Straight Hucklebuck

2004 was the last year of Pat Williams in Buffalo. In 2005, the Bills thought Tim Anderson could take over at DT. The Bills dropped from a Top 5 defense against the run to 31st. And it started a streak of 8 straight years being 22nd or worse against the run, with Chan's years sticking out as 27th - 31st. But 2006 - 2009 the Bills tried to implement a classic Tampa 2 defense, so it meant 230 pound linebackers like Keith Ellison, and 290 pound DT's like Larry Tripplett. And so Donte Whitner was the first pick of the Marv Levy regime, not Haloti Ngata.

I just think you have to be realistic about Allen. The Dallas game this year was a high point of his career. The anticipation throw to Cole Beasley in the Red Zone, the pass he threaded out of his own end zone. Real growth, real playmaking throws. When he has time/protection to load up and fire the football straight down the football field, I saw a better QB. But the goal isn’t improvement relative to a bottom of the league rookie self, he needs to be better than a good percentage of his peers. You’re in a conference with Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, Ben Roethlisberger and so on. The Playoff game showed it’s still a struggle for Josh to orchestrate more than 19-20 ppg. After the hot start, the completion percentage dipped back into the 50’s and the fumbles picked up. So going into Year 3, he’s not in the bottom tier of NFL passers, but he’s not better than half the league until he shows it. At the end of the day, our offense comes up short in big games (Patriots x2, Ravens, Texans).

After Donahoe the Bills stopped trying to find a Quarterback for a decade. They really settled into a mode of playing simple football, and trying to build around backups. They tried Losman, and he gave away to three years of Trent Edwards, three more years of Ryan Fitzpatrick, EJ Manuel for a year, talked Kyle Orton out of retirement, then three more years of Baltimore’s backup Tyrod Taylor. That’s 10 years of trying to max out as a try hard Wildcard team. So it started with Marv, carried through with Russ Brandon, Nix and then Whaley.

One pick that showed how far off the Bills Scouting Department was from 2005-2016 was Derek Fine. What did our Scouts see in a 25 year old, who ran a 4.95 at the Combine? What a shock, he got here and couldn’t meet the minimum physical requirements of the position. Picks like Xavier Omon, Danny Batten, Ed Wang, Alvin Bowen, Reggie Corner, Levi Brown, Alex Carrington epitomized the horrendous talent evaluation of the Bills. And you have to remember, Tom Modrak was leading the Scouting efforts for the Bills through the 2010 Draft.

They were fun the 8-8 year with Hue Jackson because their identity was speed, and they were trying to break years of futility. Darren McFadden, Darius Heyward-Bey, Jacoby Ford, Fabian Washington.

What is enjoyable about 15-17 overall and the 30th ranked offense in the league?

Schopp and Jeremy White have come to a conclusion about Buffalo sports that I have come to; the standards here are laughably low. For instance, when dubs asked a 3-Part question about Sean McDermott’s comments regarding 21 points, I responded with a thought out, thorough answer. My point is admittedly repetitive, but I think it’s the truth, the “free pass” excuses for McDermott and Beane need to stop this season, and competiting for a Wildcard is not a defined, aggressive goal. It’s a lame and casually written goal. When you have a Coach that goes out of his way to tell you about how he has seen it all, done it all from his time in Carolina and Philadelphia, then three years should be enough to get the Culture and winning method installed. I don’t understand Bills fans who want to hang-back and build in excuses for why winning is not the expectation. We have tried the soft approach, give them time. Buddy Nix said 9 years ago now that the Bills were not that far away (far away from what he never defined), so we lived through him and his chosen successor. But the reality of losing, and ownership changes means you don’t get to see the end of 5-year plans if you are constantly losing. I’d argue that McDermott and Beane almost lost this fan base after the 37-5 beating the Colts put on the Bills who were scoring 10.3 ppg at that point in the season. If we’re being told how amazing Josh Allen will be knowing that he will be the QB in OTAs onward, then let’s see it this season, instead of couching expectations in lieu of Year 3 if a 5-year plan based on a Panthers model that made one Super Bowl and lost.

Again, if someone doesn’t agree with your narrative you pour on the shame and personal insults. The truth is simple. In Buffalo you have to pretend that winning is right around the corner, and that there is honor watching the futility of both organizations.

How? Because the rest of the league has left the Bills behind. For chunks of time between 2000-now the Bills haven’t felt like a real NFL team - From Russ Brandon as GM, to Dick Jauron as Head Coach, to Doug Whaley’s people shouldn’t play football, to our current Head Coach trying to out-culture the league, it has led to a 24 year Playoff win Drought. Due to the Bills out-dated decision making, losing, and constant rules changes, I have cut my consumption of the NFL substantially and have no interest in any other franchise. But I have no issue with other fans looking to smarter, better teams to experience the NFL. To be a fan in Buffalo you have to talk about perpetual 5-year rebuilds and spin 6-10 seasons as “progress”. You have to accept talent equals locker room cancers and that lunchpail is the way to sustained winning. The Bills are like the Atkins Diet. When fat people started telling the rest of the world how to lose weight. A historically inept organization, constantly siphoning good-will from a 5-year window from 1989-1994. Jim Kelly endorses this Coach and QB. Buy your season tickets and merchandise today ?.

Our current Head Coach has said the same thing.

How? Because you are being socially policed. You can have any opinion you want, as long as it’s the opinion they want you to have. Otherwise you’re shamed.

What are your "know football" credentials? And if you can produce them, then please educate everyone who "know little" on when the Bills will start winning in the Playoffs again? If I can't ask that question because I don't know football, then by all means, go ahead and enlighten everyone.

1) Well in the Bills case, there is more leniency than normal because they have not had a Franchise QB since 1996. For instance, the failure of Buddy Nix/Chan Gailey was in large part due to sticking with Dick Jauron's failed Quarterbacks for the entire duration of their tenure in Buffalo (along with flip-flopping on defensive scheme). I am happy that Beane/McDermott elected to not stick with someone else's backup QB (Tyrod Taylor) and to try to legitimately find a QB. I think the answer to your question is 2 years. Otherwise, losing for 3 straight years generally increases the pressure on a Coach immensely, to where its win now, or you get fired. And when you get fired, it bakes in to more years of "new scheme" excuses and prolongs the losing. I get that you don't want to change Coaches every 2-3 years, and I agree. That's why instead of the 5-day search the Bills did in Arizona when they hired Doug Marrone, you conduct a more thorough interview process in which 8-10 guys are considered. As we've seen, with the Bills, two years is more than enough time to turn over the roster, with only 4-5 guys total left over from the Whaley era. So the "we inherited a bad team" excuse really only holds weight for 1-2 years. Draft difference makers. You are paid to know more than the fans. What great GM or Coach or QB have we let go in the last 20 years that went on to really burn us? Maybe the Negative Nancy's knew what they were talking about, because nobody has really made us eat our words with Playoff wins. Speaking of which... 2) Winning in the Playoffs is the only measure of success in Professional Sports. In Buffalo, we've been racking up the moral victories for years. 3) No, they don't. But that doesn't matter. As soon as they get hired, the clock starts on finding a QB if you don't have one (see all the failures in Cleveland until Dorsey drafted Mayfield), and if they don't recognize that, the regime will never get off the ground. Additionally, I want to see talented players coming in the door via the Draft or Free Agency. If you want to win with culture and lunchpail guys, then you have to demonstrate to me how that meaningfully differentiates your team from the rest of the league. If your plan is to out-culture the league, then results should be expected after 2-3 years. In McDermott's case, the time-frame is now because they chose to trade young talent, and have mostly failed in adding legitimate skill positions to the team. Misquoted Joe B? I went to WKBW and this was the article that was up: https://www.wkbw.com/sports/bills/joe-b-5-takeaways-from-buffalo-bills-hc-sean-mcdermott-at-the-nfl-combine The quote is directly from the article, I didn't alter anything. I copied and pasted, and I listened to McDermott's conference. (By the way, Bangarang on Page 3 pasted the exact same quote sequence) .... I've said the same thing as you in regards to 2019. They have no excuses for all the reasons you listed, so you and I agree.

When your franchise doesn't have a Playoff win since 1995 there is next to nothing positive to push. What is sad are the fans that continue to lower the bar. I want the Bills to win too. But how many "free passes" does this organization get before some results are expected? I don't want to hear 6-10, but that they were "competitive" or that the team is "young". Luckily for all of us, there are no excuses this year.

That's the quote Joe B had in his blog: https://www.wkbw.com/sports/bills/joe-b-5-takeaways-from-buffalo-bills-hc-sean-mcdermott-at-the-nfl-combine Anyway you dice it, I think the criticism is fair. 21 points is a low bar, and 21 points ain't going to cut it against Playoff teams. A threat to score 21 a game is like an NBA team saying they are a threat to score 95 a game.

There was no "minimum" 21 points per game about it.

Here was the exact quote: "I think to be a legitimate contender in this league you've got to be able to score, week in or week our, or a threat to score 21 points a game."

Where are the results oldmanfan?

McDermott’s plan to get there is hard work, culture, toughness, respecting the football, smarts, process. Hopefully talent is one of the things he is looking for.

You’re an idiot because you actually demand that the bar needs to go up in the organization and across the fandom. There are some fans who understand this is professional sports where winning is the standard, and other fans will work relentless to manufacture excuses for the newest regime to take over. I thought your arguments were well presented because they used actual Math (aka FACTS) to them back up. Stats over Stories.

Well the recipe in Buffalo is always the same. When you don’t have any results, you sell hype.

He said in his Combine interview yesterday that one of his goals was to be an astute talent evaluator, in addition to teaching the players fundametals, and scheming. He is very much involved in Player Personnel decisions. It's not confusing to me at all. What is encouraging by the way? A 3-point loss against Jacksonville? That's supposed to go in the Trophy collection, especially after the 6-10 stinker of a season that followed? Beane and McDermott chose to tear down the building. This is professional sports, not a little league team. Only in Buffalo do you get credit for shipping away talent and talking about multi-year rebuilds. After that puff interview with Daboll, they can't use the Josh Allen is young excuse this season. They have cap space, the culture, the picks, the ownership backing and their hand picked QB. WHEN can fans expect results? When? Yeah, Buffalo fans have no patience, they haven't sat through 20 years of this crap, listening to 5-year plan after rebuild plan after reboot plan, etc. It's always some excuse about continuity, the right culture, patience. The Jets have a new HC, the Dolphins have a new HC. Why can't the winning start this year? I'm not here to call for Beane or McDermott to get fired, but why isn't the expectation 10 wins and a solid Playoff birth (maybe, gas,p, a win!) this season? Not a soft goal like "competing for a Wildcard".

This is an excellent post and a great point. McDermott prides himself on every detail, everything has been thought of. But 21 points in every loss buys the Bills 3 more wins out of 17. So he says that confidently, but 21 doesn't beat good teams.

He is the Head Coach. On the headset, listening to every play call. He has final say on Game Day, the statement in bold isn't going to fly. The offense has been atrocious under Beane/McDermott thus far. So okay, we all accept all the excuses from Year 1 and Year 2. Done. Are we going to get some results in Year 3, or is it too much to ask to climb out of the 30's in offense?

Fans who point that out are hung up on the fact that the Bills were 29th in scoring in 2017, 30th in 2018, finished 31st in passing both seasons. So when he throws out a number and talk about the kind of WR he likes, they are looking for something more expansive that the physical, blue-collar run game in snowy Buffalo answer that he gave when he first got here. It's more than fair to pick apart the quotes from a 15-17 Head Coach who has had that kind of offensive output thus far.