Have we bridged the playoff gap?

[Einstein]

The Bills have been regular-season-good for many seasons now. But we haven’t been able to break through in the playoffs.

 

We got blown out by the Bengals in the playoffs by 17 points. Some argue that we were simply out of mental steam due to the Hamlin situation. However, we also did not look good in the limited action we saw of the first Bengals matchup (pre-Hamlin injury). The Bengals walked down the field and scored a TD, and they were walking down the field again when the injury occurred. 

 

I think we can all admit that despite our record, the second half of last season wasn’t very comfortable. We lost to the Zach Wilson led Jets. We lost to the Vikings. We barely squeaked by the Dolphins at home. We needed a heroic last second throw and catch by Allen and Diggs to beat the Lions.

 

So here is my question - Is what we’ve done this off-season been enough to bridge the gap between the Bills and Bengals/Playoff Chiefs (playoff Chiefs are different than regular season Chiefs)?

 

Added:

 

Dalton Kincaid (love this)

O’Cyrus Torrence (love this)

Connor McGovern

Taylor Rapp

Deonte Harty

Trent Sherfield

Damien Harris

Micah Hyde comes back

 

Lost:

 

Tremaine Edmunds

Isaiaah McKenzie

Roger Saffold (addition by subtraction)

Jake Kumerow 

Cole Beasley

Jamison Crowder

Devin Singletary

 

I think we did get better. Kincaid brings something to this offense we have literally never had before. Ever. 

 

We re-tooled 40% of our o-line with McGovern and Torrence, and removing Saffold is addition by subtraction by itself. I don’t have much faith in Harty and Sherfield, but I refuse to believe they’ll give us any less than Crowder and McKenzie did last season.

What’s your thoughts? 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Einstein

[SCBills]

1) Defensive philosophy in the post-season needed to change.  Frazier out / McDermott in. 
 

2) Team needs more “dawg” in them.  Watching them last year, it felt like the only dawgs we had were Josh, Diggs and Milano.   Torrence and Williams are two draft picks, one on each side of the ball, that play with bad intentions.

 

3) Bills OL was a disaster down the stretch.  Now.. Year 2 of Kromer, full off-season for Brown, upgrade in McGovern and a massive upgrade in Torrence.  
 

4) Bills needed an answer other than Diggs and “chuck it down the field”.  They drafted the most dominant middle of the field option in the draft .. and the only guy in recent memory to get the Kelce comp.  
 

Id say we could still use an upgrade at WR2.  That could be a trade or simply Davis improving.  We also need bigger/better bodies on the DL.  Von coming back is obviously a complete game changer.  It sounds like Beane is going to bring in a DT soon.  Hopefully it’s a big body 1T, because we need someone besides Jones to keep OL off our slimmer/faster linebackers.  

[Success]

Personally, I don't think there was much to bridge.  We lost too many guys last year, and with all of the emotion around Hamlin, we weren't the same team in the playoffs.  

 

We beat KC at their place earlier in the season. Then the wheels kind of fell off.

 

But I'd say we improved more than our top competition this offseason.  The FA acquisitions and draft picks all make us tougher, more physical, more difficult to stop on offense.  We'll have a true running game for the 1st time since JA got here.  Miller & Hyde will be back, along with key defenders who were playing hurt at the end - Poyer, Phillips, Jones.  

 

Can't wait.

 

[Big Turk]

The Bengals game was an aberration, IMO.

 

Bills need to either outscore teams or limit their effectiveness scoring in the playoffs. Unless McD has some new wrinkles or calls the game differently, it doesn't appear we will limit teams scoring, at least not the elite offensive teams, so we will have to outscore them, which we 100% are capable of doing.

 

I think we have done a very good job at having a lot more answers, getting players that fit into different roles and getting better at protecting Allen.

 

We have become much more diversified by the looks of the additions.

 

I think Kincaid gives us that "X-Factor" piece that we have been missing where no matter what the defense decides to try and do they are going to be wrong and it's going to be a situation of how do you want to die, quickly or slowly?

 

I think this offense can reach a whole new level this year and that should be a very scary thought for the rest of the NFL.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Big Turk

[No_Matter_What]

There was no gap in the first place.

 

Yes we lost in PO 3 years in a row. Every team except SB winner does. 2020 we were weaker than Chiefs, 2021 we lost historic battle due to 13-second blunder and coinflip, a 2022 we lost because somehow everything went wrong (on field and mostly off-field).

 

People are making it bigger than it was. We were as good as Chiefs or Bengals overall but stars were not aligned our way. 

 

And yes I do think we are better on paper right now than we were last year. So again, we will be top 3 or top 5 favorites to win it all.

[Einstein]

11 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

The Bengals game was an aberration, IMO.

 

I know that this is a common theory, but in my opinion it ignores a mountain of evidence.

 

For example, the Bengals walked down the field and scored a TD, and were carving up chunks of yards again on their second drive before Hamlin went down.

 

The Dolphins gave us all we could handle the week before, and that was with a 3rd string QB (yes, I know the Dolphins offense did very little, but the game was still very tight). We lost to Zach Wilson and the Jets too.

 

I think it was more than an aberration.

[SCBills]

Defensive philosophy was an issue in the playoffs.  
 

Yes, we had 13 seconds and then an exhausting mental/physical end of the season that left us drained last year, but at the heart of it, our defense was not up to the task in the playoffs.   
 

On offense, we look to be much improved.  
 

On defense, we’ll see, but a change in philosophy was absolutely necessary.

 

Bend don’t break doesn’t work against a locked in Mahomes or Burrow led offense in the playoffs.    KC takes risks and so does CIN.  They beat the crap out of Allen by sending disguised pressure all game. 

[BuffaloBillsGospel2014]

There was never to me a huge gap, for us now it's going to take luck and health like just about every top notch team in the league. If our top players can stop getting hurt and we don't have players going into cardiac arrest we should be golden to compete for a SB once again imo.

[Chandler#81]

17 minutes ago, Einstein said:

The Bills have been regular-season-good for many seasons now. But we haven’t been able to break through in the playoffs.

We’ve won at least 1 playoff game every year in this era except an OT loss in Houston 

We got blown out by the Bengals in the playoffs by 17 points. Some argue that we were simply out of mental steam due to the Hamlin situation. However, we also did not look good in the limited action we saw of the first Bengals matchup (pre-Hamlin injury). The Bengals walked down the field and scored a TD, and they were walking down the field again when the injury occurred. 

Cinci & Buf had 1 drive each before Hamlin was hurt. “did not look good” in our 1st and only Drive? Ridiculous statement

I think we can all admit that despite our record, the second half of last season wasn’t very comfortable. We lost to the Zach Wilson led Jets. We lost to the Vikings. We barely squeaked by the Dolphins at home. We needed a heroic last second throw and catch by Allen and Diggs to beat the Lions.

 

So here is my question - Is what we’ve done this off-season been enough to bridge the gap between the Bills and Bengals/Playoff Chiefs (playoff Chiefs are different than regular season Chiefs)?

 

Added:

 

Dalton Kincaid (love this)

O’Cyrus Torrence (love this)

Connor McGovern

Taylor Rapp

Deonte Harty

Trent Sherfield

Micah Hyde comes back

 

Lost:

 

Tremaine Edmunds

Isaiaah McKenzie

Roger Saffold (addition by subtraction)

Jake Kumerow 

Cole Beasley

Jamison Crowder

Devin Singletary

 

I think we did get better. Kincaid brings something to this offense we have literally never had before. Ever. 

 

We re-tooled 40% of our o-line with McGovern and Torrence, and removing Saffold is addition by subtraction by itself. I don’t have much faith in Harty and Sherfield, but I refuse to believe they’ll give us any less than Crowder and McKenzie did last season.

What’s your thoughts? 

“Bridge the gap”?? What are you even talking about?

[Rockinon]

We may have improved, but it still feels like we didn't actually gain any ground. The division is going to be the toughest in the league. Just hoping the team stays healthy because we will be running a gauntlet on the way to the playoffs.

[NewEra]

I don’t think there was a “gap” when healthy.  I think the roster was right on par with both teams.  We just suffered major injuries. KC doesn’t win the SB without Chris Jones last year….just like we weren’t going to win the SB without Von Miller last year.  He changed our defense.  A true difference maker.  A closer.  Without him, we were working on borrowed time. The bengals OL was broken and KC had the healthy horses to make them pay.  We didn’t due to injury. 
 

We’ve upgraded this offseason.  I think the chiefs will be upgraded by off-seasons end.  I don’t think the bengals will be better, but more of the same great team.  They lost heart of their secondary but upgraded the OL, pass rush and corner.  The jags and chargers will be improved.  The jets and fins improved.  Same with the Ravens and Broncos.  
 

stay healthy.  The teams that do that will have the best chance imo.  Lots of luck involved in winning a title.  We’ll need some.

[Einstein]

4 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Defensive philosophy was an issue in the playoffs.  
 

Yes, we had 13 seconds and then an exhausting mental/physical end of the season that left us drained last year, but at the heart of it, our defense was not up to the task in the playoffs.   
 

On offense, we look to be much improved.  
 

On defense, we’ll see, but a change in philosophy was absolutely necessary.

 

Bend don’t break doesn’t work against a locked in Mahomes or Burrow led offense in the playoffs.    KC takes risks and so does CIN.  They beat the crap out of Allen by sending disguised pressure all game. 

 

I don’t think we are getting any change in philosophy on defense. McD and Frazier have the same defensive philosophy.

[Big Turk]

3 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

I know that this is a common theory, but in my opinion it ignores a mountain of evidence.

 

For example, the Bengals walked down the field and scored a TD, and were carving up chunks of yards again on their second drive before Hamlin went down.

 

The Dolphins gave us all we could handle the week before, and that was with a 3rd string QB (yes, I know the Dolphins offense did very little, but the game was still very tight). We lost to Zach Wilson and the Jets too.

 

I think it was more than an aberration.

 

And the Bills typically were not good in the first quarter but were much improved as the game went on on defense, so that doesn't really mean much either. 

 

Bills also marched down the field on the Bengals too, it wasn't like they stopped us either in the first game.

 

It's a single game really. The Bills were not mentally right in that playoff game. 

 

You are working OT to try and make a large case for something that doesn't really exist.

 

[Einstein]

1 minute ago, Big Turk said:

 

And the Bills typically were not good in the first quarter but were much improved as the game went on on defense, so that doesn't really mean much either. 

 

Bills also marched down the field on the Bengals too, it wasn't like they stopped us either in the first game.

 

It's a single game really. The Bills were not mentally right in that playoff game. 

 

You are working OT to try and make a large case for something that doesn't really exist.

 

 

You ignored all the other games I mentioned, but okay. 

[Big Turk]

4 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

I don’t think we are getting any change in philosophy on defense. McD and Frazier have the same defensive philosophy.

 

McD seemed to indicate he would be more aggressive in some situations.

 

The scheme is the same but we don't know about the philosophy yet. A more aggressive philosophy in key situations could make the scheme look different due to differing results.

 

We won't know that until mid season at least.

1 minute ago, Einstein said:

 

You ignored all the other games I mentioned, but okay. 

 

They lost a total of 3 games in the regular season by 8 points. Not sure what you are trying to get at. Seems like a very very weak argument and more like grasping at straws, IMO.

 

You could make that argument with any team really...the Chiefs lost to the Colts for God Sakes.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Big Turk

[SCBills]

5 minutes ago, BuffaloBillsGospel2014 said:

There was never to me a huge gap, for us now it's going to take luck and health like just about every top notch team in the league. If our top players can stop getting hurt and we don't have players going into cardiac arrest we should be golden to compete for a SB once again imo.

Sure, it takes luck .. I’ll certainly give you that.  If Chris Jones tears his ACL instead of Von Miller, they aren’t the 1 seed and they certainly don’t rep the AFC in the Super Bowl.  
 

On the flip side… does it?  The Pats dominated the AFC with Brady/Belichick and now KC is beginning to do the same with Mahomes/Reid. 
 

So, yea, it takes luck .. but luck doesn’t really explain it all when you keep flipping a coin and it constantly lands on the same side. 

[Einstein]

1 minute ago, Big Turk said:

 

McD seemed to indicate he would be more aggressive in some situations.

 

Yeah I think that’s probably true. McDermott is a more aggressive situational play caller. But the defensive philosophy is the same.

Just now, SCBills said:

Sure, it takes luck .. I’ll certainly give you that.  If Chris Jones tears his ACL instead of Von Miller, they aren’t the 1 seed and they certainly don’t rep the AFC in the Super Bowl.  
 

On the flip side… does it?  The Pats dominated the AFC with Brady/Belichick and now KC is beginning to do the same with Mahomes/Reid. 
 

So, yea, it takes luck .. but luck doesn’t really explain it all when you keep flipping a coin and it constantly lands on the same side. 

 

Yeah if it’s “luck”, then the Patriots had a lucky horseshoe up their arse for two decades.

[ngbills]

On paper we got better in some areas and worse on others. In all I don’t see an upgrade more of status quo. Hopefully the OL changes are what tilts the scale. 
However, the gap is not a real thing. The AFC has a bunch of good teams. It’s about coaching, luck, injuries and who shows up to play. 

[Big Turk]

3 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Sure, it takes luck .. I’ll certainly give you that.  If Chris Jones tears his ACL instead of Von Miller, they aren’t the 1 seed and they certainly don’t rep the AFC in the Super Bowl.  
 

On the flip side… does it?  The Pats dominated the AFC with Brady/Belichick and now KC is beginning to do the same with Mahomes/Reid. 
 

So, yea, it takes luck .. but luck doesn’t really explain it all when you keep flipping a coin and it constantly lands on the same side. 

 

The Pats mostly dominated because their division was so weak it was like an auto win for them every year and they had Brady and a defensive scheme that frustrated other offenses in the playoffs. They played a LOT of close games in the playoffs that could have went either way, rarely blowing teams out.

 

And they definitely got some luck along the way too...Tuck Rule anyone? They should have lost that game.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Big Turk

[The Jokeman]

Von Miller was supposed to be the difference maker. He wasn't around for the playoffs. While many think we took a step back we might benefit with his addition as well as Micah back. If Kincaid can man the slot it definitely brings a new dynamic presence to the offense.