CincyBillsFan

Today's outcome should put more pressure on McD & Frazier's defensive design and in game execution. Never again are they allowed to squander the elite playoff QB play that Allen was delivering. McD gets a pass because he helped turn this team around but IMO he doesn't get a 2nd screw up. Cincinnati today exposed how bad the Bills game plan & execution were on defense last week.

I'm only guessing that it had something to do with the fact that the best QB's are now being paid the equivalent of a small country's GDP and no one wants to risk an arm injury showing off?

I believe they should do the opposite. The NE Patriots were able to take this approach because even only 5 years ago the NFL was a very different beast then it is today. IMO the Bills should double down on skill players for the offense. Bottom line is that over the last 4 years KC has been more successful then NE and they didn't do it by depriving Mahomes of elite offensive weapons. The Bills only have one elite level skill player and that's Diggs. Hopefully Knox & Davis might be able to make that jump but as good as Singleterry was at the end of this season he will never be an elite RB.

I believe that the two playoff games are more about Allen rising to the top then DaBoll's creating a great offensive scheme. Heck the last 10 minutes in KC with Allen single handily willing the team down the field was 100% Allen - not any special play calls IMO. And again I respect what DaBoll accomplished here. He deserves a lot of praise and a shot as a head coach. But the Bills and Allen have reached the point where IMO DaBoll represented diminishing returns. So yes I think the change will be good for BOTH DaBoll and the Bills.

With the exception of Wilson paying that group of QB's big bucks is a problem. The only way Allen's contract is a problem is if you think that he is a newer version of Wentz, Flaco or Cousins. I don't and so among the things I worry about as a Bills fan this is at the bottom of the list.

Another back channel way to take a shot at Allen. Will it ever end? I don't think people realize how much the CAP is going to rise over the next 5 ears. Actually it's going to explode with Amazon AND Apple both saying that acquiring live sporting events is their NUMBER ONE priority. And I don't think they're talking about Beach Volleyball. ONLY the NFL is worth landing. The upcoming NFL TV bidding wars are going to be epic.

I believe two things can be true at the same time: 1) DaBoll did a great job developing Allen and building a potent Bills offense and 2) It's time for a fresh OC to take Allen & the Bills offense to the next level. DaBoll's work with Allen is done. Going forward it's about turning Allen and the Bills offense into championship form for the next decade. Consistency is the next and last hurdle. At the very least if the Bills get a good OC the difference will give Buffalo a real advantage through the first half of the 2022 season. It's hard enough to defense Allen but you have to think that AFC East teams and teams like KC/Tenn are at least getting an idea of how to do it schematically from having played against DaBolls O as much as they have. Now all bets will be off.

I'm ignorant as to how the dynamic between DaBoll & McD worked in game. But if DaBoll was making those decisions on his own I'm not sorry to see him go.

I would look hard at Joe Brady. What he did at LSU and with Burrow and those WR's was legendary. He was thrown under the bus by the Panthers. Brady didn't trade for Darnold nor did he sign Newton off the street and order him inserted into the starting line up and he didn't injure CMAC. Brady was the scapegoat for the bad decisions of the Panthers GM & owner. At the very least the guy will have a burning desire to prove the Panthers wrong. And what a weapon for revenge Josh Allen would be.

Which begs the question of why he would do it? We might not like the answer. For all we know DaBoll and by extension Dorsey were steaming mad at how Allen and the offense was reigned in during the 1st NE game and the KC game.

I agree. Seems like his path to HC would be smoother in Buffalo versus the Giants. My concern if Dorsey turns the Bills down is that he might not think he can coexist with McD? This is something to keep an eye on. I've got to believe the money won't be that different and the cost of living in metro NYC is way higher then Buffalo.

Don't we still get a draft comp for losing DaBoll?

Again you are using misleading numbers. I don't care how many fumbles Allen had I only care about how many he lost. And again for your data to be useful you must combine ALL the data from Allen's regular season and playoffs in 2020 and then compare that to Allen's regular season and playoffs in 2021.

I think an argument can be made that out of the three QB's Allen has the weakest group of skill players.

And this is why the Bills reaction to this years disappointment will resemble how the 1990 Bills reacted to the heartbreaking loss in the playoff to the Browns back in 1989. As time goes by it will become clear to the Bills players and organization that this season was NOT lost in the last 13 seconds at KC. This season was lost in the opening game against Pittsburgh; this season was lost at the Titans 4ard line on 4th & inches; this season was lost when the Bills couldn't beat one of the worst teams in the NFL. This understanding will focus the Bills like a laser on the regular season. And with Allen & home field advantage we will be going to the Super Bowl.

Exactly right. KC's first drive should have showed McD and company that Mahomes was hot and the Chiefs O was going to move the ball up and down the field. The only reason we got the stop on KC's 2nd possession was because it started at their one yard line. Don't forget that we had a 2nd and 3 at Midfield and DaBoll chose to run Singleterry off tackle. And the same mistake was made on our first possession in the 3rd quarter. After holding KC to a FG we then run twice and throw a pass to #41 - who has yet to break a tackle and then punt on 4th and a foot. At the time I thought it was madness given how KC was playing.

The numbers without context sure can lie. You conveniently left out his rushing numbers? And the difference in QB ratings could easily be explained by the much worse weather and the general decline in QB ratings for the NFL this year as fans returned to the stands. And leaving out Allen's post season performance and focusing only on his regular season makes no sense when trying to decide whether he regressed or not. In fact it seems like you left those numbers out to bolster your argument that he did regress.

That was one of the three lost possessions that pissed me off. And given the flow of the game it was the biggest one. With that field position there is no way you can justify that level of conservatism on offense. THREE straight runs by Singleterry. This was a perfect example of a coaching staff not understanding what the hell kind of game they were in.

I agree. The talk that Allen took a step back this season is nonsense. You could point to the much worse weather conditions he played in this year as the main reason for the slight drop in his numbers. And in the three most important games of the season: 2nd NE game and the NE & KC playoff games, Allen was spectacular. Those high pressure, big time game performances demonstrated to me that Allen actually played better this season then last season - especially when it counted most.

But the Chiefs didn't jump to super team status until they had Mahomes and could unleash their offense to its fullest potential. Maybe we're just arguing at cross purposes. I am all for spending resources on the D especially if the right player is available. And I fully acknowledge that KC has a couple of studs on their D. I just believe that when resources are tight they should tilt towards the offensive side of the ball because in Allen they have the same elite QB play as the Chiefs do. And reading you and Z's take makes me wonder if what I'm seeing has more to do with an attitude then assembling players on one side of the ball or the other. But my eyes don't lie and the Bills & Chiefs appear to approach offense very differently in spite of having the two best QB's in the NFL. Maybe going forward it's as simple as turning Allen truly lose.

If that's the case then they have been a whole lot more successful on the offensive side of the ball then the defensive side no? And saying that KC tries to put the best offense and defensive on the field is what EVERY GM will say. And to the extent that the CAP allows and their ability to pick players enable them to do it, every team will try to do it. But I still say that KC is an offensive minded team first and foremost. And that starts with their head coach. IMO the Bills came into this playoff game with a plan to try to "control" Mahomes and the flow of the game. And this was the fundamental mistake that prevented them from winning in spite of Allen's brilliant play. Had they gone into the game with a plan to unleash Allen and outscore the Chefs they would've won IMO. The Bills wasted 3 valuable possessions adopting a non-offensive mindset. The Chiefs only had one of these offensively conservative possessions and that was when they were backed up at their own 1 yard line. So maybe it's more of an attitude then a listing of players on O & D. But it comes down to McD being a defensive coach and AR being an offensive coach. And I continue to believe that the Bills with Allen require that McD become more like Reid.

The Chiefs had a lot of the key elements of their offense in place by 2017 with both Kelce & Hill on the team. The fact that they have retained both those elite level offensive players while also signing Mahomes to a big contract shows where they put their emphasis. When I talked about how the Chiefs did it I needed to be clearer in what I meant. They don't so much ignore their D, since as you point out they grabbed Ingram, as much as it seems to me they are more interested in optimizing their offense. Sure they'll grab defensive talent when it's available but their emphasis sure looks like it's on the offense. They rebuilt their entire O - line in the off season and used a 1st round pick on a RB when that was a need. From what I can see, over their run the Chiefs have used their offense, not their defense to win games. The Bills clearly relied on their defense through the 2019 season and their takeaway from the 2020 season appeared to me to be "gee it's nice the offense got better but if we're going to beat the Chiefs we need to improve on defense." And last years off season seemed focused a lot more on the Bills defense then it's offense. So all I'm saying is that going forward the mind set of the Bills should be that the offense will win us a championship. And they need to act accordingly in the off season. Allen is the X factor that must shift the priority to the offense.

I think it will be handled with a great deal of professionalism by both men. My guess is that McD will be reliving those last 13 seconds and the decision to downshift Allen & the offense at times during the game for a lot longer then we will be. McD has evolved in his coaching and I suspect/hope that he's ready to take the next leap and fully embrace the KC way. Most teams can't embrace the KC way because they don't have a Mahomes level QB. We do and rather then wasting our time trying to build a defense that can stop it (no one has BTW) we must complete building an offense that can outscore the Chiefs, not stop them. That's the paradigm shift that must occur IMO.

I'm good with ANYTHING that adds funds to a Children's Hospital!

My sense is that the Bills need to learn to live with what they have on defense and throw everything at the offense. This is what the Chiefs have done and they're going to a 4th straight AFC Championship game. If the right defensive player is available in free agency and/or the draft, grab them. But the focus should be on the offense. This must become an Allen centric team in the way that the Chiefs are a Mahomes centric team. Even after last season there were lingering doubts whether Allen could duplicate his success and whether he could rise to the top in the crucible of the playoffs. He has demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that he can do both so now is the time to go all in on Allen. This means adding a RB, preferably a bruiser, to the backfield; adding a 2nd TE that can block & catch; adding speed and/or size to the WR group and if available further improve the O-line. And I don't think we need to make a big splash in any of these positions. Just bring in solid guys who are an upgrade to what we have.