BullBuchanan

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This is every decent team in the league with a star QB, especially us.

Exactly, though if your model has the Packers ranked #1, I suggest you fine tune it

He's clearly playing injured without using his arm at all a lot of the time. Milano is my favorite Bill, but they need to sit him down until he's healthy. Williams represents a significant upgrade over this version of Matt.

I always thought "power rankings" were pointless since they are always correlated to Win-loss record. Anyone can just look that up without needing someone to write a column about it.

I can't think of a achievement I care about less. Stay healthy, keep working, and figure out a way to win the chip in the playoffs. They could start resting guys now as far as I'm concerned.

Apparently not great, given Gisele left him for a jiu-jitsu instructor.

Take away the most critical advantage we have? ok. Pointless discussion anyway as we won' be getting a dome for at least 30 years.

The guy has been here 7 years. He's clearly who McD wants.

Other smart coaches know what we're doing, yes. I'm not so sure we know what they're doing.

Almost certainly, and it will be paired with the head scratching situational playcalling and gross game management to boot.

Of course don't forget running a QB sneak at the goal line on first down when not making it drastically reduces your chances to win and the rest of the playbook is open to you. They continue to do this stuff year after year in games that aren't even that critical. Will folks act surprised when they do it again int he playoffs? I won't.

Good for you. Never said you needed to be afraid of him, just that the Ravens have a better shot of winning a SB than the Bills do.

He completed just shy of 73% of his passes with 2 passing TDs, 2 rushing TDs zero turnovers and a 120 passer rating. Not sure what else you want a QB to do.

Cool. He had one excellent game last year and a below average game against KC. The team has completely revamped their composition to address their playoff issues. We have not.

Is Allen ever going to figure out the deep ball?

Incorrect. I've said for the last 4 seasons that they aren't built to be a Super Bowl winner. I ALSO said, they'd be fortunate to be in playoff contention. They have indeed become FORTUNATE. I never once said they wouldn't make the playoffs. In fact, if you look at my posts from the spring and summer, I said I wouldn't be surprised to see them win 10 or 11 games. My notes about thier offseason losses were due to a significant decrease in depth, not the impact of any one player. The addressed those depth concerns since that origin post and I updated my position following those acquisitions. If you're going to try to come at me, the least you could do is be prepared, because you just look ignorant. How many games have you watched him this year? He's having the best season of any QB in the league. Lazy bait. Do better. I praise the Bills as much as they deserve. When they start winning championships, they'll get the praise that other teams who have won championships do. Hell, if they make it out of the divisional round of the playoffs, they'll get a lot more praise.

Moving the goalposts? I've had them in the same sport for 4 seasons now. I've been extremely consistent in my critique of this team, and nothing has improved since we peaked in 2020.

No doubt, but they still have elite players back there that have been opportunistic. In the playoffs, I'll take that over a more overall defensively sound team, because once you get to the playoffs, you're playing the best teams every week. They had enough talent to completely shut down Allen - both through the air and on the ground.

Do you not understand projections?

Highly disagree. Jackson is having a better year this year than either of his MVP seasons. Derrick Henry is also having a renaissance season, and the emergence of Isiah Likely to pair with a now healthy Mark Andrews rounds out an improved group of weapons that I think will have a significant impact on their ability to be successful in the post-season. The problem with the ravens was always that they were one-dimensional and everything went through Lamar - not unlike the problem the Bills have had in the past. As for the Ravens having a bottom 10 defense, to that I say they're allowing the lowest rushing yards per carry in the league while the Bills allow the 3rd most. When one of those teams has King Henry, I think the matchup strongly favors them. In a year where KC has been poor through the air, I can envision a scenario where the Ravens stifle the running game and guys like Van Noy are able to keep enough pressure on Mahomes for them to get a win. I think it's more likely KC wins, but that's how I get there. I don't think the Bills have the same advantage. I think a lot of that was predicated on the Jets & Dolphins not being dumpster fires. Had both of those teams been strong, we would have had a tougher path to a division crown. I don't think many folks saw the Niners falling apart either.

What have we done? I mean this earnestly. We've seen them stack regular season wins against poor competition before. We've seen them beat KC in the regular season before. None of this is new, and frankly I don't find much meaning in any of it. I'm looking to see if we have improved our team makeup, playcalling, execution and situational decision making enough to beat other teams that have had more success than us in the past and have also been trying to get better. I think we've gotten better in most categories, but I think we still lack the top end talent all the teams I have ahead of us have, we've still had suspect playcalling for stretches, and I've seen ups and downs from McDermott. Miami 1 was a coaching masterclass, and then there was the Ravens game. I really don't think that's going out of my way to paint things in a negative light. I think we're still a top 6ish team in the league, as we have been for the last few years. I don't think we've made the jump to top 4. To your point about "leadership", perhaps that's the issue. I have very little faith int he leadership of this team to do much beyond what they've done. I don't think this is a staff that is capable of winning a championship, and I think a lot of the praise they get for us being relevant now is a little hyperbolic. Like most coaches and GMs, their success has been heavily dependent on getting a great quarterback. Props for that, no doubt. Given the QB that they have though, I would absolutely say they've underachieved.

I think the Ravens could as well, but that's it unless something crazy happens I understand the definition just fine. I don't consider a team to be a "legitimate" contender when I can't create a scenario for winning that doesn't involve a stacked combo of upsets or injuries. I have absolutely no reason to believe we get past KC in the playoffs. I don't see them getting past Baltimore either. I think we have less talent on both sides of the ball and are outcoached by both squads. The only way I can see us making the Super Bowl is if we don't have to play either team, or if when we do their QB is knocked out of the game. If I can't even get them to the Super Bowl without those considerations, how can I realistically consider them "legitimate" contenders? If we get there, I don't like how we match up against the Eagles, a potentially healthier Lions squad, and I wouldn't even be stoked about playing the Packers. I think our best matchup would be against a team like Minnesota, Washington or one of the current lesser teams in the conference. No one will be more excited to see me be completely wrong than me. I hope it happens.

How could it change in December? We're still in the regular season (pre-season for good teams). No one critiques McDermott's ability to win regular season games. If he loses in the playoffs again, will the people who never criticize him continue to support him without critique because he won another division championship? McDermott built a great team, but I have always believed, and have no reason not to believe based on what I've seen in big games, that he just doesn't have what it takes to close. You can stick with that forever and say you got unlucky, blame the refs, whatever - but you have a choice not to.

I blocked him long ago for his low quality, attack-laden posts. People have been using personal attacks against my posts, instead of just trying to discredit them on merit, for years. I'm used to it at this point. You can look back through my post history for the last 4 years or so and it should all be very consistent. There is little that has happened this year that is counter to my primary concerns about this team. I said I could see us winning 10-11 games due to the weakness of our schedule as perceived after the draft and into the summer. As it turns out, our schedule has been even weaker than what anyone could have guessed due to the jets and dolphins imploding, and KC and SF being far more vulnerable than they have in past seasons. The league in general is also having a really bad year with a ton of teams at the bottom and a ton of pretenders at the top. That said, the Bills are playing way better football than what I expected. Josh is also playing the best football of his career (which I've mentioned on the board no less than 5 times). Ironically, he's playing the kind of game management style it seemed Dorsey was trying to coax out of him last year. Cooper was a huge get. An add like that didn't seem to be part of the plan - everyone was shocked when it happened. As of now however, I still do not think the Bills are in a legitimate position to win a Super Bowl. People will point to our record and our regular season win over KC to shoot me down, but those accomplishment are nothing new for us. We've beaten KC in the regular season 4 years in a row with an 0-3 record against them in the playoffs over the last 4 years. We got some help with the Bengals implosion, but the Lions, Eagles and Vikings are all stacked with talent and have dominant run games, our biggest weakness, to pair with elite passing attacks and talented defenses. Our course the Chiefs are still the champs, and they have our number in the post-season until proven otherwise. Some people think being a top 4-6 team means you're in position to win it all. I don't. I don't think Minnesota, Green Bay or Pittsburgh are legitimate threats to win the SB this year, regardless of their record. Maybe that's the difference that makes people think I'm just a "hater", despite watching/listening all but one game over the last 35 years. I sure waste a lot of my own time to just to post on a message board a couple times a week. I'm loving the season, and I'm as high on expectations as I can possibly be, but I'm a long way from feeling like I'm dead wrong about the composition of our team, and the capability of our coaches until proven otherwise. The only bar this team has is winning a Super Bowl, so it's a bit early to start putting the crow in the oven.