Alphadawg7

I didn't say McD "succeeded", I said the defense went up a level under McD in the short window we got to see it before decimation by unfortunate injuries. There were more defensive failures than just the final 2 minutes of the KC game and OT including both playoff games last year. All good either way, we are never going to agree on this, and that is ok...just differing opinons But for me personally, I am open to McD bringing in or promoting someone to DC so he can focus on HC duties...but just don't want to see Frazier or anyone who runs a similar bend don't break soft defense.

Buy: Shakir & Kincaid - The Knox injury has opened up more opportunities for both of them, and these guys are on the rise Sell: Dorsey - Ive lost all confidence that he can call a consistent game and I think he is just in over his head Hold: Cook - Talent is there, he just isn't getting used to his potential. I expect they find more ways to get him more touches, even if its short passes as an extension of the run game.

You say Leslie was never the issue, yet under McD the defense was doing better prior to losing its 3 most important players. Leslie was here a long time...and during his time here, the defense did not play to the same level in the playoffs as it did during the regular season. His bend don't break style not only was exposed by better teams, but it also kept those better teams in games. And sorry, the collapse was not just the last 2 min of the game, although that was definitely the most egregious part of it. I mean, we gave up 42 points in that game, only 17 came in the final 2 minutes. Against the Bengals the next week, Chiefs scored just 3 points in the 2nd half vs a defense that was ranked significantly lower than ours. Again...rinse and repeat. Bills high ranked D is exposed in playoffs...same team loses next week by being held in check by a much lower ranked defense. And again...first across the board in all major categories on defense under McD prior to the slue of unfortunate injuries. Is Frazier a good DC...sure...but there are a lot of good coaches who have a history of not getting it done in the big games, and Frazier is firmly on that list from his own record. Every coach in the NFL can hide behind "not enough talent on the D"...the issue here is that defense that you say "talent" was the issue would be ranked top 3 all season before laying an egg in the playoffs. So can't tell me its lack of talent when that lack of talent can beat the KC's of the world in the regular season but can't in the playoffs. Not to mention, teams with less defensive talent are going on to beat these teams beating us the very next week.

I know @GunnerBill you have been a long time defender and supporter of Frazier, but I honestly just don't get it. If the Miami Dolphins were a DC, they would be Leslie Frazier because like the Dolphins, Fraziers defenses would rank well statistically against mediocre to weak competition, but come playoff time against quality competition they were soft, weak, and exposed. Teams in the playoffs would light up the Bills D and then go literally lose the very next week and have their offenses held in check by lesser defenses. This year, before three season ending injuries to arguably our 3 most important players on Defense, the McD led defense was 1st in sacks, 1st in interceptions, 1st in turnovers, 1st in point differential and giving up just 13 points per game, and that includes playing the Miami offense. And even with those injuries, while the defense has fallen off statistically, they have kept us in games well enough for us to have won all of them had our offense not been so flat the last 5 weeks avg just 19 PPG during that stretch despite no significant injuries.

Frazier sucks

I think McD is doing just fine as DC, so I am not worried about that personally. But OC, no more inside promotions if they are just gonna keep running a similar offense and not put a real stamp on it. I would much rather see someone come in from the outside and bring just new thoughts and designs to this offense

I hear ya, and its why Beane went out and added Rasul and Linval. But for me, a much more concerning trend is the offense averaging 19 points a game for last 5 weeks while having no injuries and playing the easiest part of our schedule. Our defense has kept the scores low enough to where this team could be undefeated had the offense just done its part. And that is with an insanely bad luck run of injuries to the D while the O has not had any real significant injuries.

Great write up, thanks for the time to do that and the replies. Everything you are saying here about Gabe and in your replies is exactly where my frustration have been with him and why I have been beating the drum for Shakir since the offseason to be more involved in this offense and passing game. And its been great seeing Shakir really come through with the opportunities he has been getting since Knox has been out. I don't like or trust Dorsey, and my big concern is that when Knox is back is he going to take Shakir off the field more again to get both Knox and Kincaid on it at the same time. I really hope not, Shakir IMHO is showing that the offense runs better with him out there and I really want to see his snaps increase rather than decrease.

I mean when you lose Tre, Milano, and Jones for the season by the first quarter of week 5 this is what happens. Not to mention other key guys missed some timet too like Oliver and Bernard. Its not a defensive trend as much as it is an injury trend.

All of the above

The issue he has only like 5 such games in his 4 year career and done very little rest of the games. Theory: Davis seasonal life cycle: Davis has good game. In the subsequent games he garners extra defensive attention and he becomes irrelevant. After so many games of being irrelevant, defenses forget about him again and don't apply extra attention and he has another random good game. Rinse and Repeat. Results in a a couple good games a season and then a bunch of meh to irrelevant games the rest of the year.

No disrespect...there are so many things in this post that make no sense that it would take too long to address them all.

Im not making any excuses for McD. I am simply stating Dorsey is making the offensive decisions. People keep falsely calling this McD's offense, McD wants to be conservative, etc etc. All of it is incorrect. You want to be pissed at McD, which you clearly are, then nothing wrong with that. But people need to separate facts from anger because the facts are that the offense out there on Sunday is Dorseys design, his scheme, his play calling. He is the big problem on offense. I get the whole low hanging fruity blanket statements of "Well McD is the HC, so it all falls on him"...well that is all fine and dandy, but its also not so cut and dry as if McD is in the offensive meetings helping design the offense and gameplan. McD can tell Dorsey what he wants all day long, but its up to Dorsey to design and execute that on gamedays, not McD. So be pissed at McD for not firing Dorsey yet, I am too. But to keep ranting on a message board that it is McD that needs to fix the offense or that the offense is a product of him is just not based in the reality of the situation. Like I said before...the people who have been anti-McD are making this more about him to feed that bias of wanting him gone, but the reality is Dorsey is the root problem on game day of why our offense is sputtering. But hey, if you want to be mad at McD for not firing Dorsey yet, fair game. I didn't say he has no input, I mean both Dorsey and McD have said he does. I am saying he doesn't have the input some people think. He isn't, even as HC, in the offensive meetings scheming plays and game plans.

You have a clear bias towards McD. If gas prices go up its like you will blame McD for that too. McD does not have the input on the offense you think he does. If you spent time watching actual interviews with McD, Beane, Dorsey, Daboll, etc over the past few years you would know that. Yes, Dorsey is a coach on his staff. But firing a coordinator in season is not something teams looking to compete for championships take lightly, especially ones who have had some success already. They will look at continuity more than change there and try and fix the issues before making a drastic move. Now, I personally think Dorsey should be fired, but I also think the odds of them doing it now are low and if there was going to be an in season change it might come the week before our bye to give whoever is taking over time to settle in. So you can keep raging about McD all you want, but that doesn't mean you are correct about how much involvement he has on the offensive scheme. The offense is Dorseys no matter how much you want to absolve him so you can blame the guy you are more out for in McD.

Cut him and send a message.

Feels like people are just trying to reinforce their initial skepticism of hiring a "defensive" coach. Dorsey literally said he was trying to mix up the styles. People want to keep ignoring the facts and just blame it all on McD. And if people have issues with McD, all good...but the offense...its not him. It is Dorsey. In fact, despite TSW's best efforts to say otherwise, McD has actually been quite aggressive as a HC offensively, and easily the most aggressive we have had here in decades. Im pissed at McD too...but its because he hasn't fired Dorsey yet.

People who already didn't like McD just want to assign the offensive blame to him to pile on their case against him. But the reality is, offensively, Dorsey is the substantial problem. But if McD and Beane don't find the balls to fire Dorsey then Dosey is probably going to take at least one of them down with him at a later date. FIRE DORSEY already! The offense has been searching for an identity for a year and a half, its pathetic Dorsey still can't establish one.

No disrespect, but I hate these post one play videos people post on twitter who have no idea with the read progression or play call was. Harty had 1 on 1...if Josh thinks there is a play there he is not going to go past that read, he is taking that shot. I think people have a misunderstanding of how a QB reads the field...there seems to be this assumption that he scans all receivers then makes a decisions on who is best. They throw the moment they see a target where they think they have a play, meaning they will not see every WR on the field before throwing.

I think he has to be, but if McD doesn’t get rid of him and sticks with him, then I think it ends bad for McD and he will go down with Dorsey.

You are again choosing to interpret pointing out that it was a Dorsey answer he was relating as some sort of defense of McD. But I haven’t defended McD at all and said feel free to be mad at him for any other reasons. Personally I think Dorsey is going to be McDs downfall

No you didn't lol, that was from October 23rd lol

I didn't say anything of the sort, that may be your interpretation, but that is not what I said. What I said was this is McD relaying the reasoning Dorsey had for not running the uptempo offense. Dorsey runs the offense and calls the plays. McD is not running the team, defense, and offense. McD didn't know why we didn't run the uptempo until he spoke to Dorsey and he was given this answer by Dorsey. That is not a defense of McD, that is just correcting this misleading thread where it keeps getting repeated as if it was actually McD in game making those offensive decisions when it was not. Now if people want to be upset with McD for not firing Dorsey then fair game. They want to be upset with McD for other reasons...fine. But this typical "read a tweet" and not get all the info outrage is again inaccurate and the wrong guy is being slammed for it. You want to be pissed off over the meat of the answer, then be pissed off at the actual guy who made that decision...Dorsey.

I would recommend stop reading one tweet and go listen to all 3 full interviews...both of McD's and then Dorseys.

I mean you are literally replying to a comment where I literally said be upset with him for that lol. Point is, this is Dorseys offensive philosophy and he needs to go.

No disrespect @HappyDaysbut we have not lost a single game because our defense was the issue. We lost 4 games because the offense sucked. The defense has held opponents scores low enough for us to be undefeated right now, but our offense is averaging 19 points a game over that stretch above. The offense isn't sustaining drives and putting the defense back out on the field. The offense is turning the ball over and giving short fields. The offense is anemic and hasn't scored over 25 since Miami. Meanwhile, our offense has 0 relevant injuries...none. The defense lost arguably its 3 best players in Tre, Milano, and Jones and played games and parts of games without Oliver, Bernard, etc. If you take your best players off the field of any unit on any team its going to make a significant impact. Yet that decimated defense has held opponents in check enough for us to win every single game had our offense just did its part. Instead, we are 2-3 and were one lucky play in each of the Giatns and Bucs games from being 0-5 because the offense sucked for all of half of each of those games. In 4 of those games, the Bills had just 1 TD scored heading into the 4th quarter. So for me, just being honest, I can not fathom how there can be any anger towards our defense who despite missing all its talent is still doing enough for us to win while our all world offense that is fully healthy is doing nothing to help us win.