Beck Water

If asked "do I think the Buffalo Bills can win a Championship with McDermott?" my answer would be "I don't know". But stuff like this...c'mon, @Logic. Logic should tell you that in the playoffs, you usually play a very good team, a team among the best teams in the league, and that is highly motivated because it's "win or go home". Averaged over the season, we have games against good teams and not-so-good teams. So it seems probable that any team with a playoff loss is going to give up more points than they average during the season. Just a quick example: In their 3 playoff losses, the KC Chiefs gave up an average of 32 points per game. So in their playoff losses, KC was 2 points WORSE than the worst defense in the league! OH NOES! In their 5 seasons since 2018, they gave up an average of 22 points per game. That's two full scores more per playoff loss than they gave up in the regular season - a huge and unacceptable swing! Again, I'm not taking a stand to defend McD, I'm just pointing out that this appears to me a relatively meaningless line of reasoning. It seems normal to me that in a small number of playoff losses to very good teams (or they wouldn't be in the playoffs), a defense is likely to give up more points and more scores than it does averaged over entire seasons to both good and bad teams. Oh, and I think if you look at our playoff loss last season and the year before, you will find far more missing playoffs than Von or Tre. For example, in 2022 we were missing DaQuan Jones; Oliver and Phillips were playing in linebacker braces; our starting safeties were Poyer (playing hurt then replaced by Cam Lewis) and Jaquan Johnson platooning with Dean Marlowe. At CB we had Tre' platooning with Kaiir Elam and Dane Jackson, because Christian Benford was out. 13 seconds aside from Tre we were pretty healthy on D I believe.

I think his Rams tenure scared people off Spagnuolo as HC, yes. Anarumo - Lou Anarumo is what, 8 years younger than Spags? 6? And has never been a HC. He got serious looks last season, I'm not sure teams were scared off because he's defense minded. I think it's more the Bengals record and their defensive rank Teams always look harder to poach OCs and DCs from teams that are winning.

You are generous and amazing. And your wife truly was a special person, who chose a special spouse.

Valid point. Spagnuolo has had 2 shots as HC: 3 years with the St Louis Rams (spoiler: it was awful. For the first year, he had a QB in Marc Bulger who was probably like the Fitzy of his time? able to succeed in some systems, but at this point older and struggling. Then they drafted Sam Bradford, who looked OK his first season under Pat Shurmer, then totally AFU under Mike McDaniels. Anyway, the team went 1-15, 7-9, 2-14 under Spagnuolo. He got a 2nd shot as interim HC of the Giants, and went 1-3 (and didn't get the job). It may be the feeling on Spagnuolo is that he's a brilliant DC but HC means "promoting him beyond his level of competence".

Oh, my gosh, I hadn't looked at this. Dan Quinn's staff his first year and when they went to the SB: OC Kyle Shanahan (49ers coach, SB this year), QB Coach Matt LaFleur (GB coach, playoffs this year, beat Dallas convincingly); Mike LaFleur (Rams OC this year, playoffs); Mike McDaniel as offensive assistant. By 2017 they were all gone and it was a downhill slide. Also he had Richard Smith as his DC, and fired him I think? after 2016 SB collapse, but I think Quinn had taken over playcalling part way through the 2016 season? Yeah, Sus choice to give Quinn a shot as DC.

Meaning no offense, but "couldn't have been any worse" is the lamer cry of people who don't know what they're talking about. It absolutely could have been worse. "You don't know what other options he had". Look at the freakin' roster then and learn then. His options were a hampered Dodson, who seemed to be cracking under the pressure of trying to play MLB during pre-season; AJ Klein, who knows exactly what he's seeing and where he ought to be but doesn't necessarily have the physical skills to get there; Dorian Williams, who wasn't considered for MLB pre-season and who is struggling to be in the right place at the right time as OLB; or Tyler Matakevich, a career STer. That's it. There were no other options. Milano was on IR, and Spector and Bernard were "out" for the game.

Wait, Wat? Just like Terrell Bernard wasn't ready to play last season, Dorian Williams was demonstrably no way ready to play MLB this season. Even at OLB he wasn't in the right place all the time. So what there is to disagree with, is the premise that Dorian should have been playing instead of Klein. And if that's what Joe Buscaglia thought before the game, Joe Buscaglia is mistaken.

So didn't Dan Quinn get 6 years to show what he could do with Atlanta, starting with a very good QB who had some success (all pro), a top receiver in Julio Jones, and a very good RB? Meanwhile his defense didn't pull its weight, and he couldn't sustain success?

No, not at all. I thought "13 seconds" was our year....I thought we had the hosses, Josh was playing at a high level, and more to the point....we had the game won. This year I was thrilled and surprised that the Bills got as far as they did, after the Week 5 Defensive Decimation that was the London Jax game, falling to 6-6, and needing to win their last 6 games to capture the #2 seed and the division. But when we lost everyone that we lost on D during the Pittsburgh game and then played KC on a short week, I was spinning a prayer wheel. Bass was struggling the last month or so, so when it came down to him and a makeable kick I said "Ruh-roh" and shut my eyes. Anyway, TL;DR I enjoyed the ride and had moderate expectations which were exceeded.

Why wait, sling him in there now and avoid the rush. His father Bob Babich coached for the Bills before he handed off to his kid

Packers, Dolphins and Giants all interviewed him, so as far as automatic promotion - it was either promote him, or lose him I think.

Where did you get the idea "Frazier with almost perfectly healthy teams" came up short? Last season of course we were missing Von Miller after T'Giving. Our starting DT's vs the Bengals were Tim Settle and Eli Ankou. Ed Oliver and Jordan Phillips were playing in a brace - Phillips needed post- season surgery. Da'Quan Jones was out. In the backfield, Marlow and Jaquan Johnson was playing for Hamlin who was playing for Hyde, so 3rd string. Elam was playing for Benford across from Dane Jackson. I'm not saying this to make excuse -the team sucked that day - but it's simply not true that we were "almost perfectly healthy" on D in playoffs for Frazier.

@Shaw66 as always, interesting write-up with a lot of good points. As far as the officials "let everyone play", Hmmmm. At the risk of derailing your thread, I must point something out: they don't. Houston at Baltimore Houston 11 penalties for 70 yards, Baltimore 3 penalties for 15 yards. Clearly the refs were not keeping flags in the pockets, and their choice of which penalties to call had the potential to heavily influence the game. Houston was called for 5 False Starts, 1 delay of game, 1 offensive holding, an encroachment, and a NZ infraction on D. These were for the most part, drive-stalling penalties. KC at Baltimore KC 3 penalties for 30 yards, Baltimore 8 penalties for 95 yards. 4 of the Baltimore penalties were unnecessary roughness/roughing the passser. These were drive extending penalties for the offense. KC was called 3 times for offensive holding. Since Jawaan Taylor has been lined up illegally, false starting, and holding throughout the season, I find it a bit of a challenge to believe he didn't commit one illegal formation or false start in that game. The Bills game was cleaner, KC 2 for 15 and Bills 5 for 28. 10 of these yards were Dalton Kincaid's potentially turnover saving illegal bat, but the Bills also had a key DH and DPI called. And again - Jawaan Taylor, seriously not one penalty? Anyway, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I don't think the game is fixed, but I will point out that referees are absolutely flinging laundry in a way that 1) influences the game 2) interrupts the flow of the game. And it's not consistent - for example, yes, the refs were letting the DB hang all over our receivers during our AFCCG loss to the Chiefs. The Superbowl against Tampa, DH and DPI were being called against the Chiefs for similar play. It's a problem IMHO.

Well....under McDaniel, we are the immediate roadblock to their playoff dreams. What makes you think Frazier knows Allen that well? The defensive coaches are not generally studying our own offense. They're watching film of our next opponent's defense, and leading practice against a scout team simulating that defense. I don't think they have a lot of time or spend a lot of time studying our own offensive tendencies. As far as McDermott, I don't follow this myself, but people who do have said there are only a few times in their 6 years when McDermott took over playcalling from Frazier. Frazier knows the defense well, but do those few times actually give him more insight than watching 2023 game film?

Others have honed in on your suggestion of Frank Reich. I'd like to hone in on your suggestion that someone who "isn't looking to baby Allen" is what is needed. That implies that past QB coaches perhaps *have* tried to "baby Allen". I'd like to understand why you think that.

Just a note this is the style of generator our neighbor has and built a plywood box for. The box is 5 boards lined with soundproofing foam that stack flat and fit together around the generator. There’s a hole opposite the exhaust, into which he installed a high-power computer fan that plugs into the generator and a piece of exhaust pipe fits around it. This setup stores easily, keeps rain off the generator, sends the exhaust away from the house, and makes a significant noise reduction. I’m paranoid about the power those beasts put out potentially damaging the electronics in our various household appliances which at this point is pretty much….all of them….which is why we went with inverters

Nagy is the OC, not the QB coach

I’m so sorry. I hope you are able to find peace and your family is able to gather beside you. As someone once said to me, “there are some things in life you never get over. You just learn to go on.”

A 2x league mvp should mean something re: qb quality , I think is OPs point

Those KC sons of snitches are going back to the Dance, aren’t they?

The inverters are quieter than the old style but yeah they’re loud. Gas fumes are also an issue depending on where you can locate. Our neighbor has a 5-sided box with a fan that plugs into the generator, plywood lined with closed cell foam. It helps a lot. When we get a Round Tuit…

We have 2-2000W inverter generators. That’s enough to run the ignitor and fan for 1 of our 2 gas furnaces, ceiling light and fan in the room we’re in (led lights), WiFi and router, electric kettle, ignite gas burner on stovetop but not oven, refridge, freezer, and if both are running together we can do fridges for 2 neighbors. It works pretty well. The thing that helps is we have an external power plug to plug them in and an interlock switch to isolate our power panel from the grid (and alarm when grid power is restored. We moved the circuits we wanted to use to one side then called in an electrician to finish the install of the external power plug and interlock switch. The interlock made it much more useful & “normal” to lose power a couple times a year for a couple days at a time thanks to our beautiful midwestern thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Isn't it disingenuous to minority candidates and a slap in the face to assert he's only getting an interview based on the color of his skin? Most OCs were position coaches before they got their chance.

This is actually baloney. Diggs was the #1 receiver in the league in receptions and yards in 2020. About 1/3 of those yards were YAC. He didn't do that because he "offers no dynamic traits". He had an amazing release off the line and his route running was *chef's kiss*. He could juke a CB out of his cleats, his jock, and next weeks' travel money. Dion Dawkins didn't praise him "I had no idea someone could be that good at the sport of football" during an off-season get together because he wasn't dynamic. I don't know what's gone on with Diggs the last 2 seasons, whether it's injuries or age or the lack of quality depth in the receiving corps, but let's lay off the tale that he hasn't been "decisive and dynamic" since Maryland. That said...the guy in the slot takes a helluva beating, play after play. It got to Beasley about age 32. I don't think Diggs would hold up in the slot now. Leave it to Shakir and Kincaid. Hope so

That's fine, but the post to which I was responding said his stats fell off when Brady took over from Dorsey. My point is - his receptions and yards fell off about a month before Dorsey was "relieved of his duties"