Bills Lax Mindset and Arrogance is more of a problem than anything else this year

[Big Turk]

I don't know whether they have been reading their own press clippings, or just expected to show up and win but this team has looked unfocused and unprepared for the better part of two weeks now.

 

Especially on offense.

 

I don't want to hear about the OLine. There is no reason they should all of a sudden be this terrible at pass blocking. Something else is going on and it starts with the players mindsets.

 

They better get it together and do it soon.

 

If I was McD all joking and gag stuff at practice is over with, they've lost that right. Now it's all about business and they will have to earn the right to joke and kid around back. Too much at stake to piss it away because they want to not take things seriously because they think they are so good they can just do whatever.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Big Turk

[Sugar High JA17]

Time to wake up from our looooong bye week nap already

[78thealltimegreat]

This franchise completely and totally embarrassed itself today…they need to just shut out all media this week and concentrate on football they haven’t earned the right to goof around after a loss like this 

[Dr.Mantis_Toboggan]

I've thought about this as well, especially after the Titans loss.  This team doesn't feel as hungry as last year, and that's crazy to me bc as far as I'm concerned, sure last year was fun but they haven't accomplished anything to really hang their cap on yet.

 

Unfortunately I don't feel this game is at all like the "Hail Murray" situation last year, there is nothing positive to be taken from this loss... it didn't take Jacksonville's best shot to beat this Bills team, it didn't even require the Jags crossing the goal line for Pete's sake.  I don't know how a team goes from the #1 scoring offense in the NFL to getting embarrassed by Urban Meyer and the injury plagued Jaguars.  Even if it's a case of believing their own hype, which I definitely think Is part of the problem, at half time you'd assume that's all out the window. You'd assume that the idea of getting held TD-less against the f'n Jags would snap the sleeping giant into form during that intermission...  

 

How is the #1 scoring offense, with leading candidate for MVP, not able to make the necessary adjustments to get in the end zone in the second half even ONCE, against the untouchables of the NFL????

The lowly and decrepit Jacksonville Jaguars just embarrassed a quarter billion dollar QB, and his team most assumed would have a legitimate shot at representing the AFC in the Super Bowl.  However I don't think they come back from this.  They'll win enough games to get into the playoffs, but nothing special is happening this season.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

28 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

I don't know whether they have been reading their own press clippings, or just expected to show up and win but this team has looked unfocused and unprepared for the better part of two weeks now.

 

Especially on offense.

 

I don't want to hear about the OLine. There is no reason they should all of a sudden be this terrible at pass blocking. Something else is going on and it starts with the players mindsets.

 

They better get it together and do it soon.

 

If I was McD all joking and gag stuff at practice is over with, they've lost that right. Now it's all about business and they will have to earn the right to joke and kid around back. Too much at stake to piss it away because they want to not take things seriously because they think they are so good they can just do whatever.

 

The starting OL that was working reasonably was Dawkins-Feliciano-Morse-Williams-Brown

The OL last week was Dawkins-Boettger-Morse-Feliciano-Williams

The OL this week was Dawkins-Boettger-Morse-Ford-Williams

 

When you change personnel, there is no reason they should all of a sudden be this terrible?  Really?

 

I do feel that the Bills offense has been “reading the press clippings” a bit and expecting to just show up and march down the field.

And they let the Jags get under their skin, with all the penalties today

[LABILLBACKER]

39 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

This franchise completely and totally embarrassed itself today…they need to just shut out all media this week and concentrate on football they haven’t earned the right to goof around after a loss like this 

Practice goof sessions are over. Act like you want to win. Take this game and the fans seriously. 

[John from Riverside]

40 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Practice goof sessions are over. Act like you want to win. Take this game and the fans seriously. 

I’m wondering what you mean by and the fan seriously can you expand on that

[SinceThe70s]

20 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

I’m wondering what you mean by and the fan seriously can you expand on that

 

The hot takes since the loss have been amazing - but the folks that take the loss as a personal affront take the cake. 

[John from Riverside]

2 hours ago, Big Turk said:

I don't know whether they have been reading their own press clippings, or just expected to show up and win but this team has looked unfocused and unprepared for the better part of two weeks now.

 

Especially on offense.

 

I don't want to hear about the OLine. There is no reason they should all of a sudden be this terrible at pass blocking. Something else is going on and it starts with the players mindsets.

 

They better get it together and do it soon.

 

If I was McD all joking and gag stuff at practice is over with, they've lost that right. Now it's all about business and they will have to earn the right to joke and kid around back. Too much at stake to piss it away because they want to not take things seriously because they think they are so good they can just do whatever.

I do think we have a problem with taking teams lightly this year I’m not exactly sure why that is happening

[CEN-CAL17]

Yes I don’t think they really grasp every team wants to beat their a$$…. Every team is laser focused to play us, we are the opposing teams playoff game……

 

Meanwhile I think we overlook and have way to much fun week in preparation. Game starts and we get punched in the face and never do anything.  
 

the saying you win the game Monday-Saturday is not just pretend, it’s 100%.

[Do The Reich Thing]

Well… if this game doesn’t change their mindset then nothing will. That’s for sure. Boom or bust from here. 

[MJS]

1 hour ago, Gene1973 said:

Other teams can do it and not look absolutely terrible, why not the Bills?

 

Titans lose their best player and still beat one of the best teams in the league.

 

Bills lose a second rate O-lineman and their offense is in shambles against the worst team in the league.

 

Uhm, ok... Makes sense.

The Titans lost to the Jets. Which team hasn't looked terrible this season? Can you name one? They've all had bad losses.

 

I don't think you actually watch other games. The NFL seems to be just this romantic idea of mythical elite teams in shining armor dolling out blowout losses to peasant teams. That's not what the NFL is like. This year especially. A team gets a big win one week and then gets blown out by an inferior team the next. That's how it has been all season.

[Big Turk]

It was so noticeable yesterday that they thought they could just go in there and walk away with a W that even their opponents noticed it:

 

"I was just looking on their sideline, and one thing I noted is I was like, 'they don't have the same energy as us,' ” Griffin said. “I feel like if you feel like one team deserved this win, it's us, but you've got to believe that."

 

"So that's one thing I kept preaching at everybody else. 'Look on the sidelines, watching them walking around, it's like they don't care. They don't deserve this. Let's show them why.' ”

 

When your opponent can tell you don't even care about the game, that's a pretty damning statement of their mindset and so unlike the Bills and what McD preaches.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Big Turk

[LostinDC]

There is a disease that this team has caught. They have lost the pride in their game that they appeared to have last year. Looks like they believe the hype. Bad news as the season drags on. Not a whiff of the Super Bowl let alone the afc championship. 

[Greg S]

10 hours ago, CEN-CAL17 said:

Yes I don’t think they really grasp every team wants to beat their a$$…. Every team is laser focused to play us, we are the opposing teams playoff game……

 

Meanwhile I think we overlook and have way to much fun week in preparation. Game starts and we get punched in the face and never do anything.  
 

the saying you win the game Monday-Saturday is not just pretend, it’s 100%.

 

The Jets have two teams left on their schedule (Bills and Bucs) who they will probably get up for. I could see them treating this as their own personal Super Bowl so the Bills better be ready to play this Sunday. I am sure they would love to hurt the Bills playoff chances since this is a rivalry game.

[BuffaloRebound]

When your left tackle becomes the stay puft marshmallow man in the off-season then contracts covid setting him further back… When your second team all pro WR decides to become the face of the anti vax movement… and I’m sure Josh’s contract might be in his head a little bit.  
Good news is Beasley seems to be 100% football focused now, Dawkins still has 2 months to progress and Josh’s issues are correctable.  

[BADOLBILZ]

13 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

The starting OL that was working reasonably was Dawkins-Feliciano-Morse-Williams-Brown

The OL last week was Dawkins-Boettger-Morse-Feliciano-Williams

The OL this week was Dawkins-Boettger-Morse-Ford-Williams

 

When you change personnel, there is no reason they should all of a sudden be this terrible?  Really?

 

I do feel that the Bills offense has been “reading the press clippings” a bit and expecting to just show up and march down the field.

And they let the Jags get under their skin, with all the penalties today

 

 

If this was an offensive line built on some stars and rookie backups or Bobby Hart's had to step in...........I could see a notable drop-off.   

 

But these guys should be fairly interchangeable talents........that's what they've sought to have and invested in on the OL.......depth of veteran talent.

 

 It's not like Feliciano to Boettger........or even Ford........should be a drop-off in talent.  

 

And I don't buy the lack of continuity part that much.

 

One thing I will say..........it seems that Daboll takes for granted that a re-organized line will produce the same results as the ideal group.

 

At the very least I would have rolled the pocket A LOT in this game after all the tee-ing off that TN and Miami had been doing on Allen in the pocket in the prior two games.

 

I don't care if Josh ends up with half-field reads out of the deal.........keep him clean.

[zow2]

Something tells me a Mike Vrabel practice isn’t all horsing around and goof-ball-ish.  I’ve seen some YouTube videos recently and there’s too much silliness going on.  And some guys all of a sudden host their own podcasts. 

Get the team together McDermott and lay it down. You are failing at your job buddy. Let’s go. Who knows, the window may shut after this couple years run and/or the division could get much harder. The time is now.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

8 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

If this was an offensive line built on some stars and rookie backups or Bobby Hart's had to step in...........I could see a notable drop-off.   

But these guys should be fairly interchangeable talents........that's what they've sought to have and invested in on the OL.......depth of veteran talent.

It's not like Feliciano to Boettger........or even Ford........should be a drop-off in talent.  

 

8 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

One thing I will say..........it seems that Daboll takes for granted that a re-organized line will produce the same results as the ideal group.

 

If you are correct that these guys should be fairly interchangeable talents and that Feliciano to Boettger or Williams to Feliciano to Ford should not be a drop-off in talent, then shouldn't Daboll be able to take for granted that a re-organized line with several backups will produce the same results as the starting group?

 

 

[Mr. WEO]

[BADOLBILZ]

5 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

 

If you are correct that these guys should be fairly interchangeable talents and that Feliciano to Boettger or Williams to Feliciano to Ford should not be a drop-off in talent, then shouldn't Daboll be able to take for granted that a re-organized line with several backups will produce the same results as the starting group?

 

 

 

 

I don't think Daboll should take anything for granted with the OL.    They were a few snaps into the game yesterday and it was pretty clear that they were just going to try to drop back and beat the Jags from the pocket all day.    No consideration to the fact that their offensive line was struggling to protect in recent weeks.   

[Richard Noggin]

1 hour ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

I don't think Daboll should take anything for granted with the OL.    They were a few snaps into the game yesterday and it was pretty clear that they were just going to try to drop back and beat the Jags from the pocket all day.    No consideration to the fact that their offensive line was struggling to protect in recent weeks.   

We've all watched the Bills offense fall into these ruts where pre-snap motion disappears, where the pocket is never moved, where play-action is non-existent...

 

I think back to the Cardinals game last year, during that abysmal 3rd quarter, when we were just dropping back repeatedly and the o-line was getting smoked. It wasn't until Mckenzie got on the field again and ran some sweep action that the offense woke up.

 

Daboll seems to want every game to ideally be like that 49ers game where Josh just surgically picks apart a defense while standing flat-footed in the pocket all day/night. But our offense, and really any offense, has to keep defenses off-balance with motion and play-action and various looks to continually work.  

[Dablitzkrieg]

You are wrong.  This is the biggest problem 3 mother ***** guys blocking 1 guy

[HalftimeAdjustment]

I saw Bobby Hart playing for the Titans, and they still won.

[BADOLBILZ]

21 minutes ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

You are wrong.  This is the biggest problem 3 mother ***** guys blocking 1 guy

 

 

After the game Mitch Morse responded with a reflexive "No" when asked whether there were communication issues on the OL.

 

I mean,  for chrissakes..........it was pretty clear that they were struggling with communication.

 

[Richard Noggin]

20 minutes ago, Dablitzkrieg said:

You are wrong.  This is the biggest problem 3 mother ***** guys blocking 1 guy

So in this example, can we, as fans, ever know what's causing this SNAFU? Is Allen screwing up the pre-snap protection calls? Is Morse to blame (centers often set protections)? Is it the result of "replacement" guards (Ford was the opening day starter, mind you) and a lack of "chemistry"? Or is it poop coaching? 

 

What's the effing malfunction here? 

[BADOLBILZ]

2 minutes ago, HalftimeAdjustment said:

I saw Bobby Hart playing for the Titans, and they still won.

 

 

Not only playing...........playing LEFT TACKLE.

 

You can scheme around the modest amount of injuries the Bills have on the OL...........but the coaching staff needs to treat each opponent like they want the players to treat each opponent........like it's the most important one they've faced.     I don't see that with the offense right now and it might be a contributing factor to their struggles.

[Richard Noggin]

3 minutes ago, HalftimeAdjustment said:

I saw Bobby Hart playing for the Titans, and they still won.

THIS felt like a huge indictment of our o-line players and coaches as it unfolded without catastrophe for the Titans. 

[DCbillsfan]

On 11/7/2021 at 10:45 PM, Big Turk said:

I don't know whether they have been reading their own press clippings, or just expected to show up and win but this team has looked unfocused and unprepared for the better part of two weeks now.

 

Especially on offense.

 

I don't want to hear about the OLine. There is no reason they should all of a sudden be this terrible at pass blocking. Something else is going on and it starts with the players mindsets.

 

They better get it together and do it soon.

 

If I was McD all joking and gag stuff at practice is over with, they've lost that right. Now it's all about business and they will have to earn the right to joke and kid around back. Too much at stake to piss it away because they want to not take things seriously because they think they are so good they can just do whatever.

I agree they do seem unfocused and unprepared however I do think some of it is the oline.  They are just not that good.  It goes back to last year's playoff games and other teams have caught on.  Bills haven't figured out how to counter it yet.

[Billsfan1972]

How about the arrogance of this site that the Bills could sleepwalk to a 14-3 record and that there were no issues with the Offense????😜

 

I watched the game and even me as a fan, never seemed concerned as I expected them to walk down the field when need be.  

 

Two huge drops by Beasley & Davis cost them dearly.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 11/8/2021 at 8:40 PM, BADOLBILZ said:

I don't think Daboll should take anything for granted with the OL.    They were a few snaps into the game yesterday and it was pretty clear that they were just going to try to drop back and beat the Jags from the pocket all day.    No consideration to the fact that their offensive line was struggling to protect in recent weeks.   

 

I completely agree with the above.

 

My only point was that if it's true as you said "these guys should be fairly interchangeable talents........that's what they've sought to have and invested in on the OL.......depth of veteran talent.  It's not like Feliciano to Boettger........or even Ford........should be a drop-off in talent.".....well then....shouldn't Daboll be able to take it for granted that the OL will perform about the same?

 

I agree that he can't, so my conclusion is that losing one or more of these guys must matter more than we think; there *is* a drop off, or something else is a factor.

 

Someone said elsewhere that it was FELICIANO who was calling the OL protections last season.   I don't know that that's true, but if it is, that would explain a freakin' lot about the debacle we saw last Sunday with Feliciano on IR.

 

I had made the same point you made above: that Morse was asked "were communication problems an issue on the line?" and responded "No", but that it seemed pretty evident that in fact, there WERE communication issues.  Unless Morse has a very particular and limited idea of what "communication problems" are vs. "correct protection problems" vs. "correct protections called & communicated, one or more guys didn't apply the correct variant of the protection to the defense we saw correctly"

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 11/9/2021 at 8:35 AM, Billsfan1972 said:

How about the arrogance of this site that the Bills could sleepwalk to a 14-3 record and that there were no issues with the Offense????😜

I watched the game and even me as a fan, never seemed concerned as I expected them to walk down the field when need be. 

 

Well, that would go to what McDermott has said, "when you take an opponent for granted, that's when you get your butt whipped".

And on offense, we most certainly got our butt whipped.

 

On 11/9/2021 at 8:35 AM, Billsfan1972 said:

Two huge drops by Beasley & Davis cost them dearly.

 

Yeah, you know, I don't buy it - not that the drops weren't big and couldn't have been turning points in the game, but there are always gonna be drops and so forth.  When the offense is doing such that two drops turn the game, the offense isn't doing enough.

[Steptide]

I said in another thread that I think the bills will be all business from here on out. I'd be surprised if we see any videos of bills players dancing and goofing around at practice anymore. Not saying they won't still do those things, but the time for fun and games is over. It's business time 

Edited November 12, 2021 by Steptide

[marky]

Bills teams of the past started well. Then they just kept trying to do the same thing. There's more to depth than roster or playbook. Keep working at it. Don't live off of shallow advantages or grinding up your own people. Peak at the right time if you want to win it all. Playoff football is different. You go from dress rehearsal to live fire.  4 against Pats and Jets. 1 against the Colts. A big Thanksgiving game. That's the season now.

[JohnNord]

On 11/7/2021 at 10:45 PM, Big Turk said:

I don't know whether they have been reading their own press clippings, or just expected to show up and win but this team has looked unfocused and unprepared for the better part of two weeks now.

 

Especially on offense.

 

I don't want to hear about the OLine. There is no reason they should all of a sudden be this terrible at pass blocking. Something else is going on and it starts with the players mindsets.

 

They better get it together and do it soon.

 

If I was McD all joking and gag stuff at practice is over with, they've lost that right. Now it's all about business and they will have to earn the right to joke and kid around back. Too much at stake to piss it away because they want to not take things seriously because they think they are so good they can just do whatever.

Is there any proof that they are arrogant and reading their own press clippings though?  Why?  Because they lost to a terrible team?  Or is it because they dance at practice?  
 

 

[Orlando Tim]

On 11/8/2021 at 11:00 PM, Dablitzkrieg said:

You are wrong.  This is the biggest problem 3 mother ***** guys blocking 1 guy

This picture looks fake but likely because it means the Bills completely unprepared for Jags. How did we screw up soany plays like this 

[HalftimeAdjustment]

On 11/8/2021 at 11:00 PM, Dablitzkrieg said:

You are wrong.  This is the biggest problem 3 mother ***** guys blocking 1 guy

 

Ok technically #60 is not blocking the guy, he appears to be pushing another Bills player for some reason.

[CNYfan]

11 minutes ago, HalftimeAdjustment said:

 

Ok technically #60 is not blocking the guy, he appears to be pushing another Bills player for some reason.

74 was supposed to switch off and grab that free rusher

[HalftimeAdjustment]

1 minute ago, CNYfan said:

74 was supposed to switch off and grab that free rusher

 

I see, so Morse is leaning in saying "Cody... look behind you"

[WyoAZBillfan]

This is going to age well. Sell the theater and skip the drama. Teams lose, injuries affect play and even the refs when calling what seems like one sided slow a team. Sure there’s problems, let’s talk end of December. Relax and enjoy the ride, it’s for entertainment purposes (unless you’re on pay roll... if you are😱 your toast!). It’ll be fine.