ShakAttack

Yep. And of course, that’s why Dak is better than Allen.

Your description rendered only one person in my mind: Mike McDaniel Except he is good, and there is only one of him.

McDermott himself expressed concern over "wearing himself too thin" if he were to handle DC responsibilities along with HC, but he was given the job anyway. Perhaps not coincidentally, McDermott has made more mistakes in-game this season than any prior season. Maybe he knows himself best and the best version of himself is not when he is being overwhelmed with additional responsibilities he is not used to. From all reports, McDermott is a man of routine, and his routine has been very much thrown off this season. I don't think he was ever able to adjust perhaps in the way some may have expected him to. But again, the fact that he seemed to express doubt in himself ("don't want to wear myself too thin") should have been a red flag in itself. But what do I know? Do we give him any benefit of the doubt that perhaps with a proper DC, McDermott can be a better head coach again?

I do too. I actually had a good feeling going into the Eagles game, and turns out we should have won. You can get to Hurts; he just has great system and talent around him. Mahomes is not the same. Last year, Von Miller was the reason we were able to succeed defensively. This year, Von is a JAG (maybe being too generous). The teams that gave KC problems this season had something in common…. Top tier defenses. So yeah, I am with you. And I’m not watching the damn game lol. Just going to check score afterwards and hope for the best. Everything around the Bills is going to be unbearably depressing at that point though.

But there is only 1 bad team left on our schedule, so there is no way for your scenario to play out (as far as most Billsy way that our season ends). In this scenario if we still can’t beat good teams, then we are going to lose our next 2 games regardless, sitting at 6-8, with no hope in the first place. Although I guess there’s a Billsy scenario here where we lose to Chiefs and Cowboys, but win against Chargers and Pats, sitting at 8-8 and some how, some way, we end up with a path into the playoffs at 9-8 with a win against Miami, and Miami ends up having nothing to play for so they rest starters, and we still lose… aka the Bledsoe vs Steelers game all over again. Or willie Parker game. Whatever you want to call it. Yeah… maybe there is a Billsy way your scenario can play out after all. Hmm

And all very “KC” that they have dodged the misfortune other top AFC teams had to deal with this season (minus ravens, but they had Lamar injury last year instead) and despite a mediocre offense this season, they conveniently field a top 5 defense that makes up for it, along with a conveniently easy schedule and of course, no injuries! Nothing they can’t do without anyway.

Ok I’ve got it. Apologies if it’s been said before. Bills win out , and look like the best team in the entire NFL in the process (considering who they had to beat) but do NOT make the playoffs at 11-6 due to tie breakers. for the record, I don’t think this will happen, at all, but man would it be Billsy.

Had the same thought man. That's the GAME. Defense is about to run an all-out blitz. You're about to try to win the game with an option route after there has already been miscommunication on option routes during the game. Why not call TO and make sure everyone is aligned before taking the most important snap of the game to that point?? I hate thinking about this play and would could have been, but can't help it. It's always something or another. SMH

Was this thread inspired by our favorite Nick Wright by any chance? he specifically stated on Monday that even though he gives the bills 0% chance to make the playoffs, “the most billsy thing would be if they beat the chiefs and cowboys, then lose to chargers”.

The only thing I didn't like about it is knowing you have to make a decision on the fly in a Blitz zero situation, why did we rely on an option route in the first place? I feel like we should have ran a play vs. blitz zero where all the routes are concrete. Joe Brady is awesome, but that is one play call I find myself wondering about.

You know what's funny? The ONE exception to this under McDermott was the 2019 Bills. This is obviously the year before Allen took off as a player, but we made the playoffs because typically the defense was able to protect leads at the end of close games and even if we took a lead with ~5 minutes left, the defense would protect that lead the rest of the way. At least a few of those games ended with the defense forcing turnovers. As I recall, Tre White had at least a couple of those by himself. I can't really remember any close game trends one way or the other in 2020, but I do remember Allen coming back to beat the LA Rams after we blew a huge lead and had to re-claim it. But it seems like ever since 2021, we have had this bizarre trend of being among the NFL's best in point differential, yet being noticeably worse than other "elite" teams when it came to winning close contests. In 2021 specifically, I remember at one point it felt like we were either blowing teams out or losing, hence the 7-6 record, in which only 1 of those games were lost by more than 1 TD (Colts). Does that sound familiar? Anyway, when you see this happen repeatedly, and it's not because your offense is bad, you HAVE to point back to coaching at some point. But in 2019, it did go the other way around. I guess playmakers that forced turnovers was the difference that year.

for whatever reason I was able to move on from 12 men on the field sooner than this one. Maybe it’s because of how much it felt like a giant missed opportunity (even though you could argue so was denver)…. But this one…. Was much more of a “waste”. I think that’s it. Allen sucked against Denver. But you know, if I’m trying to be positive here, it also brought a necessary good to the Bills in Dorsey being fired and Brady taking over. Could be a similar deal with this Philly game (I.e. the game that ultimately gets McDermott fired). although, selfishly, firing McDermott will be slightly bittersweet for me, since my son was born on the same day we hired McDermott (1/11/17) and ended the drought, and I always thought that was pretty cool

It’s definitely bizarre and unusual that the same scenario has essentially played out 3x already this year. Including the point differential (3). And that we’ve lost all 3. A couple of “opposite” scenarios that come to mind was last year against Ravens and I think Miami game #2 ended this way as well. we had the ball towards end of game in both of those games (definitely in the ravens game) but down by LESS THAN 3 POINTS, so therefore, once we got into chip shot FG range, we were able to bleed the clock and ensure our opponent never touches the ball again. That is a 100x better situation to be in and that situation COULD have happened yesterday as well, but due to a couple missed FGs and a defensive blunder to give up that 3rd and 15 TD, we ended up being down by 4, needing a touchdown, and in that situation you can’t really bleed the clock because you have to take the opportunities to score when you have them.

I know we can and will hang with the remaining teams on our schedule. Heck, we are capable of outplaying all of them too, like we outplayed Philly. But the reason I am NOT optimistic personally is because - despite the offense back to playing it’s best ball of the year since Joe Brady took over - we still don’t know how to win close games, and there WILL be more close games! Even worse, We aren’t learning from the great learning opportunities we’ve had in these close losses. Instead, we double down on mistakes made before. It’s remarkable. its very hard to have faith in the Bills going 4-1 down the stretch knowing that will entail winning the types of games that we haven’t been able to win all season, but, my personal opinion may change if we beat KC, because that is a TOUGH team to beat when it goes down to the wire, and if we can do that, well, maybe they’ve turned the page. I am just not counting on that to happen. Not at all.

I respect that perspective, but at a certain point, for me, it’s taking these teams all the way down to the wire, sometimes with impressive QB play all the way through, sometimes with just enough offense to take a lead with 1 more stop needed on defense, but we seem to ALWAYS end up on the losing end of these types of games, and that’s precisely why I am unable to appreciate it for the great game that it was; it’s because this same sh*t is happening over, and over, and over and we keep seeing the SAME ending.

I can relate bro. From start to finish. Personally, I’m not even going to watch the KC game. I’ll just feel better if I sit that one out. And then About 4 hours after kickoff, I’ll check my phone and hope for the very best. But right now, I do expect that watching a Bills-Chiefs game will cause me more anguish than joy, so I’m taking a seat for this one (and Von Miller should, too).

I do remember that. And in fact whenever I have this particular problem, I try to look for the silver lining to move on from it. In this case, the silver lining is the fact that if the Bills do indeed miss the playoffs, McDermott has to be OUT. And if missing the playoffs was necessary for this to happen, then so be it. I’ll make that trade every single time. You know, I was still on the fence about McDermott before Sunday, but that game absolutely sealed the deal for me. I mean how could it not?

Very cool. I hope to mature emotionally to this level. On a side note, regarding your comment on Diggs, didn’t see anything about him post-game. Did he speak to the media?

Usually, I am pretty good about having a “24 hour process” coming off bad Bills losses in which, by Tuesday morning, the game will still come to mind on and off, but I’ll be over it for the most part. This time… I can’t get it out of my system; it’s stuck. Stuck on flashing back to the absolutely ridiculous 59 yard field goal and missed connection to Gabe Davis in OT, specifically. Along with being SO SICK AND TIRED of being involved in “instant classic” games year after year, but being on the losing end of them EVERY TIME!!! I absolutely hate this part about being a sports fan. And I am just wondering how many of you are in the same boat? Because we have gone through numerous BAD losses this season, but something about this one, despite being an NFC opponent, has got me so backed up with sh*t thoughts and I am unable to pass this brain stool.

It depends on how much their much-improved defense can limit our offense. This is the first time Allen faces a KC defense that is actually good. Because we can't depend on our defense to stop Mahomes, especially at the end of the game, if it comes to that (again). Last year, this was the Von Miller game, to me. He had 2 sacks and the pressure on Mahomes that caused the game-winning turnover for Bills. It's a shame we don't have that anymore. Who is going to step up in Von's place?

Yeah it feels similar but the remaining schedule this year vs. 2021 is a lot different.

Agreed. With this defense, and with this coaching. Although there is definitely bad luck sprinkled into like every scenario as well. I.e. if AJ Brown had full control of the ball for a split second longer before it was knocked out of his hands, it's game over. Some here would argue he actually had full control already. I personally think it was the right call - granted, VERY borderline - so I boil it down to just... unlucky and as we always seem to say around here... "almost". Smh.

Have we really though? Pretty sure our record in "close games" would be the worst in NFL among "top tier" teams over the past 3 years, if anyone were to check. Put it this way, just heard the stat on WGR: In the past THREE years, the Bills have only lost ONE game in regular season by more than 1 score (Colts game 2 years ago) That has to be the best in the entire NFL over that span. And yet... we lost 15 games and counting during that time!!! That means 14 of 15 games were lost by 7 or less. Absolutely Incredible. I think we also lead the NFL in "blowout" wins over that span (or games that we win by over 7 points). So what does that tell you? It tells you that the Bills only know how to win one-sided games, for the most part.

I do like the idea of keeping Joe Brady as OC. He has earned it up to this point. Offense is definitely not the issue for the past 2 weeks. But in typical Bills fashion, "if it's not one thing, it's another"

And I felt this way prior to yesterday. The problem with this way of thinking is pretty simple. With our remaining schedule, winning out would mean that we would have to win multiple close games in the process. And the Bills - under McDermott - do not know how to do that. Therefore, even if we are playing our BEST football down the stretch, with teams like Chiefs, Cowboys, Chargers and dolphins remaining on the schedule you cannot count on blowing out every opponent; you have to know how to win close games (like the Eagles) and we do not know how to do that. It’s a shame we are wasting Allen like this but I also don’t know what HC candidate fixes this. Reich? He is an attractive name, sure, but he’s another guy with no playoff success really, so is he an upgrade? I don’t know man, this is tough.