Kelly the Dog

Every game is a team loss. Every loss is a deficiency of play and coaching. Every loss is due to mistakes on singular plays by individual players.

Sure tackling hurt them. But in this game, where the playoffs were no longer in doubt, why wouldn't you show it all and go for the win if not for broke. This is exactly the time to do that.

Because of everything you just said I think McD is misusing him. I think we are a better team if we let him be himself, be a playmaker, make more mistakes but more plays. That's who he is and he's a stud.

Both of the missed throws to Dawson Knox in the end zone were not at all easy throws. Especially the first one. That was a hard throw to a guy that looked open. That said, you would like him to hit one of those two. He probably does himself. Neither of them were easy. You cannot gun it, you have to make sure the defender in front has no chance and you don't throw it too far so your guy cannot get it. He threw it too far both times. Eventually I think he hits one of those. He may should have. But neither were easy at all.

He wasn't overly conservative at all. They always had an aggressive defense. When he didn't have the guns on offense he let Kordell Stewart run wild. I think people in this thread are confusing coaches that are defensive guys from the start, versus guys like McDermott who are defensive coaches but their conservative nature extends to the offense more than the defense. The Bills are not an aggressive team at all.

Exposed by being ten yards away from a tie on the road?

It's so obvious I don't understand how McD does not adjust to it. I can only think it was rewarding bad behavior because they were 10-4. But it's so obvious. He's the polar opposite of a game manager. He's a playmaker. And he's a stud regardless of any stats. There is no one like him the same way there is no one like Brady or Russell Wilson. I'm NOT saying he is as good so just stop. But he's not like other guys. And you have to play to his strengths. He's fantastic as a playmaker.

Maybe. Imo we did it to ourselves. To me there was no reason not to put Tre on Edelman and let Wallace and Kevin Johnson cover Harry and Sanue, which they could. We got away from blitzing, which was what completely transformed our defense the last month. We let them do what they do best. And we didn't stop them. And our one bugaboo, which is poor tackling, killed us. But that is the norm not the aberration. On offense, when we gambled we did best. Same with the Steelers game. Much was made with bringing back DiMarco and Lee Smith and slowing down the offense but it was a disaster. The best plays except for the bomb to Brown in the Steelers game, were all from what we had been doing. The worst plays were back to the bunching up offense. It didn't work at all. Josh is clearly better when he is unbridled.

That is very true. I think they had a better chance to win today with a different strategy but it surely is not a given.

It's not egregious. It's a philosophy. They never go for the kill. They almost always run on first down. The three big plays of the game were the bomb to Knox, the bomb to Brown and the TD to Dawkins. I'm NOT lobbying to call trick plays all the time. What I'm saying is Josh Allen is a playmaker not a game manager. And he excels when he is unbridled more than run, run, pass, punt.

Today?

That's a smart coach because he knows they can score. That is not a conservative coach. You have to look at the whole game and strategy on both sides of the ball.

1980 was one of the very best Bills teams in their history. They were the best team in the league IMO. In no way were they conservative. To me, in their entire history (not counting 64 and 65 when it was impossible to tell), the only two years they were the best team in the entire league was 1980 and the first Super Bowl team against the Giants.

There is no way of knowing anything for sure. My problem was the two major changes for this team that made them inarguably better in the last 5-6 games they abandoned. They did not hurry up, or spread the defense like they did when the offense was rolling more. They did not crowd the box and Blitz like clearly helped in the last several games of getting more pressure and sacks. They went back to their less aggressive team strategy for this game, and it cost them imo.

You bring up a good point, which is the definition of conservative. McVay sometimes does do that but his offense is not conservative. He lets Wade run his defense which is not overly conservative. McDermott, to me, is conservative by nature and the vast majority of the time in many ways. Not always.

He had Manning as his QB for more than half of his career and was the opposite of conservative.

Both teams were bunched up at the end of that play. There was no place else to look for a ref when that happened. Normally what you said is very true. The opposite on that play at that time.

I loved the Bills in 1980 and 1981. They were one of the best teams in the league and they were not conservative at all. They were fun.

I think we are both. I'm not against being conservative. Many times it's the way to go. Overly conservative is not.

My point is we have a playmaker not a game manager at QB. We have great blitzers in Edmunds and Milano and the DBs and we got aggressive recently and were WAY better and then went back to conservative today. Normally we sit on the ball but we went for it at half today and we scored. That was an anomaly. No one anywhere is always aggressive or always conservative. My point is we have the team and players to take more chances, especially on offense. Josh is at his best in the no huddle. That's glaringly obvious. We scored on a bomb and a trick play. I do like McDermott a lot. It's not crazy to say that we could be better.

So you can't. They dominated on offense. Their line and linebackers and DBs were aggressive. You're full of it. Look it up. I'm old enough to have watched.

Name anything at all he was conservative with. They had a dominating offense and went for the kill. They had an agressive defense. Name anything they did consistently conservative. They were the opposite.

Lombardi was not at all conservative. That's stupid. When they were great they were in the top five in offense most every year. They pressured on defense. That's ridiculous.

Clock management. Run on first down. Run pass ratio. Lack of blitzing. Never go for kill shot after turnover. Slow down play with lead. It's endless.

Great example. He was not conservative until he got to playoffs and was horrible and then fired after a 14-2 season iirc.