hondo in seattle

It's worse than that. Ulbrich said about Downing: he will have "the full say on the game plan and, ultimately, the plays that are called within the game." If Hackett isn't calling plays and isn't in charge of the game plan, he's really not the OC anymore. Ulrich is doing what Saleh supposedly wanted to do.

I didn't watch this video right away because I was afraid it would be depressing. Just watched it now. I was right. Bottom line: the players and coaches all sucked that game.

I thought the same. We needed a TD there. Mitch isn't a great QB but there's gotta be at least one pass play in the playbook that he can execute pretty well. Just one. That's the play I would have called against a defense that was clearly expecting a run.

Like Big Turk, I'd be up for anything. I wouldn't even mind seeing Tommy Prothro's "Formation Zero..."

Really 10 drops? It seemed to me like there were a lot of contested balls that were difficult receptions. Contested balls can be the result of: Bad throws Receivers not getting separation The OC not scheming properly and/or calling plays that gain separation Poor QB vision and decision making - not throwing to the open guy In any case, the passing offense was dysfunctional and for that I mostly blame Beane for not getting us better players and Brady for not getting the guys we do have to execute better.

When I saw this live, I blamed Hollins for not tracking and adjusting to the ball well. But when I watch the replay, I see he's sprinting as fast as he can to the very end to get under the ball. He did curve quite a bit toward the end to adjust to the "wrong" shoulder. He should have changed direction earlier and taken a straighter line to the point where the ball was going. But the fault isn't egregious. On the whole, I'd say this is 90% on Josh and 10% on Mack. A faster receiver could have gotten under the ball, but Josh was throwing to Mack and should have put it in a more catchable spot.

I voted "no" with reservations. I agree with others that it's not straight forward. I appreciate the work Beane's done turning this downtrodden team into perennial competitors. But the goal is to build a SB team and, so far, he's failed. We don't have a SB quality roster and haven't since the 1990s. Beane's given out two big FA contracts: Diggs and Miller. Neither player worked out the way we hoped. Both contracts were problematic and hurt our ability to acquire other, much needed players. With the cap being what it is, paying a player $30M to play for another team is just dumb. Maybe there was no good solution at that point but Beane took a chance on a player with a prima donna reputation and put us in that position. Beane's draft record is mixed. His FA acquisitions are also a mixed bag. During his tenure, we typically field a team with good depth players but too few playmakers on offense or defense. And I'm frustrated that Josh has had to run for his life much of his career thus far.

Why is Joe Brady not on this list?

Yeah. Whatever the intent was, I wish he had that back too. We didn't deserve to win that game but at the end we had a chance thanks to a couple of takeaways and blew it. I'd still be complaining about Brady if we had won but it's a lot more fun criticizing and whining with a W.

Probability says teams should be roughly .500 in close games. On the other hand, the Bills aren't just a random team. They're a good team. They should win close games more often than lose them. You gotta give McD credit for a 38-17 season record over that span. But the close game record is a legit cause for concern.

I blame everyone. Beane didn't give Brady and Josh good wideouts. And the pass pro since Beane's been here has been inconsistent. When you have a generational talent at QB, you need to hire a quality bodyguard that can keep him upright in a pretty pocket to optimize his production. McD isn't good at hiring OCs. Brady isn't good at scheming a passing game. Josh sometimes makes bad decisions with the ball. As Kurt Warner says, he needs to get the ball out on schedule to the intended receiver instead of looking for something better. He has his best (i.e. most error free) games when he does this.

I think the intent was to get a first down and then call 3 running plays to help run out the clock.

Yep, the run game looked good. Cook averaged 4 yards per carry. Ty averaged 5. Josh 13. To help open up a struggling passing game, we needed to show the threat of the run. So why the empty sets?

It was sometimes hard to pinpoint blame during the game. I texted a friend of mine, that the O was "out of sync." Sometimes passes were a little off. But maybe they were a little off because the route wasn't crisp and precise. One pass hit Coleman in the head when he wasn't expecting it. Other times, the OL missed assignments and Josh was hurried. The offense just didn't execute well as a whole - except for maybe J. Cook. Who's supposed to drill execution: Joe Brady.

It's a good point Biscuit but... * Josh has been less productive (ypg) this season than he was under Daboll or Dorsey. * Josh just recorded the worst completion percentage for a game of his career. * Kincaid and especially Knox are both unproductive this year. * Samuel's production should have gone up with a better QB. Instead it's gone done. * Mack Hollins averaged 41 ypg in his one previous season as a starter. This year he's averaging 11. What's the common denominator in these sad production stories? Joe Brady. Everybody Eats = Nobody Eats

I'm a big believer in the human capacity to learn and grow. I previously mentioned it in another thread when defending Brady's Carolina's past. But he's been around football since he was a child. He's been a college game passing game coordinator and NFL OC before. That's a lot of learning and growing. And he still has failures like these past two games? Maybe he just doesn't have what it takes. I'm like Anakin. I was on the side of the Jedi but I've gone over to the Dark Side now. I started the season cautiously optimistic about Brady's offense. I'm now solidly pessimistic and regret arguing against the board's pessimists. Brady might put together another good game or two but, sadly, I currently don't expect our offense to be very successful this year.

Brady took a decent wideout, linked him up with one of the best QBs in the NFL, and transformed him into a nonentity. That takes some kind of skill.

I was never fully on the Brady train, but I'm decidedly off now. The past two weeks have been embarrassing. I get our wideouts aren't good. But Josh Allen is the QB. Our passing offense should never look this bad. I think McD is a good defensive coach. I mostly think he's a good head coach. But I'm irritated that he's whiffed on 3 of 4 OC choices.

If I was a defender on that play, I might maybe be thinking they're using Josh as a decoy. And I might maybe be thinking they're going to throw to Josh. But mostly what I'm thinking is that they're going to get the ball to Josh and he's going to throw. As others have said, this play design fools no one.

The quality of the announcers has little impact on my joy of watching the game. Mostly I watch Bills games. Sometimes the commentary is useful but mostly I'm just look at the scoreboard, down and distance, and the action on the field. If the Bills are winning, the commentary doesn't make it any better. If the Bills are losing, the commentary doesn't make it any worse. For non-Bills games, it does matter somewhat. I want the play-by-play guy to correctly call the play with an appropriate level of drama and enthusiasm. And the color commentary to notice & report things that I don't know. But the difference between a good NFL commentating team and a bad one, for me, so slight as to have little impact on my enjoyment of the game. It's all about the drama & struggle on the field.

As I casual observer who doesn't do All-22, I agree with #2!

Bills rebound in style Buffalo 31 Texans 17

True... But here's my logic. I want to score TDs, not FGs. And I want our D to stop TDs. DT? Not our biggest problem. Safety? DE? Both tempted me. WR? Bingo! To maximize Josh's productivity, I dream of seeing him behind a solid OL with open receivers streaking across the field. We've seen some nice pockets this year though the Ravens game was disappointing. We have NOT seen enough separation from the wideouts.

I think I heard someone say we run the 4-2-5 about 72% of the time either last year or this year so far. Most NFL teams last season used the nickel as their base. It's not unique to McD. Nor does McD employ it exclusively. We saw 4-3 for example for a drive or two against the Ravens. Neither the Bills nor any other team use it on every play.

I'm usually good with just one day of Fandom Seppuku when the Bills lose. Then I let my Stoic training take over, shrug my shoulders, and move on. But this one is different. We didn't lose. We got destroyed. We were both outplayed and outcoached and fully deserved the painful score than showed up on the scoreboard. And that causes me to worry about the strength of the team. I may be in Fandom Seppuku mode until the next win. Winning cures everything: depression, PTSD, ED, FS... But thanks for the upbeat post.