CincyBillsFan

No that wasn't a stinker game it was an average game. The problem is that when Allen is average the Bills offense stinks.

I suspect that if it doesn't change then the Bills will continue to flounder in the later stages of the playoffs and the team will continue to waste the talents of an elite QB. The good news is that so far this off season there does seem to be a change in mindset at One Bills Drive. We need to keep our fingers crossed that it continues through FA and the draft.

My only quibble here is that Allen has not fallen short. Half his playoff games have been played at an elite level and he has yet to have a stinker game. For the last month all I've heard are the "experts" bemoaning why no one has signed Lamar Jackson to a 250 million guaranteed contract. Yet none of them talk about Jackson's dismal playoff performances. So it always pisses me off when I hear that Allen has "failed" in the playoffs.

It's more then Allen's arm strength it's also about his size which Mahomes isn't going to match. On the intangibles like "toughness" & "leadership" Allen matches Mahomes. And the main reason Allen hasn't taken the Bills as far as Mahomes & Burrow have taken their teams is that he has not had the talent on offense that they both do. The Bills poured a lot of their resources into the defense to mixed results. And every time I hear how Allen hasn't matched Mahomes & Burrow in the playoffs I think of "13 seconds" and how that would not have happened to either Mahomes or Burrow.

No but he does eat brightly colored mushrooms growing out in the woods!

I bet that if you set up a team with a great O line and loaded it with elite skill players and then polled GM's, Owners, Head Coaches & Offensive Coordinators who they would want to QB that team, Allen or Mahomes, Allen would win that poll.

I disagree. The biggest things that separate Allen & Mahomes over the last 3 years are: 1) Mahomes is coached by the best offensive mind in the NFL today and one of the best in the history of the league. 2) The Chiefs prioritized the offense over the defense while Buffalo has prioritized the defense over the offense. 3) Mahomes has enjoyed a much better O line then Allen has over the last 3 years. 4) Mahomes has enjoyed a much larger collection of very good & elite play makers then Allen has had over the last 3 years. BTW I've seen plenty of games were Allen patiently dissects a defense with the short passing game while they played two high safeties.

Every QB including Mahomes throws "boneheaded interceptions". So what's your point? No one is saying that Allen is beyond criticism though I'm not sure what criticizing one of the top 3 QB's in the NFL gets you. Heck, do you remember the rookie Elam baiting Mahomes to throw an end zone INT in that game? And yes that INT on the Bills first drive against the Jets was terrible. But then at the end of the game Allen threw a 70 yard pass that hit Davis in the chest that he dropped that likely would have earned the Bills a win. IMO most of Allen's mistakes are either directly or indirectly the result of bad O line play. It's not just that the Bills need better O line play it's that their O line is among the bottom 10 in the NFL. This makes the success of Allen and the Bills offense all the more remarkable.

Any Youtube search can also show Allen running around when the pocket breaks down making great plays. And why don't you wait until AFTER Allen has even an average O line before claiming that he isn't isn't making "elite decisions". It's ridiculous to criticize Allen here when his O line has been much inferior to what Mahomes has had in KC. Who is saying Allen is "perfect"? No QB is. But considering the inferior quality of his O line and the lack of any great offensive play makers beyond Diggs, Allen's accomplishments and stats have been nothing short of amazing. Give him a good O line and SB trophy's will follow. KC has done this for Mahomes, the Eagles for Hurtz and the Bengals are desperately trying to do it for Burrow. Can we honestly say the Bills are trying as hard as these teams to give Allen a good O line?

Mahomes rarely faces the kind of pressure that Allen faces continuously. One game in which he did face immediate pressure was in the Super Bowl against Tampa. How did that work out for him? Living in Cincinnati and also being a big fan of Joe Burrow I can state with absolute certainty that Burrow does not handle the pressure as well as Allen does - both physically (Burrow missed a lot of games after an injury) and in his play. Check out the Cleveland & Pittsburgh games just this last season for confirmation. IF the Bills fix their O line so that it only performs averagely Allen will be the best QB in football as evidenced by his wins and stats. If the Bills had invested a top 10 draft pick (Oliver) and an elite FA signing (Miller) in their O line the last few years we would be the Eagles with a better QB in Allen and at least one SB win.

Allen has elevated the play of as many average to below average WR's as Mahomes has and with a much weaker O line. Beasley, Sanders, McKenzie, Foster & Brown come to mind.

I would build on this by saying that Allen is actually better then we think. He hss raised the level of play of what is for the most part a below average group of offensive players.

Cincy made it to the Super Bowl in 2021 and the AFC Championship game in 2022. They are definitely NOT wasting the talents of Joe Burrow. Just this season the Bengals let 2 very good safety's walk in order to sign a high end LT to enhance the one part of their offense that they needed to upgrade. Philly has assembled as much talent around Hurtz as possible and they earned a trip to the SB as a result. It's obvious tat without Allen would not even be making the playoffs. The real question is can Allen & Diggs ALONE lead us to a Super Bowl and the answer is they can't. So while KC, Pilly, Cincy and now even the LA Chargers are trying to surround their elite QB's with the best offensive talent available we appear to be taking a more cautious, cheaper approach. I hope that 6 weeks from now the Bills will have made the bold moves to fortify their offense that fully exploit the talents of their generational QB. I'm hopeful that they might actually be in the process of doing just that.

To the extent that these rankings are correct it's a powerful indictment of the ass backwards way in which Bean/McD are constructing this team. Of the elite QB's Allen has by far the weakest supporting cast on offense. It's strong evidence that the Bills are wasting Allen's talents. While they have made a serious tilt towards the offense in their FA signings they've yet to make a splash signing that is likely to move the needle much. If they don't get D Hop then they have to commit their 1st round pick and 2 of their next 3 picks to offense. The defense will have to make do.

Plenty of options? Really?

Allen was under pressure and moving outside the pocket. And I suspect that Davis was near the first down marker in his initial route and didn't break for the end zone until Allen broke away to his left. Throwing from his left is not as easy as throwing from his right and IMO Allen released that ball as fast as he could and still make an accurate throw hitting Davis in the chest 70 yards down field. There are only 2 or 3 other QB's in the NFL who could have hoped to make that throw.

And on that play at the snap it was 4th & 21 at the Bills 14 yard line with 33 seconds left and no timeouts. Allen's only rational choice was to push the ball way downfield. Davis simply didn't make a play on a spectacular throw. It was similar to the Bills/Bengals playoff game where late in the 3rd quarter, down 24 - 10 and on 3rd & 2 Allen threw another great ball 50 yards in which Davis again couldn't make the catch. At that point in the game making the 1st down with a 5 yard throw to Beasley was not going to get us back in the game. Davis making that catch would have though.

You must have been watching a different QB's rookie season then Allen because his problem wasn't under throwing guys it was over throwing them.

Horrible take. Not only was the ball thrown 70 yards but it hit Davis in the chest. Anyone who claims that pass was "severely under thrown" can't be serious and must be trolling. So Allen should have checked down on a 4th and 21? Are you freaking serious?

When the KC defense holds a team to a 3 and out it feels like a TO because their powerful offense is getting the ball back. This is how the Bills must operate on D. Even when the Bills forced a punt all to often it came after the other team had gained a couple of first downs , ran clock and improved their field position.

I'm not bitter I'm frustrated. It has become very clear what works in the NFL and the Bills don't seem to be doing it. Sure our O was very good last year in spite of our focusing the majority of the resources on the D over the last 3 seasons. But where has this gotten us the last 3 seasons? ONE AFC championship game and TWO losses in the Divisional round. And we have seen Cincy shoot past us by doing the things that Bean/McD won't do. The Bengals walked away from two excellent safeties every bit as good as Hyde/Poyner to push resources to further improve their O line. And they did this to further protect their gold mine Joe Burrow. I agree with you that having Miller, Hyde and Poyner back healthy is a good thing. But when exactly will Miller be back healthy? And our two excellent safeties are not getting any younger. And next season there are bound to be other injuries. And I'm not saying the sky is falling. In fact in some ways it's worse. We will slowly slide and fail to break through as other teams like the Jags & Chargers focus on their Offenses and franchise QB's and move by us to replace Cincy or KC should they falter. We will become the Green Bay of the AFC but without the SB wins and Conference Championship games.

You ignore a dropped TD pass by Knox and a dropped 55 yard pass by Shakir. Sure Allen, like the whole team, had a brain cramp in the 2nd half of the 2nd quarter and the first half of the 3rd quarter. But he was on fire the rest of the game pushing the Bills out to a 17 - 0 (should have been 21) lead and then leading the Bills to two TD's that erased the Dolphin lead and put the Bills back up two scores.

It appears that Bean/McD are repeating what worked for them in 2019, but on a cheaper level. Remember how they signed a center who had real concussion issues but would be an upgrade to what we had at the time and then they signed two WR's who were good but not remotely elite. It worked great for the Bills and those 3 signings helped propel the team to success in 2019, 2020 & 2021. IF, the Bills have similar success with these 3 signings - significant upgrade at Guard and two WR's that are solid #2/3 type guys then the Bills are right back in the Super Bowl mix. But if they missed on these signings and they throw most of their draft capital at the D then Buffalo will be lucky to make the playoffs next season.

This would be disappointing to say the least. It also goes against everything the teams that played in the last 3 Super Bowls have done. All 5 of these teams have gone all in on offense: * Two of the teams (Bucs & Rams) went all in to get franchise QB's * Three of the teams (Chiefs, Bengals & Eagles) went all in to surround their elite franchise QB's with the best O lines and weapons possible. Bean & McD have not had a high profile Offensive FA signing or draft pick since the Diggs signing. If Bean & McD do not use a 1st round pick on offense and/or make a high profile FA offensive signing then I'm ready for a change - a big one. Bean & McD continue to balk at doing what it takes to win a SB in the age of offense. Even worse they're wasting the talents of an elite franchise QB that was a once in a generation draft pick by the Bills. If the Bills don't, at a minimum, win their division and win at least one playoff game, then I'm fine with Bean & McD being shown the door after the 2023 season.

And don't forget a dropped TD pass that kept it from being 21 - 0, a dropped 55 yard pass to Shakir, our ST's gave up a 57 yard punt return and the Finns scored 6 off a fumble. That game was sort of like the Bills season in weird stuff happening.