PBF81

Lighten up a little, I was just kidding, ... sort of.

No, you still missed it, the basis anyway. No need to discuss further however. I'm very open to the notion that it didn't mean as much as it may seem, but there is a difference, as pointed out, between us and the others.

No, as usual, you leapfrogged the primary point. No worries, I'm used to it.

Interesting comment. So I did some minor research. KC: Yes, in their worst season in 6 seasons. The year prior not the case. '21, the opposite. '20 not the case. Bal: To three above-average rushing teams. 3 of our 4 were against well below-average rushing teams. Neither team narrowly missed making the playoffs either and were not in the same situations, losing games to notably inferior teams more often than not. The difference must be coaching.

Yeah, we'll see how it shakes out this season.

That's a lot of QBs tho. You should also have some competency at the position presumably.

Well, OK, but the 4 games in which we allowed the most rushing yards, we lost. All games that we lost by less than a TD. The 6th most was the Giants, which we nearly lost. The 7th which we also lost. If you don't think that significant, so be it. 🙂

Well, let's hope that our 15th yardage and 28th ranked yards-per-carry against defense improves in that category. In the playoffs we allowed 252 rushing yards on 5.4 yards-per-carry in two games. We've neglected the run-D part of our defense that past couple of seasons in favor of smaller LBs that excel in defending the pass. Which is odd since McD's philosophy is that you need a good rushing game to win it all in setting his expectations for our offense, but defensively he obviously operates contrarily. The four games in which we allowed the most rushing yards, and in 5 of the 7 most, were losses. Three of those losses were against non-playoff teams.

He's got the postseason down, now he's working on the preseason. How is Nathan Peterman still in the league?

Come on now, that's not the proper TSW spirit. More emotion.

Did you get a rock? As to THREE and FOUR, see my post to Thurm above. On FIVE, thanks! IMO this is the season that McD's methodologies are exposed as being both dysfunctional as well a ill-fitted to an offense led by Allen. Well, other teams with lesser talent played better than we did offensively in the playoffs almost as a rule. It was our rushing D that did us in v. KC. Everyone lauds McD's Williams & Bernard, but our rush D predictably diminished and went from 5th to 15th in YPG allowed from '22 to '23, and from 14th to 28th in YPC allowed from '22 to '23. What's telling about that is that McD preaches balance in offense as if it's 1990, claiming that's how you win games (with the strongest armed QB in the league), while setting up his D to defend the run. At some point thinking like that can only be exposed. Your point on Spagnuolo appears to be at least somewhat trying to defer McD's incompetence off onto an embellishment of Spags. In his 16 playoff games with KC, his defenses have allowed 24+ points in half of them and over 30 in four of them. His average PA is 23 PPG, which is far from great, it's well below average on a season. In the playoffs it's in the average range. The average score of all teams in last season's playoffs was 24.7, but that doesn't include accounting for defensive of STs TDs, so it's somewhat lower than that after those are removed. Spags is good, but he's not so good that he should be shutting down Allen like he shuts down Jackson or Tagavailoa. The whole Diggs thing is and continues to be poor planning. They fully knew that there were issues last season but outright lied to us about them. It doesn't matter why, they did. You say that Diggs and Brady were not a fit, indeed, they were not. But neither are Allen & McD. That's about as poor a fit as can exist. McD controls Brady. It's impossible to separate Brady and McD. For anyone denying this or even on the bubble re: it, that'll clear up this season.

Thanks for the post! But let's keep this on point. That's fine, but it does not mitigate the fact that no one stepped up. It was a prime opportunity for someone to have done so. And the greater point, this is standard on McD's playoff teams for all and whatever that implies. On a side note, we barely beat KC during the regular season, a win that had it been a loss would have resulted in us missing the playoffs, with KC having Pacheco out. So while it has nothing to do with this particular game, the injury argument is a double-edged sword. Similarly, we barely beat the Chargers who were missing Herbert and Allen, the only two offensive players worth a crap on their offense. ... again, off-topic. The point is that if we're going to start explaining our losses away due to injuries, then we also in the same broad-brush way, need to explain some of our eked-out wins away in the same vein. I'm not sure we want to do that, particularly last season where a STs TD let us beat Miami, Herbert/Allen out let us beat the Chargers, a D TD handed us our win v. NE, and no doubt another one or two. Thank you! That's the primary point here. I say that it had a whole lot more than something to do, quite a lot to do in fact, with McD's inane complimentary football approach that insists that passing (with Allen as your QB that is) and rushing (with no RB of any significant consequence until further notice) needs to be balanced. 39 passing plays, 39 rushing plays That's not a coincidence. Allen was hardly perfect, either in that game or under Brady where on average he posted only better passing numbers than he did in 2019, and regarding the averages, only marginally so. Again, it's a huge season for the McDermott Way. But again, absolutely no one stepped up otherwise to propel us to a win. Very solid is one thing, doing more than merely contributing while not even hitting average performance for a starting player or as the top players for that game is hardly doing something to propel the team to a win. After reading New Era's post after yours, I decided to take a look at every playoff game for comps. In 12 other games and therefore 24 other team performances, only twice did a team not put up the combined receiving yards that our two leading receivers in our game referenced here, with one being Jackson on Baltimore, who's awful in the playoffs. otherwise, only 7 of 24 other teams failed to put up a receiver that got equal to or more than Shakir and Kincaid combined here. That means 17 of 24 teams played notably better in that regard, even against KC, including Miami; and even the playoff dysfunctional Jackson played better vs. KC than Allen did with Flowers posting more than Shakir/Kincaid combined, with 115. In a few cases teams had multiple players that did that and in one case Dallas had three, all over 100 yards receiving. New Era mentions that McCaffrey "only" had 22 carries for 80 yards against KC in the Super Bowl, which granted, isn't impressive. But he also went 8 for 8 in receptions and posted 160 yards from scrimmage and 5.3 yards-per-touch. Our leading YFS player in this game was Cook with 82 yards, on 3.7 yards-per-touch. Here's the thing, in our two playoff games, we had the second and third lowest net passing yards of all 26 playoff performances, and the our passing performance in vs. the Chiefs was the 3rd fewest total passing yards with the Steelers playoff game having been the 6th fewest passing yards of all 26 performances. Here's the thing, this "balanced approach" is what McD has said he wants. But it's what McD wants, despite having a generational talent at QB with an arm that is arguably the best in NFL history. It's also why under Brady, in all 9 games including the playoff games, Allen's yards-per-game average was what would have ranked 14th on the season, 11th not including the playoffs. This is what McD wants. If he didn't it wouldn't be the case. That's what he instructed Brady to do. Either way, having bottom-dwelling passing production in the playoffs when we have Allen is ridiculous. That absolute worst that it should have been is something well above average.

It's going to be interesting to see how this thread ages. Coleman may be better suited to a career in the stand-up comedy circuit than in the NFL.

That question explains quite a bit.

Quite a few here defend him arduously. Again, all because of and only because of Allen. He's a different player in the playoffs. Cook has sucked in the playoffs. No other offensive skill position player has done much of anything. He's averaged 13 carries for 48 yards and 1 rushing TD in four playoff games. 8 catches for 26 yards and nada in the TD column. That's crap. His only relatively decent game was against Pittsburgh and their below average rushing D. After that in three other games he's averaged 3.2 yards-per-carry. Shakir in four games has averaged 4 catches for 41 yards and a TD every other game. Kincaid, four catches for 52 yards and a TD every other game. Knox, three catches, 27 yards, and a TD every other game. We're putting up points because Allen becomes possessed in the playoffs. Not for any other reason. Take him out of the mix and we're likely 1-10 or 0-11 in the playoffs under McD.

In fairness to me, I have never defended Diggs' playoff performances in general. At the same time, what people fail to connect the dots on, is when the entire team besides a single player, Allen, underachieves with regularity in the playoffs, and that includes McD and his entire staff by the way, and also are incredibly inconsistent, at best re: coaching, then how can the head coach possibly be exempt from the lion's share of the blame. That's an absurd proposition yet one that seems to stand generally speaking. It's beyond mind-boggling. This season is going to be incredibly enlightening.

I'll address the one relatively objective thing in your post, above. No argument with the exception that his drop in that game was hardly deliberate. That should be obvious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdyG_pPfSIU First of all, the hate for him precedes reason and fairness. If that had been Kincaid or Coleman this season, the talk would have been about it being good coverage and a slight underthrow. Diggs had his man beat and if Allen puts that ahead of him instead of so that he has to turn and slow down, giving coverage a chance to catch up, it's a TD. Yet, it's all Diggs' fault. Was it catchable? Absolutely Was it underthrown? Yes, slightly, but causing Diggs to have to slow down. Was there coverage? Yes, as a direct result of the underthrow. It's as clear as day. But more to the point, can you name a player, on offense or defense, that did do much of anything in that game? The short answer to that is no, you cannot. The max rushing yards by anyone (Cook) was 61, on a pathetic 3.4 yards-per-carry. The max receiving yards by anyone (Kincaid) was 45, on 9.0 YPR. Shakir was second with 44 yards on 6.3 YPR. That's the McDermott Way. Trying the run the ball (4.0 YPC on the game apart from Allen) while having Allen pick up 100% of the slack when it doesn't work. It should also be pointed out that KC's rushing D was hardly stout, ranking 25th in yards-per-carry allowed at 4.5, and 17th in rushing yards-per-game. Our RBs in that game were worse than most RBs that KC played that season. Same on defense, not one player stepped up. Not one sack. 2 total TFLs and 2 total QB Hits, no player with 2 of either combined. 1 PD all game. Pacheco, ... Pacheco, posted the best playoff rushing game of his 7 playoff game career, and his 5th best rushing game of his career overall, and it's not as if the teams against which he performed better had great rushing defenses, they did not. All four were ranked in the bottom quartile of rushing defenses in those seasons. KC posted TD scoring drives of 75 yards, 75 yards, and 65 yards, and FG scoring drives of 64 and 46 yards, with zero help from our offense. But yeah yeah, it's all Diggs' fault. None of the other 20 starting players (excluding Allen here) nor the coaches were at fault for any of it. Nah. LOL The writing is soooo on the wall re: McD. This season is going to be tumultuous. If Allen goes down, 100% exposure. We'd be one of the worst teams in the league with Trubisky at QB.

There isn't a player or coach on this team besides Allen that's even approached being consistent in the playoffs. Many would appropriately lay that at the feet of the head coach. Ironically, the most consistent player after Allen, and yet still far from consistent in that regard, was Davis. The facet of the team easily with the largest gap between regular season performance and playoff performance, is the Defense.

Of course he didn't have an injury, but he didn't quit on Allen etc. He was relegated to secondary status. In our most important game, week 18 v. Miami, Diggs had a big game that would have been a career game. 2:29 ... Allen overthrew him for what would have been an 89-yard TD. 5:00 ... Diggs didn't quit https://youtu.be/5kHYGN4IOzg?si=vm0MUEqekQbzBrKg Again, we're going to find a lot of things out this season re: the McDermott-Way. There was clearly an agenda at work in there, a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. His teammates know it.

No disagreement here except the part about quitting. Nobody "loses a step" from one game to the next, precipitously, unless they had a major injury. It's a narrative built for the gullible. This season is starting to shape up to be a very revealing one that McD supporters aren't going to like.

You make points based on stats, I point out the facts on them that contradict you, and then you say you can't apply stats the way that you did in essence. Well, OK.

BTW, how do you reconcile the "anonymous team executive" that claims that Allen is overrated? On that single issue that is. That doesn't sound like either an expert or intelligent take to me. LOL Not if it's true it isn't. That's the point. You've taken math classes in your life. There's often two different ways to arrive at the same answer. Is that coincidence? In your view, yes, it is. Which is ridiculous.

I give him more credit than that. He and I clearly don't agree on everything, or even most things, but I've picked some stuff that I agree with out of his Draft Analyses that I never read anywhere else. Far from on every player, but at least on some. Not once have I argued as y'all are taking the position, that outsiders are ALWAYS more correct than the so-called "experts," but on certain players particularly, since the OP's original point centered around personnel, I disagree wholeheartedly. I've seen fan analyses on draftees that we far more indepth, more accurate ultimately, and overall notably better than what any of the draftniks put out. You guys all need to give up on this simply because someone may be more knowledgeable or have done a better analysis on a particular singular topic, that that somehow translates to being better at running an entire football organization, which absolutely no one here claims. It's an absurd strawman argument and a downright stupid one. We have a primary example this particular season. I see very little realistic chance that Coleman ever produces more than late round-3 or even day-3 numbers as a ceiling. Gunner doesn't think too highly of him either for his own yet different reasons. That's not a coincidence, i.e., same utlimate conclusion yet different methodologies. Yet the team thinks he's going to be great. We'll see, and likely this season as he'll have every opportunity to shine. Plain and simple.

You just hit the crux of the debate. I don't believe anywhere that anyone has argued that overall anyone outside the NFL ranks is better at running an entire team or coaching, but that's been far from my point anyway for anyone that is going to be honest here, and I've even stated as much. At the same time, that doesn't mean that at times and on topics, particularly regarding player evaluation, where there's an endless number of things to look at and consider, that they're always better. That's what I meant when I said that Gunner's argument is superficial and generally applied, rather than to the specific disciplines and instances that I've mentioned with a variety of people. And frankly, even Walsh I'm sure hadn't considered every single variable. He also only coached ten years, was awful with DeBerg (8-24) and was only good when he had Montana, Rice, Clark, and Craig on offense. His career was extremely short. He then went to Stanford and was terrible before retiring. 10-3 with a team that had been 8-4, then 4-7 and 3-7-1. s Just sayin'. And it's funny, again, because during the season everyone here knows more than the coaching staff. LOL Tell that to Washington fans, Carolina fans, Charger fans, etc.

Seems that Dawkins & Rasul have some strong opinions favoring Diggs, and according to Case Keenum Diggs has done anything but lost a step. Just throwing it out there for the wolves since I didn't see it mentioned. LOL https://billswire.usatoday.com/2024/07/17/dion-dawkins-rasul-douglas-defend-stefon-diggs-buffalo-bills-houston-texans-trade-nfl/ https://nfltraderumors.co/afc-notes-stefon-diggs-brian-thomas-jr-gabriel-davis-jaguars-texans-titans/ It's going to be an interesting fall and a referendum on a bunch of stuff.