Sad as it may seem, this is three years too late

[ren1701]

11 hours ago, GG said:

However, that’s not what he is here for.  He was here to bring a championship to the beleaguered city and franchise.  And on that front, he failed miserably. 

 

The real time to part ways was after 13 seconds.  That call was all on him.  It was his decision to kick deep and not squib.  It is his defense that has failed to make the critical stop in each excruciating playoff loss.   It’s not as simple as to point out his teams’ 0’fer in overtimes, it’s to ask why those games ended up in overtime in the first place.

 

 

 

This 100%!

It's not that it happened but rather he never learned from it, in fact, he doubled down. 

[Sweats]

12 hours ago, JPL7 said:

I wanted it two years ago to get Payton. I wanted it last year to get Vrabel. And Johnson would have been a nice consolation prize. It is late, but better late than never. 

 

 

 

I wanted Vrabel and got completely flamed around here.

 

"Ole Sweats, you have no idea what you're talking about.......what the hell has Vrabel ever done?!?"

 

1st year HC in NE with a 2nd year QB and an unstellar roster, probably playing in their 1st SB in a couple of weeks........i would say, THAT's what Vrabel has done, but hey, our 9 year HC who couldn't really get us anywhere, is a "good guy"

 

Ole Sweats.......over and out

[NoelBillsFan]

Should have been fired on the field after 13 seconds.  Our defense stinks.  It’s stunk for 7 years. Bend don’t break does not work against elite qb’s ever.   I don’t care about character guys,  This guy didn’t get to a Super Bowl, let’s not even talk about winning one.   Such a disgrace.  

 

[GG]

13 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

Moving on long-term could be the right call if they hit.. but to call McDermott dick J is hyperbole of the greatest extent lol

 

 

Why?  There are far more similarities betweem the two than differences.  The biggest difference is that Jauron never came within 1 million miles of a HoF quarterback on his teams.  The guy took Jim Miller's team to 13 wins. 

[Livinginthepast]

11 hours ago, GG said:

The move was years in the making, is three years too late, but the firing optics are so bad that they’re leading to distortions of epic proportions to rehabilitate an average coach.

 

For the youngsters in this crowd, the TLDR version of this post is: Sean McDermott is Dick Jauron, but who was fortunate that he lucked out on coaching Josh Allen instead of Trent Edwards, and during a time when the rest of AFC East was in the gutter.

 

Sometimes, recency bias clouds what should have been a fairly straightforward decision, albeit three years too late.  It’s usually good practice to wait 24 hours to process the situation and come to a conclusion after more facts are known.  In this case, what would have been the reaction if McDermott was fired if Bills lost to Jax, or if he had been fired after yet another loss vs KC last year?   My guess is there would be much less consternation than now.   Which hints that people are more upset in the way he was fired than the rationale for the firing.  All of that is discussed in other threads and WGR calls.

 

But, if you take the clumsy firing and emotion out of it, the move had to be made for the team.

 

At the end of the day, McDermott is a fantastic person and a great leader of men, but is at best an average NFL coach.   I challenge anyone to prove that he’s a better coach than Dick Jauron, or at least argue that it was McDermott’s coaching mastery that guided 11-12 win seasons with Allen and Diggs, versus Jauron’s mediocrity with Losman and Trentative consistently winning 7 games in a division with peak Brady.   I’ll wait.

 

To be fair, there is a lot to commend the admiral job McDermott did to wash the stench that his predecessors left at One Bills Drive.  He brought discipline and accountability to the roster.  His team culture-building cannot be ignored in how the team rallied and battled through tough times.   His resilience and guidance after Damar’s near-death should be in every leadership textbook for decades.  His style and personality just meshed with Western New York, who adopted him as if he were their own. Nobody can and should take that away from him.

 

However, that’s not what he is here for.  He was here to bring a championship to the beleaguered city and franchise.  And on that front, he failed miserably. 

 

The real time to part ways was after 13 seconds.  That call was all on him.  It was his decision to kick deep and not squib.  It is his defense that has failed to make the critical stop in each excruciating playoff loss.   It’s not as simple as to point out his teams’ 0’fer in overtimes, it’s to ask why those games ended up in overtime in the first place.

 

In simplest terms, to win in football you need to have a stellar scheme and have players to execute the scheme to win consistently and bring home a championship. To me, if you have to sacrifice one of the two, I will always take the scheme, because it’s nearly impossible to always have the ideal players.  That’s why Wade Phillips was a defensive genius, because he adjusted the defense to the players he had.

 

Not so much with McDermott, whose scheme always needed a Chris Jones, or a healthy Star-type pivot in the front from which all other positions flow.   If you do not have an otherworldly DT who commands all the attention, the scheme falls apart and the defense gives up plays at most critical points.  So when you can’t field all stars in those positions, you call out the GM for the lack of talent in the positions.

 

By all means, it’s not a defense that sucks.  Quite the opposite, the complexity of the defense is great against dumb quarterbacks who will always make a mistake and turn it over.  That strategy is great to get you 9-10 easy wins, but tends to fail in the playoffs where you don’t see a lot of dumb quarterbacks.

 

McDermott’s defenses feast on turnovers, but has been dreadful when it needed a simple stop after 3-4 downs.  That’s been a consistent flavor in each playoff outing.  Even in the wins, how many were with a defensive stop vs a turnover?  How many times did the Bills beat the spread in a playoff game?   Only two wins in McDermott’s career were not nailbiters.  The team almost lost at home to friggin Skylar Thompson.  Is that championship caliber?

 

The biggest issue has been the defensive line, and we’ve all seen the sad statistic of the last sack by a DE in a playoff loss.  Sure, having All-Pros on the DL will add to the sacks, but scheme matters.  How many DL coaches has McDermott cycled through, with equally horrible results?  Maybe it’s not the players and coaches, but the scheme?   Why have free agent DL statistics nose dive when they hit Orchard Park?  Look up Poona Ford’s stats in his career vs one sorry year in a Bills uniform.  Are you telling me that a guy who’s a key player on a Superbowl contender couldn’t get a game day jersey in McDermott’s scheme?  Why do we need explanations that Greg Rousseau’s role is to contain rushing edge rather than rush the passer?  Which is more important?

 

McDermott’s defense never passed the eye test and has never been as dominant as the statistics showed.  He has a far greater grasp of secondary play than he does of the other positions that are also important.  That’s why it doesn’t matter who rotates in the front seven, but if there’s a hiccup among the back four – look out.

 

Compare that with what Kromer did with the OL that’s acknowledged as “elite.”    The elite stature may be a stretch, but they are very good, despite fielding two virtual castoffs from other teams.   Did the line collapse against a stout Steelers’ defense when two backups started?  Imagine the excuses we’d hear if the DL lost two stars for a game?

 

The other question to ask is why have the Bills never had the number one seed in the AFC during this playoff run?   We know why.  It’s always due to the inexplicable losses each October.  Yet, those are always washed away by the surging December wins.  The late season games’ record is undoubtedly a vindication of McDermott’s influence on the team to rise up to adversity.   And that’s wonderful if the October games didn’t count in the standings.  But they do, and you cannot wish away dumb losses to bad Atlanta, Miami, Denver, etc teams to lose the top spot.  Winning teams manage to get over the hump.

 

Maybe it’s just me nitpicking on the defense.  But that weakness is obvious to all inside and outside the team, and that’s why we need Superman Allen to come to the rescue. 

 

Think about it for a second.  Do you think there’s a little voice in Josh’s head that says, “Hey kid, you have to get a touchdown on this drive because you know the other team will just drive down the field and score.”  How many times has a good team NOT drive down the field and scored unless their stupid QB did not throw a pick?  Not too often.

 

Having that little voice in the back of your head matters.

 

So that’s that.  I love Sean McDermott as a man and as a coach and what he did for the franchise.  I also was a big Dick Jauron supporter because he was an awesome human being.   I just didn’t think he was the guy to bring a championship to the city.

I think 13 seconds became a massive albatross on McD's neck. It had a huge psychological impact on him and the team going forward and they couldnt seem to ever shake its taint. Although it was a fireable offense to blow that moment, he was never getting canned at that time, no matter how deserved. The next year he should have been fired for the no show vs Cincy but the Hamlin near death experience made that completely unfair to do that as well. Then I think the a slow lethargy set in on Pegula/Beane where they just hoped that McD would get it right and the stars would align. Never happened sadly.