PBF81

Richardson being a bust was one of the easiest predictions in NFL history. Having said that, and regarding this game, Taylor hasn't posted a relevant game against any good rushing D this season, but since we're not a good rushing D, who knows what he'll do. He had 110 rushing against Chicago whose rushing D is about as good as ours is statistically, that was his best game. He's averaging 83 ypg. But their receivers aren't what they've been in past recent years and Pittman is struggling and rumored to be traded prior to the game. Their D has been good at home, but not their rushing D, which ranks 31st in YPG allowed with 150 R yards allowed. Only 133 at home. But McD loves to run the ball so this should work. Flacco at 39 shouldn't be a concern.

Where did I say that? The teams were comparable all things considered. Back then they had better WRs/TE, QBs were different but comparable. Our D was clearly better. At the time we had a better running game and a better RB. You're putting words in my mouth. We lost. Why, because of that gaff, no? Whose fault was that?

Well, consider, McD admittedly knows nothing about offense. So how would it be "blowing things up" if Pegula were to bring on someone that does know a lot about offense to turn the only elite player that this team has into the focal point of the team instead of components not fueled by anyone even close to elite? (Aka the running game and D) Isn't it possible yea even likely that our offense would improve? What's your theory on that? Against the only two playoff teams that we've faced we averaged a pathetic 15 PPG, 14 1st-Downs, and 256 total yards with Allen bring a combined 25 of 59 for 311 yards and 1 TD in those two games. No room for improvement? Those were two of his worst games ever. Why? Because we were trying to force "complimentary football.". The dots are there, just gotta connect 'em. Let's reconvene after the KC, SF, and Detroit games. Beating up on the dregs is fine, and if that's all that your schedule features then that's the way it is, and some fans are admittedly satisfied with that and winning the division. I'm not one of them. This team is fully capable of winning it all with Allen under center, but not under the philosophy with which they're approaching the game now. Worse overall teams with worse QBs have won Super Bowls. That's fine against the stiffs in the league, but come playoff time or has terminal limitations.

Mostert & Achane averaged 5.4 ypc with a long run of only 16. Tua played one of his best games ever and was nearly 90% complete on his passing. Both playoff-bound teams we've faced we were awful, and both had significant flaws. Or offense averaged 15 points, 14 1st-Downs, and 256 yards in those two games. Our D allowed an average of 426 yards, 182 rushing yards, and 29 points. Not sure about Indy, they're nothing special, but our games against KC, SF, and Detroit will be our defining games. The rest of our schedule is below average and bottom feeders.

Great, then you should easily understand that he wouldn't even be close to where he is without Allen.

BTW, the implication is that he'd be doing this without Allen. If he had the QBs of the drought era, do you think he would be?

Except neither of Schottie's QBs or Defenses were as good as McD's.

To start, that's incredibly debatable. I'd argue that we had equal or greater talent than some of them. The Jags, Houston, and Cincy. Houston had Hopkins on offense, that's about it. The Jags, what, Bortles and Fournette? Seriously? Arguably, our defenses have had more talent than all of them. And the ones he's beaten we've had notably more talent than they did. QBs alone: Allen vs. Mac Jones, Skylar Thompson, Mason Rudolph, Rivers at 39, and playoff chokemaster Jackson. I envy your ability to defend his playoff performances.

You need to be cautious with analyses such as this one. 7 of the 9 teams we've played ranked below average in scoring D at midseason. We beat 6 of them. The other two rank only 10th and 14th. The Jets were 10th and they're a team in disarray, and talk about coaching issues ... We haven't proven ourselves against top-10 defenses. Not that we play many, only the Lions and Chiefs otherwise. Again, if the bogey is the regular season, yes, we're great. If it's the postseason, very much TBD.

He also did less with Taylor than his predecessor did. An easy schedule broke the playoff curse along with Dalton/Boyd. If you're going to be honest, we scored fewer points that season, notably so, than in the six prior seasons and than in all but 7 of the drought era teams. Our point differential was -57, worse than all but 6 of the drought era teams. Either way, if you want to defend his postseason performances, more power to you. That's a minority position that quite frankly isn't very defensible. That's the core of the debate.

We've also never had a generational talent at QB either. Perhaps the statue should be of Allen instead. It's pretty obvious that if you polled people, what the choice would be.

Well, it really has to do with matching talent with strategy. We all know that McD is good with defenses, but the clear and unarguable strength of our team is not on the defensive side. His solution is to get more and more junior and inexperienced people to handle that part of the team. Does that make sense to you? IDK, maybe it does. As to Beane, consider, we draft Kincaid in round 1 last year. His snap counts are in the 60s. LaPorta's are 79% this year and 83% last year. Kelce's snap count %s have been over 80% in 9 of the last 10 seasons, over 90 in four. Brock Bowers 79%. George Kittle pretty evenly around 90% since he's been in the league. McBride, not even a 1st-round draft pick, 89% this year. It stands to reason that your 1st round draft picks get up there in snap count %. Otherwise what's the point of drafting them in the 1st, trade the 1st for more 2nds and/or 3rds. We'll turn it into a dinner party then. We'll make one of those old Miller Lite commercials with it. No argument on the rest. No one's going to care that we dust NE twice, the Jets again, the Colts, and Rams, none of whom can score more points than they allow. That's fully expected. It's going to come down to the three games vs. KC, the Niners, and Detroit.

If only ... I'll join Mikie2times at his dinner table if that happens. Here's the thing, you say that as if it's been close when it hasn't even gotten a sniff, and the primary reason why it hasn't is for the thing you're defending. That makes no sense.

First of all, I love your choice of words. "Blow things up." So firing a coach that has obviously held us back is "blowing things up" despite keeping most else, particularly a generational talented QB, in place then? Otherwise that's simply not true. Those that simply want entertaining football in general and for whom winning a Championship isn't as important, yes, "not wanting to blow things up" does in fact mean that they don't care if we win in the playoffs. Pick your words better. Every Bills fan wants the team to win. We all want an extra million dollars too. But there's a huge difference between caring whether or not we do and wanting to. Does that really need an explanation? LOL No, it stems from the theory that the #1 thing holding us back come playoff time is McDermott. Allen covers a wealth of issues that closes that gap and is the only part of our team that shines with any regularity whatsoever come the postseason. This season we're 0-2 against teams that appear to be headed for the playoffs, with one of those losses entirely on coaching, and clearly the other, the shellacking at the hands of the Ravens also having a good bit to do with coaching and preparation. For those that care about beating the Fins, whom we own, twice, the Jets, LOL, the Jags, Titans, Seahawks, and Cards, good for them. I think all of us are happy we won those games. No one has argued that. How many people were claiming that the Ravens or Houston loss wasn't that bad? ... with 10 and 20 point offensive performances against the 22nd and 14th ranked scoring defenses. It's ridiculous not to see significant coaching issues come playoff time with this team. In that regard, again, if a regular season record is more important than not underachieving in the playoffs, that's in the eyes of the beholder. Many think that it's a real shame that there aren't more fans that care as much about winning in the postseason as they do in the regular season, but more importantly, reconciling why the winningest team in the regular season over the past x number of years doesn't have a postseason record to match. That is something that clearly you won't be convinced of. The games of importance on the schedule yet to be played are the Niners, KC, and @ Detroit. The rest is garbage. Hopefully we can do better than we did vs. Baltimore and Houston. Bills fans were leaving the Ravens game in droves in the 3rd Q. If not, then any criticism is fair.

Seems that ToGoGo did, implied in unmistakably. Take it up with him. And when you say "we all want to win," if you mean a championship, then wanting to win and caring whether or not we do win won are two different things. There are fans here that have posted that they don't care whether we win a championship, all they care about is entertaining football. That's a fact. So again, you'd have to talk to them as to why they take that tack. But getting back to the premise of your statement, for anyone caring about winning in the postseason, given the glaring underachievement therein, and considering that it's primarily coaching related, I'm not sure how that's a defense for the people criticizing those that criticize McDermott. It can't be both ways.

A number of posters have said in the past that they're perfectly content with us playing well in the regular season regardless of what happens in the postseason. So the expectations of fans such as yourself, myself, and many others are different. I can see if that if all they're looking for is some fun during Sept thru December, all is well. It really is a matter of perspective. But it's also incredibly disappointing when you have a football gift like Allen to fail to do more than we've done in the playoffs if you have the Championship perspective. Some people obviously don't have that and don't care about it, that doesn't make them wrong, again, it's all a matter of perspective

So you think that it's an unreasonable expectation to be able to at least appear in one, but moreover actually win a Super Bowl with a QB like Allen then?

I'm tellin' ya. It's definitely not something to be crowin' about.

As to that, if that's OK with everyone, LOL, let's wait until the playoffs. The teams we've beaten in 7 wins are 20-40 and not a one is headed to the playoffs. We haven't beaten a single team with a positive Point Differential, we're 0-2 against them. This division besides us is historically bad, it's tracking for the worst other three teams besides the division leader, ever. Even the Pats w/ Brady never had it so easy. We always win the Regular Season with Allen at QB, let's see if we can do anything in the postseason this year. For that too it's appearing to be the easiest postseason ever for us in franchise history. There's not a single AFC team that's looking great. We currently have the third easiest schedule in the league. Beating all the bottom feeders isn't what makes a team great. And one Divisional Round playoff win. Don't forget that.

Your post that I quoted mentioned absolutely nothing about that.

So your in essence implying that Cook's consistency is on par with Mahomey's consistency. If you think so.

Taking the strongest-armed QB in the league and a QB that can make any throw, and putting him into a short-yardage game-managing passing game with an emphasis on running the ball particularly when your RBs are averaging a pathetic 4.0 yards-per-carry average, and with the help of a 49-yard run, the longest of Cook's career, 3.6 otherwise, is pure genius. (extreme sarcasm) Exhibit A On a side note that's what Cook averaged last season under Brady in 6 games apart from the Dallas game, 3.6 YPC, and everyone rants about how great our running game was under Brady. SMFH

As long as he wasn't light in the loafers afterwards.

It would be nice to evaluate Beane w/o McD's involvement, whatever that is, although we know that it's significant.

False narrative as it relates to this season. People are questioning whether he's even capable of winning a championship or playing well in the most important playoff games. Most are conceding the division won in this galactically inept division. Brady's doing pretty much what he did last season except that people aren't recognizing it bc our D stepped up then. The info's all out there, just gotta not be afraid to look at it.