GaryPinC

Thanks for this, I only wish our coaches could see this. It's easy to blame missed plays but you're right on in that this is how the coaching gap translated. What to do about it? I believe Beane/FO should bring in an experienced "consultant" coach to assist McDermott, a la Ernie Adams for Belichick (my brother mentioned this after the Rams game). Someone who's won it all and can work with McD and provide guidance, experience and advice on how to up their coaching game and self scout the Bills for the playoffs. Suggestions on what to change up in the playoffs. He could potentially provide anticipatory in-game suggestions also, like how to play that goal line situation with the Rams. 2 things jump out at me with McDermott: 1. He is a system guy through and through. He's shown some progress in opening his thinking (4th downs, no prevent D vs Mahomes) but it's a struggle for him and that's ok. His system has gotten us this far. 2. This is his first head coaching job and his system struggles in the playoffs. Get a respected voice in here to work with McD and find a new angle. A change is needed. This Athletic article points to the impending degradation of McDermott's process. The team did everything right and it wasn't enough.

I guess wildly off target for me would mean the receiver had little or no chance to catch it, which I completely disagree with. Kincaid had to adjust and did. His body wasn't stretched horizontal trying to reach the ball, his chest was angled up and he tried to arm scoop it into his body instead of reaching towards it with both hands. The distance and angle of the ball were such that he got his core close to the ball and was unimpeded. The throw was off but more than adequate IMO.

Yeah, I get that, for me it just rubs the wrong way. Maybe it seems too similar to all the attention seekers dramatizing their daily struggles on social media as click-bait.😄

Gotcha, thanks for explaining. The bottom line is, as a parent you have to walk the talk. There's no point in bothering if you turn into a monster and scare the hell out of her. It's got to be enjoyable and positive for you both, so how do you refocus and do that? All I could offer is this perspective: I badly want to win a Superbowl but the 90's taught me the journey and entire story is more fun. After the third loss the national mockery or pity parties took hold and I realized how much more gratifying and privileged it was to watch those teams absolutely light it up in elite football fashion except for 1 game a year compared to all the losing years of crappy, incompetence. We have the rarest of gifts with Josh and I want at least 1 superbowl but I'm going to enjoy all his amazing unstoppable performances even if the biggest one still escapes us. Especially with my daughter and family, that is far more important to me than a losing score.

Honestly, you are all over the place with your text. It sounds like there are two people talking, which one is the real you? And who is the other person? How is exposing her to the Buffalo Bills "forcing" yourself on her? The great thing about being a parent is you see parts and even a lot of yourself in them and they turn out refreshingly different because it's a different life and you help shape it! I have two kids from my first marriage, born and grown up in Cleveland and now in college. I took and showed my kids how to fish, took them to Bills games, put them in sports. My daughter likes to fish, and the Bills. My son didn't like fishing and stayed true to his hometown Browns. So, I follow the Browns and Cavs just to share that connection with him, and I know part of my daughter's Bills fandom is to share a connection. You could argue anything you expose your kids to is technically forcing but we all know that's not true. But kids love sharing and feeling your positive energy for things you are passionate about so stick with that. Expose, even repeatedly but don't force. But first you have to identify the real you here.

Sorry, not going to wallow in suffering or stratify it. We're completely lucky to have Josh and despite the bad ending following the Bills is overall interesting and fun. We lost a tough, close game in the AFC championship. Still have Josh. Woe is us.🤮 Way better than the habitually dark, hopeless tundra that is the Browns.

No one understands suffering better than the fans of the Buffalo Bills? Come on. Browns and Lions do.

So glad your son is ok too. As a parent, that is truly frightening. Especially that dark chasm of helplessness waiting for the ambulance. My daughter (who's in her 20's now) was about that age when she fell off the bed hitting her head on the slab floor. Passed out and turned a little blue until she woke up like 3 seconds later. Luckily she was fine, but ugh. I'll never forget that frantic moment holding her praying she would wake up. Then the 5-10 minutes for the ambulance to make sure she's ok. Great post and right on about seizing these moments for Beane and the coaches!

Sorry, I'm not into micromanaging every single potential issue and decision, especially as Brady deserves some amount of autonomy and we don't know exactly how that works between him and McD. I certainly support that we would try the push that had worked so well in the season and is very difficult to stop. My issue is to have an alternate plan in place for a game like this, as we ran it exactly the same way all year.

Appreciate the tidbit from Johnson, but the team felt too strongly about Levy so firing him wasn't the first step. Levy or someone should have fired Walt Corey. He bragged how he didn't have to coach that defense too much because they were so talented and their sloppiness showed in all the superbowls, especially the first three. Right after Washington, he should have been sent packing with Dickerson, IMO.

Either that or he's not overruling Brady. Don't want to short-change Brady! But somebody should have been prepared with a different alternative given this unwavering play call of ours. Just made it easier for Reid/Spagnola. Saw somewhere that after our regular season victory over them Spagnola resolved that they had to stop Allen or they wouldn't make it to the Superbowl and began planning. Wonder if any of our coaches think like/do that?

I didn't know that about Day and Kelly, thanks, yeah totally could play into it. I look at Knowles' age vs Day and quite honestly I feel the offense somewhat underperformed especially and until after the Michigan debacle so given everything here I could see Knowles feeling he was unfairly singled out. Good point about Franklin, next year will be telling, a lot of guys coming back to make a run at it. I also think Allar is too much like Christian Hackenberg between the ears, so I fear that will sabotage things. Franklin's not a bad recruiter and seems to foster a family atmosphere but has always felt like a slimy used car salesman from the sticks. Obviously his lousy decision making in big games too, but unfortunately he seems to stay in the good graces of his superiors. Knowles may be angling, just not sure he's HC material at this point. Oh well, it'll all make for good social cannon fodder drama in the B1G!

No, why would anyone be that naive? Do you believe replacing him or them will only result in a downgrading of our capabilities? My point is that Josh is mid career and what we have been doing has only gotten us to a certain level. I believe the current FO needs to tweak their approach a bit to help overcome this wall. But, if they won't, we are approaching a point where different leadership may be required to give a different result. You don't have to even like basketball to look at what's happening to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Their first year, experienced coach was targeted and brought in to get them to the next level with the same talent and even now it's obvious how much more formidable they are compared to the last several years. Their fired coach got hired right away to lead the floundering Detroit Pistons and he's having success also. For whatever reason though, he hit his ceiling with the Cavs and a tough but correct decision was made.

They do, and certainly I'm not privy to the inner workings of a coaching staff. I have to believe McDermott is a guiding hand with the game plans where he gives parameters and reviews them. I also expect at critical points in games he will weigh in if he feels strongly about a situation. I believe this because Brady and Babich are most likely not going to be here long term and I expect our head coach to pass along the hard earned playoff wisdom and set the tone and address any details he feels important in the game plan. That makes the most sense and as you mention, he is ultimately responsible.

I also saw that Ryan Day got more involved with the D (sitting in meetings) after the Oregon loss including a pointed discussion with Knowles. Who knows about the LJ thing so I'm thinking an overall perceived trust/disrespect issue drove him out. Glad to have him at PSU but not happy if it prolongs Franklin's career here. With PSU loading up for next year it'll be interesting to see if Knowles' complex system helps or hurts their chances.

Quite frankly who to choose would be up to Beane and/or an outside consultant if needed. You want a coach who will tweak the philosophy without changing the culture. But we know what we would need in a new coach. That's a huge advantage in a search and certainly those types of coaches would be attracted to this job. But yes I agree another year for McD.

Yep, he did a great job at what he does best, pulling a team together and executing his system. That's not what I'm talking about, here's what I'm talking about: https://nypost.com/2025/01/27/sports/the-sean-mcdermott-decisions-that-burned-bills-in-crushing-afc-championship-game-setback/ Coach McD addressing the failed tush pushes: “It’s been our best play all year at one or inside of one yard. We won some of those, but … they were doing a good job,” McDermott said. “I thought overall, maybe we could have disguised it, maybe not, but at the end of the day we have confidence in Josh and our offensive line to get those and they’ve been getting them all year.” Until he changes this "rely only on the system" mindset in the playoffs, we will continue to fail in the biggest moments. Even worse, how are you going to disguise the push? He simply needs to open his mind and think differently in the playoffs. I'm not saying we abandon the sneaks/push. I'm saying McD needs to realize playoffs mean top coaches and top talent. That means you better have backup plans, different looks, different wrinkles to things we've put consistently on tape all year. Self scout, especially in regards to the strengths of our opponent, ie. what are they likely to stop us from doing? Same thing on defense with Mahomes sweep right. They did it all year. No specific plan for that, trusted the system and it failed. Again. Open your mind McDermott. Realize when and where your system needs adjustments or changes and be prepared. Even if only for one game. The big games.

Yes! After 7 seasons of Josh Allen let's keep on the same exact path doing the same exact things and keep telling our players and fans to trust it. We'll keep glorifying our regular season successes instead of addressing the hard questions to push for postseason success.

Is it time to move on from McDermott? Not yet. But what is imperative is that he come up with a new focus and new direction, best on defense I think. "Trust the Process" is clearly flawed, that will eat away at the culture if unchanged. McDermott and Beane have some serious work to do to refocus this team. You can’t expect the team to keep buying into something that's not working well enough.

Yeah, I have feeling they don't practice low balls as much as they should, but understandable as less are thrown there. Still, he knows how to do it. Maybe he just misjudged it.

It was below the waist and I'd say at knee or thigh level so it wasn't like he was trying to pick it off the turf. Problem is he tried to arm/basket catch it instead of using his hands. He was in position because it was a long pass so he could track it. Very catchable ball that should have been caught. Can't agree with you that he made some massive adjustment or that it was hard to catch for a pro football player.

I'm just praying for some kind of video and Bills Mafia will donate to Vrabel's charity of choice.

😂 No, your ignorance hurts. Josh can't run downfield and catch his own throws nor play defense. He's the best quarterback this franchise has ever seen and may ever see. Jim Kelly readily admits Allen is more talented than him. This roster just doesn't have enough talent and dynamic coaching.

I wouldn't say he's had just about enough but agree it has to be creeping into his brain. No QB can play absolutely perfect, but Josh is at the top of his game and so at some point he's going to realize the FO isn't good enough if things don't change.

Yep, that's on coaching. We are an established team and you can't be content to rest on that. Extra effort to details of KC must be made if we want to beat them.