Morse not starting was a "football decision" per McD

[Bronxbomber21]

2 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

Your attitude was not very nice either. 

 

I am hoping that they are following Marv Levy's rule: If you start listening to the fans (or press) you start sitting with them.

Do you not think Morse is a better C then both Ike & Winters are at the G position?

[Saxum]

Not necessarily run game in Morse's physical conditioning right now.

[Saxum]

 

Coach Diabolical uses a very complex game plan which changes per opponent.

I believe he also factors the strengths and weaknesses of the offense players he has to use as well.

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

15 hours ago, TBBills said:

Lol talking about saying rest isn't for concussions. Don't act like that

 

14 hours ago, TBBills said:

Yes you were wrong about concussions we all know that.

 

crap.  I wish I had seen this last night.

 

@TBBills

 

You do know that WEO is a Medical Doctor, right?  IIRC maybe even a surgeon? 

 

If anyone on the board offers medical advice.  You trust WEO over the other pretend doctors 

 

[Back2Buff]

5 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Definitely agree Feliciano is a better center than guard (and the best center on the roster). Think that has been pretty obvious from day 1. As for the best combo I think it depends what the question is. If the question is purely focused on run game then I agree it is not out of the question. I think once you are looking at the big picture the chances become pretty remote. Especially because the Bills have acknowledged they are a pass first team. 

 

If it wasn't for Josh Allen being really tall, Feliciano would have multiple snaps over the QBs head a game.  The guy is not a good center at all.  He had this issue last year too when he had to fill in.

 

I seriously question whether people even watch the games.

 

Feliciano as center in Seattle gave up 7 sacks and our RBs ran for 1.72 ypc.

 

In Arizona we ran for a little over 3 ypc.

 

 

[GunnerBill]

1 hour ago, Back2Buff said:

 

If it wasn't for Josh Allen being really tall, Feliciano would have multiple snaps over the QBs head a game.  The guy is not a good center at all.  He had this issue last year too when he had to fill in.

 

I seriously question whether people even watch the games.

 

Feliciano as center in Seattle gave up 7 sacks and our RBs ran for 1.72 ypc.

 

In Arizona we ran for a little over 3 ypc.

 

 

 

He does have an occasional snapping issue - I grant you that. The sacks against Seattle were mainly on blitz pickup and I think we do miss Morse there in helping set protections - although two of them are just absolute whifs by Knox and Singletary. Once the ball is snapped Feliciano gets significantly more push than Morse. 

[4BillsintheBurgh]

10 hours ago, GaryPinC said:

I don't, but I don't understand why you think he might be completely lying about it?  He did answer to it in general terms which covers for Morse. I think if the injury history would have played into it, he could say coach's decision just to be sure he's over concussion  and IMO would have been less controversial while still covering for Morse.

 

But it is my opinion that IF Morse is our clear #1 center, you get him up to speed for the Cards and hope the momentum carries through.  I mean, coaches' attitude could have been "things just turned around for this O-line, wait till we plug Mitch back in and get Mongo back to guard vs the Cards!" but it wasn't.  Something seems up.

 

We'll see Sunday.

The interesting thing for me will be when ford is back who will be our best guards. While winters gets blown up the coaches seem to be locked on him playing. To me that signifies he is mentally making the right plays but physically he isn't getting it done which most coaches seem to prefer. Boettger seems to have played well enough that our best 5 might be Dawkins boettger mongo ford williams. Don't know if moving ford makes sense, but with him playing there last year and the bye week maybe they do it. If they want boettger in the top 5.

 

As an edit, we are getting into running season too, so I'm thinking we might be looking at getting  our best 5 run blockers out there. 

Edited November 25, 2020 by 4BillsintheBurgh

[Shaw66]

I'm late to the party here, and haven't read the entire thread.   What I've seen is a pretty interesting discussion.   

 

I don't study the oline, and I don't have opinions about who's playing well and who isn't.  But the thread title and some of this discussion about Feliciano being better at center makes me think that the "football decision" McDermott made was driven by the upcoming bye week.  He had Morse coming back, and he knows that an extra two weeks without contact certainly is a good thing on the concussion front.   He also liked, apparently, the way things were going with Feliciano at center.  He'd also had a lot of disruption on the oline, with Spain dropping off the earth, Ford moving then getting injured, Feliciano coming back, Morse going down.   So his "football decision" may very well have been that for the Cards game he wanted continuity.   The continuity may have been more important to McDermott than any improvement he thought he might get by having Morse, Ford and Feliciano in the interior line spots.  

 

By keeping Morse off the field, McDermott got the continuity and then got two weeks to rework the oline one more time, so that he can come out of the bye with his three best players in the positions he wants them in, all healthy and ready to go.  

 

That's all just a hunch on my part, and someone may have said something similar in this thread.  If so, sorry for piling on. 

[The Frankish Reich]

25 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I'm late to the party here, and haven't read the entire thread.   What I've seen is a pretty interesting discussion.   

 

I don't study the oline, and I don't have opinions about who's playing well and who isn't.  But the thread title and some of this discussion about Feliciano being better at center makes me think that the "football decision" McDermott made was driven by the upcoming bye week.  He had Morse coming back, and he knows that an extra two weeks without contact certainly is a good thing on the concussion front.   He also liked, apparently, the way things were going with Feliciano at center.  He'd also had a lot of disruption on the oline, with Spain dropping off the earth, Ford moving then getting injured, Feliciano coming back, Morse going down.   So his "football decision" may very well have been that for the Cards game he wanted continuity.   The continuity may have been more important to McDermott than any improvement he thought he might get by having Morse, Ford and Feliciano in the interior line spots.  

 

By keeping Morse off the field, McDermott got the continuity and then got two weeks to rework the oline one more time, so that he can come out of the bye with his three best players in the positions he wants them in, all healthy and ready to go.  

 

That's all just a hunch on my part, and someone may have said something similar in this thread.  If so, sorry for piling on. 

Makes sense.

I'm no expert on O line play, so I'll just say that my impression was the line was at its best last year when both Morse (C) and Feliciano (G) were on the field at the same time, so I have to assume the plan is to get back to that.

My favorite whipping boy over the last couple years was DiMarco, but now I have to wonder how much they miss him, particularly in the run game. I mean, it's a trade-off: Allen wouldn't have so many open targets with DiMarco on the field. But the option of going heavy with a good blocking RB (and maybe a good blocking TE too ... I guess that would be Lee Smith by default) just isn't there this year. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

12 hours ago, GaryPinC said:

I don't, but I don't understand why you think he might be completely lying about it?  He did answer to it in general terms which covers for Morse. I think if the injury history would have played into it, he could say coach's decision just to be sure he's over concussion  and IMO would have been less controversial while still covering for Morse.

 

But it is my opinion that IF Morse is our clear #1 center, you get him up to speed for the Cards and hope the momentum carries through.  I mean, coaches' attitude could have been "things just turned around for this O-line, wait till we plug Mitch back in and get Mongo back to guard vs the Cards!" but it wasn't.  Something seems up.

 

We'll see Sunday.

 

So he takes the heat for it rather than the player.

 

Yes agree something does seem odd with this, that's what kind of makes me think there may be something to this idea that Morse may be in a "semi retired" mode for health reasons already. There could be some obscure legal and/or CBA reasons that it's best not to state what's behind it all.

 

Or he comes out Sunday, starts and plays all game and this was all a smokescreen.

[Saxum]

58 minutes ago, The Frankish Reich said:

My favorite whipping boy over the last couple years was DiMarco, but now I have to wonder how much they miss him, particularly in the run game. I mean, it's a trade-off: Allen wouldn't have so many open targets with DiMarco on the field. But the option of going heavy with a good blocking RB (and maybe a good blocking TE too ... I guess that would be Lee Smith by default) just isn't there this year. 

 

Run blocking with TE devoted to it has always been Lee Smith and none of the other TEs are close to him in run blocking. 

From game plans it has been clear they have been depending on Allen's arm first, Allen's legs 2nd and RBs third.

 

33 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

Or he comes out Sunday, starts and plays all game and this was all a smokescreen.

 

Just because coach does not state reasons does not make it a smokescreen.

It is just a false alarm from press/fans/kibitzers.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

I'm late to the party here, and haven't read the entire thread.   What I've seen is a pretty interesting discussion.   

 

I don't study the oline, and I don't have opinions about who's playing well and who isn't.  But the thread title and some of this discussion about Feliciano being better at center makes me think that the "football decision" McDermott made was driven by the upcoming bye week.  He had Morse coming back, and he knows that an extra two weeks without contact certainly is a good thing on the concussion front.   He also liked, apparently, the way things were going with Feliciano at center.  He'd also had a lot of disruption on the oline, with Spain dropping off the earth, Ford moving then getting injured, Feliciano coming back, Morse going down.   So his "football decision" may very well have been that for the Cards game he wanted continuity.   The continuity may have been more important to McDermott than any improvement he thought he might get by having Morse, Ford and Feliciano in the interior line spots.  

 

By keeping Morse off the field, McDermott got the continuity and then got two weeks to rework the oline one more time, so that he can come out of the bye with his three best players in the positions he wants them in, all healthy and ready to go.  

 

That's all just a hunch on my part, and someone may have said something similar in this thread.  If so, sorry for piling on. 

 

It's what both Daboll and McDermott explicitly said, actually - that they thought the line that played vs NE and Seattle had done a good job and they wanted continuity and another look.  Since on OL, "working as one" is critical, I think it's reasonable to believe that the best line for that game may be the one that's just practiced together for 3 weeks and played two successful games vs. the one that has the guys who are theoretically the 5 best (but have at most, 3 days of practice together).

 

For some reason, people can't seem to take what they say at face value and have to puff it into some grand "doesn't like Morse as a player any more" "Morse still injured" "sabotage!" conspiracy.

[MJS]

People are making much ado about nothing, in my opinion.

[YoloinOhio]

Bizarre. Quote on its own sounds like he was benched. Did not hear the whole exchange today

Edited November 25, 2020 by YoloinOhio

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

25 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

Just because coach does not state reasons does not make it a smokescreen.

It is just a false alarm from press/fans/kibitzers.

 

I was referring to it as a smokescreen strictly from the standpoint of it adds a little bit (admittedly minor overall) of confusion for the Chargers.  Who will they be facing a center and guard.  I'm sure there are slight differences in how they might attack Morse vrs Feleciano at center or Feleciano  vrs Winters at guard.  If it makes the Chargers spend an extra 1/2 hour reviewing how blocking might be slightly altered, it's still 1/2 hour less spent on something else.

[Shaw66]

33 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

It's what both Daboll and McDermott explicitly said, actually - that they thought the line that played vs NE and Seattle had done a good job and they wanted continuity and another look.  Since on OL, "working as one" is critical, I think it's reasonable to believe that the best line for that game may be the one that's just practiced together for 3 weeks and played two successful games vs. the one that has the guys who are theoretically the 5 best (but have at most, 3 days of practice together).

 

For some reason, people can't seem to take what they say at face value and have to puff it into some grand "doesn't like Morse as a player any more" "Morse still injured" "sabotage!" conspiracy.

Thanks.  You state it well.  

 

And I agree about the conspiracy theories, the smokescreens, and all that.  Every week, they're just trying to figure out how to win this week's football game, that's all.  They have dozens of decisions every week - who plays, who's inactive, who comes of the practice squad.  They think about it, talk about it, make a decision and move on.  They can't spend hours contemplating every decision.  In this case they probably simply decided that things had been going pretty well in the interior line and the bye week was the right time to do any repositioning.  That's a football decision.

[BADOLBILZ]

9 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Definitely agree Feliciano is a better center than guard (and the best center on the roster). Think that has been pretty obvious from day 1. As for the best combo I think it depends what the question is. If the question is purely focused on run game then I agree it is not out of the question. I think once you are looking at the big picture the chances become pretty remote. Especially because the Bills have acknowledged they are a pass first team. 

 

 

Yeah they also may be thinking about cutting ties with Morse after the season to save the $5M to help re-sign the healthier and better center............and his salary probably has injury guarantees if he is still not cleared in late March........which would be a concern if he gets another concussion.    

 

They already more than doubled down on their cap issues at the DT1T by cutting Dareus and signing Star to that fat contract.............getting Eric Wood-ed again by Morse and having to pay Feliciano at the same time would be disappointing.    

[BADOLBILZ]

20 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

Bizarre. Quote on its own sounds like he was benched. Did not hear the whole exchange today

 

 

Not blinking for a couple weeks..........yikes........sounds like he's toast.

[Back2Buff]

5 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

He does have an occasional snapping issue - I grant you that. The sacks against Seattle were mainly on blitz pickup and I think we do miss Morse there in helping set protections - although two of them are just absolute whifs by Knox and Singletary. Once the ball is snapped Feliciano gets significantly more push than Morse. 

 

Push where??  In the running game?  Our running game has been beyond bad with Feliciano at center.  Morse is also significantly better at swinging in the run game than Feliciano.  We really miss Spain in that aspect too.

 

Go back and watch Singletary from last year.  Morse and Spain constantly leading him down field.

[Mr. K]

I hope that when he is ready to go he gets back in and the combination of Morse and Feliciano help the run game improve.