Nextmanup

I have no idea if that's true, and I'm not sure how you would know either. I do know that when you are playing the Patriots in a year when they have a decent team, you need a chess player of a coach if you want to win. And we don't have one.

Many factors go into every loss, just like last night. Having said that, had Allen made some plays there were absolutely THERE to be made (not many either) at the end of the game, we would have won. When the going gets tough, he panics and has trouble finding people to throw the ball to. In that regard, he is not an elite passer. Had he just thrown to the wide open man, we score a TD EASILY at the end of the game and win. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

This team isn't about pure domination. Nothing close. We have to live with what we have. It would be totally consistent for this team to win next week IMO. That part of what makes it all so infuriating. Win when you should lose, lose when you should win.

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And yet... ...had Josh Allen hit any of the many wide open receivers when we needed to score most, at the end of the game, we would have won a game that we were never out of. I like our odds against New England in the rematch; this game was massively winnable tonight. We were out-coached badly, Josh had one of his mediocre games b/c of poor line play as much as anything, and our entire approach to offense was not sound. Of course, the defense couldn't stop the run, despite knowing it was coming. Still, had we been able to pass as normal in this game, I think we win by maybe even 2 touchdowns.

Coaching had as much do with this loss as the wind did. And you didn't mention either in your four point list.

Given normal weather in the rematch, I like our chances to beat New England a lot. We're the better team IMO with clearly the better QB.

We are built to play well against a team like Tampa. Given normal weather, I would think we'd beat NE in the rematch! This game was beyond winnable and had we felt more comfortable calling plays as normal (i.e., no wind), I think we would have won easily. A bunch of us were saying all week this weird weather is bad news and favors New England. This is what we meant.

Tonight, having a different OC would have been a good start. We didn't throw it nearly as much as we should have (even with 30 passes) and Daboll's play calling all night long, in all kinds of situations, seemed off.

He's actually a very good writer. I know he's utterly despised here, but this is a forum of kool aid drinking homers.

This is the incident I referenced in the post game discussion thread. They showed a replay of this on ESPN, but you couldn't tell who was talking or what he was saying. So it was Sully huh?

I don't necessarily think McDermott should be fired after this loss tonight. But the OP suggested something that I find interesting. Has McDermott reached (more or less) his coaching ceiling? I feel he may have. And it's a high ceiling, but it's not high enough.

Feel free to do something else with your free time if you don't want to engage in a discussion about Buffalo Bills coaching. The idea of this forum isn't to "stop."

Why should it be expected that BB would take terrible weather, and somehow monopolize it for his sole advantage? Like is some sort of force majeure that can't be prevented. Why didn't McDermott do that himself? And why aren't we so accustomed to it that we expected it to happen?

That's one way to put it. Another is to say that our coaching tonight was middling to poor and is not good enough to win a tight game against top coaching.

You don't actually think that's why Super Bowls are played indoors or in warm weather locales, do you?

You think the Bills "didn't show up" tonight? What game are you watching? We were outmuscled in the run game, but our team is not built to stop a heavy running game.

"Tough?" What does that even mean? Should we have stomped on Patriot players after the whistle when the refs weren't watching? Or what? This is just ridiculous; fans always love to talk about stuff like this instead of what actually decided the outcome of the game. Agreed. That isn't "toughness" however. We don't possess enough skill up and down the line on both sides of the ball. Look at the resources McDermott and company have dumped into the defensive line. It's not very good. They have largely left the OL alone, and it shows. It needs MAJOR ADDRESSING in the off-season.

Looks like Poyer and Hyde had a very animated post-game PC. They got ticked off at a journalist for asking about getting run-on so badly. Not sure who asked the question or what he said exactly. This will end up on Twitter later.

Disagree with those takes, especially on the first pass. I'll have to watch it again, and I know the pass wasn't perfect, but he should have caught that ball IMO. We also needed him to grab that catch in the end zone. Go get the ball and physically dominate space around the ball at the point of contact. He didn't do anything close to that. I really like Knox and he has really blossomed this year, but he had a garbage night. Edit: almost forgot his pre-snap penalty for false start.

Not to mention the major strategic error of not trying to push the pass more than we did. The passing game was obviously going to be handicapped, and we couldn't serve a full menu of plays, but passing was the only thing we did with any continued success. Had we pushed it and gotten a TD or 2, it would have been game over, b/c NE and Mac would NOT have been able to follow suit. We refused to let our playmakers make plays and do what makes us a good team. Instead we tried to play the Patriots' type of game. That's coaching failure 101.

Simply based on where he plays on the field, we should be hearing his name all game long, every game. And yet he often disappears, except for when you notice him getting manhandled out of the play. Opposing blockers are able to to move him to where THEY want to go very easily. I've been complaining about this from the beginning with him; he doesn't get better in this regard.

FFS NO! NO! We needed to throw MORE than we did; it was the only successful thing we did tonight. The fact that we refused to try is a major reason why we lost.

This loss is not entirely on our coaching, but it played a major role. When you need to beat the best in a tight game, this is what you get with McD and company. I suspect Pegula is NOT aware of this, but you do wonder if he is and what me might or might not do about it, and when.

Game reminds me of the Jacksonville loss in that this was an extremely winnable game. We had all day to make a few plays, put it in the end zone, and go ahead on the scoreboard. Just couldn't do it. Coaching, execution, play calling strategy, and the wind all played major roles.