Sullivan: Bills' McDermott choked away Super Bowl-caliber season

[Sharky7337]

8 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

The Browns are respectable. The Bills are much better than that.

 

 

Sean is that you? I'm sorry Sean! Next time I'll break out the thesaurus!!! I'll execute my adjectives better !

[BarleyNY]

8 minutes ago, All_Pro_Bills said:

Your preparation assessment is an excellent insight.  Maybe I'm drilling down to far here but it made me think of another disadvantage the Bills might have when it comes to playing the Chiefs.  I'm not suggesting any Jedi mind tricks or stuff like that but I wonder if another problem is that through their past association that Andy Reid knows how Sean McDermott thinks better than anyone else.  

For another example, look no further than how some former Patriot assistants like fired Dolphins HC Brian Flores seem to have good success against Belichik.  Is it because they know very well how the NE HC thinks?  

So rather than suggesting Sean become more aggressive maybe he needs to become more unpredictable?  Because I'll bet that Andy knew in crunch time at the end of the game just exactly what Sean was going to do.   

Knowledge of your opponent can’t hurt, right?  Especially when there isn’t a lot of change or growth.  I’ll give Reid a lot of credit.  When he was with the Iggles the joke was that he bought his tickets to Hawaii cheap because he got them early.  For the youngsters here, that was because he seemed to always coach the NFC team in the Pro Bowl which used to be held every year in Hawaii.  It was an honor that was given to the head coach of the losing teams in the AFC and NFC championship games.  And he was there a lot.

 

He was a very good coach, but he has grown into a great one.  Sure, he’s got Mahomes instead of McNabb, but he’s so much better now.  He'd get his team far, but you just knew that he blow it at some point.  He’s grown from one who was at McDermott’s level (and that’s certainly better than most) into what we have seen in KC.  We just have to hope that McDermott elevates his game - or finds coordinators that do.  Incidentally I think Daboll did a fantastic job, but is gone to the Giants this year.  Hopefully Dorsey is up to the challenge. 

[Boatdrinks]

6 minutes ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

I’d say the majority of fans are slow playing it here. Acting like it’s a given that we will be back several times. I’m not sure where that silliness comes from. All your window does is shrink rapidly once you pay the QB. You have to cash in on one of these soon because you never know when you aren’t going back. I’m sick about Sunday because I’m not the guy that just “knows” we will be back. You have to enjoy the ride each time because it could be it at any time. We of all fan bases should understand that. Keep pissing away these chances and all of a sudden you wake up and you are the Phillip Rivers Chargers. We should have won the super bowl this year. That’s not something you get to say to often.

Exactly. No guarantees at all. What did Rivers make , one AFC title game? May have just watched our best chance ever slip by. 

2 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Is Jerry right? Or just channeling people's frustrations? Because that's been his recipe his entire career. Pressing buttons. 

This time he’s right. 

[PromoTheRobot]

Just now, Boatdrinks said:

 

This time he’s right. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Ugh... Watched the live replay of the final 13 seconds. The Bills lined up in that shell defense before each timeout and then proceeded to lineup the same way at the snap. 

 

The 1st play to Hill you see a Bills coach, not McDermott, waving everyone to backup more.

 

 

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

People kept acting like the 1 seed isn’t that important. And hey both 1 seeds lost last weekend so there, I said it for anyone that is going to jump on me…..but for THIS team it’s very simple:

 In our history 

 

we almost NEVER lose playoff games at home 

 

we almost NEVER win playoff games on the road

 

The 1 means a lot to us

[Freddie's Dead]

3 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Wait, this squirrel has eyes!!  Thanks for the laugh, PTR, I needed it.

[Captain Hindsight]

1 hour ago, pigpen65 said:

Something is definitely wrong when a team has to have a double digit lead to get out of the game with a win. They lost every single close game this year. That's horrifying. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Its also just some bad luck. 

 

Josh slipped against Tenn. Blocked FG vs Pitt. Cody Ford had to play vs Jax, Hurricane vs Pats*, Coin Toss vs Bucs/Chiefs

 

Sometimes it just happens that way

[mannc]

2 hours ago, QCity said:

Even Jerry is throwing a tantrum. I know, I know, you're not going to click on it (you will). 

 

Sullivan: Bills' McDermott choked away Super Bowl-caliber season

Hard to argue with a single word of it.  

Josh Allen has been covering up the shortcomings of this coaching staff for three seasons now.  Without him, McDermott might not be much better than the mediocrities who preceded him…we might never have a better chance…

[JESSEFEFFER]

1 hour ago, pigpen65 said:

Something is definitely wrong when a team has to have a double digit lead to get out of the game with a win. They lost every single close game this year. That's horrifying. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't know what to think of that.  As it was, none of the 5 close losses were like this one with the D on the field, protecting a lead as regulation time was running down.  Yeah, they needed to be in prevent defense with 13 seconds to go, KC with 3 to's and at the ball at the 25.  But they played the wrong kind of prevent.  I don't think that they had repped a situation like that in live action the entire season.  Did they call the wrong type of D or did they call it right and the players messed it up? Do their options even have nuance to protect against a FG with 3 opponent tos vs. a TD with no tos?  They should options but maybe it didn't.

 

McDermott won't say what the problem was but he is protecting someone's reputation.  That's a very football thing.  In every other major sport it's pretty easy to see the person(s) that owns the mistakes.  Frazier's makes the most sense since he is trying to get a HC gig and it would be very bad timing to have him take the blame.

[PromoTheRobot]

2 minutes ago, Freddie's Dead said:

 

Wait, this squirrel has eyes!!  Thanks for the laugh, PTR, I needed it.

Couldn't find a blind squirrel gif.

[mannc]

12 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Is Jerry right? Or just channeling people's frustrations? Because that's been his recipe his entire career. Pressing buttons. 

Care to dispute anything in the column, Promo?

[May Day 10]

2 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

No way. That's a toxic environment. 

 

Criticism is fair, they weren't good in the big moment. 

This is correct.  This isn't the way the Bills are run, and this culture is a big piece of this engine.  Start being petty and you stop attracting up-and-comer coordinators and execs who want to advance their careers.  

 

I am sure behind closed doors there is a lot of attention being paid to the failures of the end of that game there.  It is being done respectfully and clinically.  They will use it to get stronger.  

[Buffalo_Stampede]

13 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

Someone has to go. Make a big change on defensive side. You just don’t get opportunities like the Bills had to fall into your lap every season. It’s going to be hard to host an AFC title game much less one without Mahomes in it. May never get as good a look at a Super Bowl, even with Josh. 

Firing Frazier probably has the opposite affect. Players wouldn't respect McDermott.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

3 hours ago, QCity said:

Even Jerry is throwing a tantrum. I know, I know, you're not going to click on it (you will). 

 

Sullivan: Bills' McDermott choked away Super Bowl-caliber season

 

Don't give him the clicks.  Please don't give him the clicks.

 

Of all the things that could make this sad week sadder, coming in here to see a thread spouting Sullivan's nonsense is salt in the wounds.

[Boatdrinks]

2 minutes ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

People kept acting like the 1 seed isn’t that important. And hey both 1 seeds lost last weekend so there, I said it for anyone that is going to jump on me…..but for THIS team it’s very simple:

 In our history 

 

we almost NEVER lose playoff games at home 

 

we almost NEVER win playoff games on the road

 

The 1 means a lot to us

I’ll disagree here. That may be true in the teams past history, but the NFL is different now. This loss wasn’t about the home field. While I’d have loved our chances in a home title game, it was more about home vs CIN. Home vs the Chiefs I would be a bit more uncomfortable about the outcome. There isn’t a huge home field advantage in the NFL anymore and the Bills were a botched 13 seconds from winning at Arrowhead twice this season. Without their best CB to boot. 

[dpberr]

When I read columns like this, I think about the history of what I consider Bills "over" reaction.  The firings of Polian and Butler were over-reactions to losses and those decisions had long term consequences.  The overreaction to the events in Nashville in 2000 set the franchise into the controlled decent into terrain that was the 2000s.   

 

I know the loss hurts, but I hope the Bills take a very deep breath before "making changes."   

 

 

[zow2]

My only solace with any of this, and it's helping me cope...is that for 17 years we didn't sniff the playoffs.  The Bills were mediocre or bad, sometimes a laughingstock, Tom Brady's b*tch, blah blah blah.  It was almost like Buffalo was not part of the NFL.   

 

So now we are back to being really good.  With that comes another soul-crushing loss in the playoffs.  I'd still rather have this than those 17 years of nothingness.

[PromoTheRobot]

1 minute ago, mannc said:

Care to dispute anything in the column, Promo?

 

The thumbnail given upthread tells me all I need to know. Jerry doesn't "know" anything. He's a professional finger pointer. He can't tell you what went wrong. Only that it was wrong and point a finger of blame. I don't need Jerry to know that. All he wants is for my blood pressure to go up.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

Extremely fair and accurate accounting of the game

 

I'm not going to read it to dispute that or not, but based on Sullivan's past track record (the reason I'm not going to read it), I doubt the "fair" and the "accurate" part.

 

This IS the guy who dissed off the press box spread under the Pegulas as being mini-bagels, only to have someone else post a pic of the entire thread. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

I'm sure this won't stop an army of posters here from trashing Jerry and the column, despite never reading a word of it.

Such is the way of ignorance.

 

I would say the "way of ignorance" is to keep doing the same thing (reading Jerry Sullivan) and expecting a different result (a "fair and accurate" accounting).

 

But You do You.