HappyDays

I 100% agree that McDermott is Schottenheimer/Turner 2.0.

Last night the better QB lost. I guess you could say on Christmas Day that Aiden O'Connell was a better QB than Mahomes. Or you can be honest about the evaluation and think beyond kindergarten logic.

So you're going to make the argument that the QB is literally the only person on the offense responsible for what happens on offense? That's fine if you want to make that argument. But it's as wrong as 1+1=3.

Thank you for pointing out that the Bills defense was utter trash and the Bills skill players played substantially worse than their counterparts on the Chiefs. Like I said, Allen slightly edged out Mahomes' own play. There's no other explanation for why one offense and defense and special teams performing much better than the other should only win by 3 points. Only a superior QB could have that kind of equalizing effect.

I'm getting angrier at McDermott and Beane the more analysis that I read today. The only reason Allen is not talked about at the level of Mahomes is because of mistakes made by those two guys that have led to multiple devastating playoff losses. It's now two playoff games where Allen slightly edged out Mahomes' own great play, and still ended up losing at the end. It makes me sick to my stomach that the same people in charge of these failures are still going to be in charge next year.

Perfect read from Allen. Chris Jones made the play. That's it.

Don't screw this up, Beane.

Don't overthink it, Beane.

The adjustments they landed on that ultimately worked are things that should have been in the initial game plan. That's my point. I respect that you understand the details and nuances of the game as well as anybody else on here... But putting all the details aside, aren't you just sick of having this same conversation every year? It is uncanny how the defense melts down every single year in a playoff loss. We can argue over the reasons why but at the end of the day this is a results based business... And the results from our defensive head coach are simply not good enough. 8.5 yards per play... There is no excusing that. Not in year 4 of the playoffs under the same coaching staff.

Excluding kneeldowns we gave up 8.5 yards per play... 3 yards per play more than what the Chiefs offense averaged all season... That is quite possibly the worst playoff defensive performance of McDermott's career. It is getting worse, not better. The only reason the Chiefs didn't put up 40+ is that we controlled the ball and TOP on offense, and we got saved once by the dumbest rule in sports. And this is likely to be the weakest Chiefs offense we ever see in the Mahomes/Reid era. So what is the reason to be optimistic that McDermott will suddenly figure it out against this team when it counts?

I would still take that over Klein moving through quicksand all night. You have to admit Klein was by far our weakest point of defense... Maybe Williams misses some reads in the game but at least he can move side to side. Klein can hit his spot 100% of the time and it won't matter as Kelce easily runs right by him. And yes I mentioned Siran Neal covering Kelce before the game too. This is what troubles me - I am just an amateur fan and I knew what our game plan should have been. McDermott didn't figure it out until the 4th quarter when it was too late. We have seen this before. McDermott loses his nerve in the playoffs and goes soft with his defensive game plan, and it costs us. Fans have tried to blame Leslie Frazier. It was McDermott all along. He isn't learning.

I just don't understand why we waited. It was obvious before the game. Put your two best athletes Dodson and Williams on the field or else Mahomes is going to play around with Klein all game. Put Siran Neal on Kelce like we have done successfully in the past. When we did these things late in the game we found success. But what exactly was the defensive gameplan at the start? And why does this same crap keep happening year after year in the playoffs?

But he didn't. Williams had two great plays. He stayed laterally with Mahomes to force him out of bounds at the LOS on the Chiefs last drive. That sideline to sideline speed made a difference there. He also had made a great play in coverage that the officials incorrectly called DPI on. Maybe over the course of the game he would have been picked on too. But it's a huge playoff game against our nemesis. And McDermott, as usual, chose the safe comfortable option instead of shooting for the stars. Still waiting for that growth mindset to affect the guy preaching it.

This only worked because McDermott chose to start Klein. Like I said before the game it should have been Dodson and Williams. When Williams was on the field we made a couple stops. We needed someone that could run laterally. Huge error by McDermott. I know you aren't going to agree with that but surely you can see that Klein was picked on all night.

Whose decision was it to start Klein over Williams? Klein was picked on from the very start. When he was replaced by Williams late in the game the defense suddenly got a couple stops. So even the thing you're using as an excuse was ultimately the fault of McDermott. No more excuses. It is four years of underwhelming to awful defensive performances in the playoffs.

Uh yeah I would trade Terrel Bernard, Christian Benford, and a banged up Rasul Douglas for Tyreek Hill without hesitation. McDermott's defense melting down in the playoffs is an annual tradition now. There's no reason to pretend it's a one-off caused by injuries. The sample size is large enough now to say that this is who McDermott is.

I just checked. The 32nd ranked defense in yards per play this year was at 6.0... So our performance tonight was 2.5 yards per play worse than the worst defense in the league... I'm actually in awe at how bad the defense was tonight. I knew it was awful watching it live, but seeing the numbers it's almost impossibly bad.

Get this - in our 2021 divisional loss to the Chiefs they had 7.6 yards per play. So our defensive performance tonight was arguably worse than when they had Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce in their prime. Yeah we're never winning anything meaningful under McDermott.

Chiefs offense averaged 5.5 yards per play in the regular season. So we spotted them an extra 3 yards for every play they ran... That is actually insane. Another classic McDermott defensive meltdown in the playoffs.

Starting Klein was McDermott's choice. He has to take complete ownership of that mistake. Klein was awful and was mercilessly picked on by Mahomes throughout much of the game. Then on the last drive Dorian Williams was subbed in... and we miraculously stopped two series in a row (out of necessity because the refs called a phantom penalty on the first one). That drive included a couple of really good plays from none other than Dorian Williams. McDermott chose the "safe" option in Klein and was soundly punished for it. He then refused to admit his mistake and make a change until it was way too late. That is 100% on him. Great coaches find a way to overcome injuries by having the right players prepared. Chiefs were down to their 3rd string safety, backup WLB, and backup NT. This isn't just hindsight on my part by the way, I was saying before the game Williams should get the start and only be pulled for Klein if he was repeatedly abused by misdirection. Obviously the expectation wasn't to shut down the Chiefs, but with a defensive head coach we should expect a lot more than an abysmal 8.5 yards per play given up and only forcing a single punt, against an offense that has struggled for most of the season.

The anger comes in waves. But I accepted we wouldn't make the playoffs after we put 12 men on the field so everything since then has felt like an added bonus. Even tonight I was into it until the dumb fake punt, and then everything after that again was just an added bonus. It's already solidified in my mind that we will never win a Super Bowl under McDermott, even if we pulled it out tonight I can't see us then beating two elite opponents in a row under this coaching staff. So in that sense it doesn't hurt as much. It feels inevitable.

The Chiefs intentionally spent the past two offseasons taking their medicine so that they could prepare their cap situation for the future. This coming offseason they have a ton of cap space ($51 million, with the usual caveat that they will need to re-sign some of their own players) and I suspect they will go all out to get a WR given what they went through at that position this year. Also I posted this in another thread: So the game script for the Bills really could not have been any better, at least on offense. It was in fact a historically great game script. And still we could not find a way to beat Mahomes and Reid. So I struggle to find any reason to believe this regime is suddenly going to find a way to beat the Chiefs in what are likely to be much worse circumstances. And that's before accounting for things like Burrow returning from injury, the Texans continuing to build around Stroud, etc. This was probably the best shot at an AFC title that we'll have for a long time and we blew it.

Your opinion on how fast we should score a TD does not mean Allen's decision to throw the ball to an open WR in the endzone was hero ball. He literally just read cover 2 and threw to his downfield cover 2 beater for a go ahead score in crunch time. There is nothing more that needs to be said about that read. It is completely meaningless that Diggs was wide open on a shallow crosser as far as analyzing Allen's decision making on that play. Sorry if I sound snippy, it has become commonplace on here for people to totally misinterpret what QBs are doing on any given down and it's gotten very tiring.

The defense gave him an open WR in the end zone. The read was perfect. The whole "hero ball" conversation has gotten way out of control and it's based entirely in emotion. Now we have reached a point where any pass more than 10 yards downfield counts as "not taking what the defense gives him."

Congratulations Sean McDermott on breaking yet another NFL record in a loss. Something similar happened in the Eagles game if I recall correctly. Our head coach finds new and exciting ways to lose games.