BarleyNY

Other. I don’t think that a change can be made now. The good head coach candidates are gone and so are the quality staff members they are bringing with them. McDermott is a good coach and Beane is a good GM, but they aren’t the only people that can do those jobs well. I think things have to run their course and that’ll take a few more years. At this point we don’t have any other choice but to run it back so we might as well get behind them as much as we are emotionally capable.

There’s no logic in this. I’ve seen it many times, but it makes no sense that you’d expect another fan to be able to tell you who the next outstanding NFL head coach is going to be. Owners have resources for that. I don’t have to be a professional chef to tell you something is wrong with a meal I got at a restaurant. Ditto when some of us see a problem with a coach or coaching staff member. I am not even advocating for firing anyone at this time. But there have been issues with our HC and staff that persist. If/when it comes time to make a change and we need to find a new HC, then I’d point to several successful HCs that have been hired in the last few seasons - Demeco Ryans, Dan Campbell, Dan Quinn, Kevin O’Connell immediately come to mind. They’re out there to be had if/when needed.

We do not have a top 3 OL. They’re a good squad, yes, but not top 3. Cook is an excellent runner, but he not a good pass catcher and he’s abysmal at pass protection. The rest of our backs complement him nicely, but none are complete RBs. Our TEs are good, but nothing special. Our WR corps is below average. What we have is a stud QB, who elevated the play of those around him.

Rousseau is a pure power end. He’s got no bend at all so he’s only going to be really effective if he has a rush edge opposite him. That way when the QB gets flushed to his side he can shed and sack. If we don’t have that rush edge, then this season is what we’re going to get. He’s turned into a good player for the role he has, but I question what that’s worth and where the market will be. I strongly suspect some team will overpay him if he makes it to FA after next season. I’m good with a properly valued extension now or letting him test FA next offseason. I will dig into numbers in the next few months. Not up for that today.

You can’t have soul crushing disappointment without hope. Hope is an invaluable part of any curse.

Part of it was the same fearful tactic we saw against Cincy in the playoffs. CBs way off the WRs while we blitz. Ridiculous, but we did bring the CBs up after they torched us for a bit. That bit was on the coaching. Elam spent his whole college career playing man coverage and grabbing receivers at the top of their routes. He still doesn’t have a good feel for zone and he can’t stick with agile receivers without grabbing them. I think he’s only still on the team because his whole contract is fully guaranteed. The only reason we drafted him is because Kansas City jumped us for McDuffie and we desperately needed a corner back. Thank goodness Beane was smart enough to double up and take Benford later in that draft.

He’s a good, competent GM. He really is. It’s a very tough job and the hit rates for the best GMs aren’t that high. He’s doing well in that regard. My only real complaints about him are that he hasn’t hit on any elite talent (other than obviously Allen) and that he has focused so much on the defensive side of the ball that it’s been detrimental to the offense.

your reading comprehension is terrible. I am by no means putting Allen at the top of the list of why the Bills lost.

Horse****. A garbage throw for an INT to start the game is a problem. I know they didn’t get picked, but both should have been. I think that overall Allen was an huge asset to the team today and that he’s an incredible player, but you asserted that nothing more can be expected of him. That’s not true. He could’ve had his head together for those two plays. And he could’ve had it together on the last offensive play too. KC showed an all out blitz and the Bills weren’t in a position of pick it up. He needed to call a TO if he couldn’t get them into the correct protection. That’s the difference between making it to the Divisional round or AFCC and winning championships. Sorry, even a player as good as Allen has room to improve.

I agree - except for his very shaky start. I expect better of him. In a game like this he can’t make one of those garbage throws, much less two.

been saying that for years

Sadly, that’s the case. Brown absolutely bent Cincy and the surrounding area over on their last deal. Even by NFL standards it was egregious. Ofc the Browns had just moved to Baltimore and they used the threat of moving to Cleveland (as did many other teams) to get that deal. I’m sure they want a similar deal this time and they’ll use the threat of moving again. Mike Brown is notoriously cheap too. It’s all about cashing in as much as possible. So the fans won’t get much for their money. He will always be at the bottom of the league in cash spending. The city should do what they can to try to force a sale and go as far as letting the team move away if they can’t do that.

I did get a survey about 10 years ago from the NFL. It was a phone survey that for some reason I took. They started by asking general questions about my watching habits and opinions on of different sports leagues. NFL was last and they started drilling down into deeper questions. Then they started asking about Goodell specifically and my opinions on him. It made me realize that I thought he was doing a pretty good job overall (from a making money for the owners standpoint), but was very unlikable, and I answered the questions that way. Fast forward a few months and we have the NFL draft. It was the one where Goodell joked around and hugged pretty much every first round pick. I guess he took my feedback to heart.

Yep. I’ve got one big criticism of John Harbaugh - his teams have almost always been undisciplined. That leads to mistakes. Often it’s dumb personal foul or Offside penalties. Sometimes it’s careless turnovers. Those mistakes can cost them any game - including against poor teams. Lamar had two of those ridiculously careless TOs on Sunday and it cost them a real chance to win the game.

So you’re only counting the playoff games the Bills have lost? The only Bills WR that’s had a great playoff game against KC or Cincy is Gabe Davis. You want him back? And do you want to get rid of Shakir too? He hasn’t had a good playoff game against KC or Cincy. It a ridiculous litmus test.

The Benjamin trade still angers me. But Beasley and Diggs were both excellent separators. In fact, Diggs was at the top of the league in that category when we acquired him. Coleman simply has to develop and be able to separate enough, consistently enough to give himself more opportunities to make uncontested catches. Very few WRs can make a living primarily on contested catches (thought the few that do are game changers).

Let me put it this way: - If a WR catches 50% of contested balls, they’re elite at it. - If a WR catches 50% of their targets, they’re probably not sticking on an NFL roster. I have found it interesting that the Bills prioritized acquiring WRs who were excellent separators up until the last couple seasons or so. It seemed to be the #1 driver of their WR choices. Now, not so much for some reason.

To me, it felt like we won that game the same way that the Patriots won so many. Conservative, mistake free, and patient. we just let the other team beat itself. It’s good to be able to win a game that way, but we can’t play that way against Kansas City. They aren’t going to beat themselves.

During the Eagles game, I said aloud that I hoped there would be an onside kick because it would be a mess in that weather. I really thought I’d jinxed it for us.

Refs make mistakes. You hope they’re few and far between and that your team comes down on the right side of them (or that they are even). This Hold on Dawkins was a joke. It killed a drive. Ball back to the Ravens on a punt. But the late DPI on Tre White was a joke too. That turned a FG try into a TD. So I think they evened out in this game. I’m good with that. There was one other non call that I didn’t like though. A Raven hit Allen in the helmet with the crown of his helmet. it was near the end of the first half IIRC. He was okay so no harm done, but IMO that has to get called. If he’s have been concussed, that’s the season for the Bills. Plus it would’ve hurt the NFL and their earning power. Why have the rule in place if you don’t make the call there?

My wife and I have family in Central PA. One of my aunts literally used to walk to her job at the PSU library. They kinda hate tOSU there now. Pitt might still be that for some of the older folks, but we’re still probably second for them.

With no playoff, one loss often eliminated a team. Two losses was an almost certain elimination. And before the BCS a team could even go undefeated and not earn a title. A 12 team playoff is vastly superior to those systems. Let’s also remember that these are kids - even if they are well compensated kids. They should have the opportunity to grow and improve over the course of a season. The current format also makes it a near certainty that two hated rivals from the same conference will meet in the title game. Won’t that be a day?

As a fan of a team that’s won championships (including last night), but who spent the first 33 years of his life without one, I will say this: Getting one doesn’t make you want another one any less, but it eases the pain when you come up short. Having a championship in your pocket is comforting in that way. Ravens fans have had their fair share, they don’t need our pity.

And I’ve been feeling greedy……. Everyone can pay their players now. The SEC’s habit of funneling money to their players through churches isn’t going to win them games anymore.

That was my thought at the time as well. 93 seconds plus we had time outs left. We had plenty of time to score. I wasn’t even worried about it being on a Bass FG. At the start of their drive I predicted they’d get the TD but fail on the 2 pt conversion. They’d already turned the ball over 3x and dropped some passes. It just seemed like the Ravens were going to find a way to lose that game. They were choking and the Bills were cool, calm and collected. Nice to have it be the other team that makes mistakes in a game like this. The Ravens had more talent, but the Bills were the better team yesterday.