CincyBillsFan

It's a great mystery to me. As an aside, take a look at the thread that links to a wonderfully written article by a Chicago Bears fan who defends Allen and the Bills from the wretched hater Nick Wright. He addresses the unique depth and perversion of the Allen hatred. It is real and you see it on 2BT from time to time. This is a must read.

For the record here are Allen's combined stats for the regular season and playoffs. This represents 19 games worth of work: Passing: 4695 yards; 33 TD's; 18 INT's Rushing: 670 yards; 18 TD's; 3 lost fumbles Totals: 5365 yards; 51 TD's; 21 TO's. This level of production is remarkable given the talent surrounding him. As for results: 11 - 6 record; Division Title; Playoff berth; 1 - 1 record in the playoffs; 12 - 7 overall record. Pretty solid to IMO.

Here's the thing. I don't blame Dawkins at all. He got beat on that one play. It happens. When I and others call out that Dawkins got pushed back into Allen impacting the throw we're stating a fact as an explanation for why Allen missed the throw. Dawkins had a fantastic season. No one should judge him by one play because no one in he NFL is prefect on every play.

Damn that was GREAT and spot on. Wow.

The first down run was the desire to bleed clock and illustrated everything wrong abut McD's approach to the offense yesterday. And yes I believe that McD instructed Brady as to how he wanted the offense to compliment his defense in the game. But at some point and with the chance to take a 4 point lead with about 2 minutes remaining you must aggressively go after the TD. As others have pointed out this is the NFL playoffs and you can't just assume that you will score the TD with 10 seconds left on the clock. I believe the only time we threw the ball downfield on first down in the second half was when Diggs dropped that perfectly thrown 60 yard bomb. The play action worked great there and I have to believe that Brady wanted to exploit the KC issues at Safety with more aggressive play action passes on first down.

A clear indictment of McD IMO.

Mahomes missed two open Chiefs receivers in the end zone for TD's and I don't hear Chiefs fans complaining this morning. The expectations that some posters have about Allen is bat feces insane and doesn't reflect the real world of NFL football.

So what good is resetting the CAP clock if your "can't miss" rookie QB is a miss? I mean just over the last 20 years or so we've had the following high draft pick QB's completely bust or never live up to their POTENTIAL: Mayfield, Tua, Vick, Winston, Murray, Bradford, Lynch, Rosen, Wilson, Darnold, Russel, David Carr & Trey Lance. And I'm sure I missed a few. Hell, even the can't miss Trevor Lawrence has been underwhelming. Again if the Bills made the trade you're suggesting, and thankfully they're not that dumb, the Bears would be a better team then Buffalo the very first season Allen was there. And over the next 5 years while the Bills new CAP friendly "can't miss" QB struggled the Bears would be lugging a SB trophy down the Magnificent Mile.

So another poster who expects perfect throws on every play. I can state with complete certainty that when their offensive tackles are being pushed into their legs and they can't step into their throws even the best NFL QB's, including Stroud, will often miss that throw. BTW wasn't that throw over 40 yards? And for the record Allen has made that throw many times, probably more then any other QB in the NFL. But he's not going to make it every time. And for the record I was explaining why Allen wasn't able to make that throw which was the right read. If you want to call that an excuse have at it.

Wow you're serious. I was being tongue & cheek. But hey thanks for the honesty. IF the Bills swapped Allen to Chicago for this years first and next years first I would bet you my house that the Bears would win a Super Bowl before the Bills. Allen would elevate the Bears into the playoffs his first year there spoiling that 2nd 1st round pick we got. BTW I watch a lot of college football and this years QB crop is good with a lot of POTENTIAL but the idea that any of them would replicate what Allen has ACHIEVED is far fetched. Remember Lawrence was a can't miss #1 QB to.

So you're going there even after last nights performance by Allen? Well two can play the stupid game of coulda/woulda/shoulda and point out that our MVP QB left the Bills with the lead in 3 games with less then 2 minutes left on the clock only to see the D blow the leads. But hey you might get your wish and be rid of Allen Pine Barrens Mafia. A friend of mine is worried, and rightfully so, that after yesterday McD & Bean are going to go to Pegula and make the case that the Bills have to spend even more draft & FA capitol on strengthening the D. I fervently hope this doesn't happen but if it does I wouldn't blame Allen if he started the process of getting out of Buffalo.

The defensive line was not depleted and is where a big chunk of the Bills FA money & draft capital has gone over the last few years. A dominating performance by the D line last night would have done more to protect McD's depleted LB group then putting a governor on the offense and expecting them to outscore KC while simultaneously running out the clock. We can all ignore the obvious. I sure as hell have over the last few seasons but no more. The bills suffer from significant tactical & strategic deficiency's in how they structure their roster and game plans. And until they fix this we are not advancing past the divisional round of the playoffs.

Great point. McD was asking Allen & Brady to not only score more points then KC but to do so in the most difficult and challenging way possible by chewing up clock and plays. It's one thing to ask your offense to do this ONCE per game but through almost the entire game - madness. The Bills 5 scoring/missed FG drives were all over 10 plays (11, 12, 14, 15 & 16). When you step back and think about it what was being asked of Allen & Brady was INSANE. That the two almost pulled it off is a credit to their exceptional performances last night. The Bills at the end of the first half and at the end of the game, while they were TRAILING on the score board, were trying to run out the clock AND score the go ahead/winning TD! Think about that for a minute.

Diggs was running his pattern right to left which is where the DE was pushing Dawkins into Allen so I'm not sure he saw how open Diggs was on that play for a 5 yard gain. The shot to the end zone was the right read by Allen. He came up short because he couldn't plant his foot as Dawkins was being pushed into him. Were talking about half a second between missing that throw and getting the TD. Frankly, the play by play analysis of Allen and the expectation that he plays perfectly on every play is bizarre. No where else in the NFL is this expected. Allen is very good but he can not be perfect every play.

I disagree. The losses have had a common theme starting with the Houston playoff game: Poor defensive play either throughout the game (yesterday, Bengals playoff loss & the 2020 AFC championship game) or at critical times in the game (13 seconds game, Houston game). Don't forget we were lucky to beat Indy in 2020 after the D gave up two 4th quarter TD's in a game Buffalo led 24 - 10 early in the 4th. So yes there is a pattern here that can be laid at the feet of the coach, GM and the defense. I include the GM because even though the Bills have one of the top 3 QB's in the NFL they have not addressed glaring weaknesses on offense and have not worked to surround Allen with the best possible weapons. Yea and then Andy Reid drafts Allen a year later and we're exactly in the same boat as we are today.

I think that if we can sign or draft the right guy to be our #1 Diggs might actually see a resurgence in his play. Given the CAP situation others have pointed out it doesn't matter if we would be overpaying Diggs as a solid #2. That ship has sailed and we'll be paying Diggs regardless. But I do see a scenario where Diggs still has a positive impact on the WR room.

True but then many of those teams select offensive minded coaches and focus the lions share of their franchises resources on the offense. It doesn't always work out because no matter how smart the offensive minded coach is or how much they send on the O if they don't have the QB there are limits to how far they can go. But the Bills have the QB and IMO are now wasting his best years.

The only great game the Bills D played that won a game was Baltimore. The offense rolled over NE taking all the pressure off the D. When the Steelers were sneaking back into the game in the 2nd half it was the offense which shut the door with a long TD drive. The Bills have a Defensive minded head coach and a GM that has built a defensive focused roster that in the last 10 playoff games can point to only one game where the D was outstanding and was a difference maker.

Again we have to figure mental and physical exhaustion into this. The offense had run 14 plays on that drive before the 2 minute warning. And those included a key 4th down conversion and a couple of 3rd down conversions. From Brady to Allen (who take a wicked hit earlier in the drive) to the O linemen I get why they may have fizzled coming out of the break. This makes me even madder at the D. They faced only 47 plays and 23 minutes of TOP yet they couldn't win many battles between the D line and the Chiefs O line.

In the Allen playoff years which is 10 playoff games, McD's Defense played well ONCE. In every other game it played bad the whole game or at key moments that either lost us the game (Houston) or nearly lost the game (Indy - remember the Bills had a 24 - 10 4th quarter lead and almost lost). Given that McD is a defensive coach and Bean has fashioned D heavy roster this is unacceptable. The Bills are wasting the prime years of Allen's career. If they don't see it you have to wonder if that organization is worth our hard earned money and time.

How many plays were run on that last drive BEFORE the final two passes? FOURTEEN! In the Bills 5 scoring/missed FG drives they ran 14, 11, 12, 15 & 16 plays. It's amazing that the Bills didn't have a TO or a couple of big penalties or a sack. In total the Bills ran 78 plays to the Chiefs 47. And it was 2nd & 9 not 1st and 10 so we had to be more aggressive if we were trying to score a TD and not a FG there. And for the record Allen could not step into that throw because the left tackle was pushed into him as he let it lose. We should have used more play action throws on 1st down but of course the offense was working diligently on protecting McD's Defense. On the one play action pass in the 4th quarter Allen threw a great deep ball that Diggs dropped. Again Allen plays out of his mind yet we think if we could just squeeze a little bit more magic out of the guy we can win games like this. IMO that is insane and condemns the Bills to making the same mistakes over and over and over again.

There is no reason for you to feel hopeful unless we see the Bills brain trust aggressively work to add more weapons to the O. Pegula will not move on from McD even though some of the top offensive minds in the NFL would love to get a shot at coaching Allen. So our one and only hope is that they pivot and focus on adding more high end skill players through the draft and FA.

Much like the Offense was asked to do more then score points but to also hold on to the ball for a ridiculous number of plays and time the special teams were asked to do something beyond their ability to do in order to protect McD's Defense. This is called "complimentary football" by McD. What would have been real "complementary football" would be if the Defensive line, which was healthy and is loaded with high draft picks and big time FA's had blown up the KC line. Now that would have protected the LB's far better. But then again that would be expecting a McD defense to play great in the playoffs. It's happened ONCE in the last 10 playoff games.

Hard to step into the throw when your left tackled is being pushed into you.

You're a troll and only a blind bat wouldn't see it. There is no point in even replying to your points as they're not made in good faith or in the spirit of an open & honest discussion. And please with the "he is not immune from criticism" crap about Allen. I hate the idea of putting trolling posters on "ignore" as it's like having to shut your blinds because the neighbor is running around naked down the street.