Ray Stonada

Wouldn’t this mean losing in the Super Bowl?

Allen had the greatest single game of all time on Sunday, in terms of fantasy football. ”Leading NFL MVP candidate Josh Allen had the best fantasy performance by a quarterback ever in Week 14, logging an incredible six touchdowns(three through the air, three on the ground) en route to 51.88 fantasy points.” (The Athletic) In the other games on the list, the player’s team had a blowout victory. 😰

I’d like to see us run a fake tush push… The man in motion who usually stops behind Josh keeps running and goes out to the left corner. Josh takes the snap and rolls right instead of sneaking. Meanwhile the tight end or lineman on the right side of the line, runs to the right corner of the end zone. One of these guys will be open for an easy TD pass. Or Josh just jogs into the end zone. And if we run it once it will make defenses think twice going forward.

So we should have tried an onside kick no matter what? I think our defense had a better chance to get a 3 and out than our vaunted special teams to recover an onside kick.

I hope you are right. The Bills tend to play older, less athletically capable guys over younger less proven guys. I feel like Dorian Williams should have played the playoff game with the Chiefs last year rather than Klein. Maybe Williams would have a breakdown or two, but he might have made a play or two, which would have been more than Klein was able to do.

It was a really weird play, hard to understand. There were 7 seconds on the clock, Rams up by two. The Bills knew this was almost certainly the last play of the game--it takes a couple seconds to get the punt off, and a good hang time is 4-5 seconds. First off, I counted only 9 Bills on the field (you can't see Codrington until later in the shot, and there are 8 guys on the line of scrimmage). 9 guys. Next, they don't have the punt rush OR the return set up. On the last play of the game, you HAVE to go for one or the other. It's your only chance left to win. Finally, Codrington doesn't even field the ball. It lands just inside the 1 yard line with 0 seconds on the clock, but he's running away from it--as if he was told not to field it, even though the game ends if he doesn't. I mean, I know the chances of a 99 yard punt return, or a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, are pretty low. But that's all we had. Shouldn't we have gone for one or the other? Instead we didn't even have enough players out there. What were the special teams coaches doing? It's like the players had no guidance for that moment and no one in charge, no one with a strategy.

I think great defenses try to take away your best thing and let you try to beat them with your second best. Josh puts you in a bind, though, because if you stop one thing he can do the other. That’s why he’s impossible to stop and is scoring touchdowns at an unprecedented, historic rate over the last five years. But the Bills’ D too often lets the other offense do their best thing, staying rigidly in their 4-2 nickel.

I agree with this. There are lots of examples of great receivers making catch after catch against the Bills. Nacua and Cupp yesterday, Nico Collins until he got hurt in the Texans game, Justin Jefferson, Hopkins, Kelce, and more. Stopping those types of dominant offensive players is not the Bills’ forte.

I agree with you that Stafford, Nacua and Cupp played off the charts. However I wasn’t waiting around to castigate McDermott—I just voted that I see him as better than in the past and learning from his mistakes. This game was a recurrence of his late game blunders, though, which I hope is just a one-time relapse.

Fair enough. I estimate it as higher than trying an onside kick. I guess I consider our defense to be the most specific creation of our head coach. Not our offense or special teams. So losing a game where the offense scores 42 with no turnovers falls at least partially on the defensive head coach too. And then the coaching gaffes do too.

His presser was typical coach-speak, but I would hope McDermott could level with the team and not just pretend all was fine. He could say we have to be better as coaches too, and that they'll review the late game decisions. Also, maybe he could address the last play of the game in meetings this week. It should not be acceptable for the Bills have too many or not enough players on the field for the final play of a game, as in Denver last year (12) and this game (9!?).

One play didn't lose the game, but in that moment, that play reduced our chances to pull out the win by a lot. Couple that with McDermott's record of making strange calls late in close games, and you might understand people getting a little upset. It's not every game an offense scores 42 points with 6 TDs and 0 turnovers and loses.

Brady knew exactly what was happening and the strategic stakes of the situation--he seemed shocked at what we did. As he explained, an onside kick has less than a 10% chance to work. When the Bills lined up jumbo on first and goal, I assumed we were going to go play action and throw over the top to a lineman or tight end for the TD. There was 1:06 on the clock. Rams would have had the ball with 1 minute left, if we could have held them to a 3 and out while using our 3 timeouts, we would have probably gotten the ball back with at least 40 seconds and the ball on our own 30-40 yard line. We would then have needed to drive 25-35 yards for a field goal to win a game for the ages, 45-44. I estimate Josh Allen's chances to do it at 75%-80%.

42 points, 6 touchdowns, 0 turnovers, 445 total yards, 8.2 yards per play, and lost. Inconceivably bad game from the defense, special teams and coaching. Accepting the holding penalty on 4th and 7 meant burning another 40 seconds of precious game time. Stupid. How could they run a QB sneak instead of passing? When they lined up, I assumed we were going to go play action and toss an easy TD to a lineman or tight end. There was 1:06 on the clock. Rams would have had the ball with 1 minute left, a 3 and out with 3 timeouts would probably get us the ball back with at least 45 seconds, ball on our own 30-40 yard line, needing only a field goal to win a game for the ages, 45-44. Instead, we run the sneak, and instead of having a second play already called, McDermott called timeout, idiotically. Josh ran over and said something briefly to McDermott after he scored the second sneak, with his hand over his mouth. May have been a bad moment for their relationship--McDermott looked like a muppet with his ears burning after that. Tyler Dunne-article level blunder. Amazingly, that was not the end of the stupidity. Then, there were only 9 guys on defense for the Rams' final punt. And Codrington was not told he had to field the punt and try to score on the last play of the game. Like a bad dream.

McDermott has a history of playing "system" guys who understand his complex defense over "take some risks, make some big plays" guys. Elam is the latter. Unfortunately, top offenses shred the system (because they are good enough to see and exploit the holes), and then you don't have the type of guys who make game changing plays. A perfect example was signing A.J. Klein last year instead of playing Dorian Williams. If Willams had played he might have gotten burned a few times, but he may have made some big plays or stops, which Klein could not do.

Another blunder sneaking it there

Accepting the penalty also cost at minimum 40 seconds. Then no defensive timeouts. It’s frustrating.

McDermott has the weirdest instincts in close games… accepting that penalty felt so wrong.

Don’t like accepting that penalty

Damn cheesy call

Nacua back

Guys we are seeing things that are not normal 90 yard drive with EASE

Think he’s gonna get his 40 TDs this year