HappyDays

Mike McCarthy has earned a two decade head coaching career out of one all time playoff run from Aaron Rodgers. I think that career finally comes to an end this year.

This is the first of three consecutive Sundays where Bills fans can kick back and watch Red Zone all day. Pretty weird to be saying that this early in the season.

I'll give the OL some credit here too. When Josh is able to settle in and not worry about jailbreaks he like all QBs looks a lot more comfortable and under control. The rare breakdowns that have happened this year have been almost exclusively from the interior, but since Spencer Brown has been locking up his man Josh has been able to easily escape right which might be the most dangerous situation for a defense to face across the entire league. The biggest share of credit goes to Brady who since taking over has completely eliminated the boom or bust nature of the offense.

No, it doesn't. I don't know how to tell you this without sounding rude but you straight up don't understand how to interpret data. Like at a fundamental level. You couldn't even figure out what that chart is measuring when it's written out for you in plain English.

Our offensive gameplan against the Jags sucked last year. I feel much better with Brady calling the game.

I admitted I did downplay the Cook TD. Great play call and great job making sure everyone was ready to execute. As far as preseason narratives I stand by my concerns about the outside WRs. It remains a weakness in the offense. I was unsure Brady had what it takes to overcome the lack of talent at those spots but he has passed his first two tests. One thing I am already going to back off on though is I said in the offseason I didn't think our offense would be able to out-perform the Chiefs offense last year. But through two weeks we look significantly better than they did. One factor I probably discounted too much is our OTs compared to theirs. They have us beat on the interior by a wide margin but offenses continues to run through the edges and Dawkins/Brown is a MUCH better tandem than they had last year. Also Allen so far this year is playing the most intelligent QBing I've seen out of him in his career. Zero interceptions and only one truly dumb mistake. He isn't forcing things and he's manipulating defenses with his eyes at an elite level. The mechanics have been on point as well. I'm sure Brady simplifying things and leaning on his players' strengths is contributing to all this. Along with a certain crybaby being excised from the locker room. Lots to like about the look of the offense through two weeks. Everybody is playing under control and not panicking after some adversity inevitably hits. No frustrated outbursts on the sidelines or in the coach's box. Tougher tests to come but it's already looking better than I expected.

What Daboll did to the Pats in the wildcard game was a coaching clinic. I'll say what McDermott/Babich did to the Dolphins offense was one as well, and has been in pretty much every matchup we've had against them in the McDermott era. It doesn't really matter though, does it? It's just semantics ultimately. I wish Joe Brady was Kyle Shanahan or Ben Johnson but they aren't showing up at One Bills Drive tomorrow. Coaching the basics is like 80% of a good gameplan. He's the first OC we've had in the Josh Allen era that consistently comes into games attempting to exploit the opponents' weaknesses. Like against the Cardinals, the book on them was that they have a league-worst caliber run defense. I've seen our former OCs in recent years come into that game and inexplicably go pass-heavy which inevitably means the offense never finds any kind of rhythm. You could argue Brady went to the run a little too frequently especially after the Cardinals adjusted to it, but I'd rather see that than a disjointed offense that seemingly has no gameplan. Against the Dolphins it is obvious that Coleman vs Ramsey is a terrible matchup, so we stayed away from it entirely. I don't take any of this for granted. Too many coaches outthink themselves and I appreciate that Brady keeps it simple.

I regret saying it was a middling night. That's not a fair characterization. But nor do I believe it was a coaching clinic. I don't see innovation. Players are by and large just being asked to win their assignments. And that's fine. The players are at least being given assignments that their skill sets allow them to have a chance of winning. I'll take that over Dorsey who was, for example, asking Gabe Davis and Josh Allen to try and read an option route the same way even though it was as likely to result in an INT as a completion. Or asking Diggs to get YAC on bubble screens. No doubt we have vastly improved on his grab bag play sheet. The 4th and 3 TD is a great example of a play where no one had to win their assignment, just run a pick play without making it too obvious to draw a penalty, deliver the pass and catch the ball. That's great stuff from Brady. He's still relatively young and inexperienced too. He has time to grow into an elite offensive coach. There are signs that the potential is there.

Yes I saw Joe Marino break this down in his all-22 video for subscribers. He pointed out on the following drive Shakir ran basically the same route on 2nd and long and that time Allen saw him right away and got it to him (with an extra 15 yards gifted to us by Poyer). Allen probably saw the miss on his tablet on the sideline and made it a point to come back to it.

Those concepts are football 101 (pick routes and motion) but that isn't an insult. Brady gets all the credit from me for using those concepts to design a great play, having his players ready to execute it perfectly, and calling it at the perfect time. Like I've said the best thing Brady has done since taking over is getting the offense back to fundamentals and eliminating its boom or bust nature. The play calling feels a lot more intentional than whatever Dorsey was trying to do near the end of his time here. All of the players are being asked to do things that actually fit into their skill set. Reminds me of this post I made last year (had to dig to find it):

I did underrate that play and I give Brady a ton of credit for it.

Outside WR is definitely the biggest weakness on offense right now. We've done a good job hiding it but that is a tough vulnerability to get away with for an entire season. Trading for someone like Cooper or Metcalf or Hopkins is still the dream IMO. It's the kind of move a team makes when they realize they have a real shot at a championship and need one more splash to get across the finish line. Like the Rams did with Von Miller a few years ago.

I'm wondering if any doctor will even clear him to play again. If you're the doctor that clears him and he ends up suffering a TBI after his next concussion, you could be sued for malpractice. We've seen him go into the fencing posture multiple times in his career and it's just on standard everyday NFL hits. At a certain point doesn't a doctor have to just say you are not fit to continue playing this sport? For Tua's sake I hope that's what happens. He gets his money and the Dolphins get the karma they deserve for putting him back on the field after his "back injury."

This I 100% agree with. He's done a good job actually game planning for the opponent and using his players' strengths appropriately. Dorsey on the other hand appeared to be pulling random plays out of a hat. The floor has been raised significantly since Brady took over.

Things are going very well on FinHeaven

Loved his contact balance today. That has been a legit criticism of his game but tonight he was bouncing off guys like a pinball and squeezing through tiny gaps without getting tripped up. He even managed to turn a 3 yard loss into a 3 yard gain which is not something I've really seen from him before.

I'm sorry man but he is acting like using motion to identify man coverage and using pick routes are novel concepts that nobody has ever thought of before. This is football 101 stuff. Of course there's nothing wrong with using fundamental concepts to create successful plays. Anyways obviously I'm the lone voice on this side of the argument so I'll give it a rest. Kind of like last week I get that it is hard to find fault when the team is putting up 30+ points. But I have some nagging concerns about Brady's ability to go toe to toe with the true elite offensive minds across the league.

Kromer deserves some flowers too. He might be the best OL coach in the league right now. Under his watch everyone on the line is playing their best football. That extends even to a depth player like Grable, or Van Demark last year. The run scheme to my eyes also looks pretty basic, especially when you compare it to the opposing offense tonight, but it doesn't matter much when your guys are creating displacement and the RB is running hard and decisive and fast. Vanilla offense works when the execution is perfect or when individual players go above and beyond. Still I'm going to call it as I see it. As a counterexample the defense tonight was much more about scheme than individual talent.

He is missing elite weapons, notably outside, and I'm not expecting him to work miracles with that caliber of talent. But nor do I see the usage of motions as a "coaching clinic." That is just solid above-water offensive coaching in the year 2024. We had a chance to put the game away coming out of halftime and instead we stalled out with a series of poor play calls. It's easy to forget about those kinds of things when Allen makes magic happen on 3rd and 13 and when the defense puts points on the scoreboard. In real time though I notice these things and they bother me. They don't hurt you when Tua throws multiple dumb interceptions that quickly put the game out of reach. They will hurt on January 19 in Arrowhead. I did not see any schemed wide open throws. The easy button stuff is just the same quick pass to Kincaid over and over. We aren't getting the ball downfield to our TEs. Samuel is a non factor. Our big passing plays are mostly Allen being a unicorn or Shakir creating YAC in congested areas. Like I said Brady is not a bad coach. I just don't have the same level of confidence in him that other fans do. I'm comparing him to the upper echelon of the NFL because that should be our standard. Brady's best attribute by far is that he has taken game changing mistakes out of the passing offense. That goes back to last year too. And I don't discount that. Dorsey's offense was way too boom or bust down the stretch. I'll take the steadier road even if it means less explosive plays.

Sure. Swing pass to the RB to beat the blitz. That is basic offensive coaching. I'm not saying Brady is outright bad, just serviceable. I don't think he really elevates the offense the way that some of the top coaches do.

Agreed on McDermott, masterclass from his defense tonight. He has McDaniel's number. I will be a wet blanket about Brady though. Thought it was a middling night from him. I still see very little creativity from his offense. Too vanilla for my liking, a lot of times he is asking the players to just win their matchups without using the scheme to help them. He continues to not use play action appropriately. I see a large gap between him and the top offensive coaches in this league.

Allen Cook Benford Ingram McDermott

Not taking anything away from the defensive performance but Tua flat out missed a lot of open receivers today and had two really boneheaded interceptions. He gave his team no chance tonight. Allen on the other hand didn't need to be a superhero tonight but the pressure he put on them helped put the game out of reach early.

Bishop needs to be a starter ASAP. I don't care which safety he replaces, he could be an upgrade on either IMO.