Nihilarian

Not all QBs develop at the same pace and as the late great Bill Walsh used to say, it generally takes four years to fully develop a QB. Jim Kelly didn't fare all that well in his first two seasons in the NFL and had a 59.7 completion percentage those first two. 4-12, 7-8. The Bills are currently 10-5 and IN the playoffs. There was only a 4% chance the Bills take the division. It came down to one pass to tie the game against the #1 defense in the league AT New England. Aside from seeing what will happen in this years playoffs. I can't wait to see what this GM, HC do in the upcoming off season to find that #1 WR like Julio Jones, DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans. Upgrade the O line and Pass rush. Its an exciting time to be a Buffalo Bills fan!

With any luck perhaps the Bills face this team again in a few weeks...with a different outcome.

I've been one of his biggest critics this season. Yet, he doesn't throw, doesn't block. The offense needs some better talent and we will see. Allen needs more experience. The Line needs upgrades. The offense needs that one go to WR /TE that can't be stopped. Still, the Bills were in the red zone about to score to tie the game and just couldn't get it done...against the leagues #1 defense. If I find fault its that the run game needs to be more diverse along with finding a way to get that run game going against anyone.

There was thread after thread of some homers here talking crap before the season about if McD is going to be back next year if the Bills don't do well. All they did was complain about this GM & HC and talking about all the mistakes they have made...about getting rid of top talent like Sammy Watkins. Yet,10-5 and IN the playoffs. You know what? Those fans are still not happy. Yes, this was their first season out of cap hell, and that cap hell was without paying an elite QB. This regime didn't go crazy and sign one of those over priced cancer players. The bills have all their picks for next year to find that elite #1 WR, beef up the pass rush and O line. Be happy, they could still go all the way!

Jim Kelly played two seasons in the USFL under Mouse Davis and then in 1986 went 4-12 his first season in the NFL. 9-7 in his second season. In those first two NFL seasons he only completed 59.7% of his passes. He needed better players around him...just like Josh Allen!

Guys, the Bills came within one play of tying the team with the goat at QB with the #1 defense in the league. Plus, the Buffalo Bills are 10-5 and in the playoffs. Just relax willyas.

Welp, if the Bills beat up on Brady and he can't play against Miami. If so, I think Fitz will be this years hero much like Andy Dalton was in 2017.

Seriously, a coronary on the way from the end of this game...

On the deep throws against Baltimore. Lamar Jackson didn't complete his deeper throws either, save for that one to the TE. In actuality, it went 21 yards in the air. My take is that Josh has been told to limit the turnovers since the NE game so if he is going to err, it will be an overthrow rather than under throwing. My point though is when the Bills OC sees that his QB is having great difficulty on the day AND the Bills ran Singletary seven straight times effectively in the first series in the second quarter to gain two first downs. Then Allen ran for another first down in that same drive. Why, why, why keep calling pass plays the rest of the game? Its like all Daboll thought about is working the passing game despite everything else. The thing is, again going back to Miami, Denver, Dallas with Bills rushes vs passes. Miami, 34 rushes vs 33 passes. Denver, 47 rushes vs 25 passes. (at that time Denver had one of the best run defenses in the league #4 if I recall correctly) Dallas, 34 rushes vs 25 passes. Cleveland, 20 rushes vs 41 passes. Baltimore, 23 rushes vs 39 passes. In conclusion: want to win? Run the ball more often and pass less. Yes, Buffalo is currently #6 in rushing attempts, #5 in rushing yards. However, Josh Allen has 439 of those rushing yards with 8 rushing TDs. The Vikings Dalvin Cook has 1108 rushing yards with 13 rushing TDs. Lamar Jackson has 1103 rushing yards, 7 TDs, Mark Ingram has 963 rushing yards 10 TDs.

You would have to think so to retain any sort of hope for the season. The thing is we all saw this same thing against the Browns game (which was also very winnable) as Daboll went pass happy to the tune of 17 Allen passes in the first half and only 3 Singletary runs, 1 Gore run. Now, Daboll stated that the reason he didn't run Singletary more was because the Browns were stacking the box. I say bullcrap! Singletary 4 yards, Gore 4 yards, Singletary 9 yards, Singletary 8 yards. Singletary 3 rushes for 21 yards= 7 yards per carry. Meanwhile, just like in the Browns game Daboll had Allen playing right into the teeth of that Cleveland defense against the #2 sacker in the NFL at the time in Myles Garrett. Who had two QB hits on Allen along with a bunch of pressures. Allen 22 of 41 for 266 yards, 2 rushing TDs. In my view, either Brian Daboll is attempting to force Josh Allen into passing situations which sort of make no sense in an effort to make him better? (all those deep passing attempts on a windy day) (Allen needed to throw the ball with velocity that day so the ball didn't drift all over and get intercepted. The announcer stated he should throw with more air under it with touch... and that ball would be picked off. That announcer, like Daboll were in the booth and didn't take the wind into account.) Or, he is simply being out coached again and again? Daboll had extra time to think up a decent game plan with plenty of film on what the Ravens have done all season...and failed to dial up a game winning scheme. Adjustments during the game, Dabolls answer, keep passing... A cursory glance at Allen’s incompletions Sunday (22 in all, plus another three on plays that were called back) shows just how high a priority pressure was. The Ravens came after him like they were auditioning for “Mad Max: Fury Road.” According to an unofficial review of the game, the Ravens sent four or fewer pass rushers on just five of those 25 unsuccessful drop-backs — an 80% blitz rate. On Allen’s five incompletions in the game’s decisive drive, Martindale sent six rushers three times and saved a seven-man rush for the knockout blow. https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-ravens-bills-defense-20191209-ci4i7cxeuzenfnalwtcxmettjm-story.html I think the man is simply not that good and looking at his coaching history proves this.

When you look at the drives and series by the Bills this day I come away scratching my head as to what the Bills OC is doing? This season Allen has one of the worst deep completion percentages in the league and those deep passes are a high risk, low percentage completion rate for any QB, especially Allen. Four deep passes attempted by Allen in the first quarter, all incomplete. Jackson threw two deep, all incomplete. It was also a very windy day so why even attempt to throw deep? While I understand the idea behind the deep pass is to put the fear of god in the opposing defense so they back off stacking the box and think more about the nickle. What those deep passes by Buffalo managed to do was the opposite of what was intended as the Ravens saw that Allen wasn't going to hurt them deep they stepped up their blitzing. In the first series of the second quarter the Bills ran seven straight run plays by Singletary and the result was two first downs and Allen ran for another. The result of that drive was a FG and no sacks on Allen. Now, Singletary managed 42 yards rushing in that series on seven carries. That's six yards per carry. What happened in the very next Bills series is somewhat perplexing to me is after doing so well in the run game the Bills OC calls Gore's number for two runs while dialing up another deep pass that went incomplete. This series ended in a sack on Allen for -7 yards with a punt afterwards. The next series with 1:58 to go on the Ravens 49 because of a turnover. Five passes and a sack with a FG. More of the same in the second half as the Bills move away from running Singletary like they did and went pass happy...more sacks, more incomplete passes, more punts. The Bills best receiver this day was Singletary with 8 targets, 6 receptions for 29 yards. That #7 is glaring to me and in my view the biggest reason as to why the Buffalo Bills lost a game they could have/should have won. HARSH REALITY! Bills fans talking about playoffs...and yet don't realize that if the Bills OC keeping doing what he did or more importantly didn't do (Game plan was lacking even with extended to to prepare from Thurs night). The Bills might not win another game this season and finish 9-7 while missing the playoffs. That Ravens game might be the closest the Bills come to having a home playoff game this season.

So, did Allen have the latitude to decide to throw deep so often in that Ravens game? Does he have the ability to change the play call at the LoS depending on what he sees from the defense? It would be nice to know if it was Allen changing the play from a run to a pass or was the play call a deep pass? The Bills series in the first quarter went Punt, Punt, Punt, Fumble with two sacks along the way. Nine pass attempts vs four rush attempts. The Bills first series in the second quarter the Bills went with six straight runs by Singletary for two first downs and another run by Allen for another first down. Three passes and seven runs and the result was a FG. A very positive result that negated the pass rush and ended with a score. Eight rush attempts vs three pass attempts. The next Bills series they went with Gore 2x runs vs four passes and a sack, Punt! Questions: why go away from Singletary in the run game and why start throwing more again? Next series with 1:58 left in the first half on the Ravens 49 from a Ravens turnover. INT. Bills went Pass, pass, pass, pass, sack, pass, FG. In the second half the Bills went pass happy again. First series, sack / fumble, penalty on Balt 15 yards, pass, pass, run, pass, pass, FG. That one drive with six straight runs by Singletary the Bills drove down the field and scored. By running so much it took away the Ravens ability to sack Allen and took the ball out of Allen's hands who was having a very erratic day passing. I don't get all the pass plays after the Bills moved the ball so well by running, especially with Allen hurting his ankle.

Again, we need to agree to disagree. I think results do matter. Its not just about the play calling either as the entire scheme and results are looked at is what I was pointing out by listing the stats. I see your points and I firmly believe that the NFL is a results oriented business and the better teams simply don't hire people because they have a history of who they worked for...good or bad. They want to hire people who have shown they are smart enough to get strong positive results at a lower level before hiring them to be one of thirty two in a multi-million dollar job. That said, in all honesty I hope you are right in that he does get looks and is eventually hired away.

I read it and an interesting take. I kinda doubt anyone stated that "we love him" and were merely interested. If they didn't watch that Ravens game and change their mind, Its them who are insane. Like Mr.WEO said, only a bad team would be foolish enough to hire an OC as bad as Daboll and promote him to HC. The stats show he isn't very good. I guess we will have to agree to disagree on Daboll getting looks as HC this off season. However, you might be right if the Bills win the next three and finish 12-4 with the offense looking like it did against Miami, Denver, Dallas. On the other hand should the offense continue to look like it did against the Ravens the next three games...I kinda doubt the Bills keep him. JMO.

Its my contention that Daboll might have been mentioned in Carolina as a possible HC after the Dallas game when the NFL world watched the Bills offense / Allen play well. I think any further thought about that went out the window after the Ravens game. When you look at the mans history of where his offenses have preformed in his entire time as an NFL OC, he has never had a passing offense better than 23rd in yards. This is important as teams look at the coaches history. Cleveland 2009, 30th attempts/32 yards. Cleveland 2010, 29/30 yards. Miami 28/23 yards 2011. Kansas 32/32 Yards. Buffalo 2018, 28/31 yards. Buffalo 2019, 23/27 yards. Its my take the Bills hired Daboll in thinking they were getting another Bill O'Brian...and they didn't.

The current trend in the NFL is to hire the next brightest offensive mind so as to find a Doug Pederson who had Frank Riech as his OC. Or Sean McVay who had Zac Taylor as his OC. Matt Nagy worked under Andy Reid. Now Kingsbury got the Arizona HCing job because he had worked with Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murry at Texas Tech. Whats funny is that TT fired him for having a 35-40 record. Arizona took a huge gamble in my view in an attempt to find that new offensive minded superstar. Currently he is 3-9-1 at Arizona and they are actually doing better than I thought they would. Still, I would put Kingsbury in the Freddie Kitchens category at this point in time. Kitchens is another who was the Browns RB coach who was promoted to OC last season because Mayfield looked so good after HC Hue Jackson, OC Todd Haley were both fired. Again, the Browns took a huge gamble in hiring Kitchens to be their new HC because of Mayfield looking so good. The Browns could have kept Gregg Williams as HC and made Freddie the OC, but I suppose they were afraid to lose him to another team. Dunno If I would mention Shurmur because rumor has it he will be fired after this season. The thing is that most of those people you mentioned had great success as an NFL offensive coordinator before being hired as an NFL head coach. They were on winning teams with top offenses. Brain Daboll has not yet seen that kind of success that McVay, Nagy, Riech have seen as an OC. The 2019 Buffalo Bills are 9-4 mostly because of that #3 overall defense and they just moved up to #2 in points allowed. The Bills offense is 20th in points, 20th in yards, 23rd in pass attempts, 27th in passing yards. Not a glowing endorsement in my view. Then looking at the Eagles, Patriots and Ravens losses that young QB hasn't looked all that great. What highlights Josh Allen in many minds is his athletic ability in running the ball, escaping the pocket and the tenacity to make plays, a burning desire to win the game. Daboll had nothing to do with developing these traits as he had them before coming to Buffalo. Those traits are also what sets him apart from a Losman, Edwards, EJ.

First off, lets look at all the failed NFL head coaches that have come from the BB tree. Jim Bates was his D line coach, Al Groh was his LBer coach. Jim Schwartz was a scout. Nick Saban was his DC. Rod Dowhower was his QB coach. Rick Venturi was his DC, all in at some point in Cleveland from 1991-1995. Eric Mangini, DBs coach, Rob Ryan was his LBers coach, Daboll was a defensive assistant all in 2000. Charlie Weis, Romeo, Crennel. Brian Flores. Matt Patricia all at some point in New England. So, just because you work for the guy doesn't mean you'll have success in the NFL as a HC Second, lets not forget who Brian Daboll started in front of Josh Allen in 2018 and he must have thought Nathan Peterman would be good enough to remain as the starter for awhile as Allen was supposed to sit, learn. This was a grade A+ moronic move. Allen was then forced to start on a bad team behind a bad line with little talent around him. Its crystal clear to me that while Brian Daboll does call some good games. Although, at times he makes some very questionable calls. Like all the deep passing calls against Baltimore when Allen has one of the worst deep passing completion percentages in the league this season. Daboll's failure to setup a winning game plan against the Ravens even given extra time. The failure to make adjustments for the offensive line to help stop the blitzes. The failure to find a way to get the run game working early to take pressure off his young, inexperienced QB. Failure to get the short passing game working. That last part said, Cole Beasley is a remarkable talent much like Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, Julian Edleman. A first down machine and a player who usually finds a way to get open early. He should have been targeted early and often against the Ravens. Instead, incomplete deep to John Brown. Incomplete Deep to Robert Foster. Incomplete short to McKenzie. Incomplete deep Dawson Knox. Incomplete deep John Brown. Finally, incomplete short Cole Beasley in the fourth series. Another finally moment, Daboll, realizing Allen was shaken and having great difficulty in this game. He ran Singletary six straight times for two first downs...then went back to the pass. Had Daboll worked the short pass game with runs by Singletary early and often. Its my take that the Ravens game would have gone in an entirely different way with a win as with the Dallas game.

I agree with this. Daboll might have gotten some looks had the Bills won that Ravens game. He still might get some looks if the Bills offense comes alive against the Steelers, Patriots, Jets and the Bills offense looks good. The Bills lose the next three I gotta think Daboll is history In Buffalo.

Horse hockey! The Dallas game. Bills first series, run 8 yards, run up mid for 3 yards 1st down! Allen drops back to pass and was sacked -8 yards. next play, short pass complete 6 yards. Allen run up the middle for 9 yards, Punt! Three runs a sack, one pass. Bills second series, Run, run, pass, run, incomplete pass, incomplete pass, penalty on Dallas, incomplete pass, pass, pass, Punt! Three runs, six passes. Bills third series, pass, run, run, pass, run, run, run, pass. Five runs, two passes. fourth series, Run, pass, pass, run, aborted snap looked like a QB sneak (run) pass. Three runs, three passes. 14 runs vs 12 passes in the first half. Pretty balanced in my view. I realize you and I have completely different views on Allen and I have accepted this.

C'mon Kirby. Please don't put Josh Allen in the same category as Losman and EJ or even Edwards. There is a world of difference between those players and Allen in so many ways. Although, I do agree that all three of those young QB's were developed by the wrong people. Steve Fairchild, Turk Schonert, Alex Van Pelt, Curtis Modkins. I do believe only AVP is still coaching in the NFL as a QB coach with Cincy. The best OC's the Bills have had the last decade or so was Greg Roman and Anthony Lynn. Should Lynn lose his job with the Chargers I only hope the Bills hire him.

I see. And yet when the Bills ran the ball more against the Dolphins, Broncos, Cowboys they won the game and Josh Allen looked great! You have been wrong about Josh Allen since stating you thought he should have been a 3rd round draft pick before the draft. Stating that inaccuracy can't be fixed. Even knowing how raw and inexperienced Allen was and still is, you still want to see the Bills pass first and have him attempt to carry the game with his arm and run the ball less. For what, in hope that he fails to prove you right? Apparently, since you can't let it go... I will.

I really hope he does get a HCing gig. From what I see it's Allen making him look good when calls a game with a balanced offensive attack or actually more runs than passes. Look at the history of this OC in the NFL and its not a good one. This years passing offense is 23rd in attempts and 27th in passing yards, 21st in passing TDs. Which is about the average of where this OC has been in his six NFL seasons as an OC with four different NFL teams.

They were behind 7 points early at Dallas and they still managed the short passes and more runs than passes. Against the Browns the final score was 16-19 and the Bills were only down by three points so there was no need to go pass happy whatsoever. Daboll stated that they Browns were stacking to box to stop the run and he was full of crap! Bills at halftime with Allen 17 pass attempts, Singletary 3 rushes and he finished that game with only 8 rushes vs 41 passes. Singletary 5.3 YPC avg and it was near criminal that he wasn't given more rush attempts. Guess what? Singletary with a 5.2 YPC avg against the Ravens. He did get 17 carries and it should have been more. The Ravens rushed 33 times for only 118 yards and that kept Lamar Jackson from getting sacked 6x like Josh Allen was in attempting 39 passes! Jackson with a more reasonable 25 pass attempts. The Bills rushed 23 times vs 39 passes and when those numbers are reversed they usually win. We've all seen what happens to Allen when Daboll forces him to carry the game with his arm and it doesn't go well. Look, you've come at me with this pass first/more passes than runs idea over and over and I've yet to see that concept work. Allen needs a decent run game to help him gain rhythm and settle in as most young QB's do. Let it go willya?

I doubt the coaching staff makes any changes regardless, unless Daboll continues with his Dr Jekyll and Hyde play calling while staying with the Hyde stuff. Look back at the last five games to see that against the Browns and Ravens the run game simply was underutilized by about half of the passing attempts. Which created a tough time for the QB as he was forced to attempt to carry the team with his arm. Now look at the Miami, Denver, Dallas games to see that the Bills ran it nearly 2x the amount they passed the ball which allowed Josh Allen to find some confidence and rhythm. What was thoroughly confusing was why Daboll had Allen throw deep so much considering that Josh has one of the worst deep passing completion percentages in the league this season. In those three wins the Bills offense went with mostly a short passing scheme. A lot also depends on how many wins this team has at the end of the season, 9-7 and changes are in sight, more wins and a playoff run and changes are doubtful.

Or, the Bills will need to do what they did against Miami, Denver and Dallas in getting the run game working with short passes. Let Allen gain some confidence with those short passes. The Browns and Ravens game the Bills went pass happy and it didn't go so well. Run Singletary!