What does "Complementary Football" mean in Bills Coachspeak?

[Chaos]

17 minutes ago, Freddie's Dead said:

I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that you actually used the correct term, complementary football.  "Complimentary" football is either football that's free to all, or it's when Josh says "Nice catch, Dawson" and Dawson says "Nice throw, Josh."

I blundered at first. but then corrected it. I was helped out by a grammar nazi. 

[The Jokeman]

 

 

1 hour ago, sven233 said:

It means you have a lack of top talent and the only way you can win is with a ball control offense and hopefully limiting the other teams offensive snaps so your terrible defense doesn't have to be on the field as much.

 

What it is, is a losers mentality.  Screw complimentary football.  Build an offense around the best player on the planet and blow teams off the field.  Score 40 and make a couple stops on defense and you will be a much better team.  If you can get out ahead of teams and make them 1 dimensional, you will actually make it much easier on your undersized defense.  But we don't have a coach that wants to play that way.

Apparently you missed the 1990s Super Bowl run Bills. 

[Chaos]

2 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

 

 

Apparently you missed the 1990s Super Bowl run Bills. 

Do you mean the team that made it to the Super Bowl four times in a row.  I am not sure nine years of no super bowls is better. Maybe that is just me. 

[The Jokeman]

4 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Do you mean the team that made it to the Super Bowl four times in a row.  I am not sure nine years of no super bowls is better. Maybe that is just me. 

Those teams were flawed. If we ran any kind of traditional offense we might have won  a Super Bowl or two IMO. Yet everyone wants to go crazy over our great offense until it fell apart in the most important game of the season. Not just once but four times. 

[BigAl2526]

Offense, defense and special teams are each part of the solution and none is part of the problem when it comes to the challenge of winning games.  

[WideNine]

4 hours ago, bmur66 said:

It means control the clock and don't score too fast because you will expose the defense.

This is the narrative that gets the most play as if the offense did the defense any favors last week.

Twice the Bills offense turned the ball over deep in their own zone only to have the defense limit Houston to 2 field goals:
 

1. Interception #1: Josh Allen was picked off by Calen Bullock after a tipped pass late in the second quarter. The return was wiped out by penalty, but Houston started at the Bills’ 25-yard line and kicked a field goal.

 

2. Fumble: Khalil Shakir lost the ball after a catch in the third quarter. Bullock forced it, and Jaylen Reed recovered at the Bills’ 22-yard line, leading to another field goal.

Other than the Cook long TD, the offense did not put any points on the board. We had 2 field goals and a STs kickoff return for a TD. Josh Allen threw for 253 yards but had zero passing touchdowns, two interceptions, and was sacked eight times. Not arguing that we have a good defense - we don't, but the offense has been inconsistent too and not very complimentary either.


 

[JP51]

Do your job.

[HappyDays]

3 hours ago, sven233 said:

Screw complimentary football.  Build an offense around the best player on the planet and blow teams off the field.  Score 40 and make a couple stops on defense and you will be a much better team.

 

Yes. The mistake they made is they decided the goal is to have 8 possessions and score TDs on 50% of them. The league average is less than 25% of drives turn into TDs so we intentionally set the margin for error impossibly low. With the best player in the league at QB, the proper goal should be score 40 PPG and screw the down to down efficiency. The Tampa Bay win may not have been "efficient" or "complementary" QB play but you look up and all of a sudden Allen has 6 TDs. That should be the game script that you build the team around. The offense doesn't need to complement anything, it needs to run up the score and make the other two phases practically irrelevant. Especially under current management when you can never rely on the other two phases to lead the way in big games. McDermott made the mistake of betting on his process instead of betting on his unicorn, and he unfortunately dragged Beane down the same path.

[BADOLBILZ]

40 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Yes. The mistake they made is they decided the goal is to have 8 possessions and score TDs on 50% of them. The league average is less than 25% of drives turn into TDs so we intentionally set the margin for error impossibly low. With the best player in the league at QB, the proper goal should be score 40 PPG and screw the down to down efficiency. The Tampa Bay win may not have been "efficient" or "complementary" QB play but you look up and all of a sudden Allen has 6 TDs. That should be the game script that you build the team around. The offense doesn't need to complement anything, it needs to run up the score and make the other two phases practically irrelevant. Especially under current management when you can never rely on the other two phases to lead the way in big games. McDermott made the mistake of betting on his process instead of betting on his unicorn, and he unfortunately dragged Beane down the same path.

 

 

In fairness........McDermott's "complementary football" phase won 24 of the next 27 meaningful regular season games.

 

As you said,  the problem was assuming that efficiency was sustainable with modest to bad passing game personnel despite seeing it fail with ball-in-hand at the end of the two Brady playoff losses.   And a sh!tty offensive performance against Baltimore in a narrow home win.

 

They drew the wrong conclusions.  

 

As did most of the fans who have pounded their fist relentlessly about the defense costing the Bills SB trips for years.

 

Both sides of the ball have underperformed their regular season numbers by a exactly a touchdown in the elite 8 level of the playoffs since 2020 yet some fans think the offense has been on point and the defense is down -14 per game.

 

Not the case.

 

When your strength is the #1 difference making player in football......lean into THAT.

[Chaos]

I think most fans understand the offense has been mismanaged for several years. 

[mjt328]

My guess is that he's mostly talking about field position.

When the offense turns the ball over or fails to move, it makes it harder for the defense to stop a scoring drive.

When the defense gets turnovers and stops the opponent deep, the offense doesn't have to go as far to score.

 

The fear amongst many fans is that he's also talking about time of possession, and limiting possessions.

In other words, the offense shouldn't score too quick, because it puts the defense back on the field without much rest.

 

Which if course is asinine and foolish when you have a Hall of Fame QB, and your plan is to play ball-control.

[frostbitmic]

The Offense staying on the field for as long as possible to keep the Defense off the field is complimentary football.

[The Jokeman]

8 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

My guess is that he's mostly talking about field position.

When the offense turns the ball over or fails to move, it makes it harder for the defense to stop a scoring drive.

When the defense gets turnovers and stops the opponent deep, the offense doesn't have to go as far to score.

 

The fear amongst many fans is that he's also talking about time of possession, and limiting possessions.

In other words, the offense shouldn't score too quick, because it puts the defense back on the field without much rest.

 

Which if course is asinine and foolish when you have a Hall of Fame QB, and your plan is to play ball-control.

I'm pretty sure Tom Brady made the HOF doing this.

Edited 47 minutes ago by The Jokeman

[FireChans]

2 hours ago, WideNine said:

This is the narrative that gets the most play as if the offense did the defense any favors last week.

Twice the Bills offense turned the ball over deep in their own zone only to have the defense limit Houston to 2 field goals:
 

1. Interception #1: Josh Allen was picked off by Calen Bullock after a tipped pass late in the second quarter. The return was wiped out by penalty, but Houston started at the Bills’ 25-yard line and kicked a field goal.

 

2. Fumble: Khalil Shakir lost the ball after a catch in the third quarter. Bullock forced it, and Jaylen Reed recovered at the Bills’ 22-yard line, leading to another field goal.

Other than the Cook long TD, the offense did not put any points on the board. We had 2 field goals and a STs kickoff return for a TD. Josh Allen threw for 253 yards but had zero passing touchdowns, two interceptions, and was sacked eight times. Not arguing that we have a good defense - we don't, but the offense has been inconsistent too and not very complimentary either.


 

The distinction is that we intentionally favor the defense in terms of investment strategy in spite of the offense, then run an offensive strategy to specifically benefit the defense.

 

If the Bills had drafted a bunch of good weapons around Josh the last 4 years, the performance against Houston would be unacceptable. But they didn’t. 

7 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

I'm pretty sure Tom Brady made the HOF doing this.

Tom Brady actually left the Pats and won a Super Bowl elsewhere when they surrounded him with garbage and they had an inglorious playoff exit.

[Rat-boy]

7 hours ago, CirclnWagons said:

Typically, you’re 100% correct in your thought about all facets of the game working together in a team based synergy. With the bills however, complimentary football is throwing a lower tier mix of has beens, never were’s and James Cook out there every Sunday and praying that Josh Allen can continue to pull out plays that no other human being on this earth can accomplish, consistently enough to stay competitive and possibly even win despite incompetence filling every office at one bills drive. 

I see there’s no thread here in which at least one person has to start grinding the same old axe. Let the pile-ons, pointless echoing, and regurgitation begin — it makes for such fascinating reading. 😂