PBF81

And Ryan's team at least scored more than they allowed by +20 to McD's -57. Also, our units ranked significantly higher. 12th & 13th in Scoring/Yardage O to McD's 22nd & 29th. Differences of -10 and -16. On D, 15th & 19th to McD's 18th & 26th. Differences of -3 & -7

The role of the coach is to see to it that two individual players post career days on offense while the rest of the team sorely underachieves? Well, OK. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. And what game plan? LOL Can you identify what the game plan was in that game? What, play worse with your #1 D than 80% of KC's opponents, don't run the ball well at all, and tell Allen to simply fling it to Davis all game for all the passing TDs? If that was the game plan, then why haven't they done it since? It was a fantastic game plan, who would disagree. It's foolish not to use that game plan again. I mean if it's that easy to get Allen to play like that, ... and Davis. I'd love to seen our $96M WR have a playoff game even half of what that was on a regular basis. Why can't McD get that into a game plan? Allen was simply hot that postseason. If it was a gameplan, he'd have done the same in any of the other postseasons, which he hasn't done. Either that or McD doesn't think it was that great a game plan I suppose. Just sayin' BTW, Allen had more passing TDs in those two games than he's had in 7 other playoff games total. That doesn't have game plan written on it.

I would agree with everythig there except for ... ... McD did next to nothing to win that game. Allen & Davis got into a zone and did everything themselves. Only one other offensive player did anything, Beasley had 6 catchess for 60 yards and a pair of 1st-Downs. Diggs did nothing. Our running game apart form Allen sucked water buffalo balls. Davis had 8 catches, all of which went for either a 1st-Down or a TD. Allen had 6 rushing 1st-Downs. The rest of the team including Diggs (1) logged 7 total. The defense sucked and in regulation only allowed the Chiefs more points than all but teams that were ranked 18th, 20th, and 26th ranked scoring Ds did during the season. We ranked 1st. If ever there was a chance for McD to shine, perhaps not allowing that many points as the first ranked D would have been it. “13 Seconds” was icing on the cake. The Chiefs had 27 1st-Downs and a significant edge in time-of-possession in regulation. Ironically, Oliver’s the only member of the D that played well in the only playoff game he’s ever done anything in besides the game vs. Skylar Thompson last season. He had 1 sack 2 TFLs, and 2 QB Hits. Not one other member of the front-7 logged a sack, TFL, or a QB Hit. Not one. That game was entirely Allen/Davis in a zone. McD had little if anything to do with it besides say nothing and let Allen be Allen and Davis happened to be hot. I suspect we'll see more of that if the fans can be patient and allow him to fully recover from his ankle injury. If you have a different take, based upon factual info, I'm all ears as to why, besides the elusive "intangibles," McD did anything to help the team. If our QB hadn't been Allen we'd have lost worse than we did the year before.

I guess what I don't understand is why there's some kind of assumption that having a coach that knows how to win at the top levels, and more importantly, one that simply doesn't make the kinds of mistakes that coaches that do win at the top levels don't make, and coaches that relate well to their players are somehow mutually exclusive, either in part or in total. Jimmy Johnson, Andy Reid, the list can go on and on here. If the team were to dismiss McD, why is there even an assumption by some that the next coach would be rubbing the entire team wrong or otherwise not relating well to his players out of the gate. Of course a coach needs to relate well to his players to win at the top levels. If he doesn't have that then they call that losing the locker room. Making the dumbest decisions in the history of the game also causes that if it happens often enough thereby prematurely ending seasons, which usually isn't a huge number of times. And as a case in point, Siranni, Shanahan, Taylor, and Reid, the four coaches in the CC games, they all seem to be well liked and have great relationships with their players. I would guess that only a few coaches, ones that are either on the hotseat or otherwise won't last long, don't have good relationships with their teams/players.

Well, it is debatable, but yes, that is my take. Most of what gets stated here is peoples' takes. Hence the disagreements. LOL

If there's someone better on the roster, I'm sure they'll replace Davis with that WR. Until that time ...

A lot of people outside of Buffalo are also starting to question our coaching. If the Strength-of-Schedule holds, this will be the most difficult schedule that McD's ever had to work against either here or in Carolina. I've already pointed out in another thread that of the last 23 seasons (the drought era), McD's tenure and the drought years, he's had 5 of the 9 easiest SoS's working for him. 2021, our best season, was the third easiest during that time. Last season we split with the Jets and Fins and the Jets are definitely better this season. As it was, four of the five games vs. the Fins & Jets were by 3 points or less. The game that we beat the Jets we were actually outplayed and their two fumbles were the difference in that game. We couldn't score more than 20 points in either Jets game. If we're as good as we all think and if McD's really a good coach, we should easily win the division. Allen alone gives us that edge. What happens after that is another thing. I wouldn't bet a nickel that Tua stays healthy the entire season.

Well, I would say this, which I didn't see mentioned, we have the same schedule as the other three teams, except that we play the Jags, @ Cincy, & Tampa; the Fins play Carolina, @ Baltimore, & Tenn; the Jets play Atlanta, @ Cleveland, & Houston Assuming that the Jets sweep those games, that'd be a one or two game edge on us. I wouldn't bet on us right now @ Cincy. Presumably they'll be favored. Jags will be much tougher this season with Lawrence in his third season and after having posted numbers over the last half of the season that had he done all season would have placed him in the top-5 QBs, and they finished their season 7-2 and 6-1.

That's my first question as well. 6 seasons. If he wasn't happy, them why not make a change. If he was, then why was he. Once again, the vibe is that he places relationships over winning. It's either a business, or it's not. This is obviously a critical season. I hope he's up to the task. A growing many have their doubts, he'll either prove them wrong or cement their suspicions. He got the most out of Peterman.

McFly?

Indeed LOL Wow, I hadn't realized that. Thanks for pointing that out.

New England was all Allen being Allen. You're also talking about Jones in his rookie season, where everyone defending McD dismissses in 2018 for Allen's rookie season. He beat a Ravens team with almost no offensive talent, but only once in the playoffs. Those were our two best playoff games and I don't see a lot of hallmarks of coaching being the difference. Immediately after that Patriots game he committed "13 Seconds." That's a conundrum for those arguing pro McD. Immediately after that Ravens game we lost decisively to the Chiefs.

This is a good thought-inducing post!! You've certainly gotten some good comments. I do think that people seem to be unable to divide someone being a "good guy" and being a good coach however. It's quite possible that they're only one of the two. Here's my take ... as I step behind the chicken wire on the stage ... Narratives form, often based upon superficial constructs. IMO that’s been the case here. I’ll cite a few. Narrative: McD’s a great Defensive Coordinator. Facts: His defenses on average in his 6 seasons in Carolina averaged 17th in Scoring and 15th in Yardage. His defenses were incredibly inconsistent from season to season. His last season there arguably should have been his best if he were truly that good and his rankings not based upon circumstances, which they were. Yet, it was his second worst and only by a margin better than his worst there. His successor, Steve Wilks, took McD’s 26th Scoring/21st Yardage D and turned it into an 11th Scoring/7th Yardage D, and he’s the farthest thing from being a household name in defensive coordinators as could possibly be. In fact, he was fired after that season and has been on a coaching death spiral ever since now on his fifth team in as many seasons and in varying roles and once at the collegiate level. McD has benefitted from having had 5 of the team’s 9 easiest schedules over the past 22 Bills seasons. Was McD the best hire to begin with, even strictly considering the defensive side ,much more any offensive prowess? Would it have been difficult to find someone with better performance credentials? Narrative: Daboll’s a great Offensive Coordinator. Facts: Daboll was an Offensive Coordinator for four seasons elsewhere before coming to the Bills. Here are his rankings in that role. 2009: 29th Scoring/32nd Yardage 2010: 31st Scoring/29th Yardage 2011: 20th Scoring/22nd Yardage (his pinnacle) 2012: 32nd Scoring/24th Yardage Was he the best hire coming in? Would it have been difficult to find someone with better performance credentials? Then he came here. In his first two seasons these were his rankings here. 2018: 30th Scoring/30th Yardage 2019: 23rd Scoring/24th Yardage Through those 6 seasons that’s an average of over 26th Scoring and 27th Yardage. The argument is that he is the one largely responsible for Allen’s development in Allen’s 3rd season, 2020. The reason why that’s unlikely is because to start, that’s the season that Diggs showed up, it was also Allen’s third season when it’s a well known maxim that QBs typically take three seasons (or so) to develop, and Allen didn’t develop slowly, he exploded, going from ranked in the bottom quartile of the league in most metrics in 2020 to near the top and nearly top-10 across the board. He nearly doubled his passing TDs and added 50% to his passing yardage total. The question then becomes, was this Daboll that was behind that leap in performance? I don’t see how it could have been since the entire football world knows that Allen’s style of play is unique to him and predicated all but entirely upon his semi-freestyling play, and with the coaches “letting Allen be Allen” as stated by them. But more relevantly perhaps, if Daboll was responsible, then how come the best he could do with Daniel Jones, in Jones’ 4th season, was a 3,205, 15 TD, 5 INT performance, only marginally up from Jones’ prior two seasons, worse than Jones’ rookie season, and worse than Allen’s 2nd season in 2019, and leading the Giants to the 15th Scoring/18th Yardage rankings. That after 8 seasons of experience at OC and with one of the league’s best RBs for balance to boot. Last season with the Giants outside of his division in the regular season, his offense faced only one scoring defense ranked higher than 12th, and 6 of the bottom 8 ranked scoring defenses, so his opponents for his offense were hardly tough. Within the division, in 7 games, his offense averaged just over 17 points-per-game, which by itself would have been good for 27th in the league. Not coincidentally, his Giants went 1-5-1 against those divisional teams, only beating and tying Washington 20-12 and 20-20, and with Jones throwing for 360 Yards and 1 TD combined in both games. Our Offensive rankings from 2020 to 2022 clearly stem from Allen and pretty much Allen alone, who’s done it all. Daboll even stated that he didn’t want Allen running that much too. Last season with the novice rookie Dorsey in charge, not only did the rankings not fall, but they tied Daboll’s best. It’s far more likely that Allen produced Daboll, not visa versa. It’s my guess that Daboll doesn’t outlast his current contract in NY if even that. Was Daboll the best hire? Would it have been difficult to find someone with better performance credentials? Narrative: McD was responsible for taking us to the playoffs in 2017 with Taylor at QB. Facts: That season we won 9 games. In 7 of those 9 wins we beat teams that ended up with 4, 5, or 6 wins on the season. 5 of those 9 wins were one-possession games. The worst one, a domed team, nearly beat us in an apocalyptic snowstorm at home. The only reason why we made the playoffs was due to the unlikeliest play by Andy Dalton on 4th-and-12 with seconds remaining. Andy Dalton! In those playoffs, the best that we could do was to put up 3 points in our 2nd-worst offensive output of the season. The worst of course was vs. Carolina against the man that replaced McD, Steve Wilks, the aformentioned DC whose career has taken the aformentioned death spiral. The 2019 season we won 10 games. In those 10 wins it was another hodge-podge of wins against teams that finished ranging from 2-9 wins. The only team with a winning record that we beat in the regular season was the Marcus Mariota-led Titans. In the playoffs we lost to a team that finished 14th in Scoring Offense and 19th in Scoring Defense. McD did not “come on” until Allen skyrocketed his play. He’s been a massive beneficiarly of easy schedules, particularly in 2017 and 2019 where these narratives took root predicated all but entirely in superficial indicators. It’s beyond a safe assumption that Allen’s play almost exclusively is all but the entirety of why the Bills have been as good as they’ve been and that McD has been a restraint on Allen and the development and performance of this team, not a conduit for its ultimate improvement. It’s likely also why McD has said to “let Allen be Allen.” He knows his golden-goose. I would have touched on Frasier and his lackluster defensive rankings in his 8 seasons of being a defensive coordinator prior to coming to Buffalo, namely … 28th/28th 21st/19th 12th/20th 13th/6th 10th/6th 18th/8th 25th/25th 26th/10th … for an average of 19th Scoring/15th Yardage. Quite average. He’s also had the advantage of a relatively easy schedule of offensive opponents, while being able to play 2 games/season against QBs like Newton, Jones, Wilson, White, Darnold, and McCown, Cutler, Tannehill, Fitzpatrick. Thompson, and an erratic Tagovailoa in his inaugural seasons. In contrast, Frasier contributed to the Bills going 0-6 vs. New England in Brady’s last three seasons there, at the ages of 40, 41, & 42, by allowing the Pats to score on average over 28 points-per-game in those six contests, more than the Patriots’ average scoring in those seasons. Was Frasier the best hire? Would it have been difficult to find someone with better performance credentials? I will say that it's interesting that now that he's gone the sentiment/narrative on him has diminished and he's become at least partially a scapegoat. That’s all factual. What one does with it is up to them. Narratives are narratives, facts are facts, the two do not always align. IMO we begin to see the wheels fall off the wagon this season from a coaching perspective as McD embarks upon a schedule of offenses that he’s never seen before here or in Carolina. It will definitely be a defining season for him one way or the other as I see it. From where I stand, McD’s ceiling apart from Allen being Allen, and he’s going to be Allen regardless of who’s coaching, is entry into the playoffs predicated upon easy schedules, while being unimpressively ousted in the Wild-Card Round of the playoffs, again, as a ceiling, based on the above and without “Allen being Allen.” He has benefitted from having had 5 of the team’s 9 easiest schedules over the past 22 seasons. If Dorsey can find himself and if Allen truly becomes more focused on correcting the things that are preventing him from being the best QB in the league, even better than Mahomes, then IMO we have the opportunity to be the Air Coryell of 2023 and beyond and the #1 offense in the league. If not however, then I think it’s going to be a rough ride. McD hasn’t proven that he can handle the most no-brainer decisions at the most important of times, having to coach the D as well as keep an eye on the O, IMO is going to prove to be too much for him. We will find out one way or the other beginning in just a few months. His job is to put together a winning team, not run a successful social clinic. I'd be you tons of money that latter part isn't anywhere to be found in his job description.

He'd have to get ejected from multiple games first to be our Billy Martin. Maybe when we get flagged he can run out and throw the official's flag up in to the stands or something along those lines since there's no dirt to kick at the ref.

Very good post although I completely disagree with your conclusion other than with the implication that this season will tell. I'm leaning more towards that McD will be more towards that same 17th Scoring/15th Yardage average DC he was in Carolina, and with more talent including Kuechly, than getting sustained defensive excellence out of the Bills, and particularly considering that this will be the toughest schedule he'll have ever faced on the offensive side of the ball. His schedules here to date have been categorically below average in terms of SoS. I see what you did there. LOL Good post though!!

Thanks on both points!!! Above though you bring up something that looms in the background. The other thing is that several key players, including Allen, Diggs, and Oliver to name a few, have opt-outs. I don't ever see Allen leaving here, but who knows on some of the others. Ya know, ... not sure why people relate getting fired to being a dirt bag or worthless person. Some people simply only achieve to a certain level.

The "D-Ham" ordeal's only going to carry him so far. That's respect as a person, less so as a coach. People seem to have difficulty separating someone being a nice guy from someone that has what it takes to be superlative as a coach in a tactical/strategic sense.

It will be interesting then. He's never had any sustained success as a DC. His average Defensive rankings as a DC in Carolina were 17th in Scoring and 15th in Yards. He arguably had better talent there than he has here, to date or this season. Kuechly alone was huge and better than anyone we've had on D. So it will be interesting. I agree with a few other posters that have essentially said that he's given himself enough rope to hang himself with. I do appreciate it. I'm just curious what the excuses will be in his favor if it unfolds that way. At some point the obvious becomes obvious to just about everyone. IMO he adds nothing to this team once they get into the playoffs, he only detracts. We've seen absolutely nothing in the coaching department in the playoffs that suggests otherwise. Ahhh, he'll fire Kyle Shurmur if the D flops, and Marcus West of the O isn't in the top-4 or 5.

Plus the internet today. Imagine the internet being around back then.

Do we have a choice, a mulligan for last season or this season?

Coulter's in camp too! Sweet!!

Of course, but they're also professionals that get beyond generously paid to do a job and do it to the best of their ability, in this case tens of millions per season. Even at that age, when I had something f extreme importance to do the next day I didn't stay out until all hours rocking my world apart while pissing off an existing GF (AKA "he'll hath no fury...) and shorting myself on sleep while unnecessarily generating peak stress. That's irresponsible no matter who you are.

Thanks!! I guess the things that concern me most are if Allen was really out the night or even two nights before a playoff game getting laid with someone that he wasn't even involved with. Not that I'm a Diggs apologies in the least, but that would be concerning in terms of perhaps he should have been more focused on the game. And at least have the decency to break up with your existing GF first. This reminds me of Kelly going out before games and showing up not fully rested or at 100%. Again, if that stuff is even true. This whole thing, ... SMH

Oddly, you've still managed to miss the point. We'll see how things shake out this season and agree to disagree here. Go Bills! This Diggs thing really threatens to damage this season. That's the worst thing right now.