GunnerBill

I started the all22 yesterday - but didn't get very far into the second half.... I think your summary of the first half in particular and the criticism of Brady is right. The middle of the field was the Bills advantage all night and every time they attacked there - it worked. Unfortunately it felt like they had come in with this plan to try and attack the boundary and the edges and for some reason took way too long (until that penultimate drive and the Keon TD) to get away from it - that drive was almost all middle of the field and we marched.

This is very true. There are a lot of people here who would be willing to move on from Beane as the cost for moving on from McDermott. I think by the end of this season I may well be in the opposite camp. I haven't been in favour of firing either of them to this point, but with the 12 major moves Beane made in the spring/summer looking (other than Cook) questionable at best I'm starting to lean towards you have to move on from Beane and if the cost is you move on from McDermott too then so be it.

In what way would you describe him as being "solid"?

And of those only Houston was even arguably a team of comparable standard. The way this latest one is different is I was at the London game and Josh sucked, and Houston last year Josh sucked. He threw a bad pick on Monday and didn't play his best game by any stretch but he didn't suck. Previously it has taken Josh playing really poorly to lose those games. The worry is this roster lost with Josh playing okay. Their secondary is a major, major issue right now. I think if you told anyone before the year Benford was gonna play as poorly as he has that would have been entirely predictable.

Beane runs the draft. He is in charge of personnel. I have that on very good authority from people inside the organisation (or previously inside I should say, both are now elsewhere). McDermott has a big say in the type of team they want to build and the profile of person they want, but the individual selections of FAs and draft picks... that is Brandon Beane. McDermott and the coaches will watch some film and give their input after the scouts grade as is normal right across the NFL. But when it comes to setting the board and executing a draft strategy and picks that is Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott has total faith in him doing it. And I have made this point many times but if you look at the way the Bills draft, the positions the prioritise and the positions they don't it breaks down in very similar percentages to the way the Panthers drafted under Hurney and Gettleman who Beane learned from. Lots of defensive front seven, above average investment in running backs, way below average investment in wide receivers and no offensive linemen in round 1.

I think blitzing would have been a mistake in 13 seconds - yes. Do I think they should have squibbed? For sure. Do I think they called the best coverages? No. Although Levi totally misplaying his assignment on the second didn't help. There is no question 13 seconds was coaching failure. That is well established. Again the leap in logic is that the antidote to that is somehow Rex Ryan. That is a classic logical fallacy. The thing we did failed, therefore we must do something else, this is something else, ergo this must be the right plan. There was actually what I considered a pretty reasonable discussion in another thread about what happens next if the Bills fail to meet expectations this year and who the realistic options might be. It seems it got nixed though before I had a chance to contribute. Even as someone who as of right now isn't committed to "Superbowl or regime change" this year I do think it is reasonable to have conversations about alternative options. I don't think it is reasonable to argue Rex Ryan would have won a Superbowl here. That is crazy talk.

What beats Brady and Mahomes is rushing four. Not blitzing. You have to be able to get there with four. If you can't you are done for. Whether than is Spags in the 09 Superbowl vs Brady or Fangio in last year's v Mahomes. Rex was a blitz, blitz and blitz again merchant who by the middle of the last decade was out of touch and put of ideas. The Bills are blitzing more this year. How is that working out for them? The "just blitz more" crowd need to get off Madden and come into the real world. There legitmate reasons to be critical of McDermott by the way - the defense has got significantly worse since he helped nudge Leslie Frazier out, the Bills have this annoying tendency in years where the 1 seed is in play to lose stupid games to inferior teams, he hasn't been able to get to a Superbowl and to the extent he is involved in roster building (and that is really Brandon Beane but I believe they are totally aligned on the vision even though the individual choices are Beane's) they have not built the roster the way I would have advocated for. At this stage Sean (and Brandon) should be evaluated year on year in terms of have they maximised what was available to them. All of that is legitimate. But Rex Ryan winning a Superbowl in this decade? Nah. That isn't legtimate. That's a joke. I understand people being frustrated but seriously it is boiling some people's brains.

What Rex accomplished on defense in 2009 and 2010 is totally irrelvant by 2018 when Josh enters the league. The league had changed and Rex failed to keep pace. The game passed him by. If the argument is just put prime Josh Allen on the 2009-2010 Jets teams and they win a Superbowl, sure. I can well believe that. But the Rex Ryan who turned up here five years later was antiquated in terms of how NFL defense was being played and he never caught up. I say again, there is a reason Rex hasn't coached again since. Frankly the idea that he in the 2020s could lead anyone anywhere is absurd.

Well you're wrong. But well done. And I thought we were talking McDermott pre-Allen? Already moved your goalposts.

Firstly that isn't quite right..... Rex was a game below .500 as Bills coach and McDermott was a game over .500 before Josh. But the fact is the 2015 roster should have been more than a .500 roster and they scrambled to .500 having been 6-8. That was an underachievement. I know you hate McDermott but arguing Rex would have won a Superbowl is patently ludicrous.

The NFL had passed Rex by not long after that. And, frankly, he had mailed it in effort wise too. There is a reason he hasn't worked in the league again post Buffalo. If you were getting 2010 Rex Ryan, sure it's possible. But his failings as a Head Coach became more apparent the longer he did the job.

Not a flaming chance.

Every team in the league values system guys. The Bills are probably at the upper echelon of that but you are definitely right to point out it is not unique to them.

He ia alerting a LOT right now. That suggests two possibilities to me. Either we are not getting the right calls in OR Josh is over thinking a bit trying to get into the perfect look. I think there might be a bit of both going on

It isn't about being fast so much is it is about route running and nuance. The stats show teams are having success going deep even against shell coverage. That is because they have guys who can find the holes and get open. We don't.

He was 4.59 40 pre draft.

No I haven't.

Who told you Shavers was super fast? Exactly. If the guys get open Josh will throw them the ball. Not saying he never fails to see one, all QBs do. But the primary reason he is checking down is guys not being open deep.

They called sooo many shot plays last night. I was calling them out in the game thread. There were at least 7 called shot plays. Josh isn't throwing them because the receivers are not getting open. You can't try and stretch the field with these receivers. They are jank.

Oh for sure. I don't think last night was some great conspiracy. What I am saying is Bills fans getting to that position are not solely going on what happened last night. There is history with that guy and this team.

Yea I largely agree with you although that particular ref does have a history of some imagined penalties on the Bills.

The MOMENT Gabe is healthy I am putting him on this roster. He is a better outside receiver than we have. Which is an indicment in itself. Agree. Seem my post in the McDermott thread. He made 12 major moves this offseason. Cook apart the returns right now are dreadful. And this was a major opportunity spring. Some of these moves will restrict opportunities in the next couple of springs. If those moves fail they fall squarely on Brandon Beane.

I thought he was excellent. Yes. Does that mean he is the second coming? No. But he was excellent yesterday.

Yep. I did not think Brady had a good game. The two touchdown plays were nice calls but they struggled for rhythm, I know the penalties made it hard but they got away from Cook without ever really making New England stop him and they kept trying to to attack outside. That isn't our strength anyway and it also wasn't where the opportunity was. That penultimate drive was pretty much all middle of the field and they waltzed right down and scored. That had been there all day.

I don't have the numbers but I felt like the Bills ran lots of play action last night. What they failed to do playcalling wise was just stick to the middle of the field. Kincaid, Knox and Shakir inside was their advantage. I felt like they finally got to it on the penultimate drive but it had been crying out for more of that sooner. There are teams who try and take the middle away against the Bills and force them to their below average receivers on the outside. This was the opposite. The Pats didn't want to give up the outside they were trying to dare us to stay patient in the middle of the field and we just didn't for the most part.