CincyBillsFan

This is my fear to. If the Bills don't prioritize the offense, particularly the WR room, then Allen will soldier on but he will start to look elsewhere. My expectation, hope really, is that Bean & Pegula can't be so stupid as to not see this and they will adjust the priorities. In this case I'm confident that Allen will spend his career in Buffalo ad bring home a couple of Lombardi trophy's. BTW, I have no expectation that McD will see it. I believe Dunne when he says the man is clueless of how elite QB's see the game. If McD exerts substantial influence in the draft & FA and turns the Bills back towards the D then I would expect Allen to be gone no later (and probably sooner) then his 32nd birthday.

Fair point but that play and situation in the game reminded me of Allen's 75 yard TD strike to Gabe Davis in the 2021 KC playoff game. Remember the Chiefs had just gone up 23 - 14 in the 3rd quarter and it looked like the Bills were on the precipice of getting blown out. So 1st down after the KO Allen did a play action drop back and ignored a wide open Knox across the middle for a 20 yard gain in order to push the ball 55 yards down the field for the TD. That play changed the game into a shootout that the Bills should have won but for McD's ineptitude at the end. On Sunday Allen hit Diggs in the hands at the 25 yard line. At worst Diggs is tripped up there but it looks to me like he would have scored putting the Bills in the lead half way through the 4th quarter. That kind of lightening strike immediately after the Chiefs had fumbled the ball through the end zone may have changed the entire rhythm and momentum of the game. I want Allen making that throw EVERY SINGLE TIME.

So the Bills spend the entire game running the ball and throwing short passes in order to set up a couple of deep throws. That is football 101. Under that situation those are not "low percentage bombs". Brady calls a deep shot off play action (again football 101) and Allen throws perfect balls to 2 WR's that hit them in the hands. Both passes are dropped which IMO was the only real thing the offense did wrong the whole game.

As you noted there is no perfect QB rating system. But QBR better captured Allen's play on Sunday then the conventional QB rating. To suggest otherwise is wrong and fly's in the face of what we all saw in that game.

Against the Chiefs Allen took what was available. That will lead to a lower QB rating because YPC is reduced. The two drops on over 100 yards of potential passing yards prevented Allen from having a rating in the 100's. And as usual you neglect to mention Allen's 72 yards and 2 TD's rushing which was critical to the offenses success. BTW, Allen's QBR, which is a much better rating of how Allen plays then the regular rating, was 65.4 against the Chiefs Sunday. This is quite good and borderline great. But the way you present it is misleading. Do you ave a grudge against Allen?

Again we lost 3 games when the O gave the D the lead with less then 2 minutes left on the clock. Sure the D won a couple of games as did the O. But given the uneven allocation of resources over the last 5 years the D should be winning a lot more games then the offense. And in the playoff losses the O has played in all those games except one. In contrast the defense has been awful in every playoff loss. And we've needed one for the last 3 years. Their refusal to get this hugely valuable piece (D Hopp anyone?) for Allen and the Offense has been a case of football malpractice.

There are two elements of unleashing Allen: 1) Short term we're talking about the attempt to reign Allen in and have him run less and take less risks throwing the football. We saw this put into effect during the first 10 games of 2023 and Allen was miserable, the offense uneven and an OC was fired as a result. Dunne only points out the obvious: McD was the author of Allen's changed play. Dunne isn't making anything up here he's simply referring to the public statements and articles by McD in the off season & pre season. 2) Long term McD & Bean in their roster construction have sought to exploit Allen's unique talent not optimize it. This is a huge difference and the Bills have paid the price every year for this wrongheaded thinking. McD/Bean hoped that Allen was special enough to carry the O while they focused on the D. Look at the Bills neglect of the WR room, the most important position group when you have an elite QB to see that Dunne speaks the truth here. Every post season Marvin Lewis said the right things about how next season would be different. But they never were. So you can hope the Bills make changes NOW like I do or you can keep expecting things to get better doing basically the same wrong things for another couple of years.

I can only speak for myself and while Dunne may have a personal grudge with McD what he says in that article matches many of my own observations. I agree that had we beat KC we would likely have lost to the Ravens next week. But the point Dunne is making is not unreasonable. The Bills have hit a wall at the Divisional Playoff round. And Dunne's argument that they hit this wall in large part because of McD & Beans refusal to focus the necessary resources and mindset against surrounding their uniquely gifted QB with the best talent available rings true to me.

Twice the Bills struck deep and Allen hit the WR in the hands. BOTH were incomplete. In a game where you must be patient Allen exhibited unnatural patience. The WR must make the catch on those two throws. They would have been game changing.

And that's why McD is 5 - 6 in the layoffs whereas Lewis was 0 - 7. But can you honestly say that McD will get us past the Divisional round? He did it ONE time in 5 playoff games. IMO in the playoffs Allen covers up a lot of the weaknesses of McD and how Bean has structured this team. If McD has hit his wall then the Bills must move on from him. Allen is to good of a QB to be satisfied with a divisional playoff appearance. Marv Levy's wall was the Super Bowl and that was acceptable. But if a coaches wall is anything less then a SB appearance when you have a QB as good as Allen then that is not acceptable.

I hope he follows the Peyton Manning trajectory and lands a couple of Lombardi trophy's for Buffalo. But until I see a real change in direction for the Bills in FA & the draft starting this year I fear Allen's career will follow the trajectory of Dan Fouts & Phillip Rovers only with more yards and TD's. And that would be sad and a damning indictment of the Bills management.

One more time. I lived through this down here in Cincinnati with Marvin Lewis. The difference was that while I supported the Bengals they were my #2 team behind the Bills. Now I'm seeing history repeat itself with McD. And it's almost an exact replication of the Lewis saga down here. The only difference is where Lewis was 0 - 7 in the playoffs McD is 5 - 6. But McD has a much better QB then Lewis had. So sorry if after 3 straight years of losing in the Divisional Playoff round I'm throwing up my hand and saying if you don't move on from McD now you will have another 3 or 4 years of early playoff exits.

I didn't say McD didn't believe in the forward pass. I said that McD is unable to fully grasp & exploit the power of a modern NFL passing attack in the way that an offensive minded coach can. And I believe that McD wanted Allen to be Tyrod on steroids. Allen was a strong armed project that very few saw as morphing into the most effective dual threat QB in NFL history. IMO Allen has not tuned into the QB that McD really wanted.

I follow LSU football closely and this is not correct. Brady was recruited by LSU to install and run an NFL passing attack. My understanding is that he had been a quality control manager for Sean Payton and the Saints who loaned him out to LSU to do a seminar on building an effective passing game. The Tigers were so impressed they offered him a job. Ed Orgeron (LSU head coach) and the LSU OC recognized they had elite NFL talent in the passing game but worried they didn't have the expertise to fully exploit it. Brady installed that fearsome LSU passing attack and called all the pass plays on game day. He sat next to the OC in the booth who called the running plays. Brady's impact on that team was enormous and was the reason they won the national title in dominating fashion. It was the most lethal passing attack ever seen in the history of college football.

The offense you saw Brady run was an admission on his part of the weakness of the Bills WR room. I am confident that with the right WR's Brady will be a brilliant OC. I watched every LSU game the year they won the National Championship with Burrow, Chase & Jefferson. Go back and watch some of those games and you will feel much more confident that if the Bills sign a stud WR in FA or use a 1st round pick to take a top flight guy in the draft Brady will know how to get the most out of him. Brady was in charge of the LSU passing game that year. In fact I would go so far as to say that if Brady doesn't get assurances from McD/Bean that they're bringing in a top level WR talent either in FA or the draft he will be very tempted t leave Buffalo for another OC job.

Which may have been a Pyrrhic victory. A case of winning a battle but losing a war.

McD said he believes passing is key and I don't believe a word of it. I would love to hear what DaBoll & Dorsey have to say about that. The O line improved primarily because Brown got better and the Bills got rid of the worst guard in the NFL (Saffold). A guard that Bean and company thought would be enough in 2022. And I'm not convinced that without Allen's unique ability to escape pressure the O line would have looked so good. People can hate on Dunne all they want, I am not familiar with his work beyond this latest stuff. But IMO he is speaking the truth and saying what needs to be said. I live in Cincinnati where for years some fans kept saying they had to move beyond Marvin Lewis. But Lewis had raised the Bengals from the pit of despair to being a perennial playoff team. That they didn't win any playoff games didn't seem to phase the Lewis supporters who demonized Bengal fans who wanted him gone. The ONLY difference I see between Lewis ad McD is that McD has a much better QB so he actually wins some playoff games. If we stick with McD the farthest the Bills will advance is the Divisional Playoff Round.

I'm glad Dunne is rocking the boat again. I hope Pegula is reading every word that this man is saying. I don't know about the rest of you but it seems to me McD is jockeying to spend more draft capitol on the D not the O. How will you Dunne critics like it if we take a safety in round 1 and not a WR? Or that we spend more FA on the D line and not sign a top end WR in FA? I listened to McD & Bean's press conference and I have concerns. They said some of the right things but I didn't hear conviction in what they were saying. The bottom line is that the Bills are wasting the talents of a uniquely gifted QB with their current coaching and personnel situation. If you want more of the same then curse Dunne and cheer McD. But 3 straight losses in the Divisional playoff round have changed my mind about everything. And I welcome Dunne playing the role of the squeaking wheel here. It's long overdue.

More wise observations: So, it’s decision time. Buffalo must decide which individual they should orbit around. That will guide both draft decisions and X ‘n O philosophy. Obviously replacing McDermott with a new coach could help maximize Josh Allen before it’s too late, but Pegula didn’t do that after a fifth straight playoff loss. Allen could speak up. He won’t rock the boat. That leaves one person to look in the mirror and change if the Bills are ever going to win a Super Bowl. The head coach. He’s right. He needs to go for it. That means unleashing his best player in full.

Then you're missing out on a man telling the truth here. I get that Dunne has a "rep" but check these out and tell me he's wrong: Those suffering from Drought Brain — terrified of another dark age — will soon nestle into another blanket of excuses and swiftly demonize any criticism of team, of coach. None of this happens if the Bills — ownership on down — operate with Allen at forefront of mind. He’s the most important person in the building. He’s the employee with the richest contract in Buffalo sports history. That’s what blew the minds of so many players and coaches I spoke to for The McDermott Problem. Those who’ve been around McDermott every day describe the coach as a simpleton when it comes to this position, as if he never understood that Allen was the No. 1 reason this team is a Super Bowl contender. As I write this column, McDermott is holding his season-ending press conference. He says the biggest reason for their turnaround was cutting down turnovers. Let’s hope he doesn’t try to neuter Allen’s arm this offseason after taking aim at his legs last offseason

Are you talking about the defense that was so good it allowed 3 teams that were trailing with less then 2 minutes to go in the game to come back and win? And 2 of those teams had horrible offenses and QB's. The most important job a D has is to hold a lead given them by the O in the last 2 minutes of a game.

If we stand pat and take a safety at 28 then BOTH the 2nd & 3rd round picks better be WR's.

Two of those deep balls were placed directly on the hands of the WR's. Most NFL receivers make those catches. If those balls are caught you could add 10 points (minimum) to the score board. The Bills offense and Joe Brady worked real hard to set up those deep shots off play action. The continued under performance by the Bills WR group is kneecapping Allen and the offenses ability to hit the big play.

Their success the last 3 seasons can be directly tied to the great play of Allen. But ultimately football is a team game and the rest of the roster and coaching matters. A guy like Allen should be the icing on the cake that gets you over the hump. It is football malpractice how Bean & McD are wasting Allen's skills.

If they go 60/40 on defense this off season Allen would be a fool to stay in Buffalo. The good news is that there is NO way Pegula allows Bean/McD that level of insanity. Worst case scenario is it will be 50/50 and business as usual. I'm not blaming Diggs. But what I am saying is that Diggs may have regressed to the point that he is a solid #2 but no longer a #1 WR. For the Bills not to have a great #1 WR with Allen at QB is football malpractice and must be addressed in the off season. Sorry but in a Divisional Round playoff game at home this must be caught by your #1 guy: