BillsVet

Bills win on Thanksgiving, move to 9-3, and some fans are anxious over WR options that won't be known for months. It ain't healthy to worry so much. Everything will be fine.

Deacon Jones would have something to say there.

The coach's game-plan yesterday was anything but Jauron-esque, particularly on offense. And on defense, they stopped an offense that had multiple top weapons. I really don't care that Prescott threw for 355 on 49 attempts or that Dallas has struggled. Buffalo's coaches had a solid plan. I expect McD to craft a defensive game-plan that limits opponents, but what they did on offense was more impressive and yes, unexpected. I haven't seen Buffalo run a play like the Brown TD pass to Singletary that well in years. A coaching staff, particularly the HC, has the responsibility of putting the players into a position to succeed yesterday. This staff more than met that standard yesterday on a big stage.

My definition of an attack is those times when someone, fan or media type, documents objective criticism of a personnel decision, game result, etc. and then are criticized for not being supportive of the team. It's as if their analysis is tossed out because it's not "pro-team." Much of the time, the individual is marginalized, particularly with media types. Numerous times over the years I've seen more objective fans who aren't in lock step with the team simply leave or just post a lot less. My memory is good, but I cannot summarize years of experiences here in a single post. We both know that it happens and the discussion about this team has suffered from it.

It's amazing how many people here demand that the media align their coverage with the opinions of hardcore fans. And if they don't, they are attacked relentlessly. Objectivity and differing opinions are not a bad thing.

Sean McVay reading defenses for the QB was an attempt to hasten their rebuild off the Jeff Fischer years. Most HC's want to win right away and perhaps the Rams' HC made a judgement call that helping his QB early would ease the transition and win some games. That worked, but now they're floundering.

I don't think he's a sub-par writer, but he's definitely got an axe to grind about a lot of things and it's spilled over into coverage of the Bills and perhaps Sabres. It's tiresome to see people making stuff up to validate their own opinion. To me that's journalistic malpractice, even if it comes down to distorting what the team did for the media. Besides, who the heck complains about free food at a game? And, I highly doubt anything's changed under the Pegula's in this regard all of a sudden for Sullivan to report on Twitter.

Sullivan tweeted this morning that the food offered to media to OBD was very thin. Someone followed up by showing that the food for media was quite substantial. In the past I've taken Sullivan's criticism of the team as true, but this type of distortion calls into question what his agenda is. I'll keep an open mind on this situation and not conclude anything.

There's a lot to unpack from that podcast and not enough space here to adequately discuss. I'll say this. If McD did to Fairburn what Sullivan said, he's inconsistent with the persona he seeks to impress on the public. It's one thing to become angry at the media, but to physically intimidate and drop F bombs is another level. I'm not asking for the HC to be a choir boy, but he's crafted an image that says he is. And then there's McD's "play fearless" message Josh Allen told Chris Brown the HC gave them after the Cleveland game. Anyone who thinks McD doesn't have his hand on the PR aspect of this team is deluding themselves and that was the narrative the team (i.e. McD) wanted getting out the public. Remember, this happened after the HC and his staff were rightly criticized for not trying to win at the end. In this way, McD flipped the narrative off him and the staff. It's what one thing to want pro-team coverage. It's another for McD or anyone to expect complete loyalty to the team and no criticism from the media. That borders on megalomania.

Garrett's attorney has nothing, and, barring a revelation from someone on the field last week, simply conjured something to use in defense of his client. I'm sure he expects a sympathetic response given the seriousness of the allegation. That it took 6 full days for this to come out is questionable at best.

Speaking as former military, it's AWOL. Maybe Bob is tired of Goff not being able to read a defense. He's had 5 games with less than 50 yards receiving this year compared to only 2 stat lines last year.

Changing the spelling of his name for the 2rd time probably.

The more important question needs to be which GM that franchise would rather have. Elway isn't getting it done and his QB decisions post P. Manning are the lead reason why.

Yesterday there was a thread about coaching philosophy similarities McD and Jauron share. Well, it terms of public relations, McD far surpasses DJ as evidenced the HC's team message today Of course this is going to come out via Chris Brown and not coincidentally it's timed precisely to address an issue highlighted on TBD. Because the HC has been criticized for coaching not to lose and avoiding risks in high pressure situations. DJ and/or Bills media would never do anything like this to blunt any team or HC criticism.

Defensively, McD's background is in the secondary and, in their first off-season prioritized remaking that unit during his. McD chose to sign Hyde, Poyer, and draft Tre White. No one can argue with those players being solid if not excellent players. In that way he's similar to Jauron, who spent a lot of resources in his first off-season finding secondary help. That said, DJ wasn't as successful with his personnel decisions there. Where they aren't similar is that during DJ's tenure, the Bills spent less than most of their opponents. McD doesn't have that issue because the Pegula's have proven they'll spend. I think their overall team philosophy is similar because they wanted/want to lead with defense while having a conservative offense that takes few risks.

I see the merits in these arguments. In effect, get the stop on a crucial 4th quarter drive, as Minnesota did against Dallas, and the game is won. It's still a four quarter game and what you do before that final drive matters. The Bills have such a small margin of error that it means one side of the ball needs to come up big late. Against the Jets, and Titans it was the offense making plays to win. Against the Bengals and perhaps Washington it was the defense. This time, neither side made the big play to win the game. I'd say in the NFL of 2019 that limiting a talented offense to 19 points is good. Not great, but good. The same cannot be said about the offense. Scoring 14 points is mediocre to poor. McD himself has talked about needing to score 21 points per and I'm sure analytics combined with his defense first mentality means he's going to win those types of games. That said, I don't see there being elite defenses anymore. Not ones that week in and week out are going to suffocate opponents like some in the past before the league opened up the passing game.

There is no one side of the ball at fault, but we're debating how much to blame one side of the ball or the other. That can be tricky because nuance doesn't work on message boards. Still, the offense should be expected to do more against that defense. And Buffalo's defense, despite some issues stopping the run, shouldn't be expected to keep that offense to less than 16 points. There's too much talent over there, despite the record.

I want to think that their game-planning process requires the offense and defense to complement their strategy. As a result, I'd like to think the offense would run the ball to maintain possession, keep Cleveland's offense off the field, and keep the defense rested. But no (in John Belushi voice) the OC chose to attack Cleveland's 6th ranked pass defense and held off on going at their 30th ranked run defense. McD strikes me as a guy who wants to be the defensive version of Chan Gailey. As in, abdicate responsibility for the side opposite what he knows and trust it'll work out. Then it doesn't and he's left to explain what went wrong. You'd think something has to give by now, but beating lower echelon teams probably has delayed the HC demanding the OC make some play-calling changes.

How many people on this board do not know how to spell the OC's name correctly? D-A-B-O-L-L The defense was good enough to win today. When you hold your opponent to 19 points and the offense can't score more, it's not a defensive issue. NFL defenses are not going to be the '85 Bears, '00 Ravens, or '02 Buccaneers and consistently hold teams to 10 points per. Not happening.

It may be prudent to get Ed Oliver on a milk carton. He's been MIA for a while now and did not appear in the box score.

I'm not as concerned with McD's decisions in-game as I am with his personnel decisions. He's not the guy I want with final say on players. For example, the defense he's sunk plenty of UFA dollars and high picks into can't seem to stop the run. After 3 off-seasons acquiring players to build his defense that's not good enough. And let's not even get into offensive philosophy. I haven't seen anything there which makes me believe they'll start scoring the 21 points per game he talked about needing to achieve at a Combine interview in February.

What talented offensive coach will want to be the third OC to work for McD?

What about James?

Something about McD and a jacket...not sure though.

What is it with these Air Force commercials...SMH. Oh, and there's a game today.