mjt328

There needs to be more balance from both sides when it comes to the Sean McDermott debate. I agree that some Bills fans go totally overboard, wanting to fire him every time he misses a replay challenge or makes a slightly questionable time management decision. But I also don't think he should just get an unlimited leash for the rest of his career, like some people seem to suggest. Is Josh Allen one of the Top 2 quarterbacks in the entire NFL? Is Brandon Beane one of the best GMs in the league? If those things are both true, then why do we keep falling short of winning the Super Bowl? Not just being the champion, but we are currently at 3 straight home losses in the Divisional Round (hopefully that breaks on Sunday evening). For all our regular season success, we can't even seem to get the AFC top seed either. It's either the talent or the coaching. Can't have it both ways. We all realize where this franchise was pre-2017. We all realize what McDermott has helped build us into. He's a great guy, the locker room clearly loves him, and I really want to see him succeed. Winning the AFC East is much nicer than going back to the drought days. But I'm not willing to just keep accepting second place forever. It doesn't make me or anyone else an "idiot" for refusing to accept falling short. The Bills absolutely MUST win a championship (and soon), or something needs to change.

Weather has the potential to have a much bigger impact that people are giving it credit for. Especially if Jackson has some trouble gripping or throwing the ball. It's easy to say that weather favors the better running team. But I'm not sure that's really the case. What makes Baltimore especially dangerous is them being a dual threat. You can't just focus on Jackson or Henry. Anything that pushes them into being more one-dimensional is a huge win for us. We already know that our QB can throw the ball fine in snow and heavy winds.

He's got a point. If we've learned anything from watching Josh Allen's career, it's that he's soft and doesn't like to get hit. 🤣

The Ravens are admittedly a bad matchup for us. I've been extremely nervous about meeting them in the playoffs since Week 4. BUT the level of overconfidence and disrespect coming from that side (fans and media) is getting absolutely ridiculous. There seemed to be more people giving the Broncos a chance to upset us last week, than giving us a chance to win this game. We aren't talking about marching into Baltimore against an unstoppable 16-1 team that steamrolled everyone during the regular season. We are talking about a team that lost 5 games this year, and was still fighting for their division in the last week. We are the higher seed and playing at home. I really hope our opponent is underestimating us this much.

Pretty much. This is exactly how it's probably going to happen. It's obviously not on purpose. But it just shows our fantastic luck. We missed the playoffs for 19 years or something ridiculous. Right after we got to the top of the AFC East, they added another Wild Card team. As soon as we became the second best team in the AFC, they took the bye from the #2 seed.

Yeah, I don't understand what the poster was saying either. Kansas City has been a playoff team since Andy Reid took over in 2013. They were in the AFC Championship during Josh Allen's rookie year, and won it his second year. We have been trying to jump them from the get-go. Not the opposite. Outside of a couple injury-plagued years, Baltimore has been one of the best AFC teams for the last 15+ years. Lamar Jackson in the same draft class and broke out a year before Josh Allen. At this point, they have the same number of AFC Championship appearances during their careers. Neither has made a Super Bowl. So hard to say they have jumped us either. So that only leaves the Bengals. Who made one Super Bowl and lost it.

The media wants everyone to see Patrick Mahomes as the king of the mountain, and then Josh Allen/Lamar Jackson/Joe Burrow as the sub-tier beneath him fighting for that #2 spot in the league. But deep inside, they know that a Super Bowl ring (or two) is the only thing keeping Allen from being the top dog in the entire NFL. He is the new Peyton Manning to Tom Brady. They don't have that kind of expectation with Jackson or Burrow.

Hate to see him suffer that injury, but the personal fuel played a huge factor in us finally blowing the game open. The definition of taking one for the team.

Sorry. But nobody can claim that having a future HOF running back with over 1900 (!!!!) yards rushing isn't affecting the coverages Lamar Jackson is facing every game. QB ratings don't account for the heavy boxes, bigger personnel, the slowed pass rush, and all the other elements that factor into having Derrick Henry in the backfield. They are just an equation that tries to compile all of his passing stats. We all know that Jackson had great stats this year. But numbers alone don't make this an all-time historically great year. Maybe you didn't notice the Wild Card game just a few days ago, where the Steelers edge rushers were crashing down to tackle the running back EVERY SINGLE TIME on read-option plays. After playing the Ravens twice earlier in the season, one of the top defenses in the league felt their best chance of success was stopping Henry first. Not Jackson. I can absolutely guarantee that Buffalo's gameplan will also be to TRY shutting down the run early, turning Baltimore into a one-dimensional passing team, and forcing Jackson to beat them solely with his arm. That is not the way NFL defenses usually approach a game against a QB who just had the "4th Best Season" in NFL history.

So how exactly do you quantify the "4th best season all-time" for a QB? I've been watching this sport for over 35 years, and I wouldn't put Jackson's season anywhere near the top I've ever seen. As with the MVP debate, the argument against Jackson keeps coming back to Derrick Henry. I've probably seen a dozen Ravens games this year. And in my opinion, Henry is clearly the primary driver of that offense. He is the guy defenses are most concerned about stopping. The games he didn't play good were the games they struggled the most in. Stats never tell the whole story. As someone who watched Peyton Manning throw 55 touchdowns in one season from the pocket (using nothing but his brain and his arm)... I just can't be that impressed watching Jackson taking advantage of 7 guys playing in the box and casually tossing the ball 25 yards downfield to guys who aren't even covered.

Not worried much about the Ravens defense. Josh Allen is pretty much matchup proof. Yes, he has bad games sometimes (just like everyone else). But it's usually more about him having an "off-day" than anything the opposing defense is actually doing to him. If he's locked-in on Sunday, the Ravens aren't going to stop us from scoring. There is a legitimate reason everyone is worried about the other side... First is history. The Bills defense has historically struggled the deeper they get into the playoffs. They have historically struggled to stop Derrick Henry. And possibly their worst performance in the last 3 years was against the Ravens earlier this year. Playing the matchup game, it's just a nightmare to try and load-up front to stop Henry...AND be prepared for Lamar Jackson to run...AND have decent coverage in the secondary. That is for any defensive coordinator in the NFL. Much less an undersized team that prefers to play light boxes and Nickel personnel. My feeling is that we MUST throw some clever wrinkles at them early with our defensive looks, make stops in the redzone, and most importantly get a lead. This is not a game for our trademark slow starts. Our best hope against the Ravens is to make them one-dimensional, turn them into a passing team and make them rely on Jackson to make plays with his arm.

Well yes. Of course. Until the Bills get past those teams and win the Super Bowl, they will be known as a strong regular season team that chokes in the playoffs. As they should.

Some coaches are good at building culture, shaping a locker room and creating year by year consistency. But they just don’t have what it takes to finish the job and win a championship. McDermott may be a good coach. He may even be a great coach. But at some point, you can’t just ignore the playoff failures. Defense is supposed to be what he brings to the table. The road to the Super Bowl goes through the same guys every season (Mahomes, Jackson, Burrow). If he can’t figure out how to slow down those guys, we are just spinning our wheels. A lot of Bills fans are so terrified of possibly going back to the old drought days… they would be content stay in this cycle the rest of Josh Allen’s career.

Let’s not take a victory lap yet. This is what a decent defense was supposed to do against a rookie QB. Right now, the Bills are in the exact place they have been the previous 4 seasons. Still a long, long, long way to go. Only once were they able to get past that point (against a much inferior version of Lamar Jackson). And they still haven’t shown they can remotely slow down playoff Patrick Mahomes. Nobody is impressed winning a Wild Card game. It’s the next three games that defines who this team really is.

Please. Quit making excuses for these pathetic voters. The MVP award is narrative driven. And if you can't see how the sports media keeps switching the criteria every season in order to prop up certain players (and downplay others), then I just don't know what to tell you. Last year, you couldn't watch a Bills game without hearing how absolutely terrible Josh Allen was at turning over the ball. You would have thought he was having a Jameis Winston year or something. He absolutely crushed little MVP Jackson in every other stat. But they needed to pull Allen down. This year, not a peep. Total turnovers were never on the stat comparison between Allen/Jackson. Because this year, our guy had less. And where was all the talk mid-season about turnovers when Patrick Mahomes was leading the NFL? It's total B.S. Suddenly nobody seems to care that Jackson had Derrick Henry either, when last year we kept hearing about lack of weapons. And I don't want to hear about "normalizing stats" out either. How many voters are factoring in how many times Allen spent the 4th Quarter sitting the bench or handing the ball off, because his offense had already run up the score? In my previous post, I was nice enough to include Allen's second season, where many in the NFL were still calling him trash or a bust. Even factoring in that year (where Jackson was winning his first MVP), Allen has still scored 54 more touchdowns and racked up over 3,000 more yards over the past six seasons. The simple truth is... Allen is a better player. It's really not close. It hasn't been close since 2020. Yet voters keep picking the other guy. Not just for MVP, but also for All-Pro, Pro-Bowl, etc. We can all theorize the reasons. But it's pretty clear the sports media keeps moving the goalposts.

The Bills get disrespected like this every year. Half the time, Josh Allen doesn't even make the Pro Bowl. I'm waiting for the year they actually do something about it.

Statistics over the last five years: Total Yards: Allen (27,871), Jackson (24,336) Total TDs: Allen (242), Jackson (188) Team Wins: Allen (71), Jackson (68) Yet somehow Jackson will likely have 3 MVP awards during that period of time, while Allen has zero. There is clearly bias... either for one player, or against one player, or both. No other explanation.

It's not hard to argue against it. People have been making rock solid arguments why it should be Josh Allen for well over a month now. When Josh Allen has the better stats, they give it to Jackson for other stuff (team record, big games, supporting cast). When Josh Allen has the other stuff, they give it to Jackson because of stats.

Completely take away those two Super Bowl seasons, and he's still got a ring. Not to mention two additional AFC titles and four additional appearances in the Championship game. If the Bills had that resume at the end of Allen's career, I would be thrilled. The Chiefs barely blink and they are sitting in the Final Four. McDermott has one trip past the Divisional Round, and it was an absolute grind to get there. With Allen at QB and his supposed genius as a defensive coach, he shouldn't NEED a superstar to make the next step. If his defense could just play average for 4 straight playoff games, we would probably win it all.

This kind of thing absolutely must factor into the conversation. Regardless of the sport, the MVP award is hugely significant in a player's all-time legacy. Over the last 4-5 seasons, Josh Allen has consistently been one of the top runners-up to the award. Even when his statistics have been better, he's been edged out by someone else due to other outside factors (team record, surrounding players, big game performance, etc.) Last year was obviously the most relevant to that conversation, since Lamar Jackson won it, despite being outside the Top 10 in both touchdowns and yards. How will NFL historians look back at this era in 20-25 years. If Jackson is somehow a 3x MVP during this period, then he would certainly have been the most dominant player in the league, with the best stats and the best team. Yet strangely, when you add everything up... Allen has the better stats by far, along with a better record. That can't happen unless the voters are changing criteria every single year.

Lamar Jackson is not good in the playoffs. Mike Tomlin is much, much worse.

At what point does not winning the Super Bowl become unacceptable? The Bills have a future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback in his prime. Possibly the best player in the entire NFL, and a Top 2 QB in the minds of almost everyone who watches the sport. Going strictly by the numbers, his postseason stats are also among the best in all of NFL history. We're talking comparable to guys like Brady and Montana. When you think about it, the fact that we haven't even made a Super Bowl or survived past the Divisional Round in the last 3 years is one of the biggest failures in all of sports. Regardless of how much I enjoy watching Josh Allen... yes, the Bills are absolutely wasting season after season if they can't win the Super Bowl. Even a below average performance by our defense would probably be enough. But in the playoffs, we have continually suffered with some of the worst performances anyone has ever seen on that side of the ball. Unable to sniff the opposing quarterback. Unable to force turnovers. Unable to force punts.

The closer you get to the Lombardi, the more it hurts when your team's season ends. No matter how much the drought sucked, it will never compare to the pain of something like Wide Right. Many of us have PTSD, because we still remember when the 1990s teams were just emerging. Loaded with talent and future Hall of Fame players. Dominating year after year in the AFC. Always coming up just a little bit short at the end. It was inevitable they were going to win a Super Bowl at some point. Then one January in Orchard Park, the Jaguars pulled off the upset. And suddenly it was over. I want to believe that Josh Allen winning the Super Bowl is inevitable. But the truth is, it's gone in a blink. Every year that passes without winning it all, it's one more season we've wasted of a Hall of Fame quarterback's career.

I never hold the Defense responsible if they hold the other team under 20 points. I never hold the Offense responsible if they score more than 30 points.

I'll just say this. If the Bills defense has trouble with Nix, then it's time to replace Sean McDermott and completely overhaul that side of the ball. System, scheme and talent. Burn it down and start from scratch. You are never going into the postseason healthier than the Bills are right now. No more BS excuses from the defense. The path to the Super Bowl is going through Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, etc... and it will be that way for the rest of Josh Allen's career. We can't hope to someday get lucky and avoid them in the postseason. Every year is going to require us slowing down a combination of those QBs. If this unit struggles against Nix while he's a rookie in his first playoff game... then God help us.