Serious question; what causes a team to pancake like this?

[Jauronimo]

3 minutes ago, Billsflyer12 said:

If a coach literally says absolutely nothing to say at any press event, I would rather they don’t have them.  McD should Quit wasting everyones time with dull, boring, nothing crap.

Lets add NFL media rules to things you have a tenuous grasp on.

 

Newsflash, McDermott would rather not have to answer to the media several times a week.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Jauronimo

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

There’s this guy named Murphy 

 

and he has this kind of dumb law.  
 

it usually doesn’t end well 

[Patrick Duffy]

Little of just about everything I'd imagine. Everything from injuries/covid listed players being unavailable, bad play calling at times/scheme, down to bad games just sometimes happens...

[Thriftygamer83]

3 minutes ago, Sheneneh Jenkins said:

Little of just about everything I'd imagine. Everything from injuries/covid listed players being unavailable, bad play calling at times/scheme, down to bad games just sometimes happens...

Great Coaches move past this can remember Levy slowly rotating offensive linemen in and out while confusing defenses with placing different OL into different sots knowing he could trust them.  Just we on't seem to hve that trust or even real improvement along the line

[Patrick Duffy]

Just now, Thriftygamer83 said:

Great Coaches move past this can remember Levy slowly rotating offensive linemen in and out while confusing defenses with placing different OL into different sots knowing he could trust them.  Just we on't seem to hve that trust or even real improvement along the line

Oh I agree. Even with important players out etc, I didn't expect them to be as bad as this...

[RunTheBall]

So I think there’s some pretty good agreement on the main problems 1) O-line 2) D-line 3) Bad penalties 4) Crap schemes 5) Attitude/sense of urgency

 

The fact is, we can’t change the personnel too much but we can change a lot of things going forward. IDK how a coach instills discipline in terms of penalties but its been done before. If this team can stop getting in its own way with horrible timed penalties that has a snow ball effect on both sides of the ball. Attitude/energy comes from the leaders on this team. Again, idk what they need to say or do to inspire the rest of this team but maybe, just MAYBE getting absolutely destroyed in your own house will have an effect. If it doesn’t then we aren’t even making the playoffs.

 

The lines are a bigger problem, and this is where coaching comes into play. There is no reason on D we can’t scheme up something better to slow down the run. That doesn’t mean abandoning the nickel, but you don’t have to play it nearly 100% of the time! Switch it up! Throw in some 4-3, some Dime at particular times. Same thing on O. We saw heavier packages against the Jets, I really thought we’d see more of that going forward. Get heavier up front, get more protection, give Josh a few seconds and he will find Digs, Bease, Knox out there. Decrease the number of routes being run and shore up the protection. 

 

Finally, McD has to tell DouchBall that if he doesn’t stick with the RB with the hot hand and KEEP RUNNING he’s fired. I’m so sick of seeing Singletary or Brieda show some life only to be pulled for Moss to run into the line for no gain. 

 

We absolutely need to establish a running game where teams just can’t ignore it completely and T off on Josh 5 yards behind the LOS. I don’t care how it’s done. Josh, Singletary, Brieda, jet sweeps. Use it all and keep using it. Issue number one with this O is the lack of effective (not all the time, just effective) running. If we can’t develop that, we are going nowhere.

 

[dpberr]

Short answer:  Reading your own press and believing it.  The team isn't hungry. 

 

[JohnNord]

On 11/22/2021 at 10:14 AM, dorquemada said:

I said this after the Jax game.  A friend of mine who used to work in the Pats org, and probably knows more about football than anyone I know, said that the Bills have a cancer on the team.  He doesn't follow them close enough to guess who/what it is, but he said it's as clear as day.  It's hard to argue against that, given how they're swirling the drain

Ex Pat Friend: The Bills have a cancer on the team”

 

You: Who is it?

 

Ex Pat Friend: I don’t know enough about the team.  But trust me, there’s a cancer. 😂😂

[HalftimeAdjustment]

My feeling is that the problems with the offense can be broken into 2 areas:

1) Real lack of depth on the offensive line

2) A problem with Brian Daboll's ability to scheme up a Cover 2 beater and the players' lack of faith in their scheme to beat the Cover 2 defense.

 

As far as the defense, well, Vernon Butler and Harrison Phillips are not strong enough at the point of attack to stop a power running game. Note, this was also a problem for them last year.

 

This talk of a "team cancer" or some internal division over Covid-19 seems far fetched to me.

 

[JohnNord]

On 11/22/2021 at 10:34 AM, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

There was some talk about this in one of the threads after the game.  A divide between covid vaxxed and non covid vaxxed players is one theory.  I don't know if it's true; almost every team is dealing with this, and per Beane, the Bills are 91% vaxxed which by my math means 6 players.

 

I disagree with that interpretation (the context of how McDermott was asked matters, it's not like he was asked "how are they doing?" he was asked 2x in rapid succession "how did missing.....affect you?" and he said first "with all respect, I'm going to talk about the guys who played" and then asked the same thing on the very next question said "we respect their decision and I'm going to talk about the guys who were here". 

 

I thought it was pretty clear 1) he was ticked 2) they were known to be fine but it's not like he was asked "how are they doing?" and showed he didn't care

 

 

 

One thing McDermott rarely does is throw players under the bus.  He will say things like “we need more from ____” but he won’t say anything to really single anyone out in a negative way. 

[Patrick Duffy]

Just now, JohnNord said:

One thing McDermott rarely does is throw players under the bus.  He will say things like “we need more from ____” but he won’t say anything to really single anyone out in a negative way. 

He will clap at every negative play though lol

[JohnNord]

34 minutes ago, SlimShady'sSpaceForce said:

There’s this guy named Murphy 

 

and he has this kind of dumb law.  
 

it usually doesn’t end well 

John Murphy?

[Thriftygamer83]

16 minutes ago, dpberr said:

Short answer:  Reading your own press and believing it.  The team isn't hungry. 

 

No wonder why penalties stacked up something has to happen.  We don't seem to have any discpline or anu real leaders right now. 

[Nextmanup]

On 11/22/2021 at 10:01 AM, npeartisgod said:

I am sure most, if not all of us, have never been inside the NFL machine. And I am well aware that it is a business and the business lives on our money. But, I am genuinely curious (amidst another disappointing day after) what causes a team with such an auspicious start to just pancake? Is it inner lockerroom politics? Is it that the players and management are at loggerheads? I get that we don't have a real run threat, and that makes us rather one dimensional, but our D is spectacular, and Josh is the real deal. I would be interested to hear serious opinions or insights.

 

BTW, Brady is on his way to a three game losing streak for the first time in a decade.

 

Go Bills!

Injuries, lack of depth at key areas, a very poor offensive line, and the wrong kind of matchup against Indy are what caused it.

 

It's always those sorts of things.  Every game is made up of lots and lots of on-field details.  Sometimes things go right, sometimes they don't.

 

This isn't chess.  At the end of the day, you have to execute.

[dorquemada]

33 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Ex Pat Friend: The Bills have a cancer on the team”

 

You: Who is it?

 

Ex Pat Friend: I don’t know enough about the team.  But trust me, there’s a cancer. 😂😂

 

yeah, i mean, he was basing it on watching the Bills go from world beaters to chumps in the space of a few games.  If you don't think there's a problem, then keep that spirit alive

[Low Positive]

The NFL has shifted, seemingly overnight, from a passing league to a running league. I mean, TEN and IND don't even have mediocre passing games yet they keep winning games. Mac Jones' world beating stat line against ATL was 207 yards, with one TD and one INT. When they beat CAR, he had 139 with one TD and one INT. Yet, they keep winning. We were told for years that in order to win you had to have a 300 yd passer and a defense designed to stop 300 yard passers. This year, all that seemed to change overnight. 

[dorquemada]

15 minutes ago, FrenchConnection said:

The NFL has shifted, seemingly overnight, from a passing league to a running league. I mean, TEN and IND don't even have mediocre passing games yet they keep winning games. Mac Jones' world beating stat line against ATL was 207 yards, with one TD and one INT. When they beat CAR, he had 139 with one TD and one INT. Yet, they keep winning. We were told for years that in order to win you had to have a 300 yd passer and a defense designed to stop 300 yard passers. This year, all that seemed to change overnight. 

 

Yup.  The magical passing Offenses may have been a moment in time.  We've seen it before.  Houston & ATlanta in the early 90s are a couple I can think of off the top of my head, but the glory era bills always had a very balanced attack, not to mention none of the 3 stooges we have at RB today are fit to hold TT's jock

[John from Riverside]

On 11/22/2021 at 7:09 AM, Dablitzkrieg said:

My guess is a disjointed locker room.  McDermott could give 2 ***** about the guys on the covid list yesterday.  Very telling when your "leader" reacts the way he did.

Not sure if serious......

[RunTheBall]

I think a good number of us have been concerned about the lack of a balanced attack for years. There are a lot who’ve been spewing “just pass every down” but I think that’s more from a sense of frustration in the running game and not a complete lack of football knowledge. 

 

We can be a pass first offense with an effective running game. Either Daboll doesn’t want to be or doesn’t know how to be. I think after this year we definitely need a new OC. He was great helping Josh develop and the consistency in coaching staff was an big part of that. Josh doesn’t need the same OC anymore, he will be good in any system. 

[JohnNord]

53 minutes ago, FrenchConnection said:

The NFL has shifted, seemingly overnight, from a passing league to a running league. I mean, TEN and IND don't even have mediocre passing games yet they keep winning games. Mac Jones' world beating stat line against ATL was 207 yards, with one TD and one INT. When they beat CAR, he had 139 with one TD and one INT. Yet, they keep winning. We were told for years that in order to win you had to have a 300 yd passer and a defense designed to stop 300 yard passers. This year, all that seemed to change overnight. 

It’s a copycat league…. teams emulate trends that work but eventually the rest of the league catches up to them.  I still think there’s a ceiling to how far these types of teams can go but…we’ll see