Mashups of my thoughts after this game, losing confidence in the coaching.

[ColoradoBills]

If fans want to look myopically for a reason to put all the blame on the Bills record on the coaches, they can find reasons to do so.

In reality if a fan wants to look for a single reason for blame, they can.  It won't be true but that's just human nature.

 

From the Pegula's through Beane and the coaching staff down to the depth players plenty of criticism can be found.

Personally, I find little solace in these attempts.

 

To paraphrase Thomas Payne concerning The Buffalo Crisis "These are the times that tries men's (players and coaches) souls".

 

They face a must win game this coming Sunday and their mettle will be tested.  It's up to the entire organization to notch wins.

I will watch the game and hope for a big W just like my avatar.

[BillsVet]

21 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

This.

 

Guy still thinks defense wins championships…. Still doesn’t have a clue offensively…. As @MAJBobby pointed out that quote before half time is all the more proof…. It’s all the more confusing because they want to run the ball more and yet did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for an offensive line that sucked at running the ball last season. McD was too concerned about more defense for his precious line rotation. 

 

After every tough loss people gonna point to things that happened on the field, but it's what happened in the off-season which counts more.  

 

Why does McD need those LB's and his DL rotation?  If we're pursuing continuous improvement, the focus needs to be squarely on why the HC needs what he does and whether it provides value.  For example, he's drafted 4 DL in the top 2 rounds of the last 3 drafts.  I didn't see much from any of them last night, nor from the  4 year veteran 1st round MLB who we keep hearing will figure things out.  

 

Besides, after 4+ seasons building his defense, why can't it not provide better performance?  He's picked all the players, had his scheme in place all that time, and yet still comes up small in key moments.  Perhaps it's because more offense is a better option than more defense.  

[All_Pro_Bills]

14 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

This.

 

Guy still thinks defense wins championships…. Still doesn’t have a clue offensively…. As @MAJBobby pointed out that quote before half time is all the more proof…. It’s all the more confusing because they want to run the ball more and yet did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for an offensive line that sucked at running the ball last season. McD was too concerned about more defense for his precious line rotation. 

Lack of a single dominant defensive line player, little depth at LB, bad interior offensive line play, deficiencies at RB.  How did the GM address them?  By ignoring the problem in 3 areas and going all in on the other with the rotation strategy at the defensive line.

 

Management addressed the defensive line by committing the 1st and 2nd round choices in the draft to the group.  The defensive line rotation was a good idea in theory but not in practice.  You've got 8 or 9 guys without any one dominant player.  What good is that?  Substituting players to keep them fresh and playing at an unproductive level.  The fix right now is to identify your 4 best players and increase their snaps to about 75%.  And on top of that committing a large portion of the cap to this under-performing group.  Find a couple star players for this group and drop the rotation approach. 

Drafted two OT's.  A position where the team has two established starters already.  The problem is the interior of the line and other than a late round pick they did nothing.  This was a gamble that failed miserably.  Get some guards and think about moving on from Morse next season.

Playing the nickel package they rely on Milano and Edmunds so this area was also ignored.  They resigned Milano which was smart.  Edmunds has all the measurable's and by all accounts should be an excellent LB but it just hasn't translated to consistent performance on the field.  My prediction is he eventually goes to a 3-4 team and becomes a better player in that scheme. 

At running back the big move was to add Matt Breida.  A move that looked good on paper.  But he's rarely seen the field until recently and his fumbles have been costly.  I don't see him or Moss on the roster next year.  Singletary has value as a role player but the team needs a workhorse number one back. 

 

The other thing is game plan.  I'd simply argue the Bills have almost the exact same game plan on offense and defense no matter who they're playing.  And the same plays.  It seemed like they spent the entire off season planning and preparing to beat the Chiefs and forgot about the other 30 teams.  And once they beat the Chiefs it was mission accomplished and they seemed to sit back and declare victory.  But their whole approach has become so predictable it doesn't take a top NFL coaching staff to figure out what is coming.  They could play a team with the worst run defense in the league or the best run defense in the league.  Doesn't matter.  Run the ball 12 to 15 times and throw 40 to 45 passes.  On defense the same thing.  Play the base 4-2-5 and if it doesn't work wait until the 4th quarter to make any adjustments.

 

Execution by the players is always the problem when the Bills play NE.  Belichik played it ultra-conservative last night because as he always does he was counting on the Bills committing their typical dozen or so accumulated blunders.  And as usual the Bills didn't disappoint. 

[Nextmanup]

2 hours ago, Billl said:

This is the most tired narrative in sports.  Play calling barely matters.  If there was ever a game that proved it, it was this one.  McDaniels ran the same 4 plays over and over and over.  The Bills didn’t lose because they called better plays.  They lost because they didn’t execute.  Diggs lost track of a sure TD.  Knox dropped balls like it was a paying job.  The defense got gashed one a play that went 70 yards.  Bass missed a short FG.  Brieda somehow tried to take a handoff without using his hands.  Play calling doesn’t change that.

 

Last night was about discipline and mental toughness, not creativity.  

You forgot about Josh consistently missing wide open receivers, especially near the end of the game, when it mattered most and would have changed the outcome of the game. 

 

Of course a part of that was the breakdowns in the offensive line causing Josh to panic.

 

EXECUTION.  That's what it ALWAYS comes down to.

 

 

[Billsflyer12]

I agree that there seems to be some disconnect between OC and HC. GMBB built this team as a QB centric, pass/stop the pass team, but that is not who McD is.  He is to his core a conservative, defensive mindset coach.  
 

Is it possible that it is McD who disconnected from how this team was built and how they want to operate it?

 

Wondered if had to choose and only 1 can stay, would they pick McD or OC?

Edited December 7, 2021 by Billsflyer12

[Meatloaf63]

2 hours ago, bmur66 said:

I see we all watched the same game. It must be a nice, warm feeling to handoff the ball and watch a RB and O line do their thing. I hope Josh Allen gets to experience that someday. 

Did not anybody learn anything about Dan Marino’s career? Fix the damn running game this off-season, fix the o line!!!!

[John from Riverside]

For those asking for more passing in this game I invite you to look at that sequence where the ball was almost intercepted.....twice....one right after another on an out route

 

This is not all that complicated to me.....teams have had the offseason to look at our unbalanced offense and have caught up to it....the weather conditions amplified it.....and we are not running the ball ENOUGH but we cant run the ball because we dont have the horses to do it

 

Our starting RB is not on the team yet.....the OL needs to be OVERWORKED like they did DE's this past offseason with guys with Spencer Brown's attitude....and we need to go into next season with the ability to get 100 yards on the ground if we WANT which will then translate over to the passing game

[ngbills]

3 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

The deficiencies of the team weren’t exactly hard to find after last season specifically after the playoffs…. There were plenty of people questioning the strategy all off-season and all were shut down by many on this board. 

I can vouch for that. I was told how clueless I am in the offseason and again early in this season when I said the O is out of sync. But we have the best this and that so my who cares about what I am watching...

[Sisyphean Bills]

After the playoff loss, it was clear the Bills pass rush was anemic and had to be addressed. Did they make the right moves? Do enough? That's a debate.

 

But the Patriots just whipped McD at his own game: toughness. With the exception of a few series, the Patriots were able to ground and pound the defense at will. It wasn't deceptive in the least. Anybody and everybody could see what was coming. Yet, the Bills coaches unrelentingly played a base defense, defenders kept getting caught out of position, and we were outnumbered at the point of attack play after play, down after down.

 

That game proclaimed to the world that the AFC East still goes through New England. If McD really wants to establish himself as the new thug in the division, he needs to look in the mirror, figure out what is needed to win a trench war, and realize some adjustments in "the process" are needed.