GunnerBill Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 21 hours ago, Phil The Thrill said: After a big loss like last night, fans are obviously going to be pointing fingers. Everyone has one unit or person to blame, and the truth it’s never just a player, a coach, or an official. It’s usually a combination of all. We can blame whoever we want (personally I think Allen melted down in the second half) but that’s what happened last night - a total team loss. But last night was also the perfect example of how so many games played out this season - especially against good teams. The formula for winning is based on the defenses ability to hold teams under 17-20 points. This is a problem because in the playoffs you’ll be playing good offenses and this is unlikely. If the defense slips up a little and is unable to limit a team to under 17 points, the Bills usually lose. Outside of Miami, the Bills have never won a game when the opponent have scored more than 17 points. We’re not talking blowouts either. The offense has not been good enough to score more than 20 points in almost every game this year. It happened again last night. It would be foolish and shortsighted to think that this is how McDermott wants to win. I think that given how bad the offense has been, he knows that this is the Bills best chance to win, which likely explains some of the play calls. They just don’t have an offense that can score more than 17 points, and again, I think QB play is a huge reason for this. I also do think he deserves credit for winning 10 games with an underperforming offense. The overall coaching job this year has been great. Take a look: N.Y. Jets W 17-16 N.Y. Giants W 28-14 Cincinnati W 21-17 New England L 16-10 Tennessee W 14-7 Miami W 31-21 Philadelphia L 31-13 Washington W 24-9 Cleveland L 19-16 Miami W 37-20 Denver W 20-3 Dallas W 26-15 Baltimore L 24-17 PittsburgH W 17-10 New England L 24-17 Why does this happen? It’s largely a mix between execution and playcalling. Again, I’m going to be accused of being a “hater” or a “crusader” as it’s called in here - but I think the biggest reason why has to do with Josh Allen not having the ability (yet?) to show that he can consistently finish drives with TD’s in moments when they need him to, like Watson did last night. While it isn’t all on Josh, his teammates have let him down too and you can argue some of the play calls haven’t put them in a good position. For the Bills to get better, this will have to improve and the team should improve the offensive talent in the offseason again. But 2020 will be a giant year. All the usual suspects should be back next year - McDermott, Daboll, Allen, and there won’t be any excuses next year. It’s put up or shut up and the excuses of this being “a young team that is growing” is running out. Onto 2020. I largely agree with this. While the Bills defense was not the 85 Bears they gave up more than 21 points as many times as the 85 Bears did in the regular season - three. They gave up more than 24 fewer times than the 85 Bears did in the regular season - one (Bears did twice). I would submit that there was not a single game this year where I would say "the offense won us that one." There were some where both sides of the ball did their bit and there were games where the defense won it for us. This team didn't ask its offense to win them many games. When it did the offense failed to answer the bell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBillsFan Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 We have to eliminate the idea of an "elite D" those days are over with the rules. A great play, QB, and WR will always have an advantage over the defense. Farve didn't magically become more accurate with a much higher rating as he aged, it was the rules. Go look up his career stats. An elite D today means it can only hold teams to less points. The days of holding teams to under 10 points is over unless that team's offense stinks. The best an "elite D" can do is hold a team to under 20 points consistently, which means you need an offense to supplement that. I believe I read teams that score 24+ more points win 74% of the time. Our real goal is to build an effective offense to score 22-25 pts a game consistently with a great running attack so we can let McDermott focus 100% on defense. Daboll isn't that man, he's abandoned the run too many times over multiple games this year, especially in overtime. I have no idea what he was thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCbillsfan Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 23 hours ago, dayman said: It is both true that the offense needs upgrading and that Allen is a prime reason we don't score. Allen did meltdown last night in the second half, did fail to finish drives with TDs in the first half, and is to blame for us not putting points up. Too much blame on Allen. Brown should have caught ball inside 5 yard line. Duke had two hands on end zone ball in first half. Those were big plays in this game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 8 hours ago, LSHMEAB said: Said it all year. I feel like the 7 sacks are slightly misleading because once they figured out their protection and Houston got hot, they really weren't doing enough to actually bring Watson DOWN or forcing him into bad decisions. The defense didn't really do enough to force QB's into poor decisions all season. Coverage unit is fine, which is why they were excellent against the pass, but BAD decisions by opposing QB's create turnovers. Didn't do that nearly enough. Elite defenses don't give up that last TD drive to Cleveland nor do they allow Houston to march up and down the field late in the playoff game. The missing element is an elite edge player. They don't have one. Hughes is good. Murphy had a good game. There's just not "that guy." This missing element is the reason the Bills didn't flip field with turnovers. They got extremely lucky with the schedule because they faced bad QB's the majority of the season. They're gonna have to add this type of player somehow, some way, if they're going to be elite defensively. That being said, Allen also needs to get better. The personnel needs to be upgraded to make that more feasible, but he's GOT to improve the cerebral aspects of his game if this team is going to improve and make a run next season against a much tougher schedule. Front 7 disrupter on defense. Better play at RT and LG. Better offensive weaponary. Allen improving. All of these things need to happen. This might be a good place to put this: So fundamentally what the Texans were saying at halftime is "we see that you'll give our QB time, and given time, we believe Nuk is open vs. anyone And he was. And that was a big difference in the ballgame. Meanwhile it looked to me as though the Bills D softened and got less aggressive, instead of more. Also meanwhile, we simply don't have the TE and WR to help Allen out. The guy who can make that contested catch, the guy who can drag his toes and come down in bounds. They guy who can be 6 of 6 when covered by one of the best CBs in the league. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billsfan1959 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 2 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said: Meanwhile it looked to me as though the Bills D softened and got less aggressive, instead of more. Also meanwhile, we simply don't have the TE and WR to help Allen out. The guy who can make that contested catch, the guy who can drag his toes and come down in bounds. They guy who can be 6 of 6 when covered by one of the best CBs in the league. Right on all counts. The defense was less aggressive in the second half and I will never understand the deep drops and slow reactions by the defense on that 3rd and 18. Two receivers past the first down marker and 5 defenders behind the marker. Johnson was within 4 yards of the 1st down, running full speed, before one of those defenders crossed the 1st down marker. The defense has its share of culpability in that second half. Allen certainly struggled in that second half as well. However, he truly does not have the weapons he needs at this point. In spite of some very questionable decisions on his part, some throws he missed that he should have made, some questionable playcalling, and some poor blocking and pass protection on critical plays, Allen still accounted for 372 yards of offense and did, in fact, make some plays that should have resulted in more points. The formula they had was certainly enough to win in the playoffs. It was the serious lapses in execution and the lack of a full complement of play makers around Allen that were bigger factors in this loss. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steptide Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 I remember back around mid season when people/media started thinking the bills woukd make the post season. Listening to some sports talk here in Rochester back then, they were saying how the bills would have no shot in the post season with their current recievers and unfortunately that came true. I put some blame on Daboll for this loss also, but brown and beasley were not the threat they normally are. My biggest frustration in this game is that when they went into overtime, the bills played like there was 2 mins on the clock. No runs, no creativity, just throw down field and try and get a feild goal. Pretty frustrating 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 7 minutes ago, Steptide said: I remember back around mid season when people/media started thinking the bills woukd make the post season. Listening to some sports talk here in Rochester back then, they were saying how the bills would have no shot in the post season with their current recievers and unfortunately that came true. I put some blame on Daboll for this loss also, but brown and beasley were not the threat they normally are. My biggest frustration in this game is that when they went into overtime, the bills played like there was 2 mins on the clock. No runs, no creativity, just throw down field and try and get a feild goal. Pretty frustrating Offensive play calling has been maddening all year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tumaro02 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 On 1/5/2020 at 8:47 AM, Phil The Thrill said: I think you might be missing the point though. The reason they didn’t go for the kill is because they don’t have a QB that has shown the ability to pull this off. Allen melted down last night and even if they went for the kill, I don’t think anything changes But scoring less that 20 points a game loses games which is what Allen has consistently done alL season long. Right now, he isn’t good enough to score more than 17 points a game Interestingly, when Allen gave the lead in the Patriots game in Week 16 back to the D in the third quarter they promptly allowed Brady to march down the field and score and retake the lead. The Bills lose and Allen gets credit for the loss. Also interestingly, the Titans beat the Patriots 14 - 13 in the WC game. When the Titans O scored a TD and handed the lead to the D at 14 - 13 they held it throughout the second half to win. Titans gave up 13 to Brady and it was enough, Tannehill gets the win scoring 13 and gets praise for managing the game. The Bills gave up 24 to Brady and it wasn't enough. Allen takes the loss scoring 17. Perspective.......all everyone blames Allen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieHardBillsFan Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Not sure if this was already mentioned, but why didn't the Bills run the ball in OT??? Singletary was getting decent yards every time he got the ball, yet in OT is was all passing. Not only that, it was as if they needed 10 yards on every pass play. They already stopped them after they got the ball first, just run it down their throats... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSarcasm Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 On 1/5/2020 at 8:21 AM, Doc said: For those criticizing Josh in the 4th quarter, did you actually watch the play of the OL? To be fair it was mainly Cody Ford, again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jrb1979 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 On 1/5/2020 at 9:16 AM, NoSaint said: conventional wisdom IS that you get the stars AND depth right now. Pretty much every team with a young qb does it for a reason. for some reason a lot of our base prefers we remain modest and scrappy instead. That's the Buffalo way. A lot want that lunch pail blue collar team. Hate to break it to a lot of you but you need high end talent to win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSHMEAB Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 10 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said: This might be a good place to put this: So fundamentally what the Texans were saying at halftime is "we see that you'll give our QB time, and given time, we believe Nuk is open vs. anyone And he was. And that was a big difference in the ballgame. Meanwhile it looked to me as though the Bills D softened and got less aggressive, instead of more. Absolutely. I'm not a fan (at all) of the "less aggressive" approach against good QB's. It's really tough to say who's at fault there, but McD is such a hands on coach that it's hard to believe he didn't approve. Although Frazier has been that kind of coach his entire career, so who really knows? Not I. And Tre did not have a great day in his own right. That much is true. But asking any corner to cover "perhaps" the best receiver in football is asking a whole lot, especially in the second half when the defense wasn't getting to Watson. But I still believe the front 7 is one player away, conservative coaching and all. That guy who demands double teams, consistently disruptive, etc. They've got to force more turnovers next season and it all starts with pressure IMO. Not sure if Yannick is a viable option, but that would be an ideal pickup from my perspective. I don't spend a ton of time researching free agents and their status, but that's what I think they need on the defensive side of the ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elite Poster Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 On 1/5/2020 at 5:02 PM, clayboy54 said: No you won’t. You’ll find fault no matter what we do. I predicted to make the playoffs and win a wildcard game. I'm just not an ass kisser. I want to win rings, no more moral victories. You must be one of those participation trophy guys... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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