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

[extrahammer]

I used to like Jerry, I try to be a realist, then for whatever reason, it seems like he went all in on embellishing this sensational counter personality. It's not cute nor real, I think his best days of writing are far behind him. Just wanted to say that in case he reads this. 

[mannc]

1 minute ago, Niagara Dude said:

Dude unless Bass is stupid  I am sure he knows the difference and when you watch the replay he takes a big run up to the ball.  Second year players don't usually ignore their HC and his intent was clearly to kick it through the end zone. Sounds more like Sean did not want to be questioned about his decision and talked about execution.  Execution is if he kicks it out of bounds and they get the ball at the 40

Read my post again…I think you and I are in agreement 

[muppy]

4 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

good morning.

 

I wish his picture hadn't been front and center I dont want to see that mess. lol Anyway this to me reads as a very predictable factual typical Sullivan piece.  Im out of market so I don't read this guy very often unless posted here.  Does he have an ax to grind with the Bills or is he just telling things as He sees it. Just his name sends off my skeptical spidey senses just from the general impression I get from 2bd regarding this guy. 

 

I skimmed it and thought yeah yeah yeah yeah....and then it was over for me. I'm still not right with Sundays events yet......exhale

 

m

[NoHuddleKelly12]

It was a fair article overall imho. Good on you Jerry. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

5 minutes ago, Chicken Boo said:

 

Green Bay wasted a large portion of Aaron Rodgers career.  Dan Marino has stated several times how he always thought he'd get another shot at winning a Super Bowl.  

 

 

After the playoff drought, no one should be taking this recent success for granted.  Nothing is promised in this league.

Wasted how? Many coaches have been fired during Rodgers career. He's had 2 head coaches, multiple defensive coordinators. 

 

When is a career not wasted? Rodgers won a Super Bowl and won many division titles.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Buffalo_Stampede

[Chicken Boo]

Just now, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Wasted how? Many coaches have been fired during Rodgers career. He's had 2 head coaches, multiple defensive coordinators. 

 

Failing to have a solid running game for him to lean on, porous defenses and bad coaching. 

[Buffalo ill]

4 hours ago, oldmanfan said:

Allen's prime time lasts for another 15 years.  And I hope McD looks at that last 13 seconds and realizes that he has to make his defense be more aggressive.  

In 15 years the nfl will be flag or "2 hand touch" football.  I hope Buffalo wins a superbowl before soft people turn the game into soccer.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 minute ago, Chicken Boo said:

 

Failing to have a solid running game for him to lean on, porous defenses and bad coaching. 

They won a lot of games. I'm not following. 

[mannc]

2 minutes ago, Chicken Boo said:

 

Failing to have a solid running game for him to lean on, porous defenses and bad coaching. 

And constantly using top draft picks on defense instead of trying to give your Hall of Fame franchise QB the best possible weapons…sound familiar?

[muppy]

5 hours ago, All_Pro_Bills said:

 

I wouldn't call it choke more than I'd say it was simply the incorrect strategy and decisions given the situation.  What I believe McDermott and Frazier failed to account for most in their decision was the fact the Chiefs had their 3 time outs.  If they would have had zero or one time out left then it might have made more sense.  That to me is the failure. Failure to factor in the time outs into the decision, failure to account for the fact the sidelines meant nothing to the Chiefs in how they'd play the final 13 seconds of the game.  Just bad judgment and thinking based on the situation they faced.  And they had plenty of time to run through the thought process between the Bills score and the kick off over a long commercial break in the game.  So not enough time to think it through can't be an excuse. 

 

Excellent post. I chose to bolded because for me it is the crux of the matter as clearly stated as I've read. And I agree with it.

 

The word choke referring to air constriction or something causing someone to choke is a completely different concept than when it is used in a football context. It is Meant to show disgust,  ineptitude, FAILURE...........it's a visceral word that if sullivan REALLY wanted to acquiesce and not rub the Bills nose in it..he didnt have to use it..but he did.......and a lot of people identify with it and agree he's right. But That word choice in a literary sense speaks volumes and the Bills heard it loud and clear. It sucks to be called a choker.

 

m

 

@leh-nerd skin-erd

Edited January 25, 2022 by muppy

[Chicken Boo]

Just now, Buffalo_Stampede said:

They won a lot of games. I'm not following. 

 

They won a lot of games because of Aaron Rodgers.  Ted Thompson was a notoriously cheap GM who didn't believe in spending money in FA to help build the roster and they held on to Mike McCarthy for about 3-4 seasons longer than they should have.  

 

Imagine a scenario where the Bills do something like this every year, failing to reach the Super Bowl while Allen plays his ass off.  That's wasteful.

 

 

[Logic]

I'm of two minds about this.

On the one hand, when evaluating a head coach, you can't just separate a few bad decisions in one game from the entirety of the season (and really, the previous few seasons, the building of this team and its culture, etc) that allowed the team to be in that game and with a chance to win it.

In other words, it's easy to say "McDermott failed in a big moment, get rid of him!", but you're not looking at all of the moments throughout the season in which he did NOT fail. What gives the bad ending of the Chiefs game more weight than the absolute dominance in the Patriots game that preceded it? Is McDermott the guy whose team TWICE destroyed the brilliant Belichick, or is he the guy who choked in the KC game? He's both. If you're going to isolate a coach's bad decisions, it's only fair to weight them against all the GOOD decisions, the well coached game, the totality of his body of work.

McDermott is a very good head coach. Does anyone here doubt for one second that if the Bills fired him, he'd be snapped up by another team immediately? The grass is always greener on the other side...until it isn't. Whatever coach you want to insert into the head job here...there's no guarantee that he has the team winning 10+ games every year to begin with. Don't think that an elite QB guarantees winning seasons. We've seen lots of great QBs' prime years squandered by being paired with lackluster coaches and deficient rosters.

On the other hand...it IS fair to ask the following question: Is Sean McDermott the right coach to get the most out of Josh Allen's career? He's a detail oriented, player friendly (but still not a pushover) leader of men. He's built a great culture, demands accountability, and almost always has his team ready and playing well. At the same time, he'll never NOT be a defensive minded head coach. He'll never NOT have a steak of old school conservatism in his coaching. Does it make more sense to pair Allen with an elite offensive mind, and one who is not afraid to constantly push the envelope and be aggressive?

Is this all just "prisoner of the moment" stuff? Is any of it legitimate? It seems PREPOSTEROUS to propose getting rid of the second most successful head coach of the Bills in the past 40 years. But...is it? Bottom line: IS McDermott the guy who can guide Josh Allen to a Super Bowl? I would say we certainly can't and shouldn't move on from him now. That would be insane. But how many more non Super Bowl seasons would it take? At what point what Beane/Pegulas throw in the towel on McDermott?
 

[Niagara Dude]

20 minutes ago, mannc said:

Read my post again…I think you and I are in agreement 

Cheers brother

[Freddie's Dead]

We need to face facts.  McDermott could ***** up a wet dream.  We all saw it Sunday night.

[BillsSbSoon]

Hes not wrong at all, and reading that makes it sting a little more than it already does. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

11 minutes ago, Chicken Boo said:

 

They won a lot of games because of Aaron Rodgers.  Ted Thompson was a notoriously cheap GM who didn't believe in spending money in FA to help build the roster and they held on to Mike McCarthy for about 3-4 seasons longer than they should have.  

 

Imagine a scenario where the Bills do something like this every year, failing to reach the Super Bowl while Allen plays his ass off.  That's wasteful.

 

 

I remember people saying NE didn't draft that great. They never had great WRs other than Moss for a few years. No great RBs. Great TE. 

 

But anyways why are you predicting something that's not even reality? The Bills have closed the gap on KC in 1 season. We're talking about being Super Bowl caliber for 2 seasons, and they already caught KC.  It hasn't been a long time.

 

Maybe I'm missing something. What exactly aren't the Bills doing? Why don't you believe they will do what's needed to finish the job next year?

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by Buffalo_Stampede

[The Frankish Reich]

2 hours ago, Nihilarian said:

Going into that kickoff the Bills had a 94.3% win probability

I noticed that (think it was in the WSJ article). Off the top of my head I would have set the win probability much higher - probably 99.5% or something. And remember, that's "win probability," which includes the chance of KC tying and then the Bills ultimately winning in OT.

So you're right - with a little perspective now, we can say:

- it was an extremely unlikely outcome that KC would tie (5 in 100 such scenarios; probably somewhat higher if we say "win or tie")

- it wasn't, however, a Music City Miracle level of improbability, which was probably more like 99.9%

- and this wasn't kicking it off to an average offense over the period of time the win probability is calculated (say, kicking off to 2021 Steelers - a roughly average scoring offense this year, adjusting for the higher scoring environment of 2020-21). Then again the Bills are ostensibly the best defense of 2021 ...

 

At any rate, this was no Music City Miracle. It was astounding when it happened, but in retrospect ... crap like this happens more than we think it does.

 

 

[Niagara Dude]

31 minutes ago, mannc said:

Read my post again…I think you and I are in agreement 

This kind of Chinese fire drill that we saw is not acceptable if you expect to be a champion,  I really don't want to hear about excuses.  Sean took timeouts and still we had players  well off the line and conceding easy pitch & catch opportunities.  Never mind the kick off,  how someone explain we we did not have at two defenders committed to jamming or even holding the Chiefs two best players Hill & Kelce who gained 45 yards on back to back wide open passes and you had Bills players protecting the sideline when the Chiefs still had all of their timeouts.  Someone needs to own this car wreck finish

[TheFunPolice]

Choking is when you don't play the way you are capable of playing. 

 

Rodgers is a perennial choker, who plays amazing all season then vanishes in the playoffs. He scored 10 points at home with the #1 seed. Zero urgency. Zero passion. Zero heart. Close to zero results. 

 

The Bills (and especially Allen) did not choke. Maybe the defense, that I would entertain. Their performance was very Rodgers-like (#1 rank and vanished when it mattered).

 

There's getting beat when you go down swinging (Allen) then there's getting beat and you didn't even show up (Rodgers every year and the defense in the 13 seconds). Hill and Kelce caught the ball and weren't touched for 20 yards. Cover them. If they beat you they beat you. But the D didn't even play defense. 

 

 

[mannc]

Just now, Niagara Dude said:

This kind of Chinese fire drill that we saw is not acceptable if you expect to be a champion,  I really don't want to hear about excuses.  Sean took timeouts and still we had players  well off the line and conceding easy pitch & catch opportunities.  Never mind the kick off,  how someone explain we we did not have at two defenders committed to jamming or even holding the Chiefs two best players Hill & Kelce who gained 45 yards on back to back wide open passes and you had Bills players protecting the sideline when the Chiefs still had all of their timeouts.  Someone needs to own this car wreck finish

Yeah, the details don’t really matter…it was a s**tshow at the worst possible time, and that the HC’s responsibility.