PBF81

We seem to excel at getting the whole to equal less than the sum of the parts on offense.

So, say we scrape in at 10-7, then lose again like we typically do in the wild-card or divisional round. You're still hopeful that McD's the one that can deliver the hardware?

BTW, our LBs, whom McBeane sold to us, Williams and Bernard, aren't built for the kind of game that they faced today, where more traditional LBs were required. Even if we make the playoffs, does that mean that he's adequate?

Jones was playing at a high. He wasn't going to, nor will if he returns, continue play at that level for an entire season. Remember who we played, it wasn't the Chiefs, Bengals, Eagles, and Dallas. We got amped up for one game against a decent offense. Hammering Howell, the most sacked QB in the league, Garropolo who's hardly fleet of foot, and Wilson isn't hammering Young, Brady, and Mahomes. Fine, but the D with him in out of it was no different in that respect from the D with him in or out of it last season. He sucked when he was in. So there shouldn't be any difference comparatively there. The quality of our LBs exposed our LBs. That's a Beane issue. Other teams rely on their depth with the loss of a DT like that. Not minimizing it, but also not monumentalizing it either. Full agreement. Well, to start, we're helpless. LOL All we can do is lament and gripe. I'll join you in a round of "get off my lawn." The cap problems, again, are on Beane. When you take risks like we did on Von Miller, and have to go to free-agency due to your lack of being able to get the requisite talent via the draft, when you re-sign players like Knox at that cost, etc., that's your problem, meaning the one that did that. That's Beane. it's his mess, let him clean it up. It's good that the awareness for these things is increasing however. Perhaps there's a solution in the next season or two. That's on Pegula.

You mean own up to the fact that he really has no answers? That much seems clear. In fairness, what do people expect, for him to say, ... yeah, I'm a little out of my element here offensively speaking, a lot really. I'm having to lean heavily on Dorsey and I'm not quite sure he's experienced enough to figure it out either. Is that the statement we're awaiting? LOL

Right, he knows absolutely nothing about offense. Entrusting the entire baby & bathwater to a second year OJT OC with a questionable regimen. Nothing new here. How to correct it is simple. But we don't want to take the path with the tough questions and answers.

You mean what if we had planned well? Imagine Basham instead. Yet another DL-man. SMH

The way that the Bucs have been playing, contrasted with the way that we've been playing, that's a good guess. We'll have our games though this season, despite the overall inconsistencies. At some point we're due for a ringer or a two or three game stretch of them.

Or, we go 6-4, finish 10-7, make the playoffs as a wild-card, lose in either the wild-card or divisional round again, and Pegula's still content. If there is a silver-lining to this, it's that more people are waking up to the fact that more than we've attributed to our shortcomings is correctly being pinned on coaching with the teflon starting to flake off of McD. This team doesn't need a head coach that has no idea how to run an offense, when the lynchpin to the entire team's success is its generational talent QB. It needs a head coach that understands offense and QBs, intimately, and one that knows how to get the most from the talent we have. Then it also needs a GM that understands the importance of having a top-notch OL in front of that QB. Right now we have neither of those.

Or, we go 6-4, finish 10-7, make the playoffs as a wild-card, lose in either the wild-card or divisional round again, and Pegula's still content.

LOL, now this kick to the nuts! Had to happen against us.

... and let's not ignore the fact that McD is simply being a Defensive Coordinator entirely consistent with his time at Carolina doing so. Why anyone is surprised at that makes no sense whatsoever.

We're hardly the only team with significant injuries. People talk about Jones like he was a perennial pro-bowler, which is far from the case. He's never distiniguished himself apart from the first few games of this season, whereupon some Bills fans have prematurely turned him into some kind of a legend. It's remarkable. Milano was an enormous loss, but any monkey should have been able to see that if he went down that the LB unit would be in a world of hurt, which it is. That's on Beane whether people want to accept that or not. White was gone most of last season and when he was on the field he wasn't good. So let's not extrapolate that there's a big difference between last season and this one in that regard. Otherwise, all teams have injuries, the fact that we don't have adequate depth to overcome them is a Beane problem. We're hardly the first team to have to play effectively through those. It would help if the offense played up to its capabilities however. Playing "not as well as you did" is one thing. Playing like we have today and last week, against garbage QBs with few weapons, and on the most futile offensive teams in the league is altogether another.

The pattern has been the Dorsey addresses one or two shortcomings at a time. That's why Kincaid was involved today. But he fails to be able to put it all together in an ongoing basis. As to the defense, I'm not quite sure why everyone is so surprised, McD's Ds as DC for six seasons were generally incredibly average, which is about what we have now. It wasn't wise to think that all of a sudden and for no reason here, he'd be a top-notch DC. And some may consider it great that he's got this "swarming" chaotic defense that's predicated upon overwhelming opposing offenses, but Mike Caldwell for Jax figured it out and how to defeat it. Since then the Giants and Pats have taken notes. What happens when we face even Tampa this week much less Philly, Miami again, the Chiefs, Chargers, Dallas, and Bengals? We need a GM that's committed to protecting Allen, providing a pocket, opening running lanes, and a head coach that's not ignorant as to offensive things and more committed to getting world-class play from Allen than he is about having a "swarming D." Until that changes ...

Many people don't seem to understand that you simply cannot have your entire D playing like a bunch of possessed banshees week in and week out. It's exhausting. McD seems to think that they're all machines & robots. We were getting all giddy at our sack and pass-rush tallies, it should have served as a warning that, for example, Floyd was on pace for 18 sacks, which obviously was never going to be realized. Jones was never going to play at the level he was playing at all season either. Nor AJE. And it was great early on against Wilson, Garropalo, and Howell, and for one get-up game against Miami, at home for our biggest game at the time, but the typical fast start has run its course. We're seeing what's left in the tank. It'll rebound somewhat from the crap it was today, but not to the levels of the first four games, at least not over any significant sustained period of time. Apart from the fact that over the past three seasons we've started really hot and then cooled off, this maniacally and frenetically orchestrated D simply isn't tenable over the course of an entire season. It sounds great on paper, but McD isn't the one that has to be up to insane levels every week, the players are.

LOL @ the Chandler Jones reference. I'm not a fan of expensive signings of players that are near or at the tail end of their careers, such that the signing has to have every upside of it to materialize in order for it to be considered a good signing. With better planning and team management that should easily be capable of being avoided.

Both the Pats as a team as well as Jones posted their best offensive games of the season today. Inexcusable.

That's what happens when you hire a "defensive-minded head coach" that has no idea about offense.

You forgot Ignore the Offensive Line.

My position's been unchanged since we signed him. My money says that he's finished as anything but JAG. But for the money he's getting, there's absolutely no way we get that level of play from him.

It was high-risk/high-reward. Unfortunatelyh we've seen the risk side play out. But again, at the time we had no proven pass-rushers on the team, so Beane had to resort to the risky signing, or something. That's on him.

At 35, which he'll be in a few months, it's an uphill battle. Even if he does, perfectly, which is highly unlikely, he'll be a shell of his former self due to aging out.

He's young, almost only 35. He'll come around eventually. 🙄

Who knows, but pity the fool that thinks we can go 10-0 or 9-1 from here on out. At this rate we'll be fortunate to hit 11 wins, 9 or 10 wins more likely. What should be more concerning is the ongoing superficial or otherwise seeming unaccountability for the pathetic state of our play when it happens. 2-3 in conference play 1-2 in the division SMH