Playoff offense is just as much an issue as defense

[Fleezoid]

3 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

I'm highlighting one game to show how our perceptions of what is and isn't an issue have become very clouded. It didn't end up being 16 seconds for the Patriots because they overcame it. It didn't end up being a defensive issue for KC because they overcame it the next year. They both did this on offense. Nearly every team has to overcome on offense in the playoffs as we nearly did in 2021. But the reality is, we have not performed even close to that level before or since and if you look at our broader playoff performances on offense they lack the quality and consistency that we tend to see in the regular season. 

 

Based on 2021 and the poor defensive performance and how we lost 13 seconds, I think most people around here think the offense is fine come playoff time. It hasn't been. This would be much more obvious to most if the defense wasn't horrendous in our losses. But the fact is even if it wasn't, we still likely lose all three games. We see 20 to 1 ratios identifying playoff defense as the main problem. Playoff offense is just as big of a problem. The consistency isn't there and it goes past just 1 game involving KC and the Patriots to know you need to have elite consistency, clutch play, and the ability to score a ton of points if you want to make the Super Bowl. 

No, we just need to perform more consistently. It's all phases, people are just obsessed with defense.

 

My point is that the Bills overcame it in their game too. The only difference, the Bills lost the coin toss. Those games are extremely similar other than the overtime. I agree that the Bills offense hasn't performed well enough in the playoffs since that time. I just don't see the Chiefs Patriots game being a good example when the Bills did the same thing. 

[78thealltimegreat]

  The Bills offenses problem is very much like a team built around three point shooting in basketball… it’s amazing when shots go in but when shots don’t go down do you have another way to generate points and to be honest in many ways they haven’t. 
  They’ve clearly made an off season commitment to give the O more ways to beat you simply by lining up in 12 and 13 personnel would shock many people.  

[Mr. WEO]

this just in.....

[Don Otreply]

6 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

The offense has vastly outperformed the defense in the playoffs

 

I don't think that's even debatable tbh

True enough, but the offense needs to be better as well, that unit has had their problems in the playoffs and their issues stem from the OC to the QB to the O- line to the RBs to the TEs to the WRs, they all need to tighten up their 1/11th.  And I’ll bet they all know it and will do their best to fix what needs to be fixed.

[Mikie2times]

27 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

  The Bills offenses problem is very much like a team built around three point shooting in basketball… it’s amazing when shots go in but when shots don’t go down do you have another way to generate points and to be honest in many ways they haven’t. 
  They’ve clearly made an off season commitment to give the O more ways to beat you simply by lining up in 12 and 13 personnel would shock many people.  

Downright sexy analogy 

[Never NEVER Give-up]

9 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

It's all offense; people talking about defense are older guys who grew up in the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s hearing "Defense wins championships" and they aren't smart enough to adapt their thinking to a changing world.

 

 

Hey!!! I resemble that comment!!

[Buffalo_Stampede]

In the 13 seconds game the Bills should’ve scored 50 to be honest. The announcers even talked about how conservative the Bills were up to the Gabe Davis long TD.

 

Everyone needs to be better to beat KC and Cincy. The defense has a tougher job than the offense. The defense has to face Mahomes and Burrow. It is fair to expect the offense to carry the team. 
 

That said, 13 seconds is more about unacceptable mistakes made that cost us the game at the end.

[Big Blitz]

What the Chiefs oline did to the Eagles Dline was and is still the most underrated reason why they won.  
 

The Chiefs don’t seem concerned about overpaying WRs yes because they have Reid/Mahomes.  

 

But they also didn’t have Roger Saffold Ryan Bates and a never healthy Spencer Brown to protect the QB and open the running game for Devin Singletary.  

 

Beane’s biggest failure has been oline.  And that’s the difference between us and the Chiefs. 
 

The Chiefs have the best interior Oline in the NFL.  It’s infuriating.  

[Chaos]

I thought everyone understood that we consistently get outcoached on both sides of the ball in playoff games. Is there some controversy about this point? 

[Eastport bills]

10 hours ago, Mikie2times said:

Replaying the 4th quarter of the Patriots AFC Championship game at Arrowhead, it became clear just how much the final outcome can cloud the perceptions of how it occurred.

 

In that AFC Championship game, final score, 37-31 ending in a New England win. New England scored to take a 3 point lead with 39 seconds left. It took Mahomes and the Chiefs 16 seconds to get into position to kick the game tying FG from inside the 25. New England would win the toss and score on it's first drive to win the game in OT. No talk of 16 seconds, they won the game. In the process of winning the game, despite having seen Brady do this for the better part of the last 20 years it was impossible to not see the level of precision it took to sustain drives. He was completing passes in the 4th quarter we aren't even attempting. KC had DB's painted on NE WR's and one of the best pass rushes in the league in KC that year had no ability at touch Brady with how quick he was getting the ball out. The level of efficiency on offense that it took to win that game was mind boggling.  

 

KC won the Super Bowl the next year and they didn't do so because they suddenly figured out a way to solve those defensive issues. They did so because Mahomes led an offense as clutch and consistent as any QB we have seen since Brady.

 

Over in our neck of the woods, Josh and the offenses performance in 13 seconds and multiple defensive meltdowns have left us putting the failure of this team squarely on the defenses back. Hogwash. The only year we showed in our losses that we could sustain drives offensively was 2021. We were not able to come back like the Chiefs and execute at that level before or since. To win the Super Bowl you need that level of performance. Ask Philadelphia if you think otherwise.

 

2019 =Our offense scored 19 points in a loss to Houston including 6 points in the second half

2020 =Our offense puts up 9 points in the final 4 minutes to make a 38-15 score look respectable, but anybody watching that game knew we sputtered 

2022 =Our offense puts up 10 points against the Bengals at home

 

We can talk about the defense until we are blue in the face. We will have to perform at a 2021 level for an entire playoff run on offense to have any chance at this. In doing so, we need to be able to efficiently march the ball down field. Something we really haven't done since the back half of 2021.  The defense has sucked in the playoffs, but the offense has as well. If we only allow 13 to the Bengals and they win 13-10, this is completely different perception. But that's all this is right now. A perception that the defense is preventing us from going further. At the end of the day the offense will be what decides this. 

 

 

The Cinn. game should be wiped out of our collective psyche. This team was overwhelmed on both O-line and our defensive front. We were missing our emotional leaders(Miller, Hyde) and White and Poyer were shells of themselves. Dorsey and Frazier had bad game plans, and the snowstorm benefited the Cinn. offense with those receivers. Other than the Cinn. game, we were a good offense, although our O-line and running game were less than top level. This year, with the additions on the interior O-line and bigger RBs, look for better balance and pass protection. Our receivers are arguably as good as any team’s  not named Cinn or Miami. With Josh, can anyone doubt our chances to break through. This team will be more physically imposing on both sides of the ball guaranteed.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

25 minutes ago, Chaos said:

I thought everyone understood that we consistently get outcoached on both sides of the ball in playoff games. Is there some controversy about this point? 

Lies.

[mjt328]

Both the offense and defense have played a role in our playoff losses the last 3 years.

 

The difference between the two... is that we've invested so much draft capitol and cap space into the defense, loaded it up with a half-dozen All-Pro and Pro-Bowl talents (Tre White, Matt Milano, Jordan Poyer, Micah Hyde, Von Miller, Tremaine Edmunds) and the team was STILL totally helpless in stopping Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow at any point during those three postseason losses.  This unit has been pretty much maxed out in talent, and it has meant absolutely nothing.  The Chiefs and Bengals moved the ball at will.

 

Our struggles on offense can usually be attributed to weak positions where the team just hasn't been able to find an answer.  This side of the ball is pretty much just Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and not much else that scares opponents.  When another weapon other than Diggs actually shows up (such as Gabe Davis in the 2021 divisional game), the offense does great.  When the O-Line actually protects Josh Allen, the offense does great.

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by mjt328

[Virgil]

6 hours ago, Dopey said:

2017 Jax- 10 points given up and we still lost. 

2019 Houston -7 sacks, 22 points given up in an overtime game is not letting the team down. The offense hurt that effort more than the defense. 

2020 Ravens- you’ve acknowledged 
2021 NE - no need to go over 

2022 Dolphins if you dig deeper into how they managed 31 points, yep our offense and ST put our defense in some bad situations. Really bad. The defense balled out that game. Too bad  the offense crapped the bed. Thank you defense. 
 

Right!?!

please stop coming at me with facts 

[Joe Ferguson]

KC had the 27th and 16th ranked defense when they won their two Super Bowls. A great QB is the reason teams win Super Bowls, not a great defense.

[LABILLBACKER]

7 hours ago, HaldimandBills said:

My argument is our coaching strength is on the defensive side of the ball and we spend a lot more on that side than the Chiefs and Bengals. Our defense should be performing much better than it is come playoff time. 

.....you'd think?

35 minutes ago, Joe Ferguson said:

KC had the 27th and 16th ranked defense when they won their two Super Bowls. A great QB is the reason teams win Super Bowls, not a great defense.

Good, then why do we waste so much FA $ and draft picks on defense. 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

Recency bias in the OP.  

 

In three of the Bills last four playoff games the offense has scored 34, 36 and 47 points. They have totaled 423, 422 and 482 yards. Of the three games their worst offensive performance was against Miami where DESPITE three turnovers and a Knox dropped TD in the end zone they still scored 34 and totaled 423 yards. You know you have a high powered offense when you still put up numbers like that with all the miscues. 

 

It just so happens that the fourth game, is the most recent playoff game and probably the worst offense performance by the Bills since the 3 point showing against the Jags in 2017. 

 

 

[Ayjent]

Both sides of the ball have responsibility for the playoff losses, as well as coaching to put those players in best position to succeed. The lack of investment/successful investment in the offensive line was the weakness of the team last year as well as them getting away from precision timing offense that was working early in the year.  They played to their weakness when it mattered most as the season progressed. 

 

The offense began to resemble a madden player that got bored and wanted to run around looking for big plays every series and the offense lacked consitent rhythm because it was more sandlot than design.  Im not sure who is to blame but the effect was the same and it is up to the team to identify and rectify and they didnt last season.  To me its on everyone and there is no need to point fingers.  However, if Im a player pushing for it to be rectified and no one else is listening i might loose my s#!t.

 

If teams are taking something away you should be built to make them pay bc something else is available and the Bills offense wasnt able to answer.  Theyve done things to address deficiencies with personnel but they also need to better in utilizing their personnel, which they did not do last year.  If your line sucks in pass protection focus on timing and attacking where teams are overaggressive on defense. We had a front seat to how that was done with Brady and Pats.  Is this coaching?  Yes, but...its also based on players preferences and honestly they were good but extremely vulnerable because they lost focus on their ability to dominate.  It was talent overcoming approach until they met other talented teams where you cant hide deficiencies as well. 

 

On defense they stubbornly kept a philosophy over situational matchups.  Same issue - not maximizing effectiveness to create an advantage.  There were coaching issues last year, plain and simple.   Not beating the crap out of Burrow with a gum and paper clip OL in front of him bc we were trying to play it safe with injuries on D was just stupid.  That approach just let the Bengals suck the life out of the Stadium and team from Go.  If Hamlin hadnt been injured in the regular season game I wonder if that similar ass beating that was in progress doesnt change the complexion of how the Bills approached the playoffs.  But that is most likely wishful thinking, bc we've seen that story before where they repeat a flawed strategy.

[hondo in seattle]

On 6/30/2023 at 9:41 AM, Nextmanup said:

It's all offense; people talking about defense are older guys who grew up in the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s hearing "Defense wins championships" and they aren't smart enough to adapt their thinking to a changing world.

 

 

 

Not "smart enough?"  Younger guys who grew up in the 90's are smarter?  Interesting perspective.  

 

If it's "all offense" as you say, then this is how you need to beat the Bengals or the Chiefs and their potent offenses:  You have to slow those offenses down.  And that requires defense.  So even if it's "all offense," defense still wins games.  

 

Leaving special teams aside (sorry, Task), there are two critical battles on a gridiron.  Their offense versus our defense.  Their defense versus our offense.  Each battle is equally important.  If you win both battles, you ought to win the game.  If you win one of two, the game can go either way.  Both defense and offense are equally essential for wins.  

 

So, if I'm Beane or McD, I'm putting a lot of effort into improving both.  In the Cinci game, both squads let us down.  The offense was hampered by the weather, Josh's elbow, and a crap OL.  The defense was hampered by guys not playing, or not playing 100%.   The optimist in me sees us playing better on both sides of the ball this year.  

[JerseyBills]

23 hours ago, Fleezoid said:

 

My point is that the Bills overcame it in their game too. The only difference, the Bills lost the coin toss. Those games are extremely similar other than the overtime. I agree that the Bills offense hasn't performed well enough in the playoffs since that time. I just don't see the Chiefs Patriots game being a good example when the Bills did the same thing. 

Or Bass could have simply squib kicked it and they would have 2 plays. 1 being a hail mary or a bunch of laterals.  Not blaming Bass, I heard the explanation about communication issues but that's just inexcusable 

Edited July 1, 2023 by JerseyBills

[LABILLBACKER]

21 hours ago, JerseyBills said:

Or Bass could have simply squib kicked it and they would have 2 plays. 1 being a hail mary or a bunch of laterals.  Not blaming Bass, I heard the explanation about communication issues but that's just inexcusable 

The butchered non squib/pop kick will always 100% be on McDermott. He's the fricken HC. Take your ST out on the field and tell them what to do. Don't "hope" a lackey tells Farwell who in turn tells Bass something else.  Pop that kick up inside the 10 and the games over.

[Chaos]

21 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

will always 100% be on McDermott. He's the fricken HC

as far as I know, he has never owned that 

[LABILLBACKER]

14 minutes ago, Chaos said:

as far as I know, he has never owned that 

No he hasn't and never will. 

[JerseyBills]

48 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

The butchered non squib/pop kick will always 100% be on McDermott. He's the fricken HC. Take your ST out on the field and tell them what to do. Don't "hope" a lackey tells Farwell who in turn tells Bass something else.  Pop that kick up inside the 10 and the games over.

Definitely.  Considering the magnitude of that game. What your offense just did , idk how you don't pull the ST coach over and make sure he knows what to do. That game will haunt me forever because the way Allen was playing that post season. Def think we win it all. He'll have 1 less SB on his resume because Shaun didn't do such a simple thing😥

Edited July 2, 2023 by JerseyBills

[Ayjent]

You hold like hell on D at the end of the :13 seconds and you kick off just like they did bc field position is most likely further back w/o squib which gets you 3-4 seconds at best with potentially much better field position for kc. A 5 yd penalty that wasted 7 seconds on 1st puts them at 1st and 10 at 30.  Much more difficult situation and basically game over. 

 

Like many Bills playoff loses it was a series of incompatible strategies that sunk them. That was the inexcusable error - no awareness of how to just take advantage of the situation.  Sometimes a penalty is your friend and they should know that. Yet they repeated the error in the regular season last year. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Ayjent

[newcam2012]

14 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

No he hasn't and never will. 

Yet, he preaches high character and builds a culture in the locker room. 

 

That's not leading by example. 

 

This fan thinks he's a coward for not admitting his mistake. 

[newcam2012]

2 hours ago, Ayjent said:

You hold like hell on D at the end of the :13 seconds and you kick off just like they did bc field position is most likely further back w/o squib which gets you 3-4 seconds at best with potentially much better field position for kc. A 5 yd penalty that wasted 7 seconds on 1st puts them at 1st and 10 at 30.  Much more difficult situation and basically game over. 

 

Like many Bills playoff loses it was a series of incompatible strategies that sunk them. That was the inexcusable error - no awareness of how to just take advantage of the situation.  Sometimes a penalty is your friend and they should know that. Yet they repeated the error in the regular season last year. 

Agree. The Bills coaches should have told all their players to tackle and hold all the Chiefs pass catchers. A  penalty would have done nothing. 

 

The following year the league would have implemented some sort of rule change to prevent this from happening. 

 

McD owes the fans an apology and a likely SB win. How anyone can stand by such gross incompetence is mind boggling. 

 

To boot, the following year he was taken to the wood shed by the Bengals. A home playoff game where he players weren't prepared and his game plan absolutely sucked. 

 

But heck! This year is going to be his year. He will have learned. 

 

I got some land to sell if anyone is interested. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by newcam2012

[Royale with Cheese]

On 6/30/2023 at 12:41 PM, Nextmanup said:

It's all offense; people talking about defense are older guys who grew up in the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s hearing "Defense wins championships" and they aren't smart enough to adapt their thinking to a changing world.

 

 

9 out of the last 10 Super Bowl winners had a top 10 scoring defense.
 

4 out of the last 5 Super Bowl winners held their opponent to 20 points or less.

 

 

[GunnerBill]

42 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Agree. The Bills coaches should have told all their players to tackle and hold all the Chiefs pass catchers. A  penalty would have done nothing. 

 

The following year the league would have implemented some sort of rule change to prevent this from happening. 

 

McD owes the fans an apology and a likely SB win. How anyone can stand by such gross incompetence is mind boggling. 

 

To boot, the following year he was taken to the wood shed by the Bengals. A home playoff game where he players weren't prepared and his game plan absolutely sucked. 

 

But heck! This year is going to be his year. He will have learned. 

 

I got some land to sell if anyone is interested. 

 

He doesn't "owe" you anything. He is a professional doing a job. You have to take the emotion from it. Coaches and players don't owe fans. They are employees of a company, the same as any other employee.

[Royale with Cheese]

1 hour ago, newcam2012 said:

Agree. The Bills coaches should have told all their players to tackle and hold all the Chiefs pass catchers. A  penalty would have done nothing. 

 

The following year the league would have implemented some sort of rule change to prevent this from happening. 

 

McD owes the fans an apology and a likely SB win. How anyone can stand by such gross incompetence is mind boggling. 

 

To boot, the following year he was taken to the wood shed by the Bengals. A home playoff game where he players weren't prepared and his game plan absolutely sucked. 

 

But heck! This year is going to be his year. He will have learned. 

 

I got some land to sell if anyone is interested. 

 

 

And yes, I would be interested in land if you are able to sell it...land is a very good investment.

 

Now if your intention was to say "ocean front property in Iowa", which I suspect because that would only make sense as a joke....then no I wouldn't be interested.

[PBF81]

On 6/30/2023 at 1:22 PM, LABILLBACKER said:

How do our equipment guys get the cleats wrong.

 

On your home field no less.

 

 

[PrimeTime101]

On 6/30/2023 at 12:54 PM, NewEra said:

You just continue to reinforce how smart Dumb you are.  

I fixed it for you  

[JerseyBills]

4 hours ago, Ayjent said:

You hold like hell on D at the end of the :13 seconds and you kick off just like they did bc field position is most likely further back w/o squib which gets you 3-4 seconds at best with potentially much better field position for kc. A 5 yd penalty that wasted 7 seconds on 1st puts them at 1st and 10 at 30.  Much more difficult situation and basically game over. 

 

Like many Bills playoff loses it was a series of incompatible strategies that sunk them. That was the inexcusable error - no awareness of how to just take advantage of the situation.  Sometimes a penalty is your friend and they should know that. Yet they repeated the error in the regular season last year. 

Ya that too. Should have pressed and held everyWR and Kelce. Rushed 3 and had everyone else play off. So many simple variations could have been much better vs what they ended up doing

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

He doesn't "owe" you anything. He is a professional doing a job. You have to take the emotion from it. Coaches and players don't owe fans. They are employees of a company, the same as any other employee.

Oh I agree he doesn't owe me an apology. 

 

However, when you portray a certain image such as being a christain man, moral man, of high character, etc...you might think an apology is the right thing to do. At the very least take a little responsibility. He has done neither to date. 

 

I wonder if he apologized to the Bills players? We will really never know what he told the players. I suspect with no evidence he gave a nice consolation speech with no ownership that he failed his players. 

 

Leaders take ownership and admit their mistakes. The following year McD underpreformed in the playoffs again. That's putting it mildly. Maybe this is the year he's learned? Or next year? Or next year?  

 

It baffles me that Pegula gave him an extension. There was no need to extend him. He's likely to regret that decision in a couple of years. 

54 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

On your home field no less.

 

 

Just more BS excuses and lots of Bills fans believe them. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by newcam2012

[newcam2012]

16 minutes ago, JerseyBills said:

Ya that too. Should have pressed and held everyWR and Kelce. Rushed 3 and had everyone else play off. So many simple variations could have been much better vs what they ended up doing

Pee wee coaching 101. 

[PrimeTime101]

11 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Oh I agree he doesn't owe me an apology. 

 

However, when you portray a certain image such as being a christain man, moral man, of high character, etc...you might think an apology is the right thing to do. At the very least take a little responsibility. He has done neither to date. 

 

I wonder if he apologized to the Bills players? We will really never know what he told the players. I suspect with no evidence he gave a nice consolation speech with no ownership that he failed his players. 

 

Leaders take ownership and admit their mistakes. The following year McD underpreformed in the playoffs again. That's putting it mildly. Maybe this is the year he's learned? Or next year? Or next year?  

 

It baffles me that Pegula gave him an extension. There was no need to extend him. He's likely to regret that decision in a couple of years. 

Just more BS excuses and lots of Bills fans believe them. 

#1. Leave religion out of this yes? 

#2 It is a business. things are said for many different things we will never understand

#3 Other than saying "that game was on me" Rarely does a coach apologize to a team for much.

#4 McD did apologize once on a 4th and 1 decision.

#5 McD got us to a playoff game with a HORRIBLE team. That should tell you something....

#6 The only thing that baffles me is your lack of knowledge on this topic. This extension was long in the works and HC extensions never mean they cannot or will not be let go the following year. We will never no the exact terms in HC extensions. 

 

Lastly in my humble opinion? There is no other HC that has as good of character as McD does.

 

get over it. 

[PBF81]

On 6/30/2023 at 2:11 PM, Mikie2times said:

I'm highlighting one game to show how our perceptions of what is and isn't an issue have become very clouded. It didn't end up being 16 seconds for the Patriots because they overcame it.   It didn't end up being a defensive issue for KC because they overcame it the next year.   They both did this on offense. Nearly every team has to overcome on offense in the playoffs as we nearly did in 2021.   But the reality is, we have not performed even close to that level before or since and if you look at our broader playoff performances on offense they lack the quality and consistency that we tend to see in the regular season. 

 

Based on 2021 and the poor defensive performance and how we lost 13 seconds, I think most people around here think the offense is fine come playoff time. It hasn't been.   This would be much more obvious to most if the defense wasn't horrendous in our losses.   But the fact is even if it wasn't, we still likely lose all three games. We see 20 to 1 ratios identifying playoff defense as the main problem.   Playoff offense is just as big of a problem.   The consistency isn't there and it goes past just 1 game involving KC and the Patriots to know you need to have elite consistency, clutch play, and the ability to score a ton of points if you want to make the Super Bowl.  

 

No, we just need to perform more consistently.   It's all phases, people are just obsessed with defense.  

 

Generally agree with you here Mikie, but I'm not sure you used a good game to compare our 13-seconds to.  I just watched the end of that Pats v. Chiefs game.  

 

To start, in our game vs. the Chiefs there were 13 seconds left on the clock after we had the game in the bag up by 3.  

In the New England game, there were 39 seconds left after NE went up by 3.  

 

NE played relatively good D and challenged them, while we essentially handed them 44 Yards on 2 plays.  Huge difference there.  

 

At the end, for NE, KC all but had a FG wrapped up at the 16-second mark, so all NE had to do was defend against a TD, which they did.  KC, which was out of Time-Outs, couldn't afford to throw short, miss the end zone, and still line up for a FG, wouldn't have happened.  

 

Other than that, apart from only three offensive players bothering to show up (Allen, Davis, and Beasley) who were responsible for all but 68 yards out of 422 (84%) we had 5 TD drives of 75, 75, 75, 75, and 71.   371 Total 

 

Likewise, the Patriots had 5 TD drives of 90, 80, 75, 75, and 65.  385 Total   The Pats also had an 8-yard FG drive.  

 

Otherwise, the Pats ended 5 other drives with 2 INTs, 2 Punts, and 1 on Downs.  

We ended 4 other drives on Punts.  

 

So I'm not seeing anything even approaching a direct correlation here.  Had Bass kicked off and gotten the same 26-yard return from KC that they got on 7-seconds, the Chiefs would have had the ball at their own 31 with 6 seconds left on the clock, one play in essence.  A squib kick likely would have forced handling, and not to bring that up again other than in the context here.  

 

I'm not sure that I agree on the rest.  Over the past three seasons the only two games in which the Offense did not play well enough was the Bengals game last season and the Ravens game two seasons prior to that.  The Ravens had the 2nd-ranked D that season and played like it in the playoffs, unlike us, and both us and the Titans averaged about 31 PPG that season, and they held the Titans to 209 Total Yards and 13 Points while they held us to 220 Total Yards and 17 points.  That season they held 11 of their 17 games to 17 Points or fewer.  

 

In short, I cannot blame the offense although your statements about a lack of consistency I would support.  For example, Diggs hasn't typically show up in the playoffs over the past three seasons.  

 

If we get even average play from our D in the playoffs, something that McD supposedly specializes in, then IMO we're OK, although as we see, the Ravens' 2nd Ranked Scoring D held two teams averaging 31 to less than half of that in the playoffs.  I don't see why we cannot regularly hold teams (other than KC perhaps), to fewer than 24 easily.  

 

BTW, NE Did play better than we did, not doubt, but not to the extent that our offense wasn't beyond adequate.  The whole world except for a pocket of dissenters without much of an argument here knows that what happened in our game was entirely on coaching to lose it.  

 

What NE, Brady really, did, was to execute the short-medium much higher-profile passes much much better, which has been Brady's strong suit all along.  

 

 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

19 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

The butchered non squib/pop kick will always 100% be on McDermott. He's the fricken HC. Take your ST out on the field and tell them what to do. Don't "hope" a lackey tells Farwell who in turn tells Bass something else.  Pop that kick up inside the 10 and the games over.

100% agree.

 

McDemott failed to realize that was the most critical play / call of his coaching career so far. He should have had 100% control of what was going on. It’s okay to use assistant coaches but he needed to have oversight of the entire operation on that sequence. 

6 hours ago, Ayjent said:

You hold like hell on D at the end of the :13 seconds and you kick off just like they did bc field position is most likely further back w/o squib which gets you 3-4 seconds at best with potentially much better field position for kc. A 5 yd penalty that wasted 7 seconds on 1st puts them at 1st and 10 at 30.  Much more difficult situation and basically game over. 

 

Like many Bills playoff loses it was a series of incompatible strategies that sunk them. That was the inexcusable error - no awareness of how to just take advantage of the situation.  Sometimes a penalty is your friend and they should know that. Yet they repeated the error in the regular season last year. 

waste 7 seconds on one penalty?

 

 That is a bit too optimistic. They completed two plays in 10 seconds. 
 

I agree they should have held on both plays or at least the first. Don’t recall if there is an additional penalty for the second consecutive holding. 
 

Either way the touchback was rendered useless strategy because they decided not to hold on the next two plays. 

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

6 hours ago, Ayjent said:

Sometimes a penalty is your friend and they should know that. Yet they repeated the error in the regular season last year. 

which game was this last year?

[Buffalo_Stampede]

19 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

The butchered non squib/pop kick will always 100% be on McDermott. He's the fricken HC. Take your ST out on the field and tell them what to do. Don't "hope" a lackey tells Farwell who in turn tells Bass something else.  Pop that kick up inside the 10 and the games over.

What’s crazy is they had a similar situation vs the Rams in 2020 and executed everything perfectly. They scored to go up 35-32 with 15 seconds left. Squib kick took 5 seconds off. Rams knew they only had 2 plays.
 

We’ll never know what happened vs KC. McDermott is 100% taking the blame from fans and media. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Buffalo_Stampede

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

1 hour ago, PBF81 said:

 

  Over the past three seasons the only two games in which the Offense did not play well enough was the Bengals game last season and the Ravens game two seasons prior to that.  The Ravens had the 2nd-ranked D that season and played like it in the playoffs, 

I don’t fully fault the offense in the Ravens playoff game. The winds were definitely something that was affecting both offenses that night. Tuck who never misses kicks inside 45 yards missed two both around 40yards. Gimmie kicks for him. That is how we know wind was a big factor that night.