If you are offside at the snap you are offside. That penalty was the least "lame" penalty they could have called.

Barely? Without Allen today we lose this game.

Offside will be called every time a WR lines up off side. It's a rare call because WR's lining up off sides usually only happens in HS football. The ref is looking right down the line and they will throw the flag on that play EVERY TIME.

Almost any other QB in the NFL would have been sacked 4 or 5 more times today then Allen was. Allen made a couple of throws that were otherworldly. What we saw is that our O line, while better then last years O line is at best average . They were like a turnstile today and had what 3 holding penalties?

I agree. He's not getting separation and he had a couple of drops today. Is it that bigger and more physical DB's can knock him off his game? With Diggs playing average the Bills WR group is almost as bad as the Chiefs. As an aside this is the 3rd straight season where Diggs has faded at the end.

Did you watch the Ravens game?

And the Jets have dropped two Stroud INT's.

His point about no one mentioning all the strike outs when Judge was hitting all those HR's was spot on.

I didn't say that. Obviously the 2018 & 2019 Allen was a work in progress and far from the elite QB he is today. What I was responding to was your continued parroting of the false narrative that McD did a good job "developing" Allen. IMO the evidence from those two years, particularly 2018, was that Allen was thrown to the wolves. The fact is that McD had a "plan" for Allen's development that was poorly designed and executed (sound familiar). The plan involved bringing AJ McCarron in as the "vet" QB Allen could learn from. The problem was that no one told McCarron before he signed that was going to be his role and he wanted no part of it. Then the plan was to let Allen sit and learn while Peterman was named the starting QB. And how long did that last? It lasted until Peterman had set a new NFL record for consecutive offensive possessions without getting a 1st down in game 1. In what alternate universe are we going to call this a good plan?

The key to the role Dorsey played in this season's struggles revolves around whether or not Dorsey was free to create the strategic & tactical approach the Bills offense took. By this I mean: * Was Dorsey the one who suggested that they needed to change Allen's playing style? * Was Dorsey the one that lobbied to slow the offense down to better compliment the defensive effort? If these are all on Dorsey then he failed on his own. But if Dorsey was following the orders of McD here then all Dorsey failed at was in the execution of where McD wanted to take Allen and the offense. And that is very different from "Dorsey failed this season". I don't have the answer to these questions but this article along with other tidbits from McD over the last few months - his interview with the NFL Network is revealing - suggest that McD is the author of the strategy that failed to work for Allen and the offense. And this IMO, not the 9/11 foot in mouth quote, is the real problem with McD as the Bills head coach.

Allen was brought along slowly? You mean by not giving him very many first team reps in training camp and preseason in 2018 then naming him the starter in WEEK 2 after Petermann's epic, record setting fail in week 1? That was slow to you?

Well the 9/11 part appears to have been true as McD tried explaining it at his press conference today. My guess is that most of Dunn's reporting is true but lacking some context.

I think that was part of it but McD's comments and the NFL network interview would indicate it was a lot more then that. If in fact McD's trashing of Newton is to be believed then saving Allen from injury was the least of the reasons for doing what he did.

Oh I agree that McD may have been more complicit in the O's struggles and didn't leave all the tactical decisions to Dorsey. But check this out from Dunn and tell me it doesn't clash with how you're thinking McD wants Allen to be: There are two distinct versions of Josh Allen this 2023 season. One is fun. One takes off on the run — “The crowd loves it!” Al Michaels professes — and holds the football over the goal line while staring down a Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback. This version gets a Cincinnati Bengals safety to leave his feet with a pump fake, points, laughs and runs in for a TD. Flag ‘n fine, be damned. Meanwhile, Sean McDermott, spits on the turf and purses his lips. Fifteen yards lost on a kickoff likely means more to the Buffalo Bills head coach than any momentum gained by his backyard quarterback rediscovering himself. This version, at rain-slopped Philadelphia, rams through Reed Blankenship at the goal line, chucks the ball against the backstop and — flanked by teammates — swaggers right into the teeth of those trash-talking Eagles fans as if welcoming a dark-alley fight. The TD launched a tour de force for the quarterback: 420 total yards, four touchdowns. If Buffalonians could create the quarterback they’ve always desired in a lab, it’s exactly this. But then, there’s the other Allen. The pale, stupefied, knockoff version who trudges to the sideline after an interception vs. Denver with McDermott screaming in his ear. Unlike his boss, Allen does not come remotely close to assigning blame. Doesn’t embarrass receivers on national TV. Doesn’t snipe into earholes on the sidelines. Doesn’t kindly remind the public what McDermott said back in March when, in truth, it’s fully within his rights to alert your attention to these trainwreck comments. A smart coach does everything in his power to accentuate the first version of Allen. Realize you’ve been gifted a Marvel character at the most important position in sports and let him fly. Then, there’s McDermott sitting down with NFL Network last March. He made it abundantly clear that Allen needed to siphon these sorts of plays out of his game. “I don’t think that that’s a healthy way to play quarterback in this league,” said McDermott, in a video posted by the team. “It’s really undefeated that things are going to happen when you play that style, that brand of football. So, we’ve got to get that adjusted. It’s never going to go completely away but it has to get to where it’s workable. I don’t want to take his personality away from him as far as that goes. His signature. But there needs to be an adjustment in that style of play.” Manually warping the “style” of your most valuable commodity should’ve slotted in as the 2,789th item on the Bills’ offseason agenda. But this was no surprise. This is a head coach with a low Quarterback IQ. Start with the player who helped him become a head coach: Cam Newton. When the former No. 1 overall pick shapeshifted into molten lava on NFL defenses throughout the 2015 season — an MVP season, a 15-1 season — McDermott was the Carolina Panthers’ defensive coordinator. One of many individuals to directly benefit from Newton throwing for 3,837 yards, rushing for 636 and scoring 45 touchdowns in leading Carolina to the Super Bowl. In 2016, the Panthers went 6-10. In 2017, McDermott was named the 20th coach in Bills history. This did not stop McDermott from bashing Newton in staff meetings. One of the Bills assistants Go Long spoke to for this series said that McDermott’s “frame of reference” as a coach was watching Newton — in his mind — “ruin” the Panthers. “He used to come into offensive staff meetings,” this source said, “and just motherf--k Cam Newton.” Aside from the objective lunacy, this created… awkwardness.

I agree. There were two QB's from the 2018 draft who succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations and that was Lamar Jackson & Josh Allen. But it's obvious to anyone paying attention that if Allen had performed like Jackson in the playoffs he would be mercilessly attacked. Specifically: * if Allen was 1 - 3 in the playoffs and had played average to poorly in all 4 playoff games imagine the crap he would be getting. * If Allen had gotten injured and missed critical late season and playoff games imagine the crap he would be getting.

Yes but they were also both brilliant football coaches who were very innovative for their times. They also had an uncanny ability to spot NFL talent and develop it. How does McD stack up here?

That suggests to me that Bean and/or Pegula issued him instructions to do just that.