PBF81

I know that you're a McD apologist, or at least lean heavily in his favor if you disagree with that, so take these comments in that context. The Ryan era was an unmitigated disaster, but there was some warning when Ryan said that his next coaching job would be his last. That's not a trait of someone that cares whether or not he does a good job. Not saying he didn't care, just saying that it wasn't a good sign. Having said, that, Ryan didn't have great talent either. We can do a position-by-position analysis if you want. Might be fun in these dry times. Here's the thing about "culture," it's somewhat of a nebulous thing. The term gets thrown around, but how is it specifically defined. But that appears to be his greatest achievement here as it's always the very first thing out the the mouths of McD apologists. Allow me to ask however, what's the "culture" right now, today, at this moment? I don't think that it can be defined as a "winning culture" as his apologists like to assign it. As to "winning games, breaking the drought and having a couple of good playoff runs," he was barely above .500 in his first three seasons. 25-23 That Peterman thing hangs over him and have been rehashed now in the questioning of his leadership abilities. As minor as it may be, it's become a black stain. We made the playoffs twice, but in 2017, two other teams had an identical 9-7 record that did not make it, and were both better teams. We beat only two winning teams that season, both 10-6. Otherwise we beat 7 bottom-dwelling teams. We were embarrassed in the playoffs by a former Bills coach featuring a below-average QB. We also needed help (aka luck) from something that we had absolutely no control over. In 2019 we made the playoffs, but lost a Wild-Card game, again, with McD once again being outcoached. So any "playoff run" boils down to 2020 - 2022 where we've only been able to win a Divisional game once, in that ill-fated '21 season where McD did anything but play up to "winning culture" in that 13-Seconds game. Keep in mind that we got lots of help in doing what you suggest, by Brady leaving New England, essentially leaving us to supplant New England as the only decent team in the division. To wit, McD was 0-6 vs. NE with Brady until Allen's breakout season, and when Brady was no longer with the Pats. So the skids were already greased for him there. Our lackluster playoff outcomes are more indicative. So I'm not sure how you define playoff runs, but we've won only one divisional playoff game in his 6 seasons with his 7th likely not even making the playoffs. Again, where's that leave that "winning culture" thing? I'd suggest that the culture isn't positive right now. Do you think it is? If Pegula even pulls the trigger, and I have my doubts that he will, where would that leave us from a "culture perspective?" I'm not suggesting anything, seriously asking, but the word tentative comes to mind. We likely won't know until things happen. Pegula risks looking like the biggest incompetent in the mix if he does ditch McD given that he just signed him to four more seasons that haven't even begun yet, rather than waiting, which would have been very wise, to see whether what has happened might happen. If you recall however, following the 2019 season there were plenty of questionmarks and criticism of McD and his "Process," which to date still hasn't even remotely been defined. It's nothing more than a meaningless buzzword. It wasn't until 2020, when Allen broke out, not McD, Allen, that our "winning culture" became prominent, and again, that also coincided with the Brady-less Pats. The three other QBs in our division that season were the rookie Tagovailoa, Darnold, and Newton. ... for about half of our wins. Now, look where we are. Can it be overemphasized where our culture is at the moment? There's a major pall over Bills fandom and the coverage of the team, and clearly somethings' going on in the lockerroom as well, not positively. The point, the point is that if he, not Allen, actually created it, he's also equally responsible for destroying it now, which raises that chicken/egg aka McD/Allen question. Anyway, food for thought.

My thoughts as well. Once he gets past the Corner he may as well turn outside, at least that way he can keep his momentum going with only the S to beat for a longer gain or TD. Who knows whether he had that lattitude. Fine play though.

Batman!

I just thought of this. With the litany of QBs that we had prior to Allen, McD may have been a good choice to make the most of a bad situation, but not Super Bowl aspirations perhaps. But given Allen, clearly not.

My basis for evaluation is simple, are you doing the best possible with what's at your disposal. Clearly not the case re: McD. As I often say, if you get beat by a team/coach that was good and brought their best in a week-fought game, while tough, is acceptable. That's not his/our case. It's quite the opposite in fact, and continually in key games. The other thing is that the head coach is just that, the head coach. When you have so many systemic failures, at some limit, seemingly endless at this point, it's gotta be the head of the operation. BTW, I put the failure and underachievement of our high-ranked D's on that category. That's been my beef with this nebulous "culture" thing. It's more like a fraternity than a business model.

Waaay too many rookie mistakes several seasons into his career. He hasn't ironed them out. Even if the teams plays optimally, he can't be expected to not botch it for us. His teams are unprepared, and name the times when he's out-coached his peers. It's not many.

Ya know, that right there!

Reminds me of the movie where John Malkovich goes into himself in Being John Malkovich.

You spent some time on that, good post. At the center of it all is that McD may or may not have been a great hire, doesn't really matter now, it's water under the bridge. But he was hired before we drafted Allen, and before Allen became good. Had Allen in his advanced state of play, i.e., not that of his first two seasons, already been here, McD wouldn't have been an optimal hire, to understate the situation. Doubtful he even would have made the short list of candidates. Essentially it's a mismatch and that's what we're seeing.

Style over substance. At some point there's not going to be anyone left to plausibly fire. We may be at that point. Firing the Salgabo's of the team ain't gonna cut it anymore. We're into the coordinators now.

Actually, you also get "I wish I knew what was wrong," along with admissions that he's clueless how to correct it. A few more years and he's going to run out of people to fire.

He should feverishly nod his head when McD tells him what to do, then promptly ignore it.

Thanks for the correction. He did have good worst YPC other than his rookie season in them however. Either way, let's not leadership the point, there's nothing positive in his diaper that suggests he'll be good. Again, the only reason he's here is c of his Carolina & William & Mary connections.

That's a pretty tall order and there's zero basis for thinking that it will. ... other than that elusive "Winning Culture." Speaking of that ...

Sal's a dope. Total brown-noser.

He does, but the question as to how well he's being coached looms large. I'm far from convinced that he's been optimally coached here on McD's watch. I'd strongly suggest the opposite.

We'll see how it plays out. Pegula's going to look like a moron if he fires McD after giving him that extension that hasn't even kicked in yet. Wisdom was to at least wait to see how the first part of this season played out before giving them that extension. It would have been seamless to axe him that way. I hope your right.

And then there's that. The bottom that McD has lost the team, appears to be visible and palpable now. And what, Diggs is going to stay quiet after the season. He didn't come here for this nonsense. I won't blame him in they least of he pipes up, in fact, I hope he does at this point.

If the Jets beat us on Sunday, they have a much better chance of making the playoffs than we do. Not sure that's cause for optimism or hope. The seasons over. No playoffs for this team. The tough questions and decisions loom, and it remains to be seen how badly were going to take a good thing and destroy it. Knowing Pegula, he'll let McD run it into the ground and turn Allen into a veg before making a change there.

Adversity is one thing. Self-imploding coaching and coaching incompetence is entirely another. As the saying goes, you create your own luck. Poor coaching and coaching incompetence create their own adversity too.

And for an OC that absolutely sucked in Carolina. Next (Carolina) man up. SMH. McCaffrey had his worst two seasons under Brady.

That sounds good, but if we can be honest here, the only reason why Brady's on this staff is because he coached at Carolina and William & Mary. He was horrible as an OC at Carolina, hitting bottom-dwelling worse on his second season there. McCaffrey had his worst two seasons under Brady. He's learned under McD & Dorsey. It's pretty unlikely that he's going to amp things up, if McD even allowed it. Far to many people keep saying or implying that Dorsey's issues had little if anything to do with McD, which is absurd. I wouldn't bet a dime that this has a happy ending.

As usual, we can look to the success of Carolina under McD's assistants. Is there any good reason to expect more than the bottom-dwelling offensive performance that Brady put up as OC there. Not sure what it would be. Many think that the complaining is bad now, wait six weeks.

Well, there may actually may be a connection between coaching and performance. Call me nuts. 😎

We did? I'm not sure that this is anywhere close to over yet. Difficult to get very jacked about it games now. I mean what are we playing for? To see if we can beat a Zach Wilson led Jets team? To see if Brady has a clue? If not, what are the implications. As for me, I'll probably watch, but it'll be on in the background.