CincyBillsFan

The worst thing you could do is "manage Allen". That is what McD is trying to do and it's destroying what makes Allen special and neutering the offense in the process. Allen is a special talent that needs special handling like Brett Favre or John Elway did to fully exploit his talents. And for the record DaBoll did not "manage" Allen he exploited Allen's unique and elite skill set. And he did this successfully operating within an organization that favored the defense with the lions share of resources and never was willing to commit to assembling an elite offense to put around it's elite QB. So instead of managing Allen the Bills need to: * First the Bills need an offensive mind that embraces and game plans around what Allen does best. DaBoll was that sort of offensive mind. I suspect there are a lot of guys out there who could do it as DaBoll wasn't really all that special. What he did with Allen was common sense when faced with a talent like Allen. * Second, the Bills need to surround Allen with high end complimentary skill players who can best take advantage of Allen's strengths. Who is the Bills go to 50/50 pass catcher? Why aren't the Bills emphasizing SPEED like the dolphins do. And emphasizing speed isn't signing some role player who has lost a step like Harty. * Third, the Bills need a first rate O line. For 5 seasons they bring in career back ups and lower draft picks and try to create a patch work line that at best is average and often much below that. * And finally the Bills need an offensive minded head coach that can get in Allen's face and lay the law down. Bean/McD's strategic plan was to build an elite D while relying on Allen to elevate the average offensive talent they put around him. And Allen did elevate that talent which led to high scoring offenses and four straight trips to the playoffs and three straight division titles. But the D never became truly elite and was the main cause for the Bills playoff exits all 4 years.

Think about how much McD AND Bean have screwed up the amazing luck of landing Allen in the 2018 draft. The Bills got their franchise QB who was capable of doing things no other QB could do. Allen is a uniquely gifted QB that requires some special handing. Nothing major but some common sense stuff that would be a no brainer for Andy Reid or Sean Payton or Nick Sirianni or Zack Taylor or Sean McVay or Mike Macdaniel or Doug Pederson. First, they would surround Allen with the complimentary offensive talent that would best fit his at times reckless style and propensity to make big off script plays. Who is Allen's go to guy for catching 50/50 balls? There are receivers all over the NFL that would thrive high pointing Allen missiles down field. And would any offensive minded coach place so little value on the O line that the Bills have over the last 5 seasons? We could go on and on but we all get the picture. The Bills brain trust bet big time on the defense and the idea that Allen could carry the offense on his back with lesser talent around him. And over the last 3 years they were mostly right. But while other offenses were setting their elite franchise QB's up with great O lines and multiple outstanding skill players the Bills kept their focus on the D. So the O got worse and worse relative to their peers while the D never became dominant, particularly in big playoff games. There is only one fix for this. Fire McD/Bean and start over with the best offensively minded GM & HC you can get. This is IMO the only path that will reopen the Bills SB window.

Well maybe McD will bench Allen and start the other Allen.

The decision to keep Cook off the field for a full 3 series after the fumble should bite McD in the butt hard. It was a deeply unprofessional response by the head coach. He didn't treat Cook as a man or as a professional. The sad part is that the clueless McD probably feels that his decision to punish Cook for the fumble is what motivated him later in the game. The truth is that McD robbed a struggling offense of it's #1 RB for 3 critical series early in the game. And I agree abut firing Dorsey but keeping McD. It does nothing to address the real problem here.

Bitching about Allen under the circumstances is kind of like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The observations are true but so what.

Allen isn't destroyed YET. He has flashed way more good then bad this season. In the hands of a competent coaching staff that is offensive minded and constructs a roster to exploit what Allen brings to the table he will shine. But Pegula better realize that the clock is ticking. Another year of McD and Allen could be lost either by serious regression in his skills or he realizes that he will never win it all with the Bills and starts agitating to get out of Dodge. Either way the Bills elite franchise QB will be "gone" right at the moment the Bills are opening that brand new stadium.

Or an edge rusher or safety or corner back!

And it's a pattern that has been true over the last few years.

Bingo. This is the 2nd game this season where the O, in spite of struggling for long periods of time, handed the D a lead with under 2 minutes left and the D could not close out the game. And the 2 offenses that drove down to field to beat the Bills in these games were not very good. They certainly weren't the 49's or Chiefs.

And if you and me can see it you can bet that Russel Wilson & Sean Payton had the alt 22 view of it. It was an incomprehensibly bad call by McD very reminiscent of the brain cramps he got during "13 seconds".

What evidence o you have that Allen chose Dorsey? From what I can see McD wanted an OC he could control and dictate how he wanted things to go. McD has admitted he has his hands all over the offense in ways he never did with DaBoll. Sure Allen approved of the choice of Dorsey but that's a very different thing then hiring him.

From what I could see McD's blitzes failed every time except once and that was on the sack that knocked Denver out of FG range. That McD would tempt fate and run that same blitz against Sean Payton who is an offensive wizard and Russel Wilson who has made a career out of beating that blitz is beyond stupid. It was gross negligence on the part of McD reminiscent of "13 seconds".

This season is done and trust me when I say that coming from an incurable optimist. Tearing this thing apart mid season will help us by likely getting us into a better draft position. And I have to say that while it goes against the mood on the board with respect to Dorsey, your idea of firing McD and hiring Dorsey as interim HC is appealing. I'm not convinced Dorsey is the problem as McD has indicated that he is more involved in the offense and the tactical problems on game day have always rested with him. And if we make a total switch to an offensive minded head coach & GM, it won't be a jump start as much as going in a new direction. BTW I include Bean here as I assume he agreed or even formulated the approach 5 years ago to focus on the defense at the expense of the offense. IMO this is the foundation of the Bills problems as it fly's directly in the face of what it appears to take to win in the current NFL.

I don't disagree. Allen played poorly at times tonight. His 2nd INT was bad and he missed Shakir who was open on 4th down. But the tone for the Offense was set on the opening two drives and had nothing to do with Allen - the Cook fumble on the 1st play of the game and then Davis letting a ball go right threw his hands leading to an INT in the Bronco's Red Zone. You're right about Allen being a high variance QB. It's a great way to put it. Allen is Favre. We need an OC and offensive minded head coach who know how to construct a roster and game plan to best suit his skill set. Instead we have a defensive minded head coach who doesn't have a clue of what to do with Allen and a GM in Bean who has ignored the offense in favor of the defense. The Bills screwed up big time 5 years ago by not focusing the franchise on Allen and the offense.

Yep this was an all around bad effort by the Bills. Cooks opening play fumble was real bad. But worse was Richard Head McD punishing Buffalo's #1 RB by holding him out of the next THREE freaking series. What the hell was that? Maybe you sit him for one series, and that's a big maybe, but not more then that. And the Davis drop, which led directly to an INT in the Bronco's Red Zone killed us as much as Cooks fumble.

I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest. The Bills problem is clear as day to me and its the head coach. We all knew deep down in our hearts after "13 seconds" that McD was fatally flawed as a head coach but we kept hoping. Now if Pegula wants to stay with McD & Bean hey it's your team but I'm done. Another year of McD will ruin Allen. Another year of Bean prioritizing the defense over the offense will ruin the franchise. If the Bills are going to reopen that SB window they need to part ways with McD/Bean after this season. Five years ago with a special, elite QB in place they chose to go all in on the defense and not surround their young super star QB with the best offensive talent available. That decision was a massive strategic mistake. Throw in repeated tactical mistakes by McD and his coaching staff and the Buffalo Bills are now an average team going downhill fast.

I think calling an all out blitz TWO TIMES in a row was just as bad as 12 men on the field. What the hell was McD thinking? After the 1st sack Payton & Wilson had a TO to talk over how they would beat that blitz should McD be stupid enough to run it again. You had Denver in 3rd & 10 out of FG range. Again in a tight situation this head coach fails. He must go.

Do you know what was worse then to many players on the field? The fact that McD called an all out blitz TWICE IN A ROW after Sean Payton & Russel Wilson had time during a TO to discuss what they would do if McD did it again. And Russ threw a sky ball deep and got the expected PI. It was 3rd & 10 from midfield we didn't need another sack they were alreday out of FG range.

That game will look like the Chiefs/Bills divisional playoff game compared to next weeks NE vs the Giants thriller.

Is it me or are even the best QB's struggling big time in a lot of these games. Burrow & Jackson's bad INT's were huge in their teams losses today. Even Stroud who put up good numbers had 3 TO's and almost gave the game away with a terrible 4th quarter INT.

As Greg Cosell reminds us: "if you need your QB to be great every game then you have a problem and it's not your QB."

The Chiefs are also winning because they have a much better O line which allows them to have at last the semblance of a running game. They also have better offensive coaching and schemes to enable them to play true complimentary football with their D. But my point here was to provide another compelling bit of evidence showing us that Allen is not the problem here.

Fine then how about people stop blaming Allen & the Offense when they don't produce enough points to win the game? At a certain level I don't disagree with what you're saying but consider exactly what McD is asking: * He wants the O to operate in a manner that they are not very good at. In a manner they were not built for. * And McD is asking this of an offense that has been treated like a red headed step child in FA & the draft over the last 5 seasons. An offense that has not been prioritized until this seasons draft. Seems to me that you do what you can with the D and allow the O to operate in a fashion that is most likely to produce points. The alternative as we have plainly seen is not working.