HappyDays

The Bills had the best 3rd down conversion percentage in the league each of the past two seasons, and were #2 in 2021. So it is in fact repeatable and consistent, moreso than any other team in the league. See you spent all that time pulling stats to compose that post but you ignored the only stat that actually matters in games.

Okay, so your answer to my question is "no, I don't know that." So allow me to inform you - the QB does not call plays or set progression.

Allen doesn't call the plays or set the progressions. You know that, right?

That's not what I said. Brady was the last thing they needed to push them over the hump but the team around him was already in place. What, you think he just chose Tampa Bay at random? My greatest fear is that someday Allen will do the same thing and get his first Super Bowl win for another team.

Yes that is a good example of a great QB let down by a bad and aging roster in his final year with the Pats. So he went to the most loaded roster in the NFL and was immrdistely able to win another Super Bowl despite playing well below his own standard throughout the playoffs. Sorry, what point did you think you were making?

Now we just need the rest of the team and coaching staff to be even half as clutch as him and we'll have something.

Siran Neal was able to stop Kelce when we finally put him on the field in the 4th quarter. Dorian Williams made a couple of great plays that directly led to the Chiefs punting for the first time when he was on the field. McDermott owns the early game decisions to leave them on the bench. 8.5 yards per play to an offense with below average WRs and mediocre tackles. Zero excuses for that performance from the DC.

I don't know where else to put this but we have the most clutch QB in the NFL: But as the tweet says we also have the least clutch team in the NFL. Our window will officially be open whenever McDermott and Beane rise to the occasion or we find a better pair.

Of course the government has to do that, but we should always start these conversations with the understanding that incarceration represents a forfeiture of rights. So if someone's proposed solution to any issue is to extend the time that we are forfeiting a person's rights, I want to see evidence that there is a good reason to do that. Not just throw it out there because it sounds like a possible solution. I'm also sensitive to the fact that innocent people will inevitably be incarcerated, which should be seen as an appalling (but unfortunately inevitable) violation of rights, so any changes we're making to the incarceration system should be made with the knowledge that we are also changing the treatment of legitimately innocent people. I recognize that most people don't think about the justice system and rights in this way, but realistically it's how we should approach these discussions.

How frequently are these crimes being committed by people previously arrested for illegal firearms? That feels like a limited solution. And in general I'm not an advocate of simply extending jail times for criminal offenders because I've seen no evidence that it solves the fundamental problems which create these issues, nor do I inherently trust the government to decide how long people should lose their rights and be incarcerated. Truth be told these are very very complicated issues and I'm wary of any proposed "simple" solutions. Solving these issues is a herculean effort that will likely take multiple generations worth of work, if these issues are even solvable to begin with.

Gun violence is a real problem. So are car accidents. So is heroin overdose. These are the risks of living in a free country, which we accepted a couple hundred years ago. Rights can always be taken away to in theory reduce the chance of tragic untimely death, but personally I'm happy to live in a free country and accept these risks. The risk of any individual being killed in a shooting like this is exceedingly rare. I see people say things like "I'm now scared to go to any public gathering." You're free to have these feelings, but they aren't rational. You're much much much more likely to be killed while commuting to the public gathering than at the public gathering. You're more likely to die while showering to get ready to go out. Don't let these tragic events consume you.

In my experience the only white on black murders that get covered ad nauseum are when police officers (AKA government officers) murder citizens. Which should be covered extensively. The government murdering its own citizens should be a headline every time it happens and it should appall everybody. Addressed how? There are already gun laws that in theory should make it difficult for violent criminals and juveniles to obtain the weapons used in these crimes. Are you asking for more gun laws?

So like Kirby said it comes down to nitpicking the individual choices on the list. Personally I don't care about that stuff. I just used Aaron Rodgers as an example. The rest of my post is where I get frustrated. There is no excuse for elite QB play in the playoffs having such little relative success. If you want to blame Beane over McDermott or vice versa I don't care how you want to apportion the blame. I just know that the men in charge have not been close to good enough and I'm tired of wasting the best days of Allen's career hoping they figure it out.

No words

Mass shooters are cowards so they tend to choose targets where they will face no resistance. Parades have armed law enforcement officers posted everywhere so I'm not surprised that this is the first time. Given early reports of there being 2 shooters in custody I'm inclined to think this was not a run of the mill random mass shooting. We'll see.

Rodgers performed as well as Allen has in the playoffs exactly once, and it was the year he won a Super Bowl with freaking Mike McCarthy. That is what generational playoff QB play should get you. Not a couple of divisional round exits. Many people in this discussion still underrate how good Allen has been in the playoffs. Most notably the 2021-2022 season playoffs and this year's. That sort of sustained elite play in the playoffs is incredibly rare. Rodgers has done it once in a 20 year career. Allen has done it twice in a 6 year career. Both times he has a divisional round exit to show for it. If that sort of elite QB play isn't enough to even get past the divisional round, everybody above him should 100% be fired. Because we aren't going to get better than that. And this is the part where someone will say "well the QB on the other side was Mahomes!!" But Mahomes himself didn't sustain that play in the playoffs except against the Bills. In 2022 he laid a clunker against the Bengals in the AFCCG. Last year he was good, not elite, in the AFCCG. This year he followed up his victory over us with two games where he led his offense to a combined 3 points in two of the four halfs. It is ONLY against the McDermott coached Bills where the Chiefs have managed to overcome an elite QB performance on the other side. Like imagine if Allen led our offense to 3 points or 0 points in any half of any playoff game that we played. Against any opponent it would be a loss. Against a good opponent it would be a blowout loss. Our coach can't even come close to beating a good playoff opponent unless Allen delivers an elite performance, and even then it isn't enough. And I'm really truly sick of it. So here's my unpopular opinion - Allen has been the best performing QB in the playoffs from the 2021 season to this year. McDermott has been the worst performing head coach in the playoffs over that same time frame. Mahomes has been marginally less elite than Allen in the playoffs over that time but Reid + Spagnuolo have been several tiers above McDermott and that's why we can't beat them

This is a common flaw in the arguments of McDermott defenders. They'll say our roster is more to blame than McDermott's coaching, but then turn around and say "if Shanahan is better than McDermott why isn't he able to win a Super Bowl or beat Mahomes??" while shamelessly ignoring the difference between Garrappolo/Mullens/Purdy and Allen. Give Shanahan Allen and he'd already have at least one Super Bowl win. This is plainly obvious.

Found this interesting: We run a very similar defense to the Seattle scheme. Turns out it might just not work against great QBs. The end of the Super Bowl for the 49ers defense looked VERY familiar.

I know this is an unpopular opinion but Shanahan wasn't to blame for the Super Bowl loss. Purdy was. An offense can't function consistently with a QB that has zero ability to make plays with any sort of mess in the pocket. It's a minor miracle that their offense worked as well as it did this season. Deebo Samuel also clearly wasn't close to healthy, so you take away the #1 WR combined with a limited QB going against a stellar defense, no one should be surprised by the result. His team also held the Chiefs to 3 points in the 1st half, and just 1 TD in regulation which only came off of a muffed punt. As far as coaching goes it doesn't get much better than that. I get the complaint about his unwillingness to run but the Chiefs were focusing on shutting the run down all night because they had no fear that Purdy's arm would take advantage of those favorable looks. It's silly to compare Shanahan's record against the Chiefs in the playoffs versus McDermott's. One of them has a QB capable of matching Mahomes' play in the playoffs, the other has a backup QB. At least Shanahan's team didn't get steamrolled the entire game. I mean this has got to be the only place on the internet where anybody places McDermott and Shanahan in the same conversation. So of course I would be enthralled if we somehow ended up with Kyle Shanahan. Hopefully the 49ers are dumb enough to make him the sacrificial lamb next year and then inevitably fall into purgatory when their QB problem doesn't magically solve itself. We could have our pick of the litter if McDermott fails again - Ben Johnson, Kyle Shanahan, Mike Vrabel. Who wants their chance with a top 2 QB and a good core of young talent?

Too late for that as far as 2024 is concerned. Hopefully 2025 they will have set themselves up to spend money on the offense. It will require a willingness from Beane to be especially frugal this offseason though. Cut White, re-sign none of our UFAs, maybe even cut Miller if the plan is to roll over his cap space.

I agree. But it is hard to argue with his results. Some would say Andy Reid is not top 5 in terms of game management but his offensive scheme/play calling and ability to get the most out of his players more than makes up for it. Give Shanahan a real QB and he'll become the next version of Andy Reid IMO.

Do you really think Purdy will earn top 5 money? Surely GMs can see plainly that he is too limited to ever be more than a bridge or backup QBs. His limitations were on display last night. I don't believe they'll be fooled by his stats.

I am sure he thought Klein gave him the best chance to not lose. He was wrong. It was a cowardly personnel decision that sunk the defense. I've never had an issue with McDermott's 4th down decision making. Overall I think it is one of his strengths as a coach. He's aggressive when it makes sense and conservative when it makes sense. But that doesn't absolve him of the various personnel mistakes he made in his defensive game plan. I mean how many more times does his defense have to be abused by good offenses in the playoffs before we accept that he just isn't a good enough defensive coach? He regularly allows offenses to have one of their best offensive performances of the year in the playoffs. It's a trend, not a one-year blip.

He's taken two limited backup QBs to a Super Bowl and would have won last night's if not for inexplicable player mistakes on special teams. He is easily the 2nd best head coach in the NFL.

Our defensive gameplan was abysmal until it was too late. And this isn't hindsight. I said before the game put Neal on Kelce, and give Williams the nod over Klein unless he looks like a disaster out there. This finally happened on the one drive we forced a punt. I have no idea what McDermott was thinking before that. Eventually our defense simply has to show up against a good opponent in the playoffs. No team is winning shootouts all the way to a Super Bowl victory.