london_bills

Exactly what crossed my mind yesterday. The bengals, Lewis and Dalton

It's been a successful season but it's a bit messy aswell - it's hard to see where the full blame lies and perhaps it doesn't fully lie with one person. That makes it more complex when decisions have to be made in the future. 1. A head coach with a winning record and playoffs who is a great motivator, who is defensive and seems to be a bit fearful on game-day, at least cautious, and is content to hold a lead due to his defensive pedigree. A head coach who has done great with the defence but we let a lead slip that we had built and some 'taking the points' decisions can be looked at in retrospect. Fake a bloody FG! . A coach who looks overwhelmed at times on game-day. 2.A QB who I wouldnt swap for anyone right now in terms of entertainment but looks like mahomes one minute and mark sanchez the next. And looks overwhelmed at times. It certainly is a bit harsh piling on him but something is wrong at times and no way it's always Dabolls fault. 3. An OC who does not seem to integrate what works early on back into the gameplan. Trickery early and then no trickery later. Later, a successful screen pass and then they don't go back to it. He goes away from the run. Tends to not call the game in a way the game is flowing and. Ultimately, we need more TDs of course and this falls on all 3 of them and the personell. An OC who looks overwhelmed at times. End of the half and McDermott and Allen did not seem on the same page with spiking the ball, letting time run off the clock. There's a lack of something at times, composure, fearlessness, execution.. There is what teams do and there is how teams look doing it. The team looks coached and solid one minute, then underprepared and shaky the next. This basic incompetence is what bothers me about the 'growing pains' arguement. Let's say Daboll's in trouble.. adding to this is how many more OC's mcdermott can hire and fire before he's on the block. Unless the pegulas have ultimate faith in him. Maybe the answer is what we are seeing now, adding new players and continuing development. In the future, maybe the answer is mcdermott with a different QB. Maybe the answer is Allen with an offensive minded head coach, or another OC.

They've lateraled the interview.

Fair take, fair perspective. No way they blow it up. But THEY have to make the right decisions moving forward if we are going to be a championship team. 10-6 record and the playoffs, looking great going in at half time away. At times looking like a good team. This should not be ignored. We lose the game with a poor second half performance, we are seeing ineptitude and desperation at times in games. This should not be ignored either. Let's entertain that both is these things are happening.

That look of panic you mention, lack of composure. That josh - it's the same 'rattled' thing we talk about every game. After a good first half aswell. '4th quarter josh' wasn't there yesterday and the narrative that he is winning games there has started to grind to a halt. We did stop running the football that is true.

Any competent offense should be able to.

I can imagine the players don't want to people to come out and cheer them after a loss.

The defence has protected Allen. Kept the scores low.

Yeah!

It didn't have a negative impact. But it could have. For me it was more symptomatic of how reckless Allen can play sometimes, I do understand he makes plays out of nothing. It's when the reckless plays feel a bit desperate when I have a problem.

The issue is that the field goal was not a gimme and we all breathed a sigh of relief when it went through. We Took two shots at the end zone sure, but I wonder if this ties into the 'Josh allen doing too much thing' from mcd. Situational football, a short throw to make the kick a 35 yarder and less missable. That's not what I mean. No need to throw a lateral with that long on the clock. Some people were defending the lateral because of the fact it stopped the clock!!

You know what mcdermott is like with ball security. the lateral would of annoyed him with 1:04 left.

Was that when he was tying his shoelace? ?

Something I thought about was why wasn't Allen trying to get Hauschka in a better range there. I recall we didn't have a timeout but could of spiked it. I think we had 15 seconds?? I cant recall the players and who was open but the point is to have an awareness of where to throw to. We tried twice to the end zone to Williams from memory.

People were saying it was good play because it stopped the clock!!! You mention there being 1:04 left on clock, there were a few plays that felt like they were desperate last play of the game plays, when there was actually lots of time left.

Exactly

He's exciting as hell to watch, other than that the jury's still out. This comment from twitter made me laugh: I really identify with how Josh Allen just randomly completely forgets how to do his whole job

He doesn't answer injury questions directly after a playoff loss. This interview comes straight after a frustrating loss when the bills were up. He is only human, as is Allen. But remember as a coach it can also be naturally frustrating to have a player after two years still do the things that you would like to see improved. This can be another way of exerting your message as a head coach. I didn't think that is what is going on here although I might be wrong. Your last paragraph is very interesting and he is always very astute at this media managing I think. He is savvy, and could intentionally say something to cause a deflection of blame but here I think it's a bit careless and overly honest. In a way I respected his candour and the less political answer. Not sure allen would of. Yes if I was Allen I might feel annoyed with this but I thought he was trying to do too much as the game went on!

Right. Its not quite how it's made out to be.

I take your point. I don't think the deflection is conscious. It does say to me that mcd feels that Allen was a contributor to the loss and yes it does say something about mcd at this point.

There's that and also what is said in public. I think what mcd said about Allen is fair tbh. There would normally be a more balanced assessment of 'things he did well, and throws he'd like back. ' It was a short presser and he wasn't asked questions about who was to blame, was just asked specifically about Allen. I do take your point as a leader you would expect a bit more humility, accountability but I think the narrow range of questions asked also contributes to this narrative of McDermott blaming Allen.

A very strange sequence

You could also call it deflection from the other issues, but he's just come onto the podium after a very disappointing loss and has been asked specific questions.

It's not like he threw any picks. I take your point and it was frustration from mcdermott I thought. I thought he was being honest but it was less diplomatic than I had heard from Mcdermott previously.

This is the wrong message man. Getting into the playoffs yes. Losing in them, no.