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Marv Levy - rewind


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The major reason our defenses under performed in the Super Bowl run was because Marv failed miserably at hiring good assistants, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Walt Corey cost the Bills the first 2 SuperBowls -

 

his inability to gameplan and devise any scheme at all wasted the tremendous talent of both Bruce and Bennett.

 

and that is on Marv

 

Marv proved his ineptness at identifying coaching talent did not diminish with age as Dick showed so conclusively.

It wasn't a matter of coaching. The Bills defense was built to win in the AFC, which was top heavy with passing offenses with the likes of Moon, Elway, Marino, etc. It was just not built to stop NFC East offenses, which featured massive offensive lines (at the time) and the NFC East ground-and-pound game. Gibbs, Parcells, and Johnson all built teams with OLs that could smash defenses. In a way, it was the Bills great misfortune that the 49ers, who were the #1 seed in the NFC several of those years, were also never able to knock off the hottest NFC East team in any of those years. The Bills would have matched up much better against a team running the WCO. Sorry, but a coach can't snap his fingers and make an undersized front 7 put on 80 pounds of muscle per player overnight. OTOH, against pass-happy offenses, the defense was very effective -- the Bills consistently ruined Dan Marino's seasons. :rolleyes:

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If this board were to exist in 1986, I think a post would go something like this...

 

What is cheapskate Ralph thinking, he went out and got another bum as opposed to getting a real coach. Look at this guy's history -

Lifetime 31-42 NFL head coach with a 9-7 best single season record

Took a 12-7 Chicago Blitz USFL team and went 5-13 in his only USFL season

Managed to win 2 CFL championships as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes, but come on, that was the early 70's and the CFL!!!

The only real college he coached at was California where his best season was 4-5-1

He coached at William and Mary and New Mexico - boy those are real powerhouses

Throw in the fact he is 60 - this guy isn't a has been, he is a never was...

 

This team is horrible. We have a rookie GM Bill Polian - figures Ralph is going to promote from within as opposed to getting someone of quality...

 

After going 0-20 against the Dolphins in the 70's, there is no way we are going to compete with them. Marino is destined to win this division year in and year out. He's unstoppable. We are definitely going nowhere.

Back to the original post and theory, it doesn't really make any point. Sure, Marv may have succeeded being a loser first and then becoming a Hall of Fame coach, but that doesn't at all mean that lightning is likely to strike twice.

 

Fans always say the same basic thing about Tom Brady because he was drafted in the sixth round. But the fact is, for every Tom Brady, there are 100 Spergon Wynn's (a QB drafted ahead of Brady in that same sixth round). Do you really want to take that chance? For every retread that succeeded like Marv, there are dozens of retreads that failed the second and third time.

 

For the record, I am starting to like Gailey the more I see of him, after being thoroughly underwhelmed when it happened. But the logic of look what they said about Marv and he succeeded has nothing to do with it, and chances are very strong that he won't succeed -- mostly because it's very difficult to succeed in the NFL, most fail miserably, and it's even tougher to succeed in Buffalo.

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If this board were to exist in 1986, I think a post would go something like this...

 

What is cheapskate Ralph thinking, he went out and got another bum as opposed to getting a real coach. Look at this guy's history -

Lifetime 31-42 NFL head coach with a 9-7 best single season record

Took a 12-7 Chicago Blitz USFL team and went 5-13 in his only USFL season

Managed to win 2 CFL championships as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes, but come on, that was the early 70's and the CFL!!!

The only real college he coached at was California where his best season was 4-5-1

He coached at William and Mary and New Mexico - boy those are real powerhouses

Throw in the fact he is 60 - this guy isn't a has been, he is a never was...

 

This team is horrible. We have a rookie GM Bill Polian - figures Ralph is going to promote from within as opposed to getting someone of quality...

 

After going 0-20 against the Dolphins in the 70's, there is no way we are going to compete with them. Marino is destined to win this division year in and year out. He's unstoppable. We are definitely going nowhere.

 

This is great stuff...lol :rolleyes:

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I love how people knock Marv for having a ton of talent. What team wins without talent. How good was Belichick until he got one of the greatest QBs ever? He had a worse winning % than Dick Jauron.

 

Levy, and it was part of Jauron's problem too, was loyal to a fault. Walt Corey was a joke of a DC and should have been fired. It's crazy to think how many sacks Bruce lost because he had to play in a 3-4. Our defense was soft and our key offensive players choked in big games. Levy probably wasn't the best coach in hte world, but coaching in the NFL is letting your talent feel comfortable to win games.

 

Getting a team to bounce back SB loss after SB loss is insanely impressive. Marv Levy is one of hte greatest Bills ever.

 

more impressive would have been winning at least 1, if not several, of those Super Bowl games.

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