The truth about is team is somewhere in between today's loss and the win against KC

[Sharky7337]

I think as I am a lot of people are pissed about the loss - understandably so!

 

Since week 1 there have been cracks in our team that have shown, and they are not perfect- however they can and will probably still have a hell of a season!

 

Some things that have irked me anyways up to this point:

 

• The O-line has clearly taken whatever the 2020 defense took in that previous off season  - They did some awesome pass blocking in 2020 and I cannot blame Beane for thinking keeping them together would be a win at least for the passing game -- however they have clearly regressed and now are not terriffic at either at times (passing or run blocking) Not addressing the run game at all (through the line and backs) is proving to be a mistake so far and that did concern me but i gave them benefit of the doubt

 

• Backups-- The Bills always frustrate me with this. Maybe we need to pay a kings ransom for Dante Scarneccia (whoever the old oline coach was for NE) -- Other teams have backup o-linemen in, backup cornerbacks, we can never seem to exploit them. Every other team exploits ours / other teams and it is probably perception but i'd love to take a shot on the new 3rd string db in the game and get something or a sack against the 2nd string line

 

• Run Game -- All the commentators, smart guys on sports radio ( WGR, some posters here, etc) that say "You don't need a running game in todays NFL"  -- this is a great example of why you do. Anytime you are one dimensional as a football team it is not a recipe for success. Today without being able to run effectively the jaguars defense looked like the 85 bears. We are so predictably futile at times with some of these short yardage early down plays it is infuriating, let's not even talk about screen plays. 

 

• Josh -- You know he was pretty much all of our offense. Man he can make some fantastic plays. I hope at some point he can grow beyond get him frustrated and watch him fail -- this is extreme way of saying it and he has gotten better about hero ball. ( I hope as he matures he can handle the frustration better ) Honestly though he played with heart and the blocking wasn't good so i can't be too hard on him

 

• Offense as a whole -- The offseason addition of more receivers has not had the impact, and I'm not actually sure what impact they were going for. Maybe from the KC game they wanted to add sanders as someone who can play through physical coverage. I feel like we still need a big bodied contested ball guy, but whatever our thinking was here - it's disrupted  or at least not helped our offense and we need to find a way to get diggs more involved again

 

• Defense -- Man they got left out to dry here and did a great job really. I'm really nitpicking here, but when you hav the ball in your hands, you really need to come up with it. Get to the juggs machines fellas!

 

• Coaching -- Living through the good times before and the horrible drought, to where we are now I find myself in an odd spot. I actually trust that the coaching and GM will do everything they can to win, and this makes me less concerned in general then i would have been under other regimes and i generally don't stress like i used to about their performances. But today was a stinker. It looked like even McD was thinking they were gonna come in and wipe the floor and had no answers on what to do when he had to ( questionable penalty acceptances etc).  I kinda understand though this game was a mess, the defense was not stopping them moving the football, and the refs could call a penalty at any second. I have faith they will get better because of this.
  • But they do need to know when their "project" players are good and bad. Boetteger and Ford, and when they have something good (Teller) is still something I'd like to see sh** or get offt he pot

 

• Refs-- I am biased but i have a hard time sometimes not thinking that favoritism or keeping games close is not in the decision process or some crews that are just downright awful -- today they were both it seemed -- but if you play well enough it doesn't matter. And we didn't

 

 

 

Some of these things can be corrected and coached and that's the good thing after a tough loss like this. 

 

In the end maybe this piece of humble pie will propel fans and players to new heights. But I think it's safe to say, threads about when our backup QB will be in the game before it is played, should be off the table for a while.

 

 

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Sharky7337

[Ross Murdock]

All obvious points to make. There is NO rational reason for Beane to sit on his hands at the trade deadline. His obviously believing the press accolades that head his way. It's pure arrogance. The league is full of bottom feeders just looking to get draft picks at this point. Even team with less than 3 wins will still have better offensive lineman available than Ford, Feliciano and Boettger. Probably a 4th or 5th round pick would have pried a few of these away. Now were stuck with garbage. Same with running backs. The Bills are now totally exposed by the likes of the Dolphins and the pathetic Jags that the offense can't take a punch in the mouth. They'll be lucky to beat Belichick once, if that. Looks like 10-7 and maybe a wild card spot. And if they lose to the Jets (Not unthinkable now) 9-8. Who have they beat?          

[Sharky7337]

Ya unfortunately all the people applauding the organization for roster building, did they see this line?

 

And when is the line coaching start coming into question.

 

For years we have missed judged talent on O line.

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Sharky7337

[Nextmanup]

6 minutes ago, Sharky7337 said:

Ya unfortunately all the people applauding the organization for roster building, did they see this line?

 

And when is the line coaching start coming into question.

 

For years we have missed judged talent on O line.

 

Why can't fans understand that we can't fix every aspect of the team, both sides of the ball, at one time?

 

The O line is the last team to really get attention, and you better believe it will get a lot of attention this offseason.

 

Who ever said this was the year we win it all?  Calls for a SB are far fetched.

 

We might not get it right for another 3 years.  

 

If we do get it right and win the big one, who cares!?

 

 

[Heels20X6]

18 hours ago, Ross Murdock said:

All obvious points to make. There is NO rational reason for Beane to sit on his hands at the trade deadline. His obviously believing the press accolades that head his way. It's pure arrogance. The league is full of bottom feeders just looking to get draft picks at this point. Even team with less than 3 wins will still have better offensive lineman available than Ford, Feliciano and Boettger. Probably a 4th or 5th round pick would have pried a few of these away. Now were stuck with garbage. Same with running backs. The Bills are now totally exposed by the likes of the Dolphins and the pathetic Jags that the offense can't take a punch in the mouth. They'll be lucky to beat Belichick once, if that. Looks like 10-7 and maybe a wild card spot. And if they lose to the Jets (Not unthinkable now) 9-8. Who have they beat?          

 

My concern with Beane is that he seems fearful of mortgaging the future to win in the present. That his way of building the franchise to date (and has been successful) has been to field a team, let the season play out, then fix the issues via the draft.  That's fine in some cases but THIS is the year that you should have decided to go all in on.  The Chiefs are faltering, the Titans just lost their MVP and the Ravens, Raiders, Chargers, etc. all look fallible.  

The Rams saw this same weakness in the league and decided to go all in on 2021.  I wish Beane did the same thing.  But he seems like he's always thinking "ok, maybe next season then".

[Blainorama5]

5 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

Why can't fans understand that we can't fix every aspect of the team, both sides of the ball, at one time?

Oh yes we can.  We have the BEST armchairs in the league - dare I say we're headed to the Armchair Super Bowl !!!

With the magical all-knowing and all-seeing abilities our armchairs give us, we can fix ANY problem our team ever encounters - and make it seem sooo easy.  Because it IS easy.  It's not our money, it's not our roster to manage day-to-day.  Piece of cake.

 

Problem is, the team simply chooses to ignore all the amazing advise we give them.

[SoCal Deek]

This team has no fire in their belly. It’s less about Xs and Os and more about a desire to flat out crush their opponents…week in and week out. They’re good for clowning around on the sideline, and midweek…but somebody has to get mad on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately nobody is and our coaches simply aren’t those kind of guys. So, it just ain’t happening. You think Tom Brady puts up with Beasley dropping a pass, or Williams forgetting the snap count? NOT A CHANCE!

[zow2]

This team is so Josh Allen dependent for everything on O.  The only comparison in the AFC is prob Lamar Jackson.   I mean if Allen is having even an iffy game, the entire offense goes to pieces.  There's no one else to pick up the slack, and by that i mean you can't even hand the ball off and smashmouth for a bit. 

[SoCal Deek]

19 minutes ago, zow2 said:

This team is so Josh Allen dependent for everything on O.  The only comparison in the AFC is prob Lamar Jackson.   I mean if Allen is having even an iffy game, the entire offense goes to pieces.  There's no one else to pick up the slack, and by that i mean you can't even hand the ball off and smashmouth for a bit. 

Smash mouth is as much an attitude, as it is a strategy. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

38 minutes ago, Nextmanup said:

Why can't fans understand that we can't fix every aspect of the team, both sides of the ball, at one time?

 

The O line is the last team to really get attention, and you better believe it will get a lot of attention this offseason.

 

Who ever said this was the year we win it all?  Calls for a SB are far fetched.

 

We might not get it right for another 3 years.  

 

If we do get it right and win the big one, who cares!?

 

 

 

 

The one difference in the KC game we had 3 other players out there on offense.  That's over 25% of starters didn't play and 40% of O line which is probably the weakest area of the team including back ups so not sure you really can compare.  If we get at least Brown and Knox back next week and still look like this, then is the time to worry.

 

I do agree about not being able to address everything at once.  They did draft 3 O linemen this year so also not like they did nothing there and brought in two interesting FA who if one had worked out, would have been helpful.  They also brought in a ton of players on the line two or was it three years ago.  The problem is with the exception of Brown most are for depth only.

[jkeerie]

20 hours ago, Ross Murdock said:

All obvious points to make. There is NO rational reason for Beane to sit on his hands at the trade deadline. His obviously believing the press accolades that head his way. It's pure arrogance. The league is full of bottom feeders just looking to get draft picks at this point. Even team with less than 3 wins will still have better offensive lineman available than Ford, Feliciano and Boettger. Probably a 4th or 5th round pick would have pried a few of these away. Now were stuck with garbage. Same with running backs. The Bills are now totally exposed by the likes of the Dolphins and the pathetic Jags that the offense can't take a punch in the mouth. They'll be lucky to beat Belichick once, if that. Looks like 10-7 and maybe a wild card spot. And if they lose to the Jets (Not unthinkable now) 9-8. Who have they beat?          

There was a good interview with Beane  in the Buffalo News yesterday.  Here's what he said about trades:  

 

The Buffalo News: The trade deadline came and went Tuesday and you guys decided to stand pat. What went into that decision?

Brandon Beane: “You know me.

We looked at a lot of things, and took calls, but just where our roster is at, it had to be something that, if we’re going to lose this player, that makes sense. Either something that’s going to help us now, or we know we’re going to turn it into something in the future that makes sense. Not a late pick, when you get down in the draft. So we looked, but at the end of the day, the deadline brings all this stuff, but the one thing people don’t realize is, you’ve got a 17-game season. You’ve got seven teams that now make the playoffs, and you’ve got certain teams with GMs and head coaches that are fighting for their job. It really narrows the pool of guys and teams that are actually willing to do something that I will call a win-win.”

 

 

BN: So you got calls. Did you make any calls?

BB: “Yeah, definitely made calls, and I didn’t just pick up the phone Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. We’ve had calls with teams. The deadline is the deadline, and maybe it puts some urgency on it, but we’ve gotten calls all season and we’ve made calls at certain times to check in and say, ‘Hey, if your situation changes’ ... like, you might call a team, knowing it’s three weeks before the deadline, ‘Would you guys ever move anyone off this position?’ Maybe they tell you, they wouldn’t do player A, but we’ll do player B or C.

Or we would consider it. Or, you tell them, ‘This is the player I’d like. If anything changes on your end, let me know.’ And we track them. That’s a lot of the conversations. Some of that was follow up Monday and Tuesday, of, ‘All right, I know we talked a few weeks ago, is this a player you’d be willing to part with?’ Either it was, but it was too premium of a price, or it was ‘No, we’re fighting our butts off for our own team.’

 

It takes two to make a trade...and I for one am glad that Beane looks at the total cost of whatever opportunity may be there.

 

[eball]

The truth...is out there.