RoscoeParrish

Joe Burrow would’ve made the playoffs if he was in the AFCE last year, with a record that was good enough for third in the AFCN. Do you think the Bills would’ve won the AFCN every year from 2020 to now?

There’s something poetic about arguing about how the “margins are super thin” and great teams/eras finish without rings all the time but every coach gets a mulligan when they completely botch a playoff victory.

Your defense of McD losing to KC last year was, “the offense couldn’t score at the end.” It’s Sean McDermotts’ offense. He’s the head coach. Sean McDermott’s offense failed last year. They failed in 2023. Sean McDermott’s defense failed basically every other postseason. Sean McDermott’s special teams failed in 2023 and 2021. Sean McDermott’s team has failed in the postseason every season since 2019, when COVID was a glimmer in its mothers’ eye. It’s unfortunately seems a way to deflect from McD and Beane. “Josh had the ball in his hands and couldn’t it get it done” The hidden, unspoken clause at the end of that statement is “so it’s not McDermott’s fault.” But that’s just not the full story. He was throwing to Curtis Samuel or the latest first round disappointment in a do or die moment so we could build a defense instead to allow another KC season high total.

I find it more than curious that you (and others) seem to try to separate McD and the rest of the teams performances. When the ST groups fail, the head coach wears it. When the offense fails, the head coach wears it. When the defense fails spectacularly, the head coach wears it. To me, all you have proven is that the head coach Sean McDermott in year 8 has managed to fail in multiple ways over multiple seasons.

They have….in the regular season. do you think it’s a coincidence that the Bills defense has performed quite well against the Chiefs in the regular season in spots and then consistently has one of their worst performances every year in the postseason? I guess that’s kind of the question.

Right, so when they basically take that strategy of ignoring the offense and focusing on the defense this offseason to nearly the maximum, and we get the same result, what is the answer? Do you use all 7 draft picks on defense next year instead of throwing a 6th rounder for a PS WR because Josh couldn’t put up 30+ while the defense forced 2 punts? Like I said, I love McD. I wish 13 seconds had never happened, because he wins a ring there and he is coach for life and probably a HoF coach, and history is completely different. I don’t know if something is psychologically the matter, but his mentor, Reid himself needed a new job to fix his playoff woes. Do you think we will ever see the Bills hold the Chiefs to 19 to find out?

I get the point but this is McD’s team and vision, along with Beane’s. That’s THEIR offense that needed a touchdown and couldn’t get it done, after another season best KC offensive game. They basically punted on offense and went all defense this offseason. If the Bills can’t score to go ahead 20-17, then sure, there’s an argument. But if they can’t score to get to 30+ because they allowed another season high point total, then you have to wonder if their philosophy is the correct use of resources that is going to result in a Lombardi in WNY. Suffice it to say, Joe Burrow not being able to get to 30 to win a playoff game is a much harsher crime, as they basically went all offense so, in that situation, they can pull through. They want shootouts so they better win them. We have the complete opposite philosophy, and thus our defense falling apart is a much worse failure. We want grind it out defensive games and we end up in shootouts, every, single, year.

Changing the rules to help Buffalo feels like the opposite of cheating. If the NFL made a rule change that QBs hurdling defenders is worth 3 points, would we feel ripped off we didn’t get that in 2023?

It just seems to be the wrong move, no matter what we do unfortunately. We came out with more man in 2024 and it was still pitch and catch. That’s kind of the issue. the one game that I think everyone agrees we probably didn’t deserve to win is 2020. Sure we had a 9-0 lead early but that was a SB champ vs a WC appearing team that just won their first and second playoff games. You can argue, strongly imo, the Bills shouldn’t have lost to the Chiefs in the playoffs since Josh’s first AFCCG. It’s basically just the Lou Amarumo argument imo. Is Lou a better defensive mind than Sean McDermott? No. is he a better head coach and leader of men? I’ll say probably not. But despite being likely worse at all the things we like about McD, he has success against Mahomes and Reid that we would kill to have.

The 2023 divisional game. That Chiefs team scored 21 PPG. That was their lowest ranked offense since 2012, when they went 2-14. They averaged 5.5 yards per play in the regular season. They scored their highest playoff game point total that year, against us, to the tune of 27 points. The same point total they scored against the eventual 4-13 Pats that season. They averaged 9 yards per play. And the Bills won the TO battle. And still lost.

Yeah I think so

There aren’t going to be a lot of Super Bowl winning coaches available to hire any way. Probably zero. So really, it’s “has a coach who has never won a Super Bowl with their first job, won one with a different team” and the answer is that lots have.

Some folks see it differently but I agree. i think “I don’t fire McD until he loses the locker room” vs. “i fire him if he loses to the Chiefs again” is the same take. I can’t imagine he DOESN’T lose the locker room if he loses to the Chiefs again. It would be an even more unprecedented 1 sided postseason W/L.

I love McD. I think he’s an awesome coach. I don’t know how he doesn’t lose the locker room with another Chiefs playoff loss. If the Bills beat the Chiefs and lose in the Super Bowl, outside of a disastrous choke in the big game, I’m fine to run it all back. I just don’t know how Dawkins and the rest of the gang will still be receptive to the McD message after 0-5. It can’t be possible.

Uh what Bruce Arians won in Tampa after being fired by the Cardinals Andy Reid had quite a long career in Philly before he won in KC.

I hate them because I think we would have multiple SB trips without them. Why not hate them

You are off the hook and forgiven. the Bills don’t really have a division rival much like the Pats didn’t because no one is good enough consistently enough to be a rival. the AFCN is such a fierce rivalry because of some of their teams being largely good for most of their time together. But everyone would rank Browns v the field as the least significant rivalry of any of the matchups because the Browns suck hard and almost always do. We have 3 Browns or Browns adjacent in our division.

Literally the Chiefs. This question is shocking. we play them basically twice a year, and they send us home in the playoffs basically every year. They are DIRECTLY responsible for stopping multiple title appearances for the Bills. There are two things every Bills fan should root for: 1. the Bills win 2. the Chiefs lose Asking this question and not loathing/hating the Chiefs over every other NFL team by a MILE makes me question your dedication to the cause. Kidding. But kind of not.

He didn’t draft any of those, except Mahomes. the previous GM, John Dorsey, was fired after the Mahomes draft, as a result of a power struggle where the now current GM, Brett Veach, and Reid both wanted Mahomes. to me, that’s enough to give Veach credit for Mahomes. But that’s it. So no, it’s just one.

If that’s your criteria, the list of GMs is very small. The Chiefs GM has, for example, drafted one.

I think when you look at draft capital used, you have to use a sliding scale. Benford is probably the best pick of Beane’s tenure. He’s a top 12ish outside CB. Now, to me, despite him not being a superstar, that’s a homerun pick in the 6th round. I guess the way I view it is that a pick can be a homerun AND not a superstar. And despite some relative homeruns, a team can still need to do better to find stars. The first and second round unfortunately is littered with picks that are certainly not homeruns and also not superstars.

Yeah, we stomped them that one year. Although that was the year that they traded AJ Brown and their offense fell off a cliff. The point remains that Vrabel is 2-3 vs McDermott and that’s with the Bills having a near massive QB advantage for almost every one of those games. Please stop with the AI slop.

I think it’s unusual this time around for Hard Knocks because they have never really done a good team before. Usually the storylines revolve around turning around a struggling franchise, a young QB with pressure/expectations, and then the classic “UDFA you root for who inevitably gets cut.” I liked the episode because im a bills fanatic, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out other folks found it boring. Most fans know who Josh Allen and the other cast of characters are. they aren’t really treading new ground. By the same token, I’m sure the Bills tried really hard to not give them “we need to beat the Chiefs and we keep failing” material. I get that too. The Bills don’t want it broadcast to the world how much the Chiefs are on their mind (despite us all assuming they are)

He’s a heck of a coach in my opinion. He’s right on that second tier, just behind the elites. Part of the Bills success in the AFCE has been from such large QB and coaching disparities, not dissimilar to the Pats dominance of the division. Maye is still TBD but I think Vrabel is easily at least the second best coach in the division and that has the potential to make things interesting.

Meh, Vrabel and his Titans have certainly bullied the Bills in the past. Large part of that was Jeffrey Simmons and Derrick Henry but we don’t fare well against super physical teams.