Morse not starting was a "football decision" per McD

[hemma]

If we are going to get a more balanced attack, I think this could be our best 5:

Dawkins - Boettger - Morse - Feliciano - Williams

 

I say ‘could be’ because I don’t think we’ve seen this lineup all year long.  I do think Boettger is > Winters and for sure, Feliciano > Winters.

 

[Saxum]

On 11/16/2020 at 6:08 PM, Coach Tuesday said:

Then why wouldn’t he just say it was a health issue?

 

Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t Spain, Morse and Murphy the three biggest FA acquisitions for Beane thus far?  McD has benched all of them (or at least two of them, whatever the hell he meant re: Morse).

 

You are wrong. Despite some posters repeating this Murphy was inactive for one game this year when Bills tried to do something different and it did not work.  Maybe you meant Smith?

2020 Games

								Tackles					Off. Snaps		Def. Snaps		ST Snaps
Date	Week	Tm		Opp	Result	GS	Sk	Solo	Ast	Comb	TFL	QBHits	Num	Pct	Num	Pct	Num	Pct
2020-09-13	1	BUF		NYJ	W 27-17	*	1.0	2	0	2	1	1	0	0%	25	45%	9	35%
2020-09-20	2	BUF	@	MIA	W 31-28	*	0.0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0%	39	52%	6	20%
2020-09-27	3	BUF		LAR	W 35-32	*	0.0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0%	39	57%	9	38%
2020-10-04	4	BUF	@	LVR	W 30-23	*	0.0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0%	40	54%	6	22%
2020-10-13	5	BUF	@	TEN	L 16-42	*	0.0	2	1	3	0	0	0	0%	32	48%	2	8%
2020-10-25	7	BUF	@	NYJ	W 18-10		1.0	2	1	3	1	2	0	0%	24	42%	8	35%
2020-11-01	8	BUF		NWE	W 24-21	*							0	0%	37	57%	4	16%
2020-11-08	9	BUF		SEA	W 44-34	*	0.0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0%	29	45%	10	29%
2020-11-15	10	BUF	@	ARI	L 30-32	*	0.0	4	0	4	0	0	0	0%	34	47%	6	18

[Saxum]

On 11/17/2020 at 12:02 PM, Peter said:

 

As Fairburn states, "Sean McDermott’s vague comments on Mitch Morse do a disservice to Morse and to the fans."

 

 

 

 

IMO what the coach should do is ignore reporters who start their own slant rather than facts.  I have seen this done a lot but easier when you pick the reporter for questions rather than being in a video board where each of the reporters' questioned are asked.  Still you could pick the reporter last and mention ahead of time conference will be ended if questions are answered and the question is repeated again.

 

Bills dealt with those type of reporters for years and not healthy for team.

[JGMcD2]

4 hours ago, Limeaid said:

 

IMO what the coach should do is ignore reporters who start their own slant rather than facts.  I have seen this done a lot but easier when you pick the reporter for questions rather than being in a video board where each of the reporters' questioned are asked.  Still you could pick the reporter last and mention ahead of time conference will be ended if questions are answered and the question is repeated again.

 

Bills dealt with those type of reporters for years and not healthy for team.

I highlighted it in the thread prior, but McDermott seems to follow a pretty common interview tactic. 
 

If someone asks a question that he doesn’t want to answer, he just sort of recycles the question as his answer. The last question about “did Morse doing something off the field that caused him to not play, or was it a football decision?”

 

He very simply says “It was a football decision.” 
 

He’s too respectful to do much more than that IMO. 

 

 

[BADOLBILZ]

5 hours ago, Limeaid said:

 

You are wrong. Despite some posters repeating this Murphy was inactive for one game this year when Bills tried to do something different and it did not work.  Maybe you meant Smith?

2020 Games

								Tackles					Off. Snaps		Def. Snaps		ST Snaps
Date	Week	Tm		Opp	Result	GS	Sk	Solo	Ast	Comb	TFL	QBHits	Num	Pct	Num	Pct	Num	Pct
2020-09-13	1	BUF		NYJ	W 27-17	*	1.0	2	0	2	1	1	0	0%	25	45%	9	35%
2020-09-20	2	BUF	@	MIA	W 31-28	*	0.0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0%	39	52%	6	20%
2020-09-27	3	BUF		LAR	W 35-32	*	0.0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0%	39	57%	9	38%
2020-10-04	4	BUF	@	LVR	W 30-23	*	0.0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0%	40	54%	6	22%
2020-10-13	5	BUF	@	TEN	L 16-42	*	0.0	2	1	3	0	0	0	0%	32	48%	2	8%
2020-10-25	7	BUF	@	NYJ	W 18-10		1.0	2	1	3	1	2	0	0%	24	42%	8	35%
2020-11-01	8	BUF		NWE	W 24-21	*							0	0%	37	57%	4	16%
2020-11-08	9	BUF		SEA	W 44-34	*	0.0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0%	29	45%	10	29%
2020-11-15	10	BUF	@	ARI	L 30-32	*	0.0	4	0	4	0	0	0	0%	34	47%	6	18

 

 

Healthy scratch = benched

 

btw......those look quite a bit like Shaq's stats in Miami this year.

[NickelCity]

5 hours ago, hemma said:

If we are going to get a more balanced attack, I think this could be our best 5:

Dawkins - Boettger - Morse - Feliciano - Williams

 

 

I really want to see that lineup together.

[Monty98]

Just to throw this out there, if Morse is cleared health wise going into Sunday and the team is playing it safe and he isn't on the injured list then McDermott has to say it was football decision. If he says he wasn't healthy and we were just being safe, it leaves the Bills open to a fine or draft pick compensation losses. See Jerry Hughes 2 years ago I think it was, wasn't on the injured list but his wrist was injured and we caught a fine. So using the football decision makes sense, protects the team and Morse

[Saint Doug]

I see no problem if they chose to bench him. No starter should feel comfortable enough to underperform. If a coach thinks they are cutting it, then they take some time off to think about it. That said, I still wonder if this is tied to Spain’s cryptic tweet. 

[TheFunPolice]

13 hours ago, Monty98 said:

Just to throw this out there, if Morse is cleared health wise going into Sunday and the team is playing it safe and he isn't on the injured list then McDermott has to say it was football decision. If he says he wasn't healthy and we were just being safe, it leaves the Bills open to a fine or draft pick compensation losses. See Jerry Hughes 2 years ago I think it was, wasn't on the injured list but his wrist was injured and we caught a fine. So using the football decision makes sense, protects the team and Morse

 

I think this is it. 

[Chandler#81]

On 11/16/2020 at 10:36 PM, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

FWIW, in Daboll's presser he said "they've played a couple of games together and that's the direction we decided to go with for this game.  That doesn't mean anything for this week or the week after that".  He said it was a decision to maintain continuity on the OL: "just have some continuity going with those guys, they've done a good job, and we'll see where we go from that". 🤷‍♂️

 

 

Ok, but many of us armchair Coaches have opined since early last season that our run game improves dramatically with Mongo at Center.  Morse is very adept, but Feliciano is an animal. Poise & precision or Punch ‘em in the mouth?🤷‍♂️

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Uh-oh...is this the equivalent of "Jon Feliciano Has Entered the Chat"?

 

 

Hopefully he's just saying he'd rather be back on the field this Sunday in any capacity, not lobbying to stay under center! 

I agree with the people who say the line should be overall better with both Morse and Feliciano on the field.

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 11/18/2020 at 7:58 PM, Monty98 said:

Just to throw this out there, if Morse is cleared health wise going into Sunday and the team is playing it safe and he isn't on the injured list then McDermott has to say it was football decision. If he says he wasn't healthy and we were just being safe, it leaves the Bills open to a fine or draft pick compensation losses. See Jerry Hughes 2 years ago I think it was, wasn't on the injured list but his wrist was injured and we caught a fine. So using the football decision makes sense, protects the team and Morse

 

1) Since Morse was on the injury report, I don't think this applies - as far as I know, there is no requirement to list a guy as "questionable" in order to hold him out for injury

2) While the concern re: an injured player not showing on injury reports is correct, the Bills were cleared of wrongdoing and not fined over Jerry Hughes:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28575683/nfl-finds-bills-violate-reporting-policy-jerry-hughes-wrist-injury

[Doc]

31 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

Uh-oh...is this the equivalent of "Jon Feliciano Has Entered the Chat"?

 

 

Hopefully he's just saying he'd rather be back on the field this Sunday in any capacity, not lobbying to stay under center! 

I agree with the people who say the line should be overall better with both Morse and Feliciano on the field.

 

I am Twit-illit.  What does that even mean?

[NoSaint]

On 11/17/2020 at 11:28 PM, billsfan89 said:

I think they were saving Mitch from himself. Give Mitch an extra week to heal up and go into the Chargers game with 3 weeks of rest after a concussion. Mitch might have been medically cleared but that doesn't mean a coach shouldn't exercise caution when he has a group playing well. Slide Mitch back in at center and move Mongo to RG.

Either he’s medically cleared or he’s not. 

[Mr. WEO]

Not making him the league's highest paid Center (after KC felt they would be fine without him) would have been a better football decision.

[Beerball]

On 11/16/2020 at 4:39 PM, Back2Buff said:

When will people realize McDermott is an issue with this team?

Another @Gugny alias exposed.

[delirious]

I think we're making a mountain out of this mole hill tbh

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

I'll be shocked and dissapointed if Mitch isn't in there next week if healthy and Winters isn't sent to the bench where he belongs.(Assuming Ford is also healthy) 

 

Me too. 

 

As far as "medically cleared" I thought what Daboll and McDermott said was pretty straightforward.  They wanted to get another look at the OL they had through the previous 2 games.

 

The Bills had 2 wins with the Boettger-Feliciano-Winters interior OL.  In one of those 2 games, they had 190 yds and 5 ypc running the ball, with 167 of those yards belonging to the two RBs.  In the other, they had 19 yds on 11 rushes.  It's pretty clear that Feliciano does (at least) a decent job playing center, and most experts believe changes on OL hinder run blocking.    The outcome was, our run game against a good run D in AZ was not so good with 35 yds on 11 carries for the 2 backs.

 

I think the best overall OL on our current roster is probably Dawkins-Ford-Morse-Feliciano-Williams, so if we can field that line healthy, that's what I expect to see.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

I’m skeptical.... they have some weird obsession with Winters. 

 

So what do you think they would do, play him ahead of Feliciano?  Not happening unless injured.

[3rdand12]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

So what do you think they would do, play him ahead of Feliciano?  Not happening unless injured.

would you rather have Ford or Winters on the field ?

Feliciano at right or left guard, assuming Morse is ready to go against Chargers