How would you FIX the Bills?

[dave mcbride]

30 minutes ago, LittleSammy said:

Watching Ed Oliver yesterday laughing and joking on the sideline with his team down 20+ points at the time made me sick. That told me his motivation was his big fat paycheck vs. a true desire to win. Our arch nemesis, Bill Belichick would have had his a%$ on the waiver wire first thing this morning if Oliver did that on his team. Hopefully behind the scenes McDermott is reading these guys the riot act. Unfortunately, the the roster is not too deep in some key areas and he can't use the threat of a benching as a true "motivator".

Sideline watching from afar for displays of emotion is not a good way to judge people ... just sayin'. Oliver played decently yesterday anyway. He wasn't the problem.

[bigduke6]

build from the trenches out,  thats how id fix every team in the league.  u dominate the trenches,  doesnt matter much what else u have.  Dilfer won a Super Bowl cuz his teams lines were crazy good.   great Oline play can make a mediocre RB into a god.    great DLine play can make mediocre back end players seem amazing.      the premium positions are always the Lines,  and of course QB.    great QB cant do much if hes running for his life every snap tho.

Edited November 22, 2021 by bigduke6

[Steptide]

Get Diggs and Bease involved  early and often. They were our money makers last season. They need way more targets than what they're getting 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Steptide

[BarleyNY]

1 hour ago, PatsFanNH said:

Ok if you were the HC Right now what would YOU do to fix the issues you see with the team?
 

 Now As an outsider the one thing I’d change is running more and not being such a one deme soon also offense. Yes you have great WR and a great QB, but when your QB runs for almost as many yards as your RB and is not named Lamar Jackson IMO that’s wrong.  You need keep teams honest so things like PA work. 

The biggest issues have to be addressed in the off-season.  The Bills went all-in on the 2020 team philosophy that worked well overall last season, but that’s been derailed by injury and better schemes employed against us.

They need some real semblance of a running game, but the horses are not there for it.  Our OL is not a good run blocking unit and our backs are pretty pedestrian (though behind a good OL who knows?).  That’s not getting fixed anytime soon.  One off-season might not be enough at this point.

 

At this point for 2021 they might have to just have to run Allen more.  Some designed runs, RO plays and RPOs would be welcome.  Allen will take some hits, but he’s taking hits dropping back 50 times a game anyway.  And it just might get the run game moving.

 

Allen has to settle in against the defenses he is seeing and use better touch.  And the line has to be more consistent giving him time.  I wish I had access to All-22 on my Game Pass sub.  I might try it on my laptop to see if it is there.  To me it just looks like teams adjusted to our offensive scheme and we don’t have the right talent to adjust.

 

On defense the massive investment on that side of the ball - especially the DL - has yielded good results.  The bang for the buck isn’t there and that needs cleaned up.  We are really going to miss Hughes next season.  Rousseau has been better than I thought though.  He and Epenesa look like they will be two solid DEs moving forward.  But a real difference maker isn’t there on the DL, despite the investment.  One has to develop from what we have because we can’t pay one in FA.  So that leaves scheme.  I’ve been really disappointed in that against run heavy teams.  Tauron Johnson is a very good player and he plays the run well for a Nickel, but if a team is ahead and running a ton, put a 3rd LB on the field.  Also we don’t have the secondary depth to lose Tauron because he had to tackle a RB all day.

 

Scheming up pressures is obviously necessary too.  But it’s not happening like it should.  The plan was obviously to load the DL, rotate them and get pressure with 4.  But that’s not working.  That’s on McD.  This is his defensive scheme and the personnel are to his preference.  For what has been invested, the defense should be competitive against quality teams, not just ones lining up the likes of Jacoby Brissett, Taylor Heinicke, Davis Mills, Tua Tagovailoa and Mike White.  Mahomes is the only quality QB we’ve beaten this season.  That’s the whole list.  And we have lost to some not great ones.  (Note: Obviously the defense gets a pass on the Jax game.)

 

The good news is that we play against Trevor Siemian on Thursday - and his OL is not great.  The bad news is that we play NE and TB after that.  

[KCNC]

Running back by committee is not cutting it!

[Sugar High JA17]

I think this team needs to quiet the noise and go to work.  Not just expect to win...put in the work to make it happen. 

[Ray Finkel]

1 hour ago, dneveu said:

 

They came out running - then got off schedule, threw a pick.  Scored the next drive to make it 14-7.  Then it was 24-7 before they touched the ball again.  Mckenzies mishap changed what they were really able to do in the 2nd half.  That and their inability to figure out how to stop taylor.

You win in the trenches on both sides of the ball.  That is why the 90’s Bills never won the Super Bowl.  We had great talent but we’re overpowered in every Super Bowl.

[billsfan_34]

1 hour ago, Evian said:

Teams have no respect for the Bills running game.  Why should they?  The Bills constantly abandon it.   I think the Bills are just not hungry.  It is almost like they blew out a bunch of bad teams early and expect everyone to roll over for them.  Can you fix a mentally weak team?  I guess we will find out.

Our backs are 3s and best and the o line is epically bad- who would respect the run regardless if we abandon or not? 

[Ray Finkel]

I should have said future fix.  It is too late for this team.

[JoshAllin]

So basically a lot of people here are saying less of Allen throwing more of the RB's running. Sure this would work against certain teams but in the long run they'd get killed even with a stud RB in the lineup

[PatsFanNH]

26 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

The first thing I'd do would be to ban Patriots fans from posting on Bills fan sites.

 

Oh come on Gugny! You know ya love me.. lol

[Bangarang]

Fix the lines and you fix our major problems.

[PatsFanNH]

4 minutes ago, motorj said:

So basically a lot of people here are saying less of Allen throwing more of the RB's running. Sure this would work against certain teams but in the long run they'd get killed even with a stud RB in the lineup

I’m just saying run enough so teams have to respect it. Right now they don’t because even in close games your RB average about 9 carries total. 

[NoHuddleKelly12]

Well played OP, you’d like the answers to funnel to Hoodie as advance intel before the big Monday Night matchup I’m sure! 

11 minutes ago, Ray Finkel said:

You win in the trenches on both sides of the ball.  That is why the 90’s Bills never won the Super Bowl.  We had great talent but we’re overpowered in every Super Bowl.

Not XXV—Thurman ran roughshod, and Bruce got free a time or 2 as well…

[Solomon Grundy]

Is it too late for the HC to send a message to his team? Jimmy Johnson cut players for committing dumb, undisciplined penalties. This team has been committing these types of penalties lately. They need to stop in order for them to succeed. 

[BuffaloFan68]

Pitt, Tenn, Jags & Indy - straight up man-handled us.  Beat us physically.  Time to go with more youth, the only time I noticed Hughes yesterday was when he was chasing someone from behind at least 3+ yards away, never a real threat to anyone.  We need more guys like Brown in the trenches

[Solomon Grundy]

6 minutes ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

Well played OP, you’d like the answers to funnel to Hoodie as advance intel before the big Monday Night matchup I’m sure! 

Not XXV—Thurman ran roughshod, and Bruce got free a time or 2 as well…

Yeah, I blame Marv’s inability/unwillingness to adapt in that game. Clearly the Bills should have ran the ball more with Thurman rather than try throwing at 7 DBs. Sounds familiar….

3 minutes ago, BuffaloFan68 said:

Pitt, Tenn, Jags & Indy - straight up man-handled us.  Beat us physically.  Time to go with more youth, the only time I noticed Hughes yesterday was when he was chasing someone from behind at least 3+ yards away, never a real threat to anyone.  We need more guys like Brown in the trenches

I’m not with the ageism game. Yesterday Frank Clark, Justin Houston contributed to their team wins. Hughes has played well this season too. Every team needs some seasoning 

[KOKBILLS]

I said this (basically) right after the Playoff loss to KC...

 

On Offense...It's not about being a more balanced necessarily...It's about having a functional running game that opposing Defenses have to respect...That goes hand in hand with an O-Line that struggles in run blocking, and backs that lack that next level ability...Not much of this seems fixable right this second. Seems more personnel based (IMHO)...I'm saying that because McD has all but endorsed the strategy itself. So I think, they think, they are addressing this actual area in practice and game plan. Only to get poor results...

 

On Defense I was a BIG proponent of improving the DT position. I assumed Star was coming back, but to be honest I viewed every other DT outside of Oliver as a potential area of improvement...ESPECIALLY vs the Run...I know Joe Marino was on to this line of thinking. The Bills could have pretty easily Drafted a DT into this mix...One perfect example is a guy I liked for them, Tedarrell Slaton, who went #173 overall...To me a guy like that on day 3 just makes sense...Great size and decent athletic ability to work on...But they went 2 DE's, 2 OT's in their 1st 4...

 

Like I said yesterday...Based on what I see from a completely unscientific viewpoint...The Bills seem to need an off season in these next 3 days...It quite literally looks that bad...Obviously it's not...The Bills have the talent to get buy and tweak it all the way to a SB if things broke well from here on out...But then again there seems to be a disconnect with the coaching and strategy that was not there last year...It's just...Weird to be honest...

 

 

[harryS]

get a time machine to bring last season's Josh Allen into the present.

 

at a minimum, we win the Titans game and Jags game, probably the Steelers game,  and would be way more competitive against the Colts.  I mean, the Colts were the more physical team in the playoff matchup last season, too, but Josh kept matching them point for point and pulled out a win.  That Josh Allen is gone.

 

 

[416BillsFan]

Experiment with taking Daboll out of the booth and on the sideline. He and Allen have a good relationship, it would be good for the team to have Daboll talk with him face to face when he gets frustrated or overly emotional. He'd need this skill as a HC anyways, so why not start now?