CincyBillsFan

Apples and oranges. If I told you that the Bengals gained 30 first downs, had 412 yards in total Offense, rushed the ball for 172 yards, had 34 minutes TOP, had no turnovers and gave up only 1 sack what would you have thought? If the Bengals had needed to score 40 points they could have.

In addition to allocating the lions share of the resources to the Offense the D needs to: * Take more chances and become a pressure defense. * Play their rookies early and often. If a draft pick shows signs of being good put him on the field knowing there will be mistakes. KC had what, 3 rookies staring on D in the SB? * Change the philosophy to one that recognizes that when a team moves the ball and keeps your O off the field you are failing even if they don't score or only get a FG instead of a TD. The Offense should be the strength of the Bills. An opponents 3 and out should be treated like a TO. And if you give up a quick TD know that your high powered O will be right back on the field. This is how KC does it. As an aside, offenses need to establish a rhythm. When they're sitting on a bench they are getting themselves out of sync whch leads to 3 and outs when they do finally get the ball.

Did you watch the game? You need to check out the stats. Let's start with the Bengals getting 30 first downs. Sure the offense wasn't dominate but at every key point in the game the D failed: * The Bengal's scored TD's on their first two drives of the game. They were up 14 - 0 before the Bill's had touched the ball for their 2nd possession. * After the Bills had cut the lead to 14 - 7 the D allowed the Bengals to go on a long time consuming drive that ended in a FG and a 17 - 7 lead. And the only reason Cincy didn't score a TD on that drive was a great play by Millano and a dropped pass by Chase. * At the start of the 3rd quarter the Bills went on a long drive that ended in a FG cutting the Bengal's lead to 17 - 10. Sure a TD would have been better but at home it was now a one score game and the D needed to step up and grab the momentum. * Instead Cincy goes on a long TD drive to go up 24- 10 and use up most of the rest of the 3rd quarter in the process. And when fans criticize the D it comes from a knowledge that Buffalo has favored the D in draft picks and FA signings over the last 3 years. The Bills chose to prioritize the D over the O so more is expected of the defense.

Maybe it's more a hope then a belief. But if the Bills do the right thing and pivot hard from being defensive focused to offensively focused then they'll need to change their D. The KC model comes to mind. Populate the D with a couple of elite play makers and the rest are JAGs (rookies, cheap FA's etc.). Understand that this new defense will not be smothering and will not be a top 5 D in the regular season. But it will force more then it's fair share of 3 & outs and TO's. Which gives the offense more possessions to score. And when one of the JAG's on this D screws up it will be a quick score or drive and the O is right back on the field. That is how KC does it.

I think you nailed it here. To me this is a clear indication that they're going all in on the offense this off season. They sat down with Frazier and explained that not only were a lot of the defensive FA's not coming back but it would be slim pickings in FA and the draft for the D. The Bills are going to need a radically different style of D going forward. One that Frazier isn't comfortable running.

Three games if we're being honest here: Twice against KC and against the Bengals. And the D wasn't exactly stellar against Indy in that playoff game either. Came close to blowing a 24 - 10 4th quarter lead.

Given the talent on the Bills roster I thought when Buffalo added a quality QB like Bledsoe to the roster the playoffs were right around the corner. Instead it was more of the same. The Jets showed promise last season and have some decent players but their roster is hardly loaded. Let's see what they actually do with all that "talent" before declaring that Carr, Rogers or Jimmy G will boost them to the next level. Hell, Denver had a strong roster and people thought Wilson would push the Broncos past the Chiefs. How did that work out?

They already are!

It tells you this? Really? I guess you don't watch a lot of NFL football. EVERY year some teams improve and other teams collapse. You and I have no idea whether the Jet's/Dolphins will continue improving, stay the same or get worse. All we know is that year to year the Jets & Dolphins have been inconsistent and up and down. Meanwhile the Bills have been very consistent winning the East 3 years in a row. It might mean that they have closed the gap and they blow by the Bills next season. Or it might mean that things broke in a favorable way with the Jets/Dolphins versus the Bills this season and next season we bury them.

This years games have nothing to do with how next years games will go. In 2021 the Bills played 4 games against the Jets & Dolphins and went 4 - 0 outscoring those two teams by a total of 95 points! And how did that predict the results for the 2022 season?

Well if you have a good O line like KC then your elite QB can make a bunch of JAGS at WR and the greatest TE in NFL history look great. The Bills offensive problems have NOTHING to do with Allen. Fix the O line and add 1 or 2 improved play makers and the Bills have the best O in the NFL. As it is and even with a very bad O line and limited play makers the Bills had one of the best offensives in the NFL. You know why? Josh Freaking Allen. And I think they're nuts. They're either not Bills fans and are trolling this board or they still haven't gotten over being 100% wrong on draft night 2018 when Buffalo took Allen. There is simply no way a thinking Bills fan can point to Allen as a problem on the Bills offense.

The one thing they haven't tried on the O line since 2019 is high draft picks (1st or 2nd round) or top end free agents. This I think is the crux of the problem. If the Bills got the O line right, with the current defensive & play making talent on the roster they would win a Super Bowl. This is what is so frustrating to many Bills fans. Fix the damn line by going for QUALITY not bargain basement fire sales.

Going back to 2017 dilutes out the impact of the more recent and problematic focus on the defense at the expense of the offense. Given that Allen showed signs of being a franchise QB in 2019 let's focus on the 2020, 2021 & 2022 drafts and FA activities of the Bills. IMO if the Bills coaches/front office were offensive minded they would have recognized that Allen was on the cusp of greatness at the end of the 2019 season and thrown everything into supporting their emerging superstar QB on offense. But with the exception of the trade for Diggs in this period the Bills have bargain basement shopped for offensive players. During 2020 - 2022: * Two of their three 1st round picks (one went for Diggs) went to the D. * Two of their three 2nd round picks went to the D. * Their only blockbuster FA signing (Miller) went to the defense. Reverse this and have the only blockbuster FA signing be an offensive player and 2 of the their 1st round and 2 of their 2nd round picks also being offensive players and the Bills would be a much stronger team.

Allen is responsible for what, 85% of the offensive production? It's a testament to Allen's elite level of contribution that over the last 3 seasons the Bills offense, which gets less then 40% of the teams cap resources, has been a top 3 unit by both yards & points. Imagine the state of the Bills O without Allen.

Damn. reading that list made my head explode. There is serious turbulence in the QB air over the NFL. Things are going to be really different next season. Isn't it nice that for once the Bills are an island of tranquility surrounded by the storm winds QB Russian Roulette.

It seems like some Bills fans are getting nostalgic for the bad old days of football purgatory when every off season was a gold mine of speculation on how a "talented" Bills roster was just a QB away from the playoffs! Yea those were the days.

The recognition that alone among the elite NFL teams the Bills focus their resources on the defense at the expense of the offense is far from being a "pitiful rally cry". In fact it's an astute observation of what is holding Allen and by extension the Bills back. The failure of Buffalo to get the O line right amounts to a football 101 felony. And the Bills continued efforts to find play makers not named Diggs at bargain bin prices continues to blow up on them. It's obvious the Bills are following the Carolina playbook of depending on their elite, franchise QB to carry the offense on his back with average to below average talent while the lions share of resources go to the defense. This really didn't work for the Panthers beyond one season and I don't see it working in the current offensive crazed NFL. Fans from other teams who come on 2BD and criticize us for our frustration at wasting a uniquely gifted QB talent like Allen would be screaming bloody murder if the Chiefs were doing this to Mahomes, the Bengals to Burrow or the Eagles to Hurts. Hell Tampa Bay didn't expect Brady the GOAT to take them to a SB win without providing him with all sorts of offensive weapons. Take a look at what Jacksonville is doing with Lawrence to see how nobody is copying the Bills playbook here. Oh wait the Chargers are sort of with Herbert and how has that worked out for them? If it bugs you that Bills fans on a Bills message board constantly point this out then find another board to post on. I can't even conceive of jumping on another teams message board and bitching about their obsession with their QB or other top players. I never said Hurts didn't deserve credit. I and others are saying that Hurts has been gifted with an elite O line, numerous elite play makers and an offensive minded head coach. I am envious of what the Eagles are doing because it's exactly what we should ave done with Allen. IMO Hurts is a top 7 QB and Allen is a top 3 QB.

His O line gave him all the time in the world on 90% of his pass attempts. And the line opened up some big holes on his runs.

You haven't been out much I see. And I would add in what universe are Buffalo's skill players equal to those of the Bengals? It's insane to even suggest that we can match Ciny at WR or RB.

Yep, been there done that......................for 18 years! And he loses a lot of fumbles without Allen's ability to compensate with lots of TD's.

Bingo! If you notice he has Allen at #5 which gives him the flexibility to easily bump him to #1 or drop him to #10 depending on how he does early next season. Now to be fair to Cowherd he did caveat his list with other factors including offensive coaching, O line and skill players. So Allen at #5 reflects that Cowherd thinks having a defensive minded HC is a problem in the current NFL. Cowherd also mentioned that Allen's drop to #5 has a lot to do with the Bills poor O line.

Funny how that works isn't it? Allen has a solid game in his first playoff start on the road and all people talked about was his bad decision making when he tried to lateral the ball to Knox. BTW, the Bills didn't lose possession on that play and went on to kick a FG and push the game to OT. Lawrence throws FOUR bad INT's in one half of his playoff game at home and Cowherd and company dismiss it as a case of "sh@@ happens".

While it's true that "Philly's or KC's o-lines have nothing to do with us not making the SB" they sure had a hell of a lot to do with those two teams making the SB. Mahomes had a better season then Allen but Hurts didn't. The fact is that Hurts had fewer TO's then Allen because they didn't depend on him to win their games. Philly was a much better team from top to bottom and the only position where it was clear the Bills had the advantage over the Eagles was at QB. Against the Bengals Allen was hurried on half his pass attempts. HALF!

Given the current situation Allen can't really play all that much better. NO QB is going to be consistently good with that O line. IMO Allen is playing better then any QB in the NFL when you factor in the talent surrounding him on offense. And the Bills record and Allen's stats back me up on that.

Only a handful of incredible games? Really? "More often then not" - so you're saying that in more then half the games Allen has played in he's been "wildly inconsistent with accuracy, decision-making, ball security, and composure". Are you talking about his last 3 seasons? If so this statement is complete BS unsupported by the facts. This is wrong. And can you quit it with the "fumbles" stat please. It is very misleading to equate a fumble with a turnover if the fumble isn't lost.