CincyBillsFan

I would start with Allen & Diggs and go from there. Think about the production Allen would have with the Eagles O line, the 49's CMC & Kittle and the Bengals WR's plus Diggs. IMO it would surpass the production that every other QB, including Mahomes, could deliver with the same talent.

I also don't get their line of reasoning. Signing CMC was a brilliant move that helped the 49's reach the conference championship. That they lost all their QB's to injury over the course of the season including two during the championship game has nothing to do with the CMC signing. The fact is had we signed McCaffrey we might be playing down in Arizona in two weeks.

Nonsense. Posters have accurately called out the top 3 reasons Diggs production dropped a bit: 1) defenses schemed to take him out of the game and no one else on the Bills stepped up; 2) Multiple bad weather games; and 3) Allen's injury.

The drought and it ain't close.

For me it starts with a clear indication by their actions that McD & Bean are redirecting the lions share of the FA & Draft capitol to the offense - particularly the O line and WR's.

The weather, a terrible O line and a distinct lack of play makers beyond Allen & Diggs all contributed to the offenses problems against the Bengal's. The mystery is how was Buffalo able to generate as much offense as they did throughout the season? Their issues on offense are real and substantial due largely to the Bills focus on the defense. So when we get to the playoffs I hold the defense to a much higher standard then I do the offense. In KC they would hold the offense to the higher standard because that's where they put the lions hare of the resources.

A better performance by the defense provides the offense with a few more possessions. That would have led directly to more points on the board. And again the defense played poorly at key points of the game making it harder to generate momentum and take advantage of playing at home. Specifically: * The D allowed the Bengals to take a big early lead. * Both times the Bills offense got them to within one score the defense promptly let Cincy go on two long, time consuming scoring drives. These were 2 key pivot points in the game that the defense allowed to slip away. By the time the O got the ball back half a quarter had been used up and the Bengals were back out in front by 2 scores.

And let's not forget that the defensive minded head coach for the Chargers isn't doing Herbert any favors either. And you can bet that Pederson and the Jags will be doing everything possible to improve the offensive talent around Lawrence in the off season. BTW I actually like and respect McD. He did turn around a franchise that was all but dead in the water. But he must rise above his defensive bias and change direction. I actually think he and Bean will do exactly that in the off season. If we can see the problem they saw it long before we did.

BPA. The problem is that this type of thinking only works when you don't have any glaring weaknesses on either side of the ball. The Bills unfortunately had some.

Don't forget a very good RB. The Eagles are who we should have become.

People mock Cowherd but at times the guy is spot on in his analysis and this is one of those times. In the current NFL defensive minded head coaches struggle to build high powered offenses around elite QB talent. Can you imagine KC, Cincy or the Eagles NOT surrounding their supremely talented QB's with as much firepower and protection as possible? Hell, even though SF doesn't have an elite QB (yet) they have loaded that offense up with a great O line and every weapon imaginable. That the Bills CHOSE not to do this is on them. The good news is that it's not to late to change direction and start to make this right. But anything less then a full reversal of the current approach and a commitment to equip their franchise QB with the best offense possible would be disappointing.

I asked among TE/WR/RB. And IMO Knox would not start over the Bengals TE and he sure as hell wouldn't start over the Chiefs TE. Maybe Dawkins would get the start on Cincy but I don't think Morse beats out the Bengal's center.

The offense showed up and then some in the 2021 playoffs. if the defense had showed up just once in our last four season ending playoff losses Buffalo would likely have at least one Super Bowl trophy on the shelf. Remember the old saying "to those where much is given much is expected". The fact is that the offense has been treated like the proverbial red headed step child and now some fans are claiming they needed to up their game in the playoffs? I don't think so.

IMO this this not a top 5 roster on the Offensive line or the WR/TE group. It's bottom half of the league in both.

So who among the Bills RB's/WR's/TE's not named Diggs starts for KC or Cincinnati? And without doubt the Bills had the worst O line among the divisional playoff participants. It's not making excuses to point out the freaking obvious that the Bills have grossly under equipped their offense.

I think you're being to kind here. The Bills offense is a big play unit that needs to get at bats to put points on the board. As has happened in other losses this year the D allows long time consuming drives that deny the offense crucial possessions. Th other issue with the defense that doesn't fully show up in the numbers is that they have a bad habit of giving up big plays or long drives at critical points in the game. Take last weeks game: * They allowed Cincinnati to go down and score a TD on their first possession. Then after a 3 & out by the O the defense allows another long TD drive. So now we're late in the 1st quarter and down 14 - 0. All the momentum from having a home playoff game has evaporated. * Midway through the 2nd period the O goes on a long TD drive and cuts the Bengals lead to 14 - 7. At home and in the playoffs this should translate to a big momentum swing right? Hell no because the Bengals then use up most of the 2nd quarter to go down and kick a FG making it a two score game again. And the only reason the Bengal's didn't score a TD was a great play by Milano and a drop by Chase. This left the Bills O with very little time to go down and get a score. This was important because the Bengals were not letting the Bills make big plays and forcing them to take the little stuff to move down the field. * Then in the 3rd quarter after the Bills O uses up half the quarter on a FG drive that cuts the Cincy lead to 17 -10 the D allows the Bengals to use up most of the remaining 3rd quarter on a TD drive that puts then up 24 - 10.

When I scrutinize the offenses performance during the 3 games that the Bills were eliminated from the playoffs I first start with how well did that unit play compared to the other units. And the answer is that the offense was brilliant and highly productive in one of the three losses while the D was terrible in all three losses. My next area of scrutiny is which of these units has the better players and which of these units gets the lions share of resources? Again the answer is clear - the defense gets far more draft capital and free agent signings then the offense. So my expectations are higher for the D then for the O. So taking all this into consideration here's were I land on: If the defense was only average in last seasons divisional playoff game Buffalo is in the AFC Championship game thanks to the offense. If the D played great this year against the Bengals, the Bill's likley would be in the AFC Championship game as the offense would have had more possessions and maybe a TO or two from the D. We might have won the game 17 - 13. You know a low scoring affair like he 49's victory over Dallas. The key step in getting to the Super Bowl is getting to the conference championship game. The last two years the D as let the franchise down because it has not come close to playing to its potential in spite of receiving the overwhelming majority of resources. That's the problem. Sorry but the only scrutiny the offense should get is that they're not getting the resources needed to fully exploit having an elite talent at QB.

It's easy to dump on Kumerow and obsess over the Bills letting Hodgins get away. Yet you can trace the Bills offensive troubles to Kumerow & Crowder going down to injury. In fact it got so bad that in desperation the Bills brought Beasley & Brown back and they made some plays. This isn't rocket science. The Bills faltered on Offense because the O line was bad and they didn't have much in the way of play makers beyond Diggs.

And for what it's worth Allen was ranked #1 by PFF. And he did this surrounded largely by below average talent on offense. So why are some Bills fans insisting that the problem is Allen not throwing to "wide open" guys underneath?

The big contract is a lot less important then the poor strategic choices being made by Bean & McD. They chose to prioritize the D over the O while they were on Allen's rookie contract. So sorry if I have no sympathy for the Allen contract argument. The Chiefs have figured out how to remain elite in spite of Mahomes big contract. Its on the Bills management to do likewise. The alternative is to try to be elite without Allen behind center. Good luck with that.

I challenge the notion that there were all these wide open guys running underneath the deep patterns. Allen threw a lot of passes to the "underneath" receivers and I saw precious little YAC after the catch and on more then one occasion these receivers screwed up the pattern or the ball bounced off their hands leading to INT's. The first two plays against the Bengal's were short passes into the flat that gained about 5 yards total. Our skill players didn't break a tackle or make a guy miss which meant that we were in 3rd and 5. IMO there is a MYTH that there are all these open short throws to be made.

Allen would shine and dominate the NFL in the 49's system. It would allow Shanahan to launch his offense into the stratosphere. Why do you think the 49's drafted Trey Lance? It was an attempt to have their own version of Allen.

Paying a franchise QB a big contract doesn't seem to have hurt the Chiefs quest for the Super Bowl has it? In fact if the Chiefs don't win the AFC championship on Sunday it will have a lot to do with their high paid franchise QB not being healthy and NOTHING to do with the size of his contract. Bean & McD have CHOSEN to not surround Allen with high quality play makers and offensive line. They have CHOSEN to follow the Carolina model and milk their QB for everything he's got while pushing their resources towards creating a dominating defense. And it hasn't worked. So they're now faced with a dilemma. Do they double down on their failures or do they finally redirect the priorities to the offense? But if you believe Allen's contract is hamstringing the Bills what do you suggest they do about it? You know the contract that by this summer will not even be in the top 10 among QB's. Maybe they can trade Allen and dump his contract. I'm sure some team will give them three #1 picks & three #2 picks for his services. Yea that's the ticket. I mean the goal of the Bills franchise should be to make Bean & McD's life easier now that they've screwed up Allen's cheap rookie contract years.

The Offense was spectacular in last seasons divisional playoff loss to KC. The defense has failed miserably in all 3 playoff exits. And given the FACT that the majority of the high draft picks and free agent signings goes to the defense means that the defense should be consistently leading the Bills to victory. The reality is that the offense has had the better of the defense in the playoffs over the last 3 seasons.

Yea, it's to bad that the Ravens aren't the team that was blocking the Bills from the SB the last two years. All credit to Frazier for figuring out how to deal with Jackson and the Ravens unconventional offense. Meanwhile the road to being AFC champions is blocked by 2 teams featuring elite QB's and potent offenses in Cincy & KC. And Frazier's defense has been unable to deal with either of these teams through 3 playoff games. And don't look now but Herbert & Lawrence may be doubling the # of teams blocking the Bills path to the SB with offenses that Fraziers D will not be able to stop.