Lets hope Mularkey isnt gonna be a weak head coach

[Rudyc80]

After watching the playoffs over the years and more than ever after this past weekend, ive noticed the team who wins most games(in the playoffs or just general big games) are very very agressive and never play not to lose. I will give you a few examples in just the past 2 seasons.

 

1. Sherman in GB....remmeber 4th and inches vs with Philly on the ropes and he punts?

2. Dungy in indy....watch any NE game and you will see what a wimp this guy is!

3. Edwards in NY....watch the 4th qtr of Saturdays game.

4. Marty Schotheimer in SD....hes made a career of letting teams hang around!

5. Dave Wannstand....how many games did he flop under pressure?

6. Bill Cowher in Pitt...how many championship games has he blown by playing not to lose?

 

Theres alot but those are just a few.

 

 

 

 

 

All those coaches are great regular season coaches but they jump out at me when thinking about this topic! My point is... if you look at coaches who win in the playoffs....they have BALLs when it comes to taking the chance of going for a 4th and 1 or trying to gain more yardage in FG trys. Guys like Bellicheck, Jeff Fisher, Andy Reid, Brian Billick dont get leads and feel comfortable...they go for your throat and kill ya on every offensive possession!

 

What scares me about mularkey was 2 games that were very important in our season when he had to decide to be agressive and he wasnt.

 

1. Opener vs Jacksonville....2 situations i will give ya. We had a 4 point lead most of the day and in the 4th qtr and he played not to lose rather then go for the kill on ateam we were letting hang around for the entire game and it ended up killing our playoff hopes but he gets a pass cause it was first game.

 

2. VS Pitt on the last weekend of teh season, we finally get all the momentum in the world(jets losing, us winning, long drive playing smash mouth football, crowd very alive) and he friggin kicks a FG on 4th and inches which ends up turning the whole game around....if we get that first down and i think we do...we win by 10 point easily!

 

Look it, I think he did a fabulous job after all that happened and he was a rookie coach but i just hope that he learned from his mistake that you always go for the kill rather than playing not to lose and just take time off the clock....i just dont know if i will feel comfortable next year in the playoffs if we are up by 6 or 7 going into the 4th regardless on how well our defense is playing....i just prey he watched th ejets game over the weekend learned form their mistakes and his own in the last week of the season!

 

He is a good coach and im happy to have him but next year i hope he takes the beat ya down until theres 00:00 on the clock rather than playing conservative football like many failures from the past and present....say hi to Herm, will ya?

[mead107]

no way he is . look at all the trick plays . only gets better with JP as QB

[Rubes]

I'm betting that Mularkey learned his lesson in the season finale. We'll see.

[eball]

rudy, all i'm going to say is this -- your two examples suck.

 

jax game -- mularkey's first freaking game as a HC, as you yourself admit. so why mention it?

 

pitt game -- the FG attempt was a no-brainer, not a conservative call. mularkey's decision-making did not keep the bills from winning.

[Typical TBD Guy]

I see your point, but over the course of his rookie season, Mularkey has shown a willingness to learn from his mistakes and change when change is necessary. He's a creative guy not afraid to demote starters or cut a player to prove a point.

 

In other words, it's still too early to say if MM is going to be a choker or not in this league.

[stevestojan]

rudy, all i'm going to say is this -- your two examples suck.

 

 

209319[/snapback]

 

 

I really don't know why, but that sentence made me laugh for a good minute... Hell, I'm still laughing..

 

might be the bluntness of it, I don't know... but thanks for the laugh!

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Actually, every game during the streak was a must-win game for the Bills and struck me as big games where Mularkey showed some good positive efforts including:

 

1. Clearly he kept his head and stayed with his general view of the game when we were at out worse at 3-5. It is clear that the players liked this and responded to it in a big way.

 

2. He made the move to employ defensive players on the offense to address the redzone issues and did this successfully and even treated/demanded of his athletes that they be football players first and position players somewhere down the line even before BB really popularized this notion with his use of Brown to fill in for Poole and Law. This actually reminds me of an even earlier gutsy move different from the GW approach that he has been quite willing to aggressively employ starters like Fletcher, Clements and then McGee both starting and on ST.

 

3. As best as I can tell he made the move to release Shaw to send a message to every Bill that jobs are on the line if they do not perform in the W/L column. This move was interesting because it was not easy as Shaw was not a poison, but un terms of how we used him he contributed little to the W/L and actually we saved no money (and thus money will not save your job if you do no contribute) as his full season salary was already guranteed at the point he was cut.

 

4. We had a bigtime rep for losing road games and MM distilled a difference in the team which ended up in us winning in a laugher in Seattle against a playoff team. This ranged from the cheeseburgers to the attitude and message he consistently sent out.

 

5. There were a number of games deemed obvious trap games for us ranging from going cross-country to play a bad team in SF, to being comfortable at home but looking ahead to Cincy against Cleveland, to going on the road against Cincy. In each must-win game the team won going away.

 

I agree that a coaching faliure seemed to be a big part of us not doing the job as a team against Pitt. but this game would not have been a big game unless we has won 6 other must-wins before this one.

 

MM needs to improve but your analysis seems fairly selective to me. It is to be hoped it is no more reliable than your gurantee of an Indy win as their offense would obvioudly shred NE without Law and Poole.

[DOOOOMED!]

Rudy, my boy, I've missed you....

[Mile High]

After watching the playoffs over the years and more than ever after this past weekend, ive noticed the team who wins most games(in the playoffs or just general big games) are very very agressive and never play not to lose. I will give you a few examples in just the past 2 seasons.

 

1. Sherman in GB....remmeber 4th and inches vs with Philly on the ropes and he punts?

2. Dungy in indy....watch any NE game and you will see what a wimp this guy is!

3. Edwards in NY....watch the 4th qtr of Saturdays game.

4. Marty Schotheimer in SD....hes made a career of letting teams hang around!

5. Dave Wannstand....how many games did he flop under pressure?

6. Bill Cowher in Pitt...how many championship games has he blown by playing not to lose?

 

Theres alot but those are just a few.

All those coaches are great regular season coaches but they jump out at me when thinking about this topic! My point is... if you look at coaches who win in the playoffs....they have BALLs when it comes to taking the chance of going for a 4th and 1 or trying to gain more yardage in FG trys. Guys like Bellicheck, Jeff Fisher, Andy Reid, Brian Billick dont get leads and feel comfortable...they go for your throat and kill ya on every offensive possession!

 

What scares me about mularkey was 2 games that were very important in our season when he had to decide to be agressive and he wasnt.

 

1. Opener vs Jacksonville....2 situations i will give ya. We had a 4 point lead most of the day and in the 4th qtr and he played not to lose rather then go for the kill on ateam we were letting hang around for the entire game and it ended up killing our playoff hopes but he gets a pass cause it was first game.

 

2. VS Pitt on the last weekend of teh season, we finally get all the momentum in the world(jets losing, us winning, long drive playing smash mouth football, crowd very alive) and he friggin kicks a FG on 4th and inches which ends up turning the whole game around....if we get that first down and i think we do...we win by 10 point easily!

 

Look it, I think he did a fabulous job after all that happened and he was a rookie coach but i just hope that he learned from his mistake that you always go for the kill rather than playing not to lose and just take time off the clock....i just dont know if i will feel comfortable next year in the playoffs if we are up by 6 or 7 going into the 4th regardless on how well our defense is playing....i just prey he watched th ejets game over the weekend learned form their mistakes and his own in the last week of the season!

 

He is a good coach and im happy to have him but next year i hope he takes the beat ya down until theres 00:00 on the clock rather than playing conservative football like many failures from the past and present....say hi to Herm, will ya?

209254[/snapback]

Riddle me this Rudy. Do you ever reply to your posts? Just curious. Or do you just kick out random thoughts in your mind to let us figure out?

[Buftex]

After watching the playoffs over the years and more than ever after this past weekend, ive noticed the team who wins most games(in the playoffs or just general big games) are very very agressive and never play not to lose.

 

 

209254[/snapback]

 

Rudy, if you didn't have one of the very best avatars on the board, I wouldn't read your posts anymore...

[Mark Vader]

I have much confidence that Mularkey has learned some lessons, and will be able to win the big games for us.

There were several things I saw over the season, that really stood out in this team making strides this season.

 

The constant shifting of players on offense and defense.

 

Fake-Fat Sunny Posted Yesterday, 10:02 PM

2. He made the move to employ defensive players on the offense to address the redzone issues and did this successfully and even treated/demanded of his athletes that they be football players first and position players somewhere down the line even before BB really popularized this notion with his use of Brown to fill in for Poole and Law. This actually reminds me of an even earlier gutsy move different from the GW approach that he has been quite willing to aggressively employ starters like Fletcher, Clements and then McGee both starting and on ST.

This was another smart move. Using players like Adams & Bannan on offense proved to be beneficial. As was putting starters on Special Teams, something that Mike Ditka did in Chicago. It is nerve wracking for fans because you don't want your starters to be injured on ST's, but it can give you the best results.

 

I look at the winning streak the Bills had in the 2nd half of the season. Yes I know they were wins against weak opponents. But I ask all of you to look back at those games. They were decisive, complete, & total victories. They beat those weak teams, the way you are supposed to beat them, BADLY! Yes the Miami game was a close one, but they did end up with a "W" in that game. Mularkey got the players to believe in winning again, on the road too. The Bills never win out west, and they took 2 out of 3 games on the west coast.

 

There is one negative I will address with Mularkey. That is the Pittsburgh game. Now it is not the reason that Rudy gave us, going for the FG, instead of going for it on 4th & short. My problem was with Mularkey's playcalling. Why were we trying to win by dinking & dunking it on offense? Why did'nt we come out guns-a-blazing?

Why did Lee Evans not see a pass thrown to him until the 3rd quarter? I was not at this game, but with the Steelers resting lots of starters, the Bills should have come out in that game ready to destroy the Steelers. The way the offense played, it looked as if they were being cautious the whole time. The playcalling in this game far exceeds the decision to take the FG.

 

I don't know what Mularkey has planned next season, but I do have plenty of confidence in him to make the Bills a serious contender in the NFL. I do believe that next season we will beat teams like the Patriots & Steelers. I know we don't play Pitt next year, I just use them as an example.

 

I can not wait until next season.

 

GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!

[Buftex]

I have much confidence that Mularkey has learned some lessons, and will be able to win the big games for us.

There were several things I saw over the season, that really stood out in this team making strides this season.

 

The constant shifting of players on offense and defense.

This was another smart move. Using players like Adams & Bannan on offense proved to be beneficial. As was putting starters on Special Teams, something that Mike Ditka did in Chicago. It is nerve wracking for fans because you don't want your starters to be injured on ST's, but it can give you the best results.

 

I look at the winning streak the Bills had in the 2nd half of the season. Yes I know they were wins against weak opponents. But I ask all of you to look back at those games. They were decisive, complete, & total victories. They beat those weak teams, the way you are supposed to beat them, BADLY! Yes the Miami game was a close one, but they did end up with a "W" in that game. Mularkey got the players to believe in winning again, on the road too. The Bills never win out west, and they took 2 out of 3 games on the west coast.

 

There is one negative I will address with Mularkey. That is the Pittsburgh game. Now it is not the reason that Rudy gave us, going for the FG, instead of going for it on 4th & short. My problem was with Mularkey's playcalling. Why were we trying to win by dinking & dunking it on offense? Why did'nt we come out guns-a-blazing?

Why did Lee Evans not see a pass thrown to him until the 3rd quarter? I was not at this game, but with the Steelers resting lots of starters, the Bills should have come out in that game ready to destroy the Steelers. The way the offense played, it looked as if they were being cautious the whole time. The playcalling in this game far exceeds the decision to take the FG.

 

I don't know what Mularkey has planned next season, but I do have plenty of confidence in him to make the Bills a serious contender in the NFL. I do believe that next season we will beat teams like the Patriots & Steelers. I know we don't play Pitt next year, I just use them as an example.

 

I can not wait until next season.

 

GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!!!

209524[/snapback]

 

Early on in the season, I was a little underwhelmed by the offensive playcalling. It seemed very much like the Gregg Williams era Bills....it was the second half of the first Jets game that things finally started "clicking" somewhat with the offense. From there on, the offense (and the whole team for that matter) started to play much more agressively. My hunch, after a few weeks of winning Bills football, I got the idea that Mualrkey and staff called a very vanilla offense, because that is all that the players could handle at that time. When they started to look comfortable in the new offense, he unleashed them. They came up with gadget plays that worked nearly every time.

 

I agree with you 100% Mark, I was a bit disappointed in the game plan for the Pittsburgh game. The offense was very predictable. The biggest sin, as far as I am concerned, is that the Bills only went no-huddle for one drive the whole game. Now, Bledsoe looked his best this year in the no-huddle. I was dumbfounded, halfway through the 3rd quarter, our playoff hopes slipping away, that the offense was not allowed to put up a better fight. The no-huddle should have been used at that point.

 

I like Mularkeys' demeanor a lot. Go listen to some of his press conferences. He reminds me a lot of a certain AFC East coach who is about to win his third Super Bowl in four years. He communcates clearly, doesn't talk in cliche, and does not get rattled very easily. He just sounds like a guy who has a clear idea of what his team is trying to do, how they are progessing, and what they are capable of. I never got that feeling from our previous two coaches.

 

All that said, though, I am very confident that this new coaching staff has us headed in the right direction, and I will give Mularkey a pass on the Pittsburgh game. He seems like a very bright guy, not a stubborn guy, like his predecessor. Despite the disappointing finish, I am very pleased, for the first time in a while, with the direction of the Bills. I think the team is in good hands, and I will be shocked if we don't take the next step in 2005.

[eball]

I really don't know why, but that sentence made me laugh for a good minute... Hell, I'm still laughing..

 

might be the bluntness of it, I don't know... but thanks for the laugh!

209322[/snapback]

 

my pleasure.

[Corp000085]

FFS and kelso pretty much hit the nail on the head. Try new things, willingness to learn and correct coaching mistakes. I have complete confidence in MM that he will have an open mind and improve this team from 9-7.

[BuffaloWings]

There is one negative I will address with Mularkey. That is the Pittsburgh game. Now it is not the reason that Rudy gave us, going for the FG, instead of going for it on 4th & short. My problem was with Mularkey's playcalling. Why were we trying to win by dinking & dunking it on offense? Why did'nt we come out guns-a-blazing?

Why did Lee Evans not see a pass thrown to him until the 3rd quarter? I was not at this game, but with the Steelers resting lots of starters, the Bills should have come out in that game ready to destroy the Steelers. The way the offense played, it looked as if they were being cautious the whole time. The playcalling in this game far exceeds the decision to take the FG.

209524[/snapback]

I couldn't agree more. I think the biggest problem was that the coaches assumed the Steelers wouldn't come close to matching the intensity the Bills would. Obviously incorrect. Because of this, it seemed like the Bills didn't play their game. They didn't do what they had been doing during the winning streak - running the ball well, mixing in a few deep shots to Evans, and killing the opponents on defense. In other words, the Bills beat themselves by not playing their own game.

 

This is precisely what happened in Foxboro on Sunday. The Colts came out running the ball and not throwing it like their offense has been geared to. Belichick got into their heads as soon as Indy beat Denver the week before. I should have picked New England...

 

Because of all this, I think Mularkey has learned a few lessons from his first season. Things will improve from the coaching standpoint next year.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I look at the winning streak the Bills had in the 2nd half of the season. Yes I know they were wins against weak opponents.

I

209524[/snapback]

 

Thanks for the aggreement on pieces of my analysis. The one piece in you work would raise a flag about is the contention that the strak was against weak opponent. Clearly given the Bills 0-3 record against the two best teams in the AFC we were not capable this year of beating the strongest opponents in the league even at home.

 

However, the idea that though the streak was not pulled off against the strongest opponents that our opposition represented the weakest opponents needs to be cahllenged The streak included wins against 2 playoff teams (SEA and StL) in the 6 wins and won of those was on a trip to their house on the left coast. The weak schedule concept has to be little more than a note and not an indictment because you play the schedule you are given and producing a winning record against that schedule is producing a winning record.

 

In addition to wracking up a 1/3 of the streak against playoff teams, life in the NFL revolves around any given Sunday. If the Pats can find a way to lose to Maimi then seriously no game should be devalued completely. In addition to the playoff teams, i think any win on the road is darn good work, particularly when it clearly separates us from another non-playoff team with rising aspirations Cincinnati. I think you even take pride in an SF game against the weakest competition but on the road.

 

The final item is the one you mentioned that in prety much every game in the streak we won comfortably and in fact going away. The Cleveland game is not something to be ignored in assessing this team because of the competition, but the total domination of this team makes it one other fineast hours for any team in the NFL this season.

 

I think it is intelligent and good football to look at the games we lost and the first task is to figure out how to play and beat the Steelers and Pats (and the Jets even more consistently this being another playoff team we defeated this year). However, any claim that the streak happened because of facing weak opponents is simply an incorrect analysis of why it happened and its meaning for our prospects.