NOW is Bobby Babich's seat hot?

[JakeFrommStateFarm]

Hopefully Bills fans understand that the saints are 0-4 and completely wretched.

 

If Bishop doesn't make the spectacular int OR rattler makes that easy throw to a wide open WR in the endzone, the Bills could have easily lost this game 

 

The wretched 0-4 saints did a good job moving the ball

[Low Positive]

1 minute ago, BuffaloMatt said:

Also only gave up 19 points. Typical McDermott type numbers. Give up more on ground then air. Break don't bend, etc.  

What is going on here is that, as a fan, it's painful to watch your team get run on.

• If feels like every play should be stopped because someone gets their hands on the RB.
• Running plays are more physical, and it feels like your team is getting bullied. 

But what the Bills are doing is keeping the game in front of them. Fans are not satisfied because they want domination. Look at the game prediction threads. People want a level of domination where the backups are playing in the 4th. That's rare in the NFL. Two of those games this year (SEA over NO & NE over CAR) were the result of special teams TD early in the game to get things out of hand. 

[Mister Defense]

13 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

I'm usually on board with you in this sort of debate, but I think this is absolutely a valid discussion at this point.

At no point in McD's tenure have we ever seen a defense this unprepared, disorganized and confused. Teams are taking advantage of that on a regular basis and there is a point where it has to be addressed one way or another.

It's early enough in the season where you could make a change at DC and still have enough time to get your ducks in a row before the stretch run.

There's also the option of having Sean just take over, but that creates it's own set of problems when your HC is distracted from game management on Sundays.

At the least, I would hope that McD takes a far more proactive role during the week to see if he can address the significant problems with preparation and attention to detail while leaving Babich to call the game on Sunday. Then if the same problems with incoherence continue, you maybe consider making a more significant change.

 

I think that McD this time has a great deal of confidence in Brady to handle the offense without a lot of input .  Pretty clear that Brady is a head coach somewhere next year already. And likely ditto for Tabor, as far as his experience and his confidence in him to handle the special teams

 

So I think those facts really facilitate McDermott's ability to step in and take over the defense this year. 

 

And yes, your now bold words in your post above--have the words 'very bad coaching' , even 'incompetent coaching', for me running below all of those words, weaknesses.

 

To me, almost no way that would that be the case with a change to a high quality coach.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 04:56 PM by Mister Defense

[26TrapDraw]

As much as I hate how this defense is playing, I will concede that we are not at full strength with some very critical pieces missing. I think the Coaching staff is aware how lucky we’ve been that our opponents can’t handle our Offense. It’s a long season. Give me all of the pieces ( Milano Oliver get Hoecht back and work Hairston in slow for Tre) if we don’t improve after that then it’s time for a coach to lose his job.

it’s fairly obvious if we fail this year that it was an abysmal defense.

 

hmm it’s almost as if that’s been the culprit before…

[bigduke6]

the defense has been injured so much over the last few seasons.  its frustrating for sure.  hard to tell if things will get better with players returning or not.  cautiously optimistic.  

[Mister Defense]

6 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

What is going on here is that, as a fan, it's painful to watch your team get run on.

• If feels like every play should be stopped because someone gets their hands on the RB.
• Running plays are more physical, and it feels like your team is getting bullied. 

But what the Bills are doing is keeping the game in front of them. Fans are not satisfied because they want domination. Look at the game prediction threads. People want a level of domination where the backups are playing in the 4th. That's rare in the NFL. Two of those games this year (SEA over NO & NE over CAR) were the result of special teams TD early in the game to get things out of hand. 

 

Nope

 

Not true.

 

Just read my OP, for example.

 

I do not expect a dominant d

 

Or even a "very good" defense this year

 

But a good one, a competent one, as that may be enough.

 

This does not look close to that now. THAT, and not the unrealistic expectation of greatness, is what most are calling for--read the OP and thread again and you will see that, overall.

 

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 05:01 PM by Mister Defense

[DaBillsFanSince1973]

8 minutes ago, JakeFrommStateFarm said:

Hopefully Bills fans understand that the saints are 0-4 and completely wretched.

 

If Bishop doesn't make the spectacular int OR rattler makes that easy throw to a wide open WR in the endzone, the Bills could have easily lost this game 

 

The wretched 0-4 saints did a good job moving the ball

if

[Yobogoya!]

35 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

2020 Just give it time we will figure it out.

2021  McD knows what he's doing, we will fix this.

2022 We can't help if Von got hurt

2023 How can we be good in the playoffs with half the defense hurt

2024 We just don't have the horses, let witch Beane sort this out

2025 We will really turn this around once we get healthy and more experience

 

I know it's logical to think our young guys will get better and our guys who are suspended will help. But do I have any expectation of avoiding a full on postseason breakdown that can only be saved by Josh Allen? Absolutely f'n not. Shame on you if you do at this point.

 

My favorite is every summer "it's just preseason" when we can't get off the field on third and long. 

 

Then the season starts and we still can't get off the field on third and long. 

 

What exacerbates the issue is McDermott is a "defensive coach" so there's an implicit feeling that his side of the ball should be a natural strength, along with the defensive-heavy high draft picks of the McBeane regime. You can't hate fans for thinking at some point, some year, we should look something like the 2023 Baltimore Ravens. 

[Low Positive]

1 minute ago, Mister Defense said:

 

Nope

 

Not true.

 

Just read my OP, for example.

 

I do not expect a dominant d

 

Or even a "very good" defense this year

 

But a good one, a competent one, as that may be enough.

 

This does not look close to that now. THAT, and not the unrealistic expectation of greatness, is what most are calling for--read the OP and thread again and you will see that, overall.

 

 

 

 

Name me one time that a coach was fired after a win. ONE TIME.

[Simon]

2 minutes ago, 26TrapDraw said:

Give me all of the pieces ( Milano Oliver get Hoecht back and work Hairston in slow for Tre) if we don’t improve after that then it’s time for a coach to lose his job.

 

I totally get this but the problem with it is that if you wait until all the pieces are in place and then a few more weeks to give them time to see what you have, all the sudden you're eating leftover turkey in December and now you have a bigger risk of not having time to rebuild everything with new coaching before you enter the most important part of the season.

It's one of them there conundrums....

 

[HamptonBillsfan]

On 9/29/2025 at 10:34 AM, JP51 said:

Ok who are your 3 up and down 

 

UP

 

Cameron Johnson  - Gutsy for this guy to come out in a knee brace and hold for the FG.. respect to him

 

Cook - I hearby formally apologize for being torn about if we should sign him... I was wrong... this kid makes up for very average WR core and is a threat to break it at anytime.. can you imagine if we were a down field team with a deep threat what this kid might do

 

Walker - he showed flashes in the prior 3 games... he seem to do that more consistently, fingers crossed... I could see how this kid with some experience could become a menace.. 

 

Down

 

Rousseau -  No more Groot for me until he shows up... he did make 1 tackle... but he seems all but invisible... I get bone bruise, I get setting the edge.. but for what we resigned him for we need way more... way more... he has always been streaky, but to be invisible especially on a Defense that has key injuries and is borderline really bad this guy needs to be a leader... I have not seen this to date

 

Team Tackling - be better... do this against teams looking to make the playoffs it will be the difference in games... highly disappointing, prevents us from getting off the field in 3rd and long...  If I am honest the defense in general seems unfocused and honestly lackadaisical ... there is no fired up thing LT "lets go out there like a bunch a crazed dogs"  No leader getting frustrated or in peoples faces... concerning to me...   hope we get better... but with Babich I really have little hope of that... 

 

Officiating -  Is it me or literally did they seem like they had an agenda, I dont like to blame officiating but to me this game was a fail...  maybe I am over reacting, but that is what I saw. 

 

 

How could Babich be on the hot seat at 4 and 0. He’s stuck with Beane/Sean’s roster. Did Babich pick Landon Jackson, TJ. Sanders or Hairston? Did Babich reward Rousseau for being a string bean who can’t get a sniff of the QB while getting an extension for big money? Did Babich find a way to pull off the miracle Ravens comeback down 15 with 4 minutes to go? Did Babich’s defense shut down a spirited Dolphins and Saints team on 4th quarter stops? Get back to us when the Bills lose.

[Yobogoya!]

29 minutes ago, Fleezoid said:

I can't remember the last time our defense was dominant. 

 

I can. 2014 under Jim Schwartz. 

 

Only gave up 30 once that year (to the patriots) and held half our opponents under 20. Miss that "cold front" defense. 

[Mister Defense]

29 minutes ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said:

 

Also going on 120 minutes plus of not allowing a single play greater than 20 yards.  

|

I agree, this area is better, and think it shows better safety play, a good sign. Not as many big plays.

 

But it was literally the only area I could think of that is better as I thought these things through this week. 

 

But really, all the more reason to question Babich on the big picture, on the run defense, the short passes allowed the 3rd down conversions.. as those areas should then be better, with a bit less to worry about down the field.

 

But they are looking awful.

 

 

 

 

[Fleezoid]

41 minutes ago, BuffaloMatt said:

Also only gave up 19 points. Typical McDermott type numbers. Give up more on ground then air. Break don't bend, etc.  

 

That approach works against bad, or even average teams. But in the playoffs, the teams you're playing against can overcome that approach. Those teams know how to finish drives. And then you're in a shooting match. We've seen that all too often. 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 05:27 PM by Fleezoid

[T.E.]

5 minutes ago, Yobogoya! said:

What exacerbates the issue is McDermott is a "defensive coach" so there's an implicit feeling that his side of the ball should be a natural strength, along with the defensive-heavy high draft picks of the McBeane regime. You can't hate fans for thinking at some point, some year, we should look something like the 2023 Baltimore Ravens. 

This is my issue. You used virtually all of your draft and free agency capital on defense and it looks worse than ever.

 

The injuries and suspensions are out of their hands to some degree, but they should still have some serviceable depth given how many resources they've allocated to the defense, and that obviously isn't the case. 

[boater]

I didn't have a lot of confidence in the promotion of Babich. I'd say his seat is hot.

 

The first question is:

a. take action now, in season

b. wait until the season is over

 

The second question is:

a. keep him

b. keep him, but have McDermott do the DC duties

c. fire him, hire from the outside

d. fire him, promote somebody from within

 

I vote for doing something now--and making McDermott the DC. He has a very good track record at doing that.

[Livinginthepast]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

McD exposes the real culprit of the Bills' defensive failures!!

[MJS]

36 minutes ago, Mister Defense said:

 

Yup, I know the stats, but you watched the game like I did, and maybe twice like I did.

 

Until the defense started to make a few timely splash plays, stops, and very late in the game, watching the game, it certainly looked like the barn doors were swinging wide open for the saints. I had no confidence they could stop the pass or run in any sort of consistent manner.

 

Didn't most Bills fans watching think roughly the same thing I did?

 

Definitely not something I wanted to see, in fact, my basic Bills' fan instincts shield me a little from these thoughts--I want a championship. But when those barn doors keep smashing you in the face, it wakes you up.

I actually think the bigger issue is that fans were underestimating the Saints and assuming they would come in and lay down. When they put up a fight, it was jarring for them.

 

The Bills actually had multiple stops in a row at the end of the half and in the 3rd quarter. The problem is, the offense got stopped on all those drives as well.

46 minutes ago, BananaB said:

Babich is just McDs puppet. 

Yes, in the sense that every coordinator is a puppet of the head coach. But he calls the plays. McDermott allows him to do his job.

[Buffalo Boy]

39 minutes ago, ProcessTruster said:

if

I notice that isn’t a big if

[teef]

this thread is angry.