New Challenge for McDermott

[chongli]

9 hours ago, offyourocker said:

Why would the patriots not be the favorite still?

 

Because they lost Brady. That is a catastrophic loss.

 

How many championsips did the Chicago Bulls win after Jordan retired? Same with the Cleveland Cavaliers after Lebron left.

 

This division is the Bills to take in 2020.

Edited March 29, 2020 by chongli

[Phil The Thrill]

32 minutes ago, BillsVet said:

 

Why was it close when you're up 16 points with 21 minutes remaining?  Because McD, despite his tough talk, doesn't put the collective foot on his opponent's throat.  He's a conventional coach who, when the chips are down, plays it safe.  That's gotta change if, as someone below knows they are, "Super Bowl caliber."

 

 

Yep.  And offense is this coaches Achilles heal, although their skill talent has improved for 2020.  Gonna be real interesting seeing how they use Diggs, Brown, Beasley, Knox, and Singletary.  

 

 

Big picture perspective?  Every coach and GM in the league are driving for continuous improvement because, barring success, they'll all be out of a job eventually.  You think McD is the only one riding that wagon?  

 

I saw a HC last year who was 1-4 against playoff level teams.  Hence, my point about him needing to up his game.  He does that by changing his spots and learning to be bold offensively.  Do you believe a guy that's been defensive minded his whole career acquiesces suddenly to being an up-tempo offense?  I think the jury's out on that.  

 

 

McD has 20 years of NFL experience.  If he's not good on game day by now, it's probably not going to get better.  

In defense of McDermott, it’s not like they tried to play ground-and-pound with a 16 point lead.  They did try to throw the ball and put points on the board. Unfortunately Josh Allen didn’t have a great second.  They probably should have given Motor more carries.  Don’t want to see Gore on the field ever again. 

[LSHMEAB]

2 hours ago, BillsVet said:

 

Why was it close when you're up 16 points with 21 minutes remaining?  Because McD, despite his tough talk, doesn't put the collective foot on his opponent's throat.  

Eh. Don't really agree with this take. The offense was actually pretty "aggressive." They just weren't effective.

 

And I suppose they could have dialed up more blitzes, but there's not much McD could do about the lackluster collection of pass rushers.

Edited March 29, 2020 by LSHMEAB

[machine gun kelly]

I do think we will win the AFCE, and maybe we play two tougher divisions, but so does the rest of the AFCE.  Besides, the upside is we will be battle hardened.  I think realistically we go 10-6 and won’t be intimidated by any playoff team.  We, the Ravens, Titans, and KC will be ducking it out down the stretch in the playoffs.  We beat the Titans last year, the Ravens played their worst game against us even though they won, and Frazier and McD were masterful how they contained the read option.  We could have won that game.  As far as the Patsies, I’ll contend the second game wasn’t fun, but that first game is one bad play that had us lose.  Our defense had Brady throwing it away all day, and we penetrated on him.  Now Brady is gone, and they didn’t have the $ to pick hardly any FA’s.

[Victory Formation]

I think you stick to what you know and what got you there. You stick to the process, focus on your ways and what you’ve been doing to get you up to this point. Don’t get caught up in what other people are doing or saying. Stay true to your vision and your plan. Don’t believe the hype, good or bad. Stay in the present, don’t put added pressure on yourself, one opponent at a time, week by week, day by day. Stay mindful.

[stinky finger]

9 hours ago, offyourocker said:

11-5 with Matt Cassel.  Brady did not scare me last year

 

1) Cassel irrelevant to conversation

 

2) you’re a manly man

[dickleyjones]

9 hours ago, BillsVet said:

 

Why was it close when you're up 16 points with 21 minutes remaining?  Because McD, despite his tough talk, doesn't put the collective foot on his opponent's throat.  He's a conventional coach who, when the chips are down, plays it safe.  That's gotta change if, as someone below knows they are, "Super Bowl caliber."

 

Watson is good. That's part of the reason it was close.

 

Bills offense prone to mistakes, being cautious is a good option if not the best option.  we saw those mistakes first hand, they were incredibly close to winning that game except for a few mistakes on the field by basically everyone.

[Phil The Thrill]

29 minutes ago, dickleyjones said:

 

Watson is good. That's part of the reason it was close.

 

Bills offense prone to mistakes, being cautious is a good option if not the best option.  we saw those mistakes first hand, they were incredibly close to winning that game except for a few mistakes on the field by basically everyone.

To lose that game a lot of things had to go wrong....and did:

 

- Josh Allen panicked 

- OL struggled

- Defense couldn’t get HOU off field

- Questionable playcalling 

- WR’s collectively had their worst game

- Knox and Morse missed a key block 

 
To put the blame on one thing alone is wrong

[stinky finger]

6 hours ago, Victory Formation said:

I think you stick to what you know and what got you there. You stick to the process, focus on your ways and what you’ve been doing to get you up to this point. Don’t get caught up in what other people are doing or saying. Stay true to your vision and your plan. Don’t believe the hype, good or bad. Stay in the present, don’t put added pressure on yourself, one opponent at a time, week by week, day by day. Stay mindful.

 

Your cliche to sentence ratio is impressive. 

 

Mind you, I don't disagree with a one of them. 

[Victory Formation]

3 minutes ago, inaugural balls said:

 

Your cliche to sentence ratio is impressive. 

 

Mind you, I don't disagree with a one of them. 

Ok cool.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

This season will likely be OBE.

[BillsVet]

14 hours ago, Augie said:

 

Honestly, do you see anything positive about this team? 

 

I don't see a response to my post here.  When you are prepared to offer one I will respond appropriately.

 

Regards.

 

[Mango]

19 hours ago, stuvian said:

it is very gratifying to see the Decade of Fail in the rear view mirror. Clappy has got us into the postseason in two of three seasons with teams that were shall we say at less than peak performance. The thing I am most excited about is the unity of purpose and aligned modes of thinking of our organization. Beane and Clappy are thinking as one entity and we actually have a talent recognition and evaluation system that assesses whether a prospect is a fit for our organization culture. Speaking of organizational culture, we actually have one now. Shipping out talented but troubled players like Marcel Darius and Zay Jones was the first clue that this was serious. Little things like getting rid of pool tables sent a message. I can't overstate the importance of that compared to the Decade of Fail.

 

The Whaley/Nix era was marked by signings for whom the most important criteria was the player's willingness to come to Buffalo. If the player answered in the affirmative we usually overpaid by 25% to keep them. The signings of Shawn Merriman, Derrick Dockery and Kawika Mitchell were but a few examples of players motivated by little more than a final kick at the can and a final cash grab.

 

The work of building culture is far from done.  When I see predictions of us overtaking the Pats in the AFCE I hesitate because whatever the talent advantage we may have, we still do not have the institutional memory of New England in knowing what to do to win meaningful games. We have some painful mountains to climb to get to that point psychologically. Only a homer would say that our offense did anything but ride the coat tails of our defense in 2019. We have not arrived at a place where we are winning games decisively as opposed to playing not to lose. 

 

Still, the corner has been turned. I have full confidence in McDermott and Beane in getting us the rest of the way but only a fool expects a path without some pain in getting there. 

I believe Merriman, Mitchell, and Dockery were in the Brandon and/or Levy Era. But I get the point. 

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, inaugural balls said:

 

Your cliche to sentence ratio is impressive. 

 

Mind you, I don't disagree with a one of them. 

I'm 73 years old, and I'll tell you that there's a reason cliches are cliches.   

 

Watching McDermott for three years has allowed me to see, maybe better than ever in my life, how those cliches actually work.   I can see the genius of an approach that makes those cliches more important than anything else.    It's a powerful motivating force, for everyone in an organization to believe that stuff.    So good, in fact, that it's worth repeating what Victory Formation wrote:

 

I think you stick to what you know and what got you there. You stick to the process, focus on your ways and what you’ve been doing to get you up to this point. Don’t get caught up in what other people are doing or saying. Stay true to your vision and your plan. Don’t believe the hype, good or bad. Stay in the present, don’t put added pressure on yourself, one opponent at a time, week by week, day by day. Stay mindful.

 

McDermott's regime demands that you live the cliches.   We've seen the results, and I have no reason to believe that we will continue to see this team getting better at everything.  

[Beast]

On 3/28/2020 at 12:13 PM, BillsVet said:

Does everyone now forget the last game he coached?  Buffalo was up 16-0 late in the third quarter only to lose 22-19.  

 

He's also a career 3-17 against teams either in the playoffs or make the post-season.  He's gotta start beating the better teams more frequently.  And next season's schedule is sure to be more difficult than 2019's. 

 

McD has a lot to improve on.  

 

Yeah, we should have fired him. 

[BillsVet]

27 minutes ago, Binghamton Beast said:

 

Yeah, we should have fired him. 

 

To my earlier point: When you are prepared to respond and engage in even a low level debate I will be here.

 

Regards. 

[Shaw66]

On 3/28/2020 at 12:13 PM, BillsVet said:

Does everyone now forget the last game he coached?  Buffalo was up 16-0 late in the third quarter only to lose 22-19.  

 

He's also a career 3-17 against teams either in the playoffs or make the post-season.  He's gotta start beating the better teams more frequently.  And next season's schedule is sure to be more difficult than 2019's. 

 

McD has a lot to improve on.  

I see someone else just piled on this comment, and I will, too.  

 

You say it like this has been some great failing of McDermott's - he hasn't been able to beat the good teams.  

 

Well, duh, that's the definition of bad teams.   Bad teams first have to start winning games, and then they have to start winning big games.   It's always been that way.   

 

Beane and McDermott have a system for building a championship team.   The system involves getting the right players, teaching them the right things, rinse and repeat.  In order to implement the system, the first thing he had to do was clean house.   Then he had to build the team the way he wanted it.   In a process like that, the first thing that happens is that you have a bad team (2018), then you start winning games (2019), then you start winning big games.   

 

So you're right, McDermott's record in big games isn't good.   It isn't good because he hadn't reached that point in the development process.   But the fact that he hasn't won big games yet doesn't mean he can't.  It just means it wasn't the objective, at least not until now.  

 

As I've said before, the Diggs deal made a statement.   The statement was, in effect, "it's now time for us to win big games."

 

So, yes, he has to win big games.   Everything I've seen so far tells me that whatever it is that McDermott and Beane decided to do, happens.   They work until it happens, and they learn whatever they need to learn to make it happen.   

 

We're just looking at the next step in the process.   

[stinky finger]

3 hours ago, Victory Formation said:

Ok cool.

 

Come on, man. I said I agreed ?

 

 

[BillsVet]

6 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I see someone else just piled on this comment, and I will, too.  

 

You say it like this has been some great failing of McDermott's - he hasn't been able to beat the good teams.  

 

Well, duh, that's the definition of bad teams.   Bad teams first have to start winning games, and then they have to start winning big games.   It's always been that way.   

 

Beane and McDermott have a system for building a championship team.   The system involves getting the right players, teaching them the right things, rinse and repeat.  In order to implement the system, the first thing he had to do was clean house.   Then he had to build the team the way he wanted it.   In a process like that, the first thing that happens is that you have a bad team (2018), then you start winning games (2019), then you start winning big games.   

 

So you're right, McDermott's record in big games isn't good.   It isn't good because he hadn't reached that point in the development process.   But the fact that he hasn't won big games yet doesn't mean he can't.  It just means it wasn't the objective, at least not until now.  

 

As I've said before, the Diggs deal made a statement.   The statement was, in effect, "it's now time for us to win big games."

 

So, yes, he has to win big games.   Everything I've seen so far tells me that whatever it is that McDermott and Beane decided to do, happens.   They work until it happens, and they learn whatever they need to learn to make it happen.   

 

We're just looking at the next step in the process.   

 

Teams like Philadelphia, LA Rams, and San Francisco are going to and even winning Super Bowls 2-3 years after finding a new HC or QB.  What did those teams do better than Buffalo?  Why is their timeline bumped up over McD's?  

 

One can say Buffalo is building for the long haul, but they're not immune from players aging, contracts expiring, and injuries.  Those elements must be considered in the building process and why a sense of urgency is necessary.  A 4-5 year rebuild, when viewed through the lens of the 21st century NFL, is Methuselah-esque.   

 

That said, McD has no excuses such as claiming the offense needed time to gel (in year 3 of a rebuild).  Everything will be made bare in 2020 because the roster has been upgraded and the schedule more difficult.  Perhaps he rises to the occasion and begins to show some game-planning audacity with a revamped offense.  We just don't know yet. 

[Augie]

6 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I see someone else just piled on this comment, and I will, too.  

 

You say it like this has been some great failing of McDermott's - he hasn't been able to beat the good teams.  

 

Well, duh, that's the definition of bad teams.   Bad teams first have to start winning games, and then they have to start winning big games.   It's always been that way.   

 

Beane and McDermott have a system for building a championship team.   The system involves getting the right players, teaching them the right things, rinse and repeat.  In order to implement the system, the first thing he had to do was clean house.   Then he had to build the team the way he wanted it.   In a process like that, the first thing that happens is that you have a bad team (2018), then you start winning games (2019), then you start winning big games.   

 

So you're right, McDermott's record in big games isn't good.   It isn't good because he hadn't reached that point in the development process.   But the fact that he hasn't won big games yet doesn't mean he can't.  It just means it wasn't the objective, at least not until now.  

 

As I've said before, the Diggs deal made a statement.   The statement was, in effect, "it's now time for us to win big games."

 

So, yes, he has to win big games.   Everything I've seen so far tells me that whatever it is that McDermott and Beane decided to do, happens.   They work until it happens, and they learn whatever they need to learn to make it happen.   

 

We're just looking at the next step in the process.   

 

Best of luck here, dealing with one with expectations of perfection. I’m happy with progress. If they keep getting better, I may be disappointed but I won’t be angry. I freely admit I have made countless mistakes.  Only the perfect people have a right to be angry. 

 

Apparently, the other teams are paying professionals and are trying too! Who knew that!?!?