FireChans

I don’t really care about being a Johnny Come Lately. I just want to be entertained lol

Idk man. I love college football. I love the NFL. I watch hundreds of games in the fall. I can’t get into this stuff. I’m not sure why. I guess in CFB you have rivalries which is always fun and in the NFL, if you follow the league, you kinda know most guys playing long enough. There’s just something missing.

Aiyuk today was not Aiyuk in 2020.

Kyle Orton had 3 min on the clock and scored with 1 second left in 2014.

LorAx for sure gets an honorable mention as a "football player" rotational guy that somehow put up insane pass rushing stats for a bit. Lee Smith had a couple hilarious catches where he leaked out and was uncovered, most notably I think in 2020 in his second stint here. Pat DiMarco for being the most ridiculous overpaid FB. Frank Summers and Corey McIntyre (I think in today's game, all full backs are backups.) Marquies Gray aka Big Sammy who had an elite 41 yard catch and run and then was basically never heard from again. And Chris Hogan for making this catch

It's true. The defense really saved the game for the offense.

To be the best you gotta beat the best?

Reddick played inside linebacker for his first couple seasons FWIW. The Cards didn't even play him as a pass rusher until his last season there.

meh, the Chiefs played the tough Jets defense (who I think we can all agree are better than the Bills defense in that playoff game) and ran out a 7:24 clock starting from the Jets 47. They even got the ball at the Jets 24 with 2:50 left and ended the game with the Jets having 3 TO’s. I don’t think it’s that big of an ask. I do agree that relying on the offense to be perfect is silly, we should just surround Josh with so much offensive weaponry that a very good performance is like a 38-40 point outing. The bottom line is scoring a TD early is a loss. Kicking a FG is a loss. That makes them the wrong play. Period.

I don’t know what your definition of “meaningful deal” is. it’s pretty clear there was discussion around an AB trade. Discussion that ended when AB refused to go, regardless of extension numbers. this was Ross Tucker’s take, who had no inside info admittedly. The original report from Rapoport was this, however. I would imagine terms are the first thing discussed in talks (otherwise why bother) and what those terms that may have even be tentatively agreed on are probably disputable. Either way, bullet completely dodged.

That’s fair. I think they ended up in no man’s land from a clock perspective, at least to start that drive. However, at the time of that fateful set of downs, we had the ball at the KC 27 with 2:46. I would argue that it is VERY possible to drain a larger amount of clock/TO’s there and still score. Hell, we didn’t take the field with Bass until a minute passed, WITH the 2 minute warning. I take my chances them draining clock and KC timeouts and hoping for the best up 4. The bottom line is we all agree a FG to tie or even an early TD is a loss there. Besides bringing in Aaron Donald to play for us for one drive, the ONLY way to win that game was to give the ball to KC with a minute and change and no TO’s and hope for a tipped ball pick or something.

Douglas ain’t getting an extension. He was a no brainer to extend with Dawkins/TJ to free up room earlier this off-season. He cost a third round pick to be a 1.5 year rental and helped saved the 2023 season. Nothing wrong with that.

I would love to hear the explanation of how the Bills DE’s are coached to “play conservatively.” “Hey Greg, we’re playing the Chiefs and it’s third down. Don’t try too hard out there”

was it Rosenhaus or Eugene Parker who had a history of killing us in the past? He didn’t have a NTC IIRC. Players get traded all the time to places they may not want to go to. AB was already a headcase and when he threatened to not come to Buffalo, the Bills withdrew.

The Big Temperamental

What was maddening is that Allen played like 3 Q’s dinking and dunking, had the two deep shots to Diggs and Sherfield that they both whiffed on, and then went for that. The Bills stayed in that game by Allen taking the short stuff and he just…stopped. I know he plays a lot of Madden and he also lived 13 seconds. If you are gonna win a football game against an offense you can’t stop, you have to score with almost no time left. Period.

So it would be fair to say you think McD hasn’t been good enough to win it all the last 4 seasons but doesn’t mean he can’t so you aren’t ready to pull the plug yet? I think that’s a fair take. FWIW, I’m not really on the Fire McD train. But what I think that argument is, at its core, is haggling over when he gets canned. Which is kind of a bad spot to be in. Because there are very few coaches without a title who get that rope, and rightfully so. I have McD right in that Tomlin/Harbaugh class. Floor raiser leader of men who isn’t really elite but a fine coach. The problem is that I think the Ravens AND Steelers would have, rightfully, fired both those dudes if they didn’t have hardware from a decade ago. And honestly, there’s a reasonable argument that they should have canned both of them. I’m not ready to throw in the towel on McD and say the message got stale and it’s time for a change, literally, because of last year. That team had EVERY excuse to roll over and die. Bunch of old guys on their last legs, injuries, firing an OC, 6-6, Diggs drama. But they didn’t. So that’s why I think McD deserves 2024. Imo, he’s coaching for his supper going forward, and Beane is GMing for his job here too (because I actually think Beane is the bigger problem)

Okay fine but Josh Allen is now going into year 7. So what is the hold up?

100% Chase probably has top 2 raw talent of this WR group. The perk of having a strong lockerroom and good football culture is that lost souls like Claypool have a chance of falling in line. it’s a long shot but man oh man would it be nice.

It’s no different than the Pats. The 2018 Pats team that went to the SB were FAR less talented than the 2018 Rams team. But they had a relatively inexperienced young coach and young QB and they mentally fell completely apart when faced with a good defensive gameplan. Tom Brady won that Super Bowl without scoring a touchdown. It was a mental struggle, and the Pats won the game before they stepped on the field.

Oh I had nothing to disagree with, just making the point. In my book, taking over a more talented team as an HC AND finding a franchise QB sooner should be a recipe to be MORE successful FASTER. The argument that @Buffalo716 is making is the opposite. I don't think we can point to a team in history that was worse off because their coach took over a more talented team and found their franchise QB faster. Maybe McD and the Bills broke the mold in that regard.

It’s very funny because this argument in reverse is so much more persuasive. If McD and Allen had won three SB’s and Reid and Mahomes had 0. “Reid took over a much worse team at 2-14. McD took over a fringe playoff team that was never gonna sniff the #1 overall pick.” ”it took Reid 6 years to find his franchise QB! McD found his by year 2!” unfortunately we live in the reality where taking over a team picking 10th instead picking 1st is a “disadvantage,” and finding your franchise elite QB 2 years into your tenure is a “disadvantage” instead of finding him in 6 years.

I’m not actually on the fire McD train. I think that the top level assets that have been acquired for defense haven’t really been top level since like 2017. All those first and second round picks on defense and our best defensive players have been Milano, Hyde, Poyer, and White for the majority of this era. More importantly, I think last year was arguably his best coach job in NFL history. They could have easily been the Sirianni Eagles and collapsed down the stretch, especially with the media hatchet job. I think McD and the Bills can beat anyone in the playoffs. I like their chances against almost anyone, except the Chiefs. I think there’s too much familiarity and mental edge there. Just like when the drought era Bills played a limping Pats team several times throughout the years. That storybook is littered with games the Bills should’ve won, but didn’t. And in that specific instance, of facing that specific team in the postseason, I think there’s an argument that a coaching change is the way through. This is gonna sound kinda crazy, but if the 2024 Bills are facing the 2024 Chiefs in the divisional round, and you asked if I could have Ben Johnson/BB or Brady/McD for that one game, it’s a landslide for the former. And that’s not supposed to really be a knock on McD.

They won the Super Bowl and their QB’s got hurt! Bills fans talking about wasting a year with a hang over after a SB win is BANANAS

Downfield blocking and in-line blocking are different animals