CincyBillsFan

Dude, Mahomes had a game almost exactly like this 2 weeks ago when KC lost to the Broncos. And Burrow had 2 very bad INT's in the loss to Houston. And Jackson had 1 TD pass and 2 INT's including a PICK 6 in the Ravens loss to Cleveland. And did you see Trevor Lawrence's numbers after the 49's game?

His production demonstrates otherwise. "Putting in more work" is what lazy Allen haters throw out to justify their empty headed criticisms. Among the current crop of SB contending franchise QB's - Mahomes, Burrow, Lawrence, Prescott, Hurts, Goff & Jackson - Allen has the worst coaching, weakest O line and least talented stable of skill players.

This is true and is why McD should get a shot at turning this around. Pegula owes him that much and the Bills will need to win at lest 5 of their last 7 games to win the Division and make the playoffs. At the same time it's been clear since "13 seconds" that McD has reached his professional plateau. He will never coach the Bills to a Super Bowl and he's on the cusp of ruining a generational QB talent in Allen. If he screws Allen up McD will be the reason the Bills enter another decade long period of frustration and losing. Since I don't expect the Bills to win the division (which is their only realistic way to make the playoffs) I expect McD will be fired at the end of the season.

The contract guarantees he will be paid not that he will have a job.

Not for long I hope. This seems like Pegula intervening. My guess and it's pure speculation is that Pegula knows that firing McD now would leave the team in chaos and the NFL doesn't want that. So McD is now coaching for his job. Win 5 or 6 out of the last 7 games and win the Division and McD stays. Fail to do this and he's gone.

Yea but that may be enough to ruin Allen.

I agree on DaBoll but nothing in his resume before or after his time in Buffalo suggested he was special at this. DaBoll was a solid, experienced offensive minded coach who didn't let himself get pushed around by McD. How about we double down on DaBoll and bring in a new head coach with these characteristics who will then hire a young offensive minded coach to act as OC. And I agree about Cook which makes what McD did to him last night bewildering to me. McD deeply disrespected Cook and treated him unprofessionally like he was a high school football player. Sure the TIMING of the fumble on the Bills first play was terrible but it was not a bad fumble. Cook wasn't being careless with the ball the defender made a great play to strip him of the football. McD overreacted and deprived the offense of its #1 RB for 3 series during the critical early stages of the game. As for Kincaid I guess better late then never applies here but what this shows me is how great would it have been if we invested additional 1st round picks in the offense over the last 5 seasons?

Wait, you're supporting my point: the Browns and Jets screwed up their QB picks and how far in the playoffs have their elite defenses gotten them? Oh that's right, ONE playoff win over the last 5 seasons. In fact only one playoff appearance between the two teams in FIVE YEARS! And Mayfield & Darnold were never elite franchise QB's in the way that Allen established himself back in 2020. As an aside so what did Cleveland & the Jets do after screwing up on QB but fielding elite defenses? They sold the farm to get a shot at a franchise QB. In fact watch this off season as both the Jets & Browns throw everything they got at improving their offensive talent. As for the Ravens, they're a special case. The Ravens did recognize Jackson's unique skill set and built an entire offense around it. The problem was that this extraordinary move elevated Jackson to being an elite franchise QB but didn't translate into playoff success. By any measure the Ravens have been less successful then the Bills over the last 3 seasons. And the Ravens recognized they needed to shake things up on offense so this off season they made a number of high profile signings to do just tat.

Over the last few years while playing with a largely average cast of offensive players Allen has been wildly successful and taken the team to 3 straight division titles and 4 straight playoff appearances. This far exceeds anything Mac Jones has done so there is no comparison. As for the 2 rookie QB's how about we wait another season to see how that works out. Baker Mayfield was amazing his rookie year and then what happened? Allen's total TD to total TO ratio is 2 to 1. While it would be nice to see it at 3 to 1 that is not a bad number. IMO Allen's off season efforts are not the problem here. The problem is the situation Allen finds himself in with a defensive minded coach who won't do what every other contending SB team is doing with their elite franchise QB - prioritizing the O and surrounding their QB with the best possible talent that will fit under the CAP. And wait until you see what the Texans do over the next couple of seasons if Stroud is for real - they will load up on their offense that's what they will do. You can bank on it.

You really think McD would be stupid enough to bench Allen if he had a better backup? I guess he could be that stupid given that he thought Pederman was a starting caliber NFL QB.

Funny how the only time from 2018 - 2022, when Allen ran a lot, he missed any games was when he was hurt in the pocket his rookie year. Over those 5 seasons and 8 playoff games Allen's running was not getting him hurt.

None of this matters if the Bills don't change their mindset to focusing their resources on the offense and surrounding their franchise QB with the talent to fully exploit his skills. He can spend every waking moment in the off season working out, studying film and further refining his throwing motions and foot work and it won't fix the Bills offensive problems.

After 2019, DaBoll did a lot more than run Allen like a RB. In 2020, 2021 & 2022 the Bills had an elite passing attack led by Allen. And other then supporting Beans need to use Allen as a CAP ATM machine for extending the contract and freeing up money how valuable is "longevity"? And what defines "longevity"? Is another 6 or 7 years with Allen and the offense being highly productive using his full skill set and the Bills knocking on the SB door really worse then 10 to 12 more years of a less effective Allen? I wonder what Allen would want? But maybe you're right and the Bills can find the sweet spot where they "manage" Allen, extending his career while maintaining the "it" factor that makes Allen great. But to do that they'll need to get coaches with the right skill sets to make it happen. And more importantly they'll have to change the franchises focus from the defense to the offense. I don't see McD or Bean as the guys to do it.

This is worrying about the color of the frosting on the cake when the cake is rotten. The basic strategic approach that the Bills have taken since landing a true franchise QB in 2019 has failed. This approach, designed and executed by McD & Bean emphasized the defense at the expense of the offense. EVERY top franchise in the NFL today with Allen at QB would have done the opposite and emphasized their offense over their defense. It really is that simple and the solution is really that simple - fire McD & Bean.

I agree which makes this game all the more frustrating. This offense is completely discombobulated.

The worst thing you could do is "manage Allen". That is what McD is trying to do and it's destroying what makes Allen special and neutering the offense in the process. Allen is a special talent that needs special handling like Brett Favre or John Elway did to fully exploit his talents. And for the record DaBoll did not "manage" Allen he exploited Allen's unique and elite skill set. And he did this successfully operating within an organization that favored the defense with the lions share of resources and never was willing to commit to assembling an elite offense to put around it's elite QB. So instead of managing Allen the Bills need to: * First the Bills need an offensive mind that embraces and game plans around what Allen does best. DaBoll was that sort of offensive mind. I suspect there are a lot of guys out there who could do it as DaBoll wasn't really all that special. What he did with Allen was common sense when faced with a talent like Allen. * Second, the Bills need to surround Allen with high end complimentary skill players who can best take advantage of Allen's strengths. Who is the Bills go to 50/50 pass catcher? Why aren't the Bills emphasizing SPEED like the dolphins do. And emphasizing speed isn't signing some role player who has lost a step like Harty. * Third, the Bills need a first rate O line. For 5 seasons they bring in career back ups and lower draft picks and try to create a patch work line that at best is average and often much below that. * And finally the Bills need an offensive minded head coach that can get in Allen's face and lay the law down. Bean/McD's strategic plan was to build an elite D while relying on Allen to elevate the average offensive talent they put around him. And Allen did elevate that talent which led to high scoring offenses and four straight trips to the playoffs and three straight division titles. But the D never became truly elite and was the main cause for the Bills playoff exits all 4 years.

Think about how much McD AND Bean have screwed up the amazing luck of landing Allen in the 2018 draft. The Bills got their franchise QB who was capable of doing things no other QB could do. Allen is a uniquely gifted QB that requires some special handing. Nothing major but some common sense stuff that would be a no brainer for Andy Reid or Sean Payton or Nick Sirianni or Zack Taylor or Sean McVay or Mike Macdaniel or Doug Pederson. First, they would surround Allen with the complimentary offensive talent that would best fit his at times reckless style and propensity to make big off script plays. Who is Allen's go to guy for catching 50/50 balls? There are receivers all over the NFL that would thrive high pointing Allen missiles down field. And would any offensive minded coach place so little value on the O line that the Bills have over the last 5 seasons? We could go on and on but we all get the picture. The Bills brain trust bet big time on the defense and the idea that Allen could carry the offense on his back with lesser talent around him. And over the last 3 years they were mostly right. But while other offenses were setting their elite franchise QB's up with great O lines and multiple outstanding skill players the Bills kept their focus on the D. So the O got worse and worse relative to their peers while the D never became dominant, particularly in big playoff games. There is only one fix for this. Fire McD/Bean and start over with the best offensively minded GM & HC you can get. This is IMO the only path that will reopen the Bills SB window.

Well maybe McD will bench Allen and start the other Allen.

The decision to keep Cook off the field for a full 3 series after the fumble should bite McD in the butt hard. It was a deeply unprofessional response by the head coach. He didn't treat Cook as a man or as a professional. The sad part is that the clueless McD probably feels that his decision to punish Cook for the fumble is what motivated him later in the game. The truth is that McD robbed a struggling offense of it's #1 RB for 3 critical series early in the game. And I agree abut firing Dorsey but keeping McD. It does nothing to address the real problem here.

Bitching about Allen under the circumstances is kind of like arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The observations are true but so what.

Allen isn't destroyed YET. He has flashed way more good then bad this season. In the hands of a competent coaching staff that is offensive minded and constructs a roster to exploit what Allen brings to the table he will shine. But Pegula better realize that the clock is ticking. Another year of McD and Allen could be lost either by serious regression in his skills or he realizes that he will never win it all with the Bills and starts agitating to get out of Dodge. Either way the Bills elite franchise QB will be "gone" right at the moment the Bills are opening that brand new stadium.

Or an edge rusher or safety or corner back!

And it's a pattern that has been true over the last few years.

Bingo. This is the 2nd game this season where the O, in spite of struggling for long periods of time, handed the D a lead with under 2 minutes left and the D could not close out the game. And the 2 offenses that drove down to field to beat the Bills in these games were not very good. They certainly weren't the 49's or Chiefs.

And if you and me can see it you can bet that Russel Wilson & Sean Payton had the alt 22 view of it. It was an incomprehensibly bad call by McD very reminiscent of the brain cramps he got during "13 seconds".