Assessing the coaches

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Overall, I was very impressed. In general I am in the camo that it really makes absolute difference who the HC is. It makes a big relative difference so picking the right HC for your team is one of the most important jobs an GM has. You have to pick the right coach for your team's needs.

 

However, from what I have seen 80% of HCs will win with good teams and lose with bad teams. There are the 20% of HCs who will win anywhere they go or lose anywhere they go and most of these are Rich Kotites who lose everywhere rather than Bill Parcells who wins everywhere.

 

Yet, I was very impressed with MM because he:

 

1. Took a team which underperformed under an HC and with basically the same personnel got then to post a winning record.

 

2. Hired a great group of co-ordinators and brought one with him, chose to inherit one from the old regime and collected one of the reject pile of another team and this final choice was a great one in terms of performance.

 

3. Maintained his trademark of running an effective O but ran the whole team as many former players do of emphasizing putting players in the best positions for them to make plays.

 

4. Really kept calm and stuck to what he was doing amidst initials bad results because he knew he was right.

 

Specifically I liked:

 

A. Bobby April- The ST performance under April/MM was simply wonderful. They excelled at all facets of the game. The work here demonstrated how bad we had it under GW though despite debacles like the ST virtually single-handed costing us a gamer against the Jets, this unit got a free pass from criticism under GW because the D was so bad until LeBeau got here and the O was a constant problem under GW.

 

April and the ST deserve special kudos for their kick coverage work. This facet of the game generally goes unsung because it is the part of ST which does not put points on the board. Yet from all I've seen this group did productive work not giving up any TDs on returns and generally not even giving up long returns. Moorman was simply fantastic and was robbed in the Pro Bowl vote. Lindell deserves all the grief he gets for missing a crucial chip shot field goal in the final game but one should note that kickoffs are a critical part of the return game and he showed the ability to kick it where he was supposed to each time as seen by our great coverage and also kicking it high or squibbing it when he was asked to. If Lindell sticks it will be the great kickoff work by him and the ST which will be part of that story though most fans will only pay attention to the measurable stat of points and him missing a high-profile and eminently maleable kick.

 

Moorman's work at the other kicking position was nearly flawless and also had many moments of exceptional play with critical boomer kicks and also him downing it within the 10.

 

ST really helped the O and the D with field position.

 

The return game speaks for itself with MGee earning a Pro Bowl nod and Clements being an effective return guy that speaks to a major difference between MM and GW that the former makes good strategic use of position players like McGee and Fletcher. Even better, with Fast Freddy Smith the return game may actually be ablse to spare Clements.

 

The quality at so many facets of the game almot certainly means this will be a consistent force to be reckoned with and is not a flash in the pan. The way asome folks treat this as not a real part of the team or the Bills results seems more motivated by desires like the one to get Bledsoe rather than truly understanding this team.

 

B. Jerry Gray- He did a job which impressed me last year in that he did the signal calling within games. I wondered wether he had this task in the LeBeau designed D as a face-saving measure for GW who was brought here as a D genius and he and he and Gray's units simply were the weakest of the three units GWs first two years. One can blame the players, but GW made two huge errors in switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3 at exavctly the time we were losing almost all our DL talent and he rescued his former players Robinson and Jenkins and they were ready for retirement rather than play.

 

However, not only did the new scheme demonstrate that GW's genius did not extend to HC work, but it demonstrated that it was probably being under GW that was holding Gray back. He quickly the LeBeau scheme such that he was making the right calls during games.

 

This year he answered fears that he was only a tactician and that we would suffer losing the strategic mind that developed the scheme. Gray showed great strategic ability designing and employing the scheme in each game in a way that created problems for most opponents almost from the word go. In addition, he showed great strategic understanding in being able to diagnose the first half results and implement the proper change that closed down things opponents were doing well in the first half such as the adjustments he made which shut down Sammy Morris after a big first half.

 

Statiscal indicators like the Bills D ranking, the huge increase in turnovers created, and the low number of points the team tended to give up in the 3rd quarter showed Gray was the real deal.

 

C. Tom Clements- This where my views will probably depart most from those who were disatisfied with an offensive performace which did not come near to matching that of the ST for dominance of the league and the D for its great statiscal showing. Hpwever, I was most impressed with this team with its far better O performance this year compared to its non-performance last year. The D improved a litle bit from being statiscally good to being statistically very good. The ST improved significantly from being adequate at best to being a true weapon for this team.

 

However, I think it was the O which showed the most improvement in 2005 from its positively horrendous performance in 2003. It is true that overall the O was still inadequate in 2003, but one only needs to honestly remember how bad this unit was in 2003 to see that it can be true that it had massive improvement but stil was inadequate.

 

2003 saw this team get off to a roaring start with a shut out of the Patriots, but the fact a big part of this shut out came from scoring points off of a Sam Adams INT and a tremendous number of Tom Brady turnovers in what was his worst game to that point to understand that our offensive power outage was somewhat masked. The Bills actually came close to beating Miami down south, but it was actually the D again that provided the points on an INT by Clements and the O was fumbling away and INTing away great field position on goalline INTs on option passes and Bledsoe going into his pat and locking on Moulds leading to a Brock Marion INT.

 

The O hit its biggest drought at the most crtical point of the season when our record still could be salvaged and the O went something like 10 quarters straight without scoring.

 

This year, the O certainly did not lead the way, but not only did we not see a reoccurence of debacles where the O went multiple consecutive quaters without scoring but it certainly chipped in to the win in virtually every victory. Further, it should be noted that it is simply a fact that in many of the critical losses the O in fact delivered a lead which the D did not hold in some frustrating drives by the opponent.

 

This is not the O we want in that it is not yet capable of consistently winning the game for us, however, it is simply a marked improvement over the year before where our O consistently failed to do anything.

 

There were clear O problems such as the difficulty early in the red zone or to get rushing TDs. However, the upsurge of WM and some nifty redzone switches where folks like Bannan and Adams added to the O improved red zone performance.

 

Most fun for me to watch was the creatvity and great use of Bledsoe's strengths and avoidance of his limitations we saw during the streak when Clements used the flea flicker effectively and even got some good runs out of Bledsoe.

 

This rosy overview raises some clear questions though. If this team was so improved or even good then why did they miss the playoffs?

 

Several reasons:

 

1. They weren't that good merely much improved- Don't mistake me saying they were much improved for me claiming they were great. This team had clear shortcomings and can improve in several areas particularly in offense. However, the fact they are moving in the right direction bodes well for the future even though they aren't there yet.

 

2. You could see some mistakes which rookie HCs are prone too- They were not 0-4 to open and then 6-1 to close by accident. It took a little while for MM to lay his mark on this team and get them all headed in the same direction doing thins his way. MM and the gang actually deserve applause for staying the course in the face of a bad start because he and they had confidence in themselves and doing it their way. They got some bad breaks to start out like incredible lucky plays by Jax to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory and some admitted by the NFL baf calls against a bad Oakland team. However, these are no excuse because bad breaks will happen and good teams overcome them.

 

3. They panicked a bit in the last game- After winning 6 must win games, I think they panicked a bit in the last game and rather than performing like they had during the streak with near flawless D and ST the team lost discipline and took a lot of bad penalties. They finally fell back on needing the O to carry this team but that is not going to happen and it is more important to winning that the O simply take its opportunities rather than try to force them or we lose.

 

Overall though I am quite impressed and hopeful for the future.

[Astrobot]

I'm happy/sad that Gray didn't get a head coaching job in this first round. He certainly deserved a shot, even though I'm thrilled with the prospect of having him back again next year.

 

Agree on your assessments. Nice work.

[SouthTownBills51]

Isn't Don Blackmon and Tim Krumrie's contracts up? or do they have another year?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Isn't Don Blackmon and Tim Krumrie's contracts up? or do they have another year?

203475[/snapback]

 

Both contracts are up at the end of the year. I'd hold off signing if I were either of them as both may see demand in the market. This is particularly true of Krumrie who actually got an illegal feeler from Snyder and the big bucks in DC when GW left, but the Bills refused to give permission for even talks with him being under contract.

[BillnutinHouston]

Parcells wins everywhere? What was the Cowboys record this year? Yeah, Bill, keep starting Vinny Testaverde. Smart.

 

Fans in Dallas absolutely HATE that man. Almost as much as they hate Jerry Jones.

 

Parcells is overrated.

 

Maybe what you meant was, "Parcells wins everywhere he goes when he has Belichick as his defensive coordinator."