finn

I would love them to play like that for once. Aggressive but smart ball. Fake punts, onside kicks, gadget plays, not settling for field goals. It might mean leaving McDermott in the locker room, though. The guy has a Lamborghini and drives it like a dump truck.

Brady may have been a great player, but he's a little tiny man, jealous of other players getting the attention.

Should be an exciting game. Putting our shared anxieties and hopes aside or a minute, we're just so fricking lucky to be able to watch two quarterbacks of this ridiculous quality in the same game. After twenty years of watching garbage (and Brady), I'm just going to try to enjoy the show.

I don't think anyone will be in the mood for making excuses if the Bills lose this game. Even if they win, it will be nice but like, "Let's see what they do against the Cowboys before we get excited." They created this mess when they lost to all those mediocre teams, one after another. The only way to redeem themselves at this table is to run the table, all the way to the Super Bowl. Then a miserable story becomes a key part of a wonderful fairy tale.

Brady could be interviewing for McDermott's job if things break a certain way. That is, if the offense explodes but the Bills keep losing because of McDermott's mismanagement.

Works for me. Ironic how we all got our wish and Frazier is gone, only to be replaced by a guy who may end be the most choke head coach in NFL. So now we have a choke head coach AND a choke DC. The result: if the game is close, the Bills will lose pretty much every time. Not exactly the formula for a championship. Brady and Allen: Our hopes and dreams rest with thee!

I think they can do it, but it's mostly because they've been so incredibly good in recent years. This year has been different, but I still have hope all the losses were due to a combination of Dorsey being too transparent, the defensive injuries (early), and McDermott panicking when the game is tight. Soooo, it's just possible that Brady amps the offense enough to win all of these games comfortably, so they don't end up in McMeltdown's hands at the end. Or, if they do end up with McDermott calling his patented prevent defense, they get lucky, like in the Giants game. You know, if McDermott practiced what he preaches, he would realize he is an excellent DC except in tight situations, and that in those situations he should hand over game management to someone with a more level head. What are the chances of that? Panics in tense situations AND a control freak.... What a deadly combination. ☹️

Yeah, you got to wonder what the team thinks about McDermott at this inflection point with the season on the line. My sense is that they have mixed feelings, that they resist or resent him in several ways, but they know how things go south fast when a team turns on their coach. Who wants to be part of that? If they really make a charge, I suspect they'll be doing it in spite of McDermott, not because of him.

Right. To be fair, that kept his production down as a pass catcher. Maybe that will change now that Brown seems to have turned the corner.

It was a natural pick. But a rookie coordinator for a Super Bowl team? McDermott was wrong on that one, no matter if he agreed with the move or caved to Allen.

Creed Humphrey should be available in the second round. We'd get an All-Pro on a rookie contract. /s

You're making the case against your own position here. You admit that you might be wrong ("rightly or wrongly") and that Kelly and Marino might be better, but that winning "matters" somehow. Why? If I flip a coin and win, am I better than you because winning matters and you're a loser? Marino ends up on a team that sucks except for him, so he's not as good as Montana? Brady goes to the Bills under Dick Jauron and so he'll never be GOAT? You can't separate the QB from their team and coaches, even if "folks" believe otherwise. "Folks" are also sexist, racist, and deeply ignorant. That doesn't mean they're right.

Me, 'm trying to remember the first playoff game against the Chiefs. I recall vaguely that McDermott punted on our 4th and short when we really needed to score and went for a field goal at least once in a game we needed touchdowns. Yes, Allen was a little out of sorts that game, but McDermott made sure to take away the slim chance they had to win it, by being uber-aggressive. You don't always want to be aggressive, obviously, but McDermott's judgment is way off. It's like, to him, close losses are worth as much as wins.

The beginning has started and the end is near. 😄

The beginning of the end of NFL football. In ten years, it will be an unrecognizable mess, an object lesson in greed.

Yes, those are two examples of what I mean by Allen's "doing more with less." Another example is Gabe Davis, whom Allen hits right in the hands and in stride most of the time. Davis' catch rate is still abysmal, but it's probably as good as it will ever be, unless Allen walks down the field and gently hands the ball to him.

The miss by Jordan Phillips was the most egregious.

I had a heretic thought this morning: What about trading Milano for a first-round pick? The Bills have to find some way out of cap hell next year without gutting the roster. They need a WR and a safety at the very least. If Williams can replace Milano, the pick could go to one of these two needs, while our our pick could go to the other. Meanwhile, the caps saving might possibly be enough to re-sign Jones or Floyd. As long as he's healthy, Milano is top-ten player in the entire league. He should warrant a first-rounder.

Imagine if it was Marino throwing to Jerry Rice. Filthy.

But but but... Mahomes is the Annointed One! He's better than Allen and everyone else because he wins championships, no matter who he has around him! Isn't that what everyone is always saying?

You're articulating a position most NFL fans agree with, so I'm not going to dismiss you. But I disagree. Your premise if that the quality of a given QB is determined mostly, if not exclusively, by the number of championships he wins. I get it: winners win. But put Mahomes on a lousy team with lousy coaches. Does he win championships? No. Does that mean that exactly the same player is suddenly no longer the best? In your calculus, yes, it does. It follows, then, that Mahomes is in large part a product of the organization around him. You could argue that a godlike figure like Mahomes would lift the others around him, so he would win championships even with the Giants O-line, the Bears' receivers, the Cardinals defense, and Rex Ryan as head coach. I don't buy it. A stellar talent could take a B or B+ team all the way, sure, just as an average QB on an otherwise excellent team could win Super Bowls. But you can't judge a QB with a single metric, even championships. That's not a trump card, no matter how triumphantly you play it. Also, to say Allen doesn't play the same sport as Mahomes is, well, are you trying to be provocative? Let me be provocative right back: Allen is better than Mahomes. He's objectively bigger, faster, stronger, and more athletic, and he does more with less. The only counter-argument you have is the championships point, which, again, is just one criteria that's outweighed, I think, by the impact of the respective head coaches alone. The 13-seconds game is a perfect illustration. No, give me a choice of QBs to build a team around, and I'd take Allen every time.

Well, it does suggest that at least some of the adulation Mahomes receives might be hype, or lack of critical thinking on the part of media and fans. Facts don't play a big a role in determining quality of play as one would think they would. The NFL, microcosm of the world...

Could be the reason the team keeps finding itself in one-score games, leaving McDermott to dip deep into his prevent "maybe they'll miss the field goal if we let them go down the field on us in 30 seconds" defense. The other team adjusts, we don't. I have high hopes for Brady to adapt on the fly, very little hope for McDermott.

I think Allen is the best player in the league, and I'm not a moron. He and Mahomes are a cut above every other quarterback. Allen is being let down by his coaches and both are held back by their surrounding cast, but they're easily among the most talented, productive players the league has ever seen. Allen does it all, week after week. What, are you buying the Narrative? Allen the turnover machine who can't win in the clutch?

I give McDermott credit for doing his part to helping the Bills do so well since he was hired. But I think he's a liability in close games, and the evidence bears me out. His prevent defense, lack of aggression in key spots, and baffling use of time-outs add up to a "play not to lose" attitude that I believe has contributed heavily to the Bills' poor record in one-score losses over the past several years. So, yes, he played a key role in building the team's culture, but at this point he's holding the team back.