Straight Hucklebuck

The Bills had time. Wood retired January 26th. The Bills tried to force Incognito to take a pay-cut. And they traded Glenn. So this is what it looks like when you get rid of the left side of your line.

As an organization, the Bills are really starting to look like: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cleveland_Browns_starting_quarterbacks Browns have 31 since 1999-2000. The Bills are at 19/20 depending on Matt Cassel in 2015.

Augie, I am not upset. I’m not embarrassed, because I’m not the fan who runs around telling everyone how much I believe. I expect the worst from this franchise and they never fail to disappoint. The reason the Bills are an embarrassment to the city is because they get laughed at by every national media outlet and show on radio and TV. Playing close to the Patriots is a win for Buffalo. The Bills deserve a pat on the head for close to immortal Brady. And our Coach just keeps rambling about field position and blue collar work ethic. The Bilks under Beane and McDermott are book of cliches from 1941. But let’s go to NY tomorrow and hear about the cram session a career journeyman backup like Barkley had to do in one week to leap frog national joke Nate Peterman, with our Coaching talking about it being the right move, for the right season, at the right time.

I’m not upset or angry. This team is an embarrasment to the city and fans. I am just stating facts. I don’t lose a minute of sleep over this stuff.

Ok Augie I will.

I’m not sure where you’re coming from. This is professional sports. You have fans paying money to see this. Owners who paid $1.4B. The team is scoring 10 ppg, the interviews after the games are becoming increasingly harsher, you’re starting a fringe journeyman QB Sunday and you’ve got 7 more games of this to go. Allen is hurt, every other QB you have is garbage, and the team has scored 20 points combined the past 3 games. Development? What a joke.

101 yards and 3 interceptions, he takes 5 sacks, and loses a fumble.

Well if you look at the post I was responding to you’d see a specific mention of 2-3 years of development from Josh Allen. Now in terms of his argument it speaks to how raw and unaccomplished Allen was as a prospect. So jrober38 would have never taken Allen. In the end the pressure to win is right now. So you can have whatever plan you want. But losing changes things and saps all that good-will.

Just laughable.

Ok, but when you trade up to #7 using up Glenn, #12, #53, #56 are the fans really going to wait 2-3 years on his rookie deal until he goes in? People would be ok watching veteran QBs on their last legs? I think this is the dilema. The fans, the organization, the Coaches all say they’ll be patient, they’ll only put guys in when they’re “ready”. But what really happens on losing teams is the losses start to pile up early in the season, Coaches are paid to win now, fans and media start lobbying questions into the Head Coach about whether the Quarterback play is good enough, and this is Week 3. You have 14 weeks to go. Allen is in because it’s hard to get one viable Quarterback on the roster, let alone having a quality veteran with quality games left in him. When you’re floundering the Coach (like ours) says this is all part of the plan. The right player, at the right time, in the right situation I believe is the way McDermott phrased it.

This is spot on. Two guys from Carolina (Mike Schopp’s point) telling “blue collar” Buffalo how important running in the snow is. Their WR acquisitions are nearly all older possession guys with no vertical speed. They had had to have to the rocket armed QB, so in 2019 Brandon gets cash in, let’s see if they build an offense that attacks vertical.

What could the Bills possibly have seen in Josh Allen’s college tape that indicates he could have a higher upside than Cam Newton?

I read his statements. Sounds like a ton of excuses to be honest. Especially the part where he turned it back on the fans/media when he chose to spend on defense. Him and McDermott keep talking about the Panthers. YOU’RE NOT IN CAROLINA BRANDON. You made one Super Bowl and lost and we get that shoved in our faces relentlessly. How do you come to that conclusion when Anderson has played like hot garbage? What good would it have done to get Anderson in here earlier?

I think that’s an idea that sounds better than the reality. The Browns traded for Tyrod Taylor to play in front of Mayfield. That lasted 2 games. The Cardinals went out and spent $20MM on Bradford, and that lasted 2 games. Beane was recently quoted as saying he made a mistake not getting Anderson in Buffalo sooner. We’ve seen 6 TO’s and 0 TDs out of Anderson before he was hurt, so no reason to think that would have gone any better. So that leaves Teddy Bridgewater, paying a mint for Kirk Cousins, or outbidding the Broncos for Case Keenum. We could pick up Landry Jones. A poster smartly pointed out Nick Foles last season, and I can’t argue that. But unless you have a Josh McCown , I think a “veteran presence” most of the time is a waste of time. It’s an idea that sounds better than it is.

We’re all still waiting for that big explosion of production from Sammy. Remember the Bills fans who use to compare him to Julio Jones after the foot injury, saying Julio only had this level of production after 3 years? The Bills made the right decision to not pay that guy.

This is being outsmarted and outcoached. Remember the game against the Patriots, at home, where Scott Chandler had a "big" day, and Watkins had 0 catches until desperation time in the 4th. And one of the takeaways was Chandler had a great game. No. The Patriots outsmarted you. They'd gladly have the ball in Scott Chandler's hands over Sammy Watkins. Same thing here. 31 completions, 189 yards. As Shaw said, sure they allow a 2-3 yard dump off and swarm tackle constantly hacking at the Bills WR's arms for fumbles.

Today on WGR Jeremy White (who was feeling bad for his rant a day earlier) was trying to spin McDermott's comments with Mike Schopp as a positive. McDermott said that the Quarterback has to consistently play at a high level in order to win. Jeremy was trying to present this as the light going off in McDermott's head. I thought the complete opposite. McDermott only relents on the QB/Passing is important statements when he is directed by others on that logic path. It was Schopp who brought up the QB position. When left to explain the offense's problems on his own, McDermott goes right into: respect the ball, penalties, run the football to establish the line of scrimmage, protect the QB, and about as dangerous as he gets is "play action". Nothing in McDermott or Beane's personnel moves shows they value fast, down the field, vertical playmakers. I think at his core, McDermott wants a game that is always in front of him. Get a field goal, and play defense, always staying ahead of the sticks on 1st and 2nd down. Punt and pin them deep, winning with defense. There is a reason they signed a Fullback, Mike Tolbert and Chris Ivory. He believes in a physical run game. Shaw pointed this out in his writeup - the Bills are still throwing the classic fade route in the endzone. This was a route that became popular during Calvin Johnson's run, but has long since been defended. Same thing with Wildcat. The Bills use this as an "exotic" formation. This is them really throwing a curveball. Sean McDermott and Brian Daboll are not innovators. Picture them in a room trying to scheme up offense. McDermott talks about falling asleep trying to think of new ways to innovate ways to break the offense open. We haven't seen that. We don't run bubble screens, or slants, or drags, or crosses. We don't move McCoy to the slot. We still are running out of the Shotgun and losing 2, 3 yards every single time. Trying to "get McCoy established" by sweeping to the edges with subpar OTs that can't move. And root is always the same here. We don't have a Quarterback. We don't have a guy who sees it. We have the same QBs who run the play that is called, throw the ball where the Coaches say the read should go. Don't audible, just run the play that is called.

Nice review Shaw. 1. I agree with McDermott insulting the fans intelligence. Like we don’t have a TV and can’t see Rams v. Saints. Are they obsessed with field position and keeping things third and manageable? How have the Bills not figured out the bubble screen as a method to get the ball out faster instead of trying to sweep or pitch their way to the edge? I was asking that question when Watkins was a rookie and the Bills were struggling to manufacture touches for him. They lose yards every time they attempt this, yet it’s a stupid Shotgun snap trying to run the ball and it’s an immediate 2-3 people in the backfield to suffocate McCoy. Why are there no 10 yard crosses or drag routes? Why hasn’t anyone thought of putting McCoy in the slot? I was asking this 8 years ago when the Spiller, the 9th pick in the draft, got 78 touches all season. Nope instead McDermott will just parrot out the line about “getting McCoy going to establish the line of scrimmage”. Why isn’t Murphy out there hammering away? Why isn’t Croom split out wide, why is Logan Thomas even on this team? He’s a mediocre athlete. 2. Stellar observation about the fade route. It was outdated when the Bills tried it last season with Benjamin in the Playoffs against the Jaguars. But the Bills are followers, not innovators. The rest of the league has moved on from the Wildcat, the Bills use it as their “exotic” package. That was part of the reason McDermott wanted Joe Webb, he played Special Teams and could be used as a QB/WR/RB. This is all so familiar because once again the Bills have a conservative, defensive minded Coach afraid of turnovers (Jauron, Marrone, Rex and now McDermott) combined with no Quarterback.

McDermott doesn’t want to without establishing the line of scrimmage and using play action first. It’s risky. Peterman doesn’t have the arm. Allen doesn’t see it, he can’t read a defense. The WRs are the slowest group in the league.

We got softball questions in that interview, and so McDermott was able to skate by with generic statements and platitudes. Terrible interview. This Coach continues to work in line of scrimmage, field position, physicality. All the buzz words.

Disappointed in the McDermott interview with Schopp. We got really nothing about his philosophy and McDermott was able to skate by with platitudes/generic answers.

When you get your teeth kicked in, it's okay because the tape gives you a chance to see what the other team did to you, and that gives you a chance to write that down and correct those mistakes. Just stick with it though and continue to try and establish the running game early....

Rex's defense not performing, the players criticizing his defense, his brother joining the staff, the Clemson helmets and bike riding, along with the in-fighting with Whaley. I think the owner took his team back. Now, clearly you look back, and Whaley, yes Whaley, assembled more talent than Beane or McDermott has so far.

Right, let me check the McDermott rollodex of responses. It starts with a winning mindset and those come from habits. We have to establish the line of scrimmage before we can conceive of throwing to a Tight End.

Yeah what a shock, all the best teams in the league have the best quarterbacks and quarterbacks make coaches. Pederson might get a vote here, River Boat Ron has a nice team, Shanahan can Coach offense, Nagy has improved Turbisky.