Casey D

Jim Kubiak: This Bills’ offense doesn't know what it wants to be (buffalonews.com) Really good stuff here. In brief, Kubiak explains that a number of factors went into the Bills loss and offensive woes. Number 1, the Bengals did a great job of limiting the Bills possessions by draining the clock. The Bills only had 9 possessions, and that was knocked down to 7 by the two turnovers. Bills only had ball on O for 23 minutes, largely because defense could not get off the field quickly. The offense has an identity crisis. Dorsey seems to be trying to do too many different things and the Bills are not doing any of them well. Need to settle on what they do well and execute. Allen continues to make poor decisions in key situations, always in the vein of trying to do too much. He has open receivers underneath but he does not take them in hope of making a big play which can turn into disaster. Bills offensive line struggled in run blocking. Often left Bills behind the chains. Bills do better when up tempo. There is much more, so definitely worth the read.

Fair enough. But we have no say and McD is not going anywhere after one down year after taking a laughing-stock franchise and turning it into a primetime team. So I am not going to contemplate something that won't happen until 2025 at the earliest.

Like Josh McDaniels? Finding "that" coach is almost as hard as finding the right QB

Well the Chiefs were in the wilderness for 15 years, and Lewis had a much worse record than McDermott. You better have a sure-fire candidate in mind before you fire a guy with McDermott's record. Chances are you will most likely go backwards.

Elam could be a fine safety

Who are you talking about-- Romeo Crennel or are you talking about Schottenheimer?

The team that got hammered by Denver is the clear class? Don't seem at all clear to me.

I was joking-- My Cousin Vinny reference. Allen has tons of football left in him at 27. Look at Brady and Rodgers.

He's 27. His biological clock, and the Bills window of opportunity are-- stomp stomp stomp-- ticking. 😁

That's so last week. Anything anybody ever did outside the last 2 hours is meaningless..

That's the hope. But the hope tank is getting dry, and we need to see some real progress in the next two weeks or it is time to hit the links.

And the Kincaid fumble was a killer

Post hoc, maybe. Ex ante, Von was a free agent and Brown likely would have cost a Bills 1st and 2nd, as Titans got 18th overall and 3rd from Eagles.

Perhaps not turning the ball over would be a good place to start. Teams that are -2 in turnovers lose 84% of NFL games. To be in that 16% on the road against maybe the hottest team in the NFL is nigh on impossible. Clean that up and results will come IMO.

Agree. Have to win Denver NYJ and Pats at home. That's 8. Then 2 wins against Phil, KC LAC Dallas Miami. If they can go 2-3 in those 5, they will be playoff ready. But right now it is baby steps. Need to start looking like a real playoff team. Starts with not losing the turnover battle. -2 at Bengals just won't win many games.

Probably couldn't hurt. 😁

No need to be so bitter. They are not soft IMO-- right now they are not playing their best. Maybe they can fix it, maybe not, I don't know as I cannot tell the future. The situation is not your fault and you have zero chance of making it better. . Walk away for a while and take a deep breath and then see what happens.

It likely won't come down to tiebreakers. There almost certainly will not be 4 teams in AFC non-division winners. Bills won't make it with 9 wins due to tiebreakers however.

10-7 will make the playoffs-- any combination. 95% chance on NYT predictor. Like last year some 9 win teams will get wild card slots, like Miami and NYG last year.

If you think that, you should make a large wager. No way they have a top 10 pick. Zero. Then you should forget about the team for now and do something more enjoyable than investing emotional effort on an underperforming mediocre team. Life is too short.

I am not optimistic per se, just stating facts. Even if they improve, KC and Eagles are likely losses on the road. I am just choosing for now not to be as unhappy as you are about the team. If you feel that pessimistic, then just tune the team out for a while, see the results, and if your prognosis is correct you can stay tuned out. No need to let something like football make you feel bad needlessly. Because if I do not see wins and improvements the next two weeks, I will make myself turn to other pursuits. Should not let entertainment make you feel bad. I agree to an extent. Something is not right with this team right now. I do not know if it is fixable or something more deep rooted. No one outside the team itself does. I am willing to see.

Totally agree. Things can change a lot between now and January. Seems to me if they can turn this around a bit then the final 5 game stretch will be pre-playoffs playoffs. But it remains to be seen if they can change or if this is a lost season.

5-4 with eight games to play. Not where we thought this team would be. Not where anybody thought they would be. So where do the Bills go from here. First, the overwhelming emotions that the Bills are done because they lost to Cincinnati on the road are overblown. Given how all teams are playing so far in 2023, this looked like the toughest game left on the schedule, and most figured they would lose. So it's not this game, but the overall play the last five weeks. And the one game the Bills surely would like to have back is the Pats loss-- that was a killer. Other than that, losing to Jax in London given how the NFL set up that game was also surely a loss too. So here they are, 5-4, the current 8 seed and out of the playoffs, looking up at teams like Pittsburgh and Cleveland. So what is next. The Bills have an opportunity now to reset and reemerge in the playoff discussion. Or this could end up being a lost season, and a reboot will be required to get this team to the upper echelons in 2024 and 2025. Allen is not going anywhere at 27, and the great Bills teams of the early 1990s began after Kelly turned 30. And with the QB, you will always be good, if not great. So no window is closing IMO overall. So the Bills have two beatable opponents coming up, and a good chance to experiment on offense and to try and find themselves. They get to do it without crowd noise-- which I think impacted the up-tempo offense in Cincinnati (Allen could not stand at the line and bark out signals as he did against Tampa). But the Bills can try and get this down at home in the next two weeks, and then try to take it on the road where communication is more difficult. Anyway, since this is all just entertainment and not life and death, I am going to just enjoy the ride for now and see what happens. We have a lot of strong players on this team, and now we get to see what they are made of in a crisis. Because it is a crisis. The next two weeks are must win games, and they need to get their offensive act together and playing Denver first, who Miami beat with 70 points, is a good place to start. Then a huge step up in class against a really good Jets defense. We will learn if they are learning. Either they will regroup and find their game, or they won't. I'm all in for now, but the next two weeks will be the crucible for the gauntlet that is the last six weeks of the season. It will either be a blast, of I can look to do other things than hanging on what the Bills do during the holidays. Truly a season on the brink IMO.

But you say there is a chance. 🙂

Yeah, it is mystifying how the Bills rank 5th in both points per game and yards per game. It feels much worse. I guess a few good games pulls up the averages.