‘The culture starts with Sean’: How the coach’s voracious learning habits are rubbing off on the Bills (Athletic article)

[BADOLBILZ]

12 minutes ago, eball said:

 

Does your @$$ actually have lips? Because you talk out of it more than anyone I know.

 

 

Well never let it be known that I won't help a drunk like you back onto his feet.

 

The chart you were looking at where you triumphantly determined that the Bills were *just* the 8th most penalized team for the 10th most yardage and then went on to blah blah blah based off of other stats on that chart wasn't a regular season chart.

 

That strange chart INCLUDED playoff games..........so yeah some teams with like 18 games played committed more penalties than the Bills did in 16.

 

I REPEAT:

 

In 2018 the Bills were the 6th most penalized(116) for the 5th most yardage(992).

 

I don't know dude.........you are making this whole "see, I can talk football" push while at the same time not being able to read basic stat charts.

 

And I mean BASIC.

 

Maybe stick to attacking Scott Law?   Just a thought.

 

 

5 minutes ago, eball said:

 

Good lord, lack of comprehension is a real thing with you, isn't it? 

 

 

 

No.........that's you reading NFL statistics eebs.

[eball]

10 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Well never let it be known that I won't help a drunk like you back onto his feet.

 

The chart you were looking at where you triumphantly determined that the Bills were *just* the 8th most penalized team for the 10th most yardage and then went on to blah blah blah based off of other stats on that chart wasn't a regular season chart.

 

That strange chart INCLUDED playoff games..........so yeah some teams with like 18 games played committed more penalties than the Bills did in 16.

 

I REPEAT:

 

In 2018 the Bills were the 6th most penalized(116) for the 5th most yardage(992).

 

I don't know dude.........you are making this whole "see, I can talk football" push while at the same time not being able to read basic stat charts.

 

And I mean BASIC.

 

Maybe stick to attacking Scott Law?   Just a thought.

 

 

 

 

No.........that's you reading NFL statistics eebs.

 

That's some classic Trumpism right there...using a pretty irrelevant error to distract from your specious argument.  So what -- playoff penalties were included in the chart I looked at.  Doesn't change the fact that your diatribe about McD and penalties is silly.

[BADOLBILZ]

24 minutes ago, eball said:

 

That's some classic Trumpism right there...using a pretty irrelevant error to distract from your specious argument.  So what -- playoff penalties were included in the chart I looked at.  Doesn't change the fact that your diatribe about McD and penalties is silly.

 

5 hours ago, eball said:

 

Might be helpful to give the penalty stats some context.  First of all, the Bills were the 8th most penalized for the 10th most yards, but who's counting.  

 

Oh, and also -- 6 of the 9 most penalized teams made the playoffs.

 

But then again, I'm incapable of "talking football" so I'm sure you'll ignore this post as you have others that don't fit your agenda to ridicule.

 

 

 

 

 

"So what" that playoff penalties were included in that stat chart?   Is that really what you are going with?

 

We already covered your "first of all" mistake.

 

Then there is the FACT that only 3 of the 9 most penalized teams in the regular season made the playoffs............not 6 of 9.

You seemed to think you hit a HR with that stat........using it as your closing argument.

 

Are you grasping that playing an extra 2-3 games can lead to committing more penalties yet?

 

Capeesh or no?

 

I mean when you make such a basic mistake like that OWN it and do better rather than blame me for your inability to read a stat chart.    

[LSHMEAB]

9 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

 

 

"So what" that playoff penalties were included in that stat chart?   Is that really what you are going with?

 

We already covered your "first of all" mistake.

 

Then there is the FACT that only 3 of the 9 most penalized teams in the regular season made the playoffs............not 6 of 9.

You seemed to think you hit a HR with that stat........using it as your closing argument.

 

Are you grasping that playing an extra 2-3 games can lead to committing more penalties yet?

 

Capeesh or no?

 

I mean when you make such a basic mistake like that OWN it and do better rather than blame me for your inability to read a stat chart.    

This post does not meet your minimum emoji requirements. Frankly, I'm disappointed.

[eball]

23 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

I mean when you make such a basic mistake like that OWN it and do better rather than blame me for your inability to read a stat chart.    

 

I didn’t blame you for anything other than making a ridiculous argument about “aggressive” penalties as a way of bolstering your anti-McD movement. The bottom line is that REGARDLESS OF THE CHART the Bills weren’t “undisciplined” on defense and the two areas of the team that need the most work were responsible for most of the penalties. And the total number of penalties wasn’t “egregious.”

 

Still waiting for you to address your ridiculous McD/Lynn argument as well. 

[BADOLBILZ]

26 minutes ago, eball said:

 

I didn’t blame you for anything other than making a ridiculous argument about “aggressive” penalties as a way of bolstering your anti-McD movement. The bottom line is that REGARDLESS OF THE CHART the Bills weren’t “undisciplined” on defense and the two areas of the team that need the most work were responsible for most of the penalties. And the total number of penalties wasn’t “egregious.”

 

Still waiting for you to address your ridiculous McD/Lynn argument as well. 

 

 

I REPEAT:

 

In 2018 the Bills were the 6th most penalized(116) for the 5th most yardage(992).

 

 

That's bad and they were undisciplined.

 

As for the "ridiculous McD/Lynn argument"............Lynn took over a less successful team that has played without a homefield advantage for two years but has won A LOT more games than McD and blown him out twice head-to-head.    The job Lynn has done is among the very best in the NFL over the past two seasons.

 

Lynn chose to build on what he had and show his ability to coach up his franchise right away and McD chose to hand pick his own team and it hasn't worked out so far.     Hopefully that changes but it's no contest thru 2 years and that's not a short period of time in terms of being an NFL HC.   Year 3 is usually a make or break for HC's that haven't fielded a contender yet. 

[Saxum]

6 hours ago, Augie said:

 

In summary, our OLine sucked. Nobody should be surprised by this news flash. Those flags did not happen because McD was negligent in any way. Can he and they improve? Of course. I have high hopes for the revamped OL. It will not be perfect from day #1, but it looks encouraging over time. 

 

He was negligent - he put a bad OL coach in charge of running game - but he corrected it by removing him.  

Coach McD has had a lot of one year coaches and this tells you one of two things - he is bad at communicating his plans or he is bad at evaluating coaches.  

[GunnerBill]

So to add my two penneth.... the Bills did commit too many penalties last year but they were largely in the category that I would put down to overmatched talent and bad technique rather than out of control ill discipline. That doesn't give McDermott a total pass - he is the Head Coach and he is ultimately accountable. As I have said many times he chose to tear down the roster and attempt a total rebuild. That was his (or at least his and Brandon Beane's) choice. That choice was one of the reasons we ended up with overmatched talent and it was poorly coached by the very first hire he made to the coaching staff in Buffalo - his hand picked offensive line coach Juan Castillo. There was no reason to think Castillo would succeed, he hasn't produced a good offensive line in years. I was pleasantly surprised that the Bills cut ties with him in the offseason. The one element of McDermott's personality that does grate with me is the constant faith and family stuff and I rather suspected that might result in too much loyalty. But he did cut ties.

 

So ultimately, yes, McDermott is accountable for the high penalty numbers - the poor talent and poor coaching do come back to him in the end.

 

On Lynn, I like Anthony Lynn and I'd have been perfectly happy for him to get the job here in 2017. However, McDermott was my number 1 candidate from a year out. I wanted to fire Rex and hire McDermott after one season. They have taken very different approaches, but they were very different situations. Lynn was taking on a franchise QB in his twilight years and having to improve what was around him. McDermott was taking on a not untalented core of players but without a franchise QB. Lynn's done a good job in LA especially given the struggles that franchise has more broadly. But I still have full belief in McDermott. I think the guy is a really good leader and I think he can coach. Winning 15 games over the last two years with the talent he has had is a good return. Again, I totally agree it was his choice to do the tear down but now finally after the two years of getting by I think he has a roster with enough talent to genuinely compete. This next year will tell us a lot. Is McDermott one of those guys who can genuinely get the most out of all levels of talent or is he a guy (and they do exist) who excels getting the most out of under talented players but struggles to get the same buy in and commitment to enable him to get the most of genuine talent? I think he is the former.... but 2019 will go a long way to giving us an answer.

[Gugny]

15 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

So to add my two penneth.... the Bills did commit too many penalties last year but they were largely in the category that I would put down to overmatched talent and bad technique rather than out of control ill discipline. That doesn't give McDermott a total pass - he is the Head Coach and he is ultimately accountable. As I have said many times he chose to tear down the roster and attempt a total rebuild. That was his (or at least his and Brandon Beane's) choice. That choice was one of the reasons we ended up with overmatched talent and it was poorly coached by the very first hire he made to the coaching staff in Buffalo - his hand picked offensive line coach Juan Castillo. There was no reason to think Castillo would succeed, he hasn't produced a good offensive line in years. I was pleasantly surprised that the Bills cut ties with him in the offseason. The one element of McDermott's personality that does grate with me is the constant faith and family stuff and I rather suspected that might result in too much loyalty. But he did cut ties.

 

So ultimately, yes, McDermott is accountable for the high penalty numbers - the poor talent and poor coaching do come back to him in the end.

 

On Lynn, I like Anthony Lynn and I'd have been perfectly happy for him to get the job here in 2017. However, McDermott was my number 1 candidate from a year out. I wanted to fire Rex and hire McDermott after one season. They have taken very different approaches, but they were very different situations. Lynn was taking on a franchise QB in his twilight years and having to improve what was around him. McDermott was taking on a not untalented core of players but without a franchise QB. Lynn's done a good job in LA especially given the struggles that franchise has more broadly. But I still have full belief in McDermott. I think the guy is a really good leader and I think he can coach. Winning 15 games over the last two years with the talent he has had is a good return. Again, I totally agree it was his choice to do the tear down but now finally after the two years of getting by I think he has a roster with enough talent to genuinely compete. This next year will tell us a lot. Is McDermott one of those guys who can genuinely get the most out of all levels of talent or is he a guy (and they do exist) who excels getting the most out of under talented players but struggles to get the same buy in and commitment to enable him to get the most of genuine talent? I think he is the former.... but 2019 will go a long way to giving us an answer.

 

I was looking at team penalties earlier this morning, ironically.  Admittedly, I have not read through all pages of this thread and if this link has been posted, my apologies:

 

https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties.html?yr=2018

 

Bills were top 5 in total penalty yards.  However, for the defensive penalties that are automatic first downs, they're very middle of the pack.  Not surprisingly, they're closer to the top in offensive holding and false starts, which (in my opinion) supports your "overmatched talent and bad technique rather than out of control ill discipline," theory.

 

A third of their total penalties fell under the "Other," category.  I'd be interested to see where we stack up with regard to penalties that are a result of poor coaching/game management, i.e. - too many men on the field.

 

[Drunken Pygmy Goat]

5 hours ago, Limeaid said:

 

He was negligent - he put a bad OL coach in charge of running game - but he corrected it by removing him.  

Coach McD has had a lot of one year coaches and this tells you one of two things - he is bad at communicating his plans or he is bad at evaluating coaches.  

 

How many one year coaches has he had? I can only think of Dennison.

[Drunken Pygmy Goat]

30 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

I was looking at team penalties earlier this morning, ironically.  Admittedly, I have not read through all pages of this thread and if this link has been posted, my apologies:

 

https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties.html?yr=2018

 

Bills were top 5 in total penalty yards.  However, for the defensive penalties that are automatic first downs, they're very middle of the pack.  Not surprisingly, they're closer to the top in offensive holding and false starts, which (in my opinion) supports your "overmatched talent and bad technique rather than out of control ill discipline," theory.

 

A third of their total penalties fell under the "Other," category.  I'd be interested to see where we stack up with regard to penalties that are a result of poor coaching/game management, i.e. - too many men on the field.

 

 

The Bills had too many men on the field on defense 3 times last year, which is actually about double the league average and ranks tied for 27th. New England had 3 as well, but they love catching you in the middle of subbing, and were the beneficiary of 3 calls against their opponents, ranking 5th.

 

This site breaks down penalties in multiple aspects.

http://www.nflpenalties.com/team/buffalo-bills?year=2018&view=penalties

When sorted by "penalty", click the "+" icon to the left of a given penalty and it breaks that penalty down by league average and rank as well as beneficiary amount and rank.

[Chandler#81]

22 hours ago, JohnC said:

I respectfully but strenuously disagree with your judgment that Pegulas would not be afraid to resort to using the much calloused trigger finger if this season turns out to be disappointing. I think that he has learned his lesson that churning coaches and staff is an act of futility. My impression is that with both franchises there was a learning curve for the new owners. And they learned that injudiciously spending money was not a solution to injudicious hiring. I think with both franchises they put more thought into the hiring of staff and allowing them the time and space to do their jobs. 

Completely agree with you regarding the Bills. The Sabres, otoh, is still wait & see -and we’re tired of waiting. The organization is the most intriguing cluster****.in pro sports. ‘How will they screw it up this year?’

[JohnC]

4 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

Completely agree with you regarding the Bills. The Sabres, otoh, is still wait & see -and we’re tired of waiting. The organization is the most intriguing cluster****.in pro sports. ‘How will they screw it up this year?’

The person who is on the spot is the GM for the Sabres. The trade of ROR, at least for the short term, was a disaster. To compound the problem  the roster he assembled after that shambolic deal was incapable of keeping up with most of the teams.. However, I still don't believe that the owners are ready to pull the plug on this current hockey regime. (That's my feeling that many don't share.)

 

I do believe that because of our good cap situation and extra first round pick the Sabres are in a position to make some impacting deals that will allow this team to be a fringe playoff contending team. That would be progress. Compared to many in the deflated crowd here I am more of an optimist than a pessimist. Stating the obvious this is a critical offseason for the GM.  

 

You may not be aware of it but there are rumors swirling around  that because of the disappointment of the last hockey season Plezmd1 was traumatized and is suffering from PTSD. Sadly, watching the Sabres has caused his mental well-being to plummet to the depths of despair. Once I find out what facility he is at I will arrange to send him a TSW get well card. Of course we all wish him well, at least most of us do. 

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, JohnC said:

The person who is on the spot is the GM for the Sabres. The trade of ROR, at least for the short term, was a disaster. To compound the problem  the roster he assembled after that shambolic deal was incapable of keeping up with most of the teams.. However, I still don't believe that the owners are ready to pull the plug on this current hockey regime. (That's my feeling that many don't share.)

 

I do believe that because of our good cap situation and extra first round pick the Sabres are in a position to make some impacting deals that will allow this team to be a fringe playoff contending team. That would be progress. Compared to many in the deflated crowd here I am more of an optimist than a pessimist. Stating the obvious this is a critical offseason for the GM.  

 

They fired the coach though didn't they?

[JohnC]

2 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

They fired the coach though didn't they?

The GM did. He's the one running the show. It's called self-preservation. 

[Chandler#81]

4 minutes ago, JohnC said:

The person who is on the spot is the GM for the Sabres. The trade of ROR, at least for the short term, was a disaster. To compound the problem  the roster he assembled after that shambolic deal was incapable of keeping up with most of the teams.. However, I still don't believe that the owners are ready to pull the plug on this current hockey regime. (That's my feeling that many don't share.)

 

I do believe that because of our good cap situation and extra first round pick the Sabres are in a position to make some impacting deals that will allow this team to be a fringe playoff contending team. That would be progress. Compared to many in the deflated crowd here I am more of an optimist than a pessimist. Stating the obvious this is a critical offseason for the GM.  

 

You may not be aware of it but there are rumors swirling around  that because of the disappointment of the last hockey season Plezmd1 was traumatized and is suffering from PTSD. Sadly, watching the Sabres has caused his mental well-being to plummet to the depths of despair. Once I find out what facility he is at I will arrange to send him a TSW get well card. Of course we all wish him well, at least most of us do. 

? PTSD. So That’s what my problem is! Appreciate the diagnosis! Wtf is the cure??? I’ve tried finding another team. That doesn’t work. 

Is there a new drug? I’m up for anything!

[Thurman#1]

On 5/30/2019 at 12:32 AM, eball said:

 

Are there any Bills fans here who don't want to win?  What I'm talking about is a difference in perspective -- you can be a skeptic about everything you read and see and expect the worst, or you can look for positive signs and not remain in the past.  I'm not "worried" about being disappointed by the Buffalo Bills -- if I was, I'd have given them up a long time ago.

 

 

There's another choice. Yeah, you can be a skeptic. Or you can be a pie-eyed Kool-Aid drinker.

 

Or you can withhold judgment. Be hopeful but know there's a lot still to prove. This is the best perspective if you want to see how things are likely to be rather than seeing things the things that confirm your prejudices.

[Thurman#1]

12 hours ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Lynn took over a team that won a total of 9 games over the prior 2 years and has won 22 games(two of those at the expense of McDermott).

 

McDermott took over a team that won a total of 15 games over the prior 2 years and has won...........wait for it..........15 games.

 

Lynn's Chargers were beaten badly by the Patriots in the playoffs..........after winning a road playoff game..........which is something the Bills haven't done since 1992.

 

Lynn has earned the respect to say the least and 7 more wins over two years is A LOT.

 

 

 

Lynn has indeed earned respect. But he got a team with a terrific QB, a team with a solid base ... at bottom a team that needed a reload. Not a rebuild.

 

Whereas McDermott went through a rebuild. Judging a coach on how many wins he gets in the first couple of years of a rebuild says a lot more about the guy judging than it does the coach. Teams in a near-total rebuild like this one can't reasonably be judged on wins. Rebuilds don't win much the first two years. Comparing wins and thinking it means something is like comparing height between a 6 year old and an 14 year old. You don't learn anything worth knowing about how tall either one is going to be at full growth. Thinking that the 14 year old is taller means something just shows you don't get it. Same with judging a coach in a rebuild on how many wins he gets the first two years.

 

Much respect to Lynn, though. He's done a fine job.

[Thurman#1]

1 hour ago, Chandler#81 said:

? PTSD. So That’s what my problem is! Appreciate the diagnosis! Wtf is the cure??? I’ve tried finding another team. That doesn’t work. 

Is there a new drug? I’m up for anything!

 

 

 

Tetris!!! Seriously.

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tetris-shown-to-lessen-ptsd-and-flashbacks/?redirect=1

 

Keep your phone/computer nearby and play very soon after the heartbreaking losses that bring on your symptoms.

[Augie]

9 hours ago, Limeaid said:

 

He was negligent - he put a bad OL coach in charge of running game - but he corrected it by removing him.  

Coach McD has had a lot of one year coaches and this tells you one of two things - he is bad at communicating his plans or he is bad at evaluating coaches.  

 

Or........he took the best that was available at that moment in time, then upgraded as soon as possible. That’s a real option as well.