CincyBillsFan

The announcers would go further and point out how Mahomes or Watson were so good because they got the ball into tight spaces where their receivers could make a play on it. The obsession some of us are showing at the Duke "drop" and the Brown missed toe tap is not to trash those receivers it's to point out exactly what you said in your post Hapless Bills Fan. Allen IS making a lot of the throws that impress us about a Mahomes or a Rogers. The problem, and it's been a problem all season, is that our skill players simply don't rise to the occasion and catch the DAMN ball. They are solid WR's that at times can get open against a zone defense. But that is NOT the same thing as play making WR's. We simply DO NOT HAVE a play making WR or TE.

I don't know but I think we have much bigger needs on offense then a new back-up QB. Barkley is good enough. The Jets game was not a reasonable barometer of how he would do if Allen went down for a couple of games. Or if you're going to use a Jet's game how about last years Jet's game? There's also the matter of CAP impact and some of the QB's being thrown around would not come cheap. I would rather spend the money to overpay for a solid FA RT that enables us to move Ford to guard then bring in another back-up QB.

I agree that Brown is a good receiver and everyone has bad plays. Allen had a couple in the game to. I think what we're trying to say to those piling on Allen is that for a first playoff game he did alright. Folks can obsess all they want about Allen's circus lateral but the reality is that with a little help from his WR's and a block on that sweep we'd be celebrating Allen leading us to a win and playing a fantastic game.

This isn't high school football where WR's get so open running that pattern that they catch that ball a couple of yards in bound and waltz into the end zone. The throw was exactly where it was supposed to be. That missed opportunity is 99% on Brown.

This is the crazy stuff that drives me nuts to. The way some of the Allen critics analyze EVERY throw he makes and claim it could have been better is absurd. No QB would look good in their eyes if they used that same criteria.

The missed toe tap by Brown on the sideline that would have given us a first & goal at the 3 was really bad. That play is made by most NFL level WR's. Watching the replay, the throw by Allen was even better then I remembered from the game. With upgraded skill players on the field I have NO DOUBT that the Bills would have led 21 - 0 at the half. And let's not forget the role field position had in limiting the Bills scoring production. One of my complaints about the Bill's D this year is that it allowed to many teams to get a 1st down or 2 and move the ball to midfield where they then punted us inside the 10. This game was a perfect example of this: * After that 1st TD drive the next 3 Bill's possessions started at their own 10, 8 & 4 yard lines! That we had two 70 yard drives to kick FG's was actually quite good. Had Duke & Brown caught those passes we would have had two 90+ yard drives for TD's.

But this is true of most QB's. Remember Watson's terrible throw that should have been intercepted at that start of the 3rd quarter? It likely would have been a pick 6 to. Of all the possible INT's this was by far the easiest one.

YAC is a bit of a sore point for me because the Allen critics claim that he doesn't generate YAC because his ball placement is poor. And while you can find examples of this, every QB misses YAC opportunities by this definition. And let's not forget that YAC is also driven by breaking tackles and busting moves. With the exception of a couple of Knox epic runs how many times have our receivers or RB's actually broken tackles or busted a move after a catch? Watch how players like Kemarra & McCaffrey make the first guy miss when the ball is tossed out to them in the flat. Or how many times did Beasley or Brown or McKenzie break a tackle on a WR screen or after catching a pass downfield? And excluding Singleterry, the simple fact is that with very rare exceptions our offensive skill players do not make great catches; do not break tackles after catching the ball or make guys miss in the open field. At least not to the extent that I see the better offenses on other teams do it. Throw in that our O-line doesn't seem built to execute screen passes (2 good ones the entire season) Allen's production is better then we have any right to expect.

First off I want Daboll to stay if possible. I'm assuming of course that as more weapons are added and Allen continues to improve Daboll will quit tapping the breaks on the O. Continuity in developing a young QB is important. And IMO Daboll's positives at this point outweigh the negatives. But if he were to go I would love adding Joe Brady as O-coordinator. What he's done for Burrow & LSU is astonishing. I don't see Daboll leaving Buffalo to take the OC job at Cleveland. He's been in Buffalo 2 seasons and he must be thinking he's on the brink of something special with Allen. And given Buffalo's CAP room he knows he's getting more talent on the offensive side of the ball next season. I also think that there are now real questions about the long tern viability of Mayfield. That Allen has moved ahead of Baker seems obvious to me. And while Daboll might like a challenge do you really think he wants to go through fixing a broken young QB after working with a very RAW Allen? Especially given the fact that Mayfield doesn't seem to be as agreeable as Allen? One final thought here is that if Daboll went to Cleveland and the Browns O got better would he really get the credit? McDanial is highly regarded as an offensive guy and folks are going to whisper that it's really MCDanial and not Daboll. In contrast any & all improvements in the Bills O is going to be credited to Daboll given that McD is a defensive guy.

I'm of two minds here: 1) McD needs to adjust his in game tactics in reaction to this loss and I think he will. Now that doesn't mean he throws the baby out with the bath water it's just refining his approach to how a game plays out. He's a young head coach and learning just like the players. I also think he will change in reaction to having better players on the field. This is particularly true about our offense. Right now his game plans have to account for protecting the Bill's from some of their own weaknesses. As we continue to upgrade the roster that will diminish. 2) McD has achieved a lot as the head coach. Stepping back from the hurt of this playoff loss and the progress is clear for all to see. With the most important piece, a franchise QB, in place (yes he is the guy - this game confirmed it for me) and plenty of CAP room & a full slate of draft picks the Bills are poised to go on a multiyear playoff run. The only thing I would throw out is that like what Levy/Polian faced in 1989 McD/Bean face a couple of decisions on how they might tweak the overarching architecture of what they're trying to do with the Bills. A focus on the offense is essential this off season IMO.

After watching that replay the missed block was actually worse then I remember and at the time I thought it was a huge mistake. Also after watching that replay, ANY ONE who blames Allen's play for the loss is an idiot. Sure he made mistakes out there in his first playoff game but come on. In the KEY plays that lost us the game: 1) missing this block in OT; 2) Duke not holding on to that TD pass at the end of the 1st half; 3) Allowing the Texans to convert a 3rd & 18 in OT; 4) Milano NOT wrapping up on the sack in OT; 5) Ford being flagged for a "blind side" block in OT by an overly officious jerk, NOT ONE involved Allen's wild lateral or his taking a bad sack. And in keeping with the spirit of this thread - I'm confident for next years because every mistake made can be fixed.

You must be a big fan of the Wizard of Oz what with all the straw men you keep manufacturing. Name me ONE poster who has said that "Allen can do no wrong". Just one.

On the positive side: * This team is going in the right direction and making progress. I think this off season is the time to be bold in improving the Offense but you can't deny that earning a spot in the playoffs and not backing in and playing a tough game at Houston leaves us reason to be optimistic going forward. * Josh Allen is our franchise QB. Yes he still has much to improve in his game but he's shown me everything he needs to for me to be confident he will make those improvements. In the context of how QB's played this weekend and how young QB's fared in their FIRST playoff games, Allen acquitted himself well. That doesn't mean he didn't make mistakes - he did. But he also made plays - some of which were spectacular and overall he played well enough that we could have won this game had even one other thing broke the Bills way. * Singleterry is going to be a star. Other then Allen, our rookie RB is the only other true game changing skill player on the field. if the Bills can get one more game changing skill player to pair with Singleterry and our two stalwart & dependable WR's in Brown & Beasley and we'll have a solid offense. * NFL officiating is trash. I haven't changed my opinion on that in hindsight. And it's no comfort that trashy NFL officiating is not a conspiracy but rather just wide spread incompetence. Did you see how Clowney knocked out a starting QB with a nasty helmet to helmet head shot? NO penalty and no ejection of Clowney but the Eagles lost their QB for the game. The problem is that over a long NFL season bad officiating tends to even out and you benefit as much as you're screwed over. But in the playoffs this is no longer true and bad officiating can and does lose teams games. It's not an excuse to say had the officials done their jobs on Saturday we would be getting ready to play KC this weekend. And that's a fact.

That was last year and it worked for what needed to be done given that the Bills had the worst offensive personnel in the NFL at the end of the 2018 season. But what McD /Bean did was also very conventional. It worked to a degree and the Bills O improved which helped us make the playoffs this year. Overall a job well done. But like I said before the Bills are at a critical infection point. I'm not sure that at this time methodical adherence to the "process" is what's called for. The Bills did miss opportunities to sign impact offensive talent during the 2019 season as the trade deadline loomed. I get why they didn't sign those players but now that we're in the off season they need IMO to be bolder in their actions to get the offense over the hump. Allen IS the guy and he needs to be surrounded by top flight play makers. At the very least the Bills need to: * Sign at least one big time free agent for the offense. A guy that is at a level above that of Morse/Brown/Beasley/Kroft. * The Bills should use their 1st round pick to select the BEST OFFENSIVE player available, not the BEST player available. These are just my opinions based on a hunch that we're close, very close to being a great team. And what's keeping us from getting there is the offense. And you won't get to an outstanding offense by playing it safe at this moment in the teams history.

I agree that it's a lot harder today to build what the Bills had during their SB runs. But the decision to give Kelly control of the offense and switch to the no huddle didn't cost the Bills a penny. And McD saying he wants "excellence" in all three phases of the game is just boiler plate talk along the lines of it's good to solve world hunger. I judge a coach & organization by their actions and it's clear to me that McD/Bean aren't focused on the offense in the same way they're focused on the defense. Whether you're talking about where the money is going to whose being signed in FA to who are we taking in the draft and where are we taking them. I believe that McD & Bean are committed to putting the clubs energy & money into the defense while hoping to build an effective offense on the cheap. And that's fine as strategies go for taking a team from the bottom to near the top. New England made it work for years. What I'm saying though is that to truly establish yourself among the "elite" the focus needs to be more on the offense then this organization has committed to. And I'm not just talking spending money here. In fact I tend to agree with you that going on a shopping spree (money & trading away future draft picks) to load up the offense is not the way to go here. The Rams are going to be paying a steep price for what they did and they have no SB trophy to show for it. But I'm talking about way more then parlaying future picks and breaking the bank to sign FA's. I'm talking about everything from talent acquisition to game planning to the tactical execution of the game plan. It's pretty clear that once the Bills get up by 2 scores at any point in the game and/or are up by more then a FG late in the game we go into an offensive shell and turn it over to the D to win the game. And even in talent acquisition we go the safe rout. Look how we passed on that WR that went to SF right before the trade deadline. He has single handily turned Jimmy G's game around or that RB who the Cards picked up. We could have used either guy. That's the type of "bold" moves I'm talking about. And for the record I wouldn't get within 10 miles of AB or either of those Cleveland WR's. I get the incremental approach but I'm not confident that it alone can work. Of course I'll gladly be willing to be proven wrong. In fact I hope I am wrong here as following the approach they've been taking is a much safer approach then what I'm arguing for.

There's NO way you can pin this loss on Allen. Did he play a great game? No. But he did play a solid game and I give him a B-. He had 372 total yards and made a lot more good to excellent plays then bad plays. He scored a TD and lost a fumble so the TD/TO's evened out. He led the Bills on 3 long first half drives putting us up 13 - 0 at half. He had a rough patch in the 4th quarter but pulled himself together to lead us to a game tying FG. And in his only OT possession Allen looked sharp and was leading us downfield for the winning FG until on a QB sweep THREE O-linemen couldn't get a block on ONE defender turning what should have been a 20 yard run into FG range into a nasty head shot on Allen for no gain. And then on the very next play Ford was flagged for a ticky tack penalty that cost us 15 yards. Of course we'll never know if given another chance Allen could have moved us into FG range because Watson converted a 3rd & 18 in marching his team 70 yards for the game winning FG. The loss to Houston was a classic TEAM loss. No one person or unit was responsible. Every player and every unit performed brilliantly at times and poorly at other times. And ditto for the coaching. But if I was forced to make a list of those responsible for the loss starting at the top with those most responsible down to the bottom with those least responsible Allen would be a lot closer to the bottom then he would be to the top.

The Texans without Fuller are not a very productive offense either. Watkins is a great QB but my point is if the Bills D can't make a 16 - 0 late 3rd quarter lead hold up then it's time to reexamine McD's overarching strategy. I agree that we're probably a year ahead of schedule and that there are holes to fill. But this off season is going to be critical to how the Bills perform over the next 5 years in a way that a single off season hasn't been in a long time. I feel like we're at an inflection point teetering between being really good and a regular threat to challenge for a Super Bowl and being an occasional playoff team that loses in the 1st round. Remember I live in Cincinnati so I know intimately what those types of teams look like. If I'm right, then we're sitting at 1989 where it took a brilliant change in direction by Levy & Polian to create one of the greatest collections of football talent in NFL history. Levy went completely outside his comfort zone in adopting the no huddle offense and putting the O in the hands of Kelly. I believe that McD faces a similar choice. This time it's whether we sacrifice some of the defense to focus on the offense and whether we give Allen the keys to the car and let him stay out all night with it. Last season McD & Bean played it safe on offense. They brought in two solid professional receivers in Beasley & Brown and a good blocking TE in Kroft. They upgraded a disaster of an O-line again bringing in solid, but not spectacular men who could do the job but were unlikely to dominate. Sticking with the conventional approach they brought in Gore as a high character guy and hit pay dirt at RB with a 3rd round draft pick. They beat Allen's hero ball out of him in the off season and they did a nice job of reining in his running and improving his short & intermediate passing accuracy. All of this resulted in real improvements on Offense and contributed to making the playoffs. But IMO playing it safe on offense while depending on the D to carry us WILL NOT TAKE Us to the next level. I think Allen has shown enough for Bean & McD to hand him the keys to the offense and for them to put the bulk of the Bills money & energy into this unit. It could crash & burn but it also could launch this team into the stratosphere. But if they continue to make safe, incremental improvements in the offense while further working to refine Allen's game management skills I fear we'll be an every other year playoff team making early rounds exits from the post season. I just believe this is the off season for bold, imaginative moves on the Bill's part. All we have to do is look at what Baltimore has done. They are now the cream of the crop becasue their GM & HC took a HUGE gamble on the direction of their team. I just don't see us getting to the next level without taking a similar gamble. .

We are definitely on the same page here. I just spent the day arguing with my circle of Bill's fans down here in Cincy saying exactly what you just posted. If I was Czar of the Bills I would work towards having a good but not great defense and switch priority to building at the minimum a very good offense. I would role the dice on Allen and turn over the keys to the offense to him. Sure Sign White & both D lineman but that's it. The rest of the money and energy is going into the offense. And we should fundamentally change the nature of our offense from a mistake free, low scoring unit designed to NOT lose a game to a high scoring risk taking venture. Much in the way Levy went from a conventional offense to the no huddle O after the 1989 playoff loss. I like (hope) that the loss to the Texans is this groups 1989 playoff loss to the Browns. But that will only happen if McD opens up his eyes and sees what needs to be done to change how the Bills play D.

I agree but for almost 3/4 of the game he was largely ineffective. Then he came alive and played brilliantly helped in no small part by his key play maker Hopkins who also came alive. The unique synergy between a stud play maker and a clutch QB was on full display with Watson & Hopkins late in that game and it's something desperately missing from the Bill's offense. I agree that the Watt sack screwed Allen up for two series though to his credit Allen was able to recover enough in the 2nd series to get the Bills a game tying FG. In OT though I thought Allen had settled back down and looked sharp. The only reason we didn't get the game winning FG on our OT possession was the missed block on Allen's sweep and the bad penalty called on Ford the next play. And had the D come through on the 3rd & 18 we would have gotten the ball back and I'm very confident that Allen moves us into FG range on that drive.

That's how I feel to. Allen did well in his first playoff game on the road. And for those saying the Texans had a weak defense that's NOT true when Watt is out there. He really sparked them. And it would be fair to point out that the Texans playing without Fuller are not a good offense by any stretch of the imagination. And while on the topic of our defense McD & Bean are going to have to take a long hard look at their strategy of putting the D first in building this team. IMO it's NOT good enough. I know what the stats say but stats lie. Our D has let teams drive the ball down our throats at critical points in a game all year long. On top of that they've done a piss poor job of forcing TO's that result in points. NO TD's and only ONE forced TO in an opponents red zone. Look at yesterday's games, defenses were asked and came through in protecting small leads on days that their offenses were not producing. For example TN's D made 14 points stand up & Seattle's D made 17 points stand up. If our D was truly elite and a top 3 defense 19 points should have been enough to win the game and we never should have lost a 16 - 0 lead late in the 3rd quarter. I'm thinking we would be better off letting the D slip back 20% while improving the Offense by 50%. That seems to be the sweet spot for teams advancing in the playoffs. Oh and one more point while I'm on a rant - if you're going to build your team around an elite defense at the expense of your offense then you better have AWESOME special teams. And we don't have awesome ST's by a long shot.

I think next year when Allen plays in his 2nd playoff game we'll see a significant improvement in his performance. There's usually a big jump from a QB's first to 2nd playoff game. I suspect that next week we'll see an example of this with Lamar Jackson who was booed at home last year in his playoff debut.

And that Cook fella is no slouch either!

Let's simplify things and look at production by the 8 QB's who played in the 4 first round playoff games: Passing Yards & TD's/TO's: 325 = Wilson; 1/0 264 = Allen; 1/1 247 = Watson; 2/0 242 = Cousins; 1/0 209 = Brady; 0/1 208 = Brees; 1/2 174 = MaGowan; 0/0 72 = Tannehill; 1/1 Rushing Yards - ALL players 182 = Henry 94 = Cook 92 = Allen! Team Offensive Production - total yards/ Points Buffalo = 425 yards; 19 Seattle = 382 yards; 17 Vikings = 362 yards; 26 Texans = 360 yards; 22 Saints = 324 yards; 20 Pats = 307 yards; 13 Eagles = 282 yards; 9 TN = 272 yards; 14 (pick 6 not included). Key take aways? Allen played equal to or better then all the other QB's from both a personal AND team offensive production POV. All the games were LOW SCORING & tightly contested with two going to OT. Buffalo had the most yards and the Vikings had the most points. Allen led all QB's in TOTAL YARDS produced and Watson led all QB's in TOTAL TD's produced. Brees led all QB's in TO's As others have pointed out playoff games are often dominated by the defenses. Bottom line is that for his FIRST PLAYOFF game Allen acquitted himself quite well. And note that this was Cousins FIRST playoff win in his NFL career.

Bingo! These folks attacking Allen for that throw are clueless. There are a lot of TE's & WR's who would have caught that ball Allen threw to DeMarco. The real problem wasn't the throw but the fact that a FULLBACK was on the receiving end 40 yards down the field. Daboll's schemes where he lines Gore & DeMarco up on the outside with Allen in an empty set backfield is demented.

This is so spot on. Since I started watching games this way last year I feel even better about Allen being our franchise guy. The nitpicking he endures at the hands of some of these demented "fans" is astonishing.