Thoughts Day After Jags Disaster

[corta765]

I did my 24 hrs before posting rule and I apologize Virigl if I steal some of what you would say again this week (hey great minds think a like) but here I go:

 

1. This is the biggest crossroads for McD since the Peterman start and subsequent disaster vs the Chargers. The talent is there to be a Super Bowl team without a doubt, but the flaws are there like any team. The Bills besides being bad on offense and very undisciplined as a team also looked disinterested. The week before against Miami it took until Milano's big hit to seemly awaken the team. Since McD has started this is the least invested the team has been which is my greatest concern and his greatest challenge. McD has done a superb job in his time here getting the team to buy in and truly grind day in day out and take nothing for granted. Since the KC win they look like a team mentally that does not know how to handle being the alpha team. The Bills have had bad losses but you never questioned the buy in or energy whereas yesterday some of then players genuinely seemed to just kind of expect success just because. This is the Bills biggest hurdle more then anything, even when they had lesser talented teams in 2017-2019 you knew they were going a full 60 mins with you. They need to find it and if they do not the season will have a quick end.

 

2. I have been a Brian Daboll defender and he deserves a lot of credit for Josh's growth and the offenses progression. But time has come for serious questions with his play calling an overall play design. Three separate losses all have had play calls on QB runs, or runs in general, or passing formations that are very east/west in design that leave the casual fan saying what are you doing? With Josh getting the crap kicked out of him why are you running him on 3rd and 2 when your in FG range with Bass who makes those kind of kicks all day and the day itself has been a five alarm fire? For an offense that was soo aggressive last year and creative, this year is a shell. Has Isiah McKenzie had a single jet sweep this season which is a really good play typically? Why is Diggs role feeling so limited? Injuries are part of football, you still need to figure out a way to make it function. He has been behind the ball on many trends in each game until it feels too late. Firing Daboll probably is a bridge too far, but McD needs to have a meeting about the offense and type of play calls they are running and lack of red zone production.

 

3. Hero Ball Josh made its return but I cannot necessarily blame him. That was Allen's worst game since NE 2019 (week 4) in my eyes. This season I actually think he has been anywhere from decent (PIT) to great (KC) and not truly had a bad performance and the team was winning or competitive because of him. Yesterday was a day where if he just held the ball or didn't force it they win just by allowing points on the board. That said I 100% get why he got to that extreme because the offensive line was offensive and he got zero help. I am less concerned with Josh in terms of play because I know he will bounce back, we know what he is he is fine in that regard. My giant concern is the hits he is taking at this point. He no longer is getting hammered on runs but regularly in the pocket. Even if he does not get a full injury that beating can wear a guy where he is just not at his best when it matters. A team like Vegas would have a field day in the playoffs against Josh if the line play doesn't improve.

 

4. Tyler Bass is criminally underappreciated. This kid had a rough start in 2020 and since then has been pure money. When we are from distance I do not even worry about him now and across the league kicking has been subpar this year. Appreciate we got a good one even in a game as bad as yesterday.

 

5. Defense you were failed yesterday and that really sucks. 

 

6. Voodoo! I swear we got some weird voodoo in Jacksonville and play really weird and crappy games there.  Adding to poor voodoo might be time to retire the white jersey and blue bottoms for good I am buying that it is cursed. Also if you are an NFL player DO NOT GO ON MANNING CAST it will wreck your week! VOODOO!

 

7. After Baltimore and Tennessee the AFC is all over the place right now which is good and bad. I am a big believer that you do not know a lot at week 8 compared to the end of the season and getting too antsy right now is not worth it. That said the Bills have a pretty wild field of teams they are fighting for with the playoffs and NE is going to be close at seasons end. I still think the Bills will take the division, but you are not getting the cake walk we had last year. The #1 seed is hard to think of now, but the the AFC is really tight and I truthfully do not think you could make a truly solid guess right now at who is taking the 1 seed.

 

8. I said last week it was foolish for people to so quickly write-off the Titans loss as no big deal and the team would just bounce back. Football is not linear by any means and emotion matters. The Bills still look like a team that is just expecting to win despite getting punch down in a prize fight three weeks ago. There probably is some truth to the schedule being weaker and the team underestimating it. Last year was easy to get motivated as they wanted the division crown so bad after being so close the prior year where a loss like AZ wasn't a big deal. This year the Titans game if anything was a car dashboard that warning lights started coming on as Josh was constantly under pressure throughout and the O line had a rough night while the D had a down game. The offensive trends have continued and finally the engine broke yesterday asking for repairs.

 

9. On a final lighter note apparently it was 59 in Jax and Bills fans were in the pool. Never change Bills fans never change

Edited November 8, 2021 by corta765

[Big Turk]

I hate to say this because we all know how it ended, but I draw very similar parallels to the Bills last year and this year versus the Sabre teams in their first and second years out of the lockout.

 

The first year, it was more like "Wow, we are really good and we need to maintain our focus and prepare each game to prove to ourselves and everyone else that we can do it".  Both teams made it to the Conference Finals in their first year of being "really good".

 

Then the next year came and that Sabre team became complacent and knew they were so good that often times they looked disinterested and decided they could just turn it on in spurts to win games, even though their power play was atrocious(to the point I remember people asking if we could decline penalties) and they seemed to skate aimlessly a lot of times and not play with any passion or emotion.  They still won most of their games and in fact won the President's Trophy that year but something was just "off" with that team even if you couldn't put a finger on it.  It's like their success and talent bred overconfidence and a belief that things would come easy to them with minimal effort.  They weren't ready for the playoffs and even though they made Conference Finals again, the team never really looked like a threat in that series and lost 4-1 to the Senators.

 

This is the same path I am afraid this Bills team is started down...their immense talent and ease with which they were dismantling teams over the past year and a half has led to an almost "god-like" feeling where they can do no wrong and no matter what they do, they will just win because they have more talent than the other team.  Well...that was proven wrong yesterday, now they need to regroup and try and get that mentality they had last year back...but once it's gone and that lax mindset takes over, is it really possible to get it back the same season??

 

I'm not sure.  I am afraid the Bills are going to suffer the same fate as those Sabre teams, or worse and not even make it the AFCG this year with their mindset.

 

[Sugar High JA17]

Our team needed this loss, bunch of over paid athletes that need to play hard & earn a win. Our 2021 cocky bills will prevail

[corta765]

14 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

I hate to say this because we all know how it ended, but I draw very similar parallels to the Bills last year and this year versus the Sabre teams in their first and second years out of the lockout.

 

The first year, it was more like "Wow, we are really good and we need to maintain our focus and prepare each game to prove to ourselves and everyone else that we can do it".  Both teams made it to the Conference Finals in their first year of being "really good".

 

Then the next year came and that Sabre team became complacent and knew they were so good that often times they looked disinterested and decided they could just turn it on in spurts to win games, even though their power play was atrocious(to the point I remember people asking if we could decline penalties) and they seemed to skate aimlessly a lot of times and not play with any passion or emotion.  They still won most of their games and in fact won the President's Trophy that year but something was just "off" with that team even if you couldn't put a finger on it.  It's like their success and talent bred overconfidence and a belief that things would come easy to them with minimal effort.  They weren't ready for the playoffs and even though they made Conference Finals again, the team never really looked like a threat in that series and lost 4-1 to the Senators.

 

This is the same path I am afraid this Bills team is started down...their immense talent and ease with which they were dismantling teams over the past year and a half has led to an almost "god-like" feeling where they can do no wrong and no matter what they do, they will just win because they have more talent than the other team.  Well...that was proven wrong yesterday, now they need to regroup and try and get that mentality they had last year back...but once it's gone and that lax mindset takes over, is it really possible to get it back the same season??

 

I'm not sure.  I am afraid the Bills are going to suffer the same fate as those Sabre teams, or worse and not even make it the AFCG this year with their mindset.

 

Good comparison and I tend to agree. 05-06 like 2020 Bills were just hard working motivated driven teams. The high end talent exists on this Bills team and 06-07 Sabres, but there 100% is a level of complacency because they turned it on. This season to me is just starting to feel like they will make the playoffs but they will lose early, perhaps in a really really gut punching way that might be needed to snap them into focus long term. The KC game on they just look so damn different.

[BillsIsrael]

1 hour ago, corta765 said:

6. Voodoo! I swear we got some weird voodoo in Jacksonville and play really weird and crappy games there.  Adding to poor voodoo might be time to retire the white jersey and blue bottoms for good I am buying that it is cursed. Also if you are an NFL player DO NOT GO ON MANNING CAST it will wreck your week! VOODOO!

 

[SCBills]

Two Thoughts:

 

1). Bills are squandering a gift of a schedule that was made for a run at the 1 seed.   Week to week league, and things change, but Baltimore has a horseshoe up their *** and Tennessee looks great.   Starting to look like we may have a home WC game (if we hold off the Pats) and then potentially road warriors throughout.  
 

2).  Our fans.  Took over Miami, Nashville and Jacksonville.  Miami, we won.  Nashville, close loss.  But what a disgusting performance from a team that ran out of the tunnel to a road stadium filled with 60-70% Bills fans. 

[Greg S]

4 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Two Thoughts:

 

1). Bills are squandering a gift of a schedule that was made for a run at the 1 seed.   Week to week league, and things change, but Baltimore has a horseshoe up their *** and Tennessee looks great.   Starting to look like we may have a home WC game (if we hold off the Pats) and then potentially road warriors throughout.  
 

2).  Our fans.  Took over Miami, Nashville and Jacksonville.  Miami, we won.  Nashville, close loss.  But what a disgusting performance from a team that ran out of the tunnel to a road stadium filled with 60-70% Bills fans. 

 

Probably will see a decent amount of blue at MetLife this Sunday. Drunk Bills fans mixed in with drunk Jets fans. What could possibly go wrong here. 

[Ned Flanders]

Starting to feel like 1989 here.  Coming off an AFC championship appearance in 1988, expectations were VERY high going into 1989.  A home loss vs. Denver on MNF, some bad losses along the way (especially at Atlanta) and the Bills ended up winning the division with a pedestrian 9-7 record.

 

The 1989 playoff loss at Cleveland gave birth to the K-Gun and good times followed starting in 1990.

 

Will history repeat itself?

[LABILLBACKER]

31 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Two Thoughts:

 

1). Bills are squandering a gift of a schedule that was made for a run at the 1 seed.   Week to week league, and things change, but Baltimore has a horseshoe up their *** and Tennessee looks great.   Starting to look like we may have a home WC game (if we hold off the Pats) and then potentially road warriors throughout.  
 

2).  Our fans.  Took over Miami, Nashville and Jacksonville.  Miami, we won.  Nashville, close loss.  But what a disgusting performance from a team that ran out of the tunnel to a road stadium filled with 60-70% Bills fans. 

Seeing how we filled that stadium yesterday and what little effort our OL gave breaks my heart. I could care less if we had 5 new olineman next year. McD better Immediately shut down "goof off" practices. You think Belichick would allow that crap. We saw how far nice guy Marv got us. The process better include kicking some a ss.

[corta765]

4 minutes ago, Ned Flanders said:

Starting to feel like 1989 here.  Coming off an AFC championship appearance in 1988, expectations were VERY high going into 1989.  A home loss vs. Denver on MNF, some bad losses along the way (especially at Atlanta) and the Bills ended up winning the division with a pedestrian 9-7 record.

 

The 1989 playoff loss at Cleveland gave birth to the K-Gun and good times followed starting in 1990.

 

Will history repeat itself?

 

I get the comparison in terms of big success followed by a downer esq season, I just never have bought the following year the team is due to be great then. I actually think they can still turn this around despite the flaws on offense, the biggest thing is they just need to be smarter and more cohesive across the board on offense.

[LABILLBACKER]

5 minutes ago, Ned Flanders said:

Starting to feel like 1989 here.  Coming off an AFC championship appearance in 1988, expectations were VERY high going into 1989.  A home loss vs. Denver on MNF, some bad losses along the way (especially at Atlanta) and the Bills ended up winning the division with a pedestrian 9-7 record.

 

The 1989 playoff loss at Cleveland gave birth to the K-Gun and good times followed starting in 1990.

 

Will history repeat itself?

I hope the losing 4 straight SB part doesn't repeat.

[corta765]

6 minutes ago, Gene1973 said:

Next week will determine if this is even an option. Pats may have the AFCE lead before the Bills play them.

The Pats have some legit tough games, but yea they are there and I wouldn't be stunned if at some point they actually have the lead.

[LittleSammy]

Look at the bright side. At least we don't have to listen to the endless Josh Allen vs. Josh Allen comparisons from the microphone and keyboard jockeys in the media next week. 

[BuffaloBill]

The next few weeks will show how good, or not, McDermott is.  His shtick has stopped working. He needs to alter his course especially with the offense. It’s really sad that the D is playing lights out and the offense has lost its way.

[Irv]

Too many undisciplined penalties.  Twenty-two total yards rushing out ot Moss and Singletary.  Two picks.  Awful. 

 

https://www.nflpenalties.com/game/buffalo-bills-at-jacksonville-jaguars-11-07-2021

 

  

[ngbills]

14 minutes ago, Irv said:

Too many undisciplined penalties.  Twenty-two total yards rushing out ot Moss and Singletary.  Two picks.  Awful. 

 

https://www.nflpenalties.com/game/buffalo-bills-at-jacksonville-jaguars-11-07-2021

 

  

9 carries...I  dont think they are great so am with you there. But what do expect if you are only calling 9 running plays to your RBs?

[corta765]

39 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

The next few weeks will show how good, or not, McDermott is.  His shtick has stopped working. He needs to alter his course especially with the offense. It’s really sad that the D is playing lights out and the offense has lost its way.

 

Agreed. There are three outcomes which are 1. Bills get their stuff back together and win division 2. Bills make the playoffs but barely and NE wins division 3. miss entirely. I believe its fairly likely it ends outcome 1. , but if it ends up being 2 or 3 I think it is fair to question McD and his long term future.

Edited November 8, 2021 by corta765

[Logic]

1 hour ago, SCBills said:

Two Thoughts:

 

1). Bills are squandering a gift of a schedule that was made for a run at the 1 seed.   Week to week league, and things change, but Baltimore has a horseshoe up their *** and Tennessee looks great.   Starting to look like we may have a home WC game (if we hold off the Pats) and then potentially road warriors throughout.  
 

2).  Our fans.  Took over Miami, Nashville and Jacksonville.  Miami, we won.  Nashville, close loss.  But what a disgusting performance from a team that ran out of the tunnel to a road stadium filled with 60-70% Bills fans. 

It's not just an easy schedule that they're squandering, either.

It's also a down year for Kansas City (who one would assume will be contender for the one seed more often than not over the next decade), and seemingly a year too early for the young up-and-comers (LAC, Bengals, etc).

The Bills have the number one scoring offense and number one scoring defense, and have still somehow lost three out of eight games. 

To have this type of schedule, this type of talent, and this type of opportunity within the conference all align, and to be squandering it the way the Bills seem to be....is pretty tough to watch.

I can't help but wonder if the failure to upgrade the interior offensive line is going to ultimately be the thing that costs the Bills their best shot at a championship in 30 years.  

[JohnNord]

4 minutes ago, corta765 said:

 

Agreed. There are three outcomes which are 1. Bills get their stuff back together and win division 2. Bills make the playoffs but barely and NE wins division 3. miss entirely. I believe its fairly likely it ends outcome 1. , but if it ends up being 2 or 3 I think it is fair to question McD and his long term future.

You do realize that McDermott still has 4 years on his contract right?  He also has a boatload of goodwill and power around OBD after turning a loser of a franchise into a top team.  You can hope all you want but the reality is - he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  One bad season, isn’t going to change that 

[Livinginthepast]

1 hour ago, LittleSammy said:

Look at the bright side. At least we don't have to listen to the endless Josh Allen vs. Josh Allen comparisons from the microphone and keyboard jockeys in the media next week. 

CBS has never been more appropriately named if you watch their football broadcasts. The non stop Josh vs Josh and the abysmal lack of replays on game changing plays or penalty calls was excruciating to watch. I found myself having to rewind the DVR to see a replay because they were slow to show one. In addition, the broadcasters kept missing the Jags right tackle moving early over and over again. He did it relly obviously about 6-7 times and no mention. Just pathetic Sports Tv.