Have we bridged the playoff gap?

[LyndonvilleBill]

28 minutes ago, NewEra said:

We were the #2 scoring defense in the league….. how is that different than being the #2 scoring offense?  
 

we had multiple huge injuries on D all season.  We had no injuries on offense.  
 

thoughts?

Not much different. I just think the OL improvements will have a bigger impact on our O than new te/wr will. Love the additions on O. Really like our fa signings and draft picks. 

 

May not have had injuries per say on O, but, the OLine sure played like they did.🤣

[Don Otreply]

2 hours ago, SCBills said:

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.  

#1 is the prime mover here, not saying our offensive additions are not important, because they certainly are, but for the most part it has been the defense that has let the team down , and it wasn’t so much the players.  It appears that Sean came to the same conclusion, hence the changes going forward, fingers crossed that the O-line makes a significant jump in performance, it must happen for future success. I’m feeling confident that we are doing the right things to take care of those issues we all saw.

[Billz4ever]

36 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

I concur. The defense is probably good enough. The Super Bowl showed us it doesn’t matter much if you’re the #1 defense anyway ( dubious late penalty flag and all ) You’re not shutting down the best offenses in todays game and need to match score for score. Then it likely comes down to having the ball last - which is where the SB was heading before “ the call” . Even with the Bills favorite status going into last season, most everyone thought it was theirs to win IF they stayed healthy. As you pointed out , that didn’t happen. 

Yep, look at the SB. That beastly Philly pass rush who led the league in sacks by 15 over the next closest team looked helpless in the 2nd half against the Chiefs.

 

You're rarely going to dominate the Chiefs defensively.  You just have to hope for some bad passes and key stops here and there and aim to outscore them.  That's what we did when we beat them in their house this past season.  The focus needs to be getting points on the board and not on trying to build a defense that's going to stop them because you won't.

[NoSaint]

1 hour ago, Einstein said:

 

Not saying you’re wrong but I reallyyyy hope our season doesn’t rely on a 34 year olds knee recovering to perfection.

 

hey, maybe we find another consistent pass rush piece. It could be Rousseau steps up and Ed o has a monster contract year. 
 

I think VMs recovery is the number one indicator of our playoff success if you had to pull a single player not named Josh allen

[HappyDays]

I think we greatly improved some of our less important pieces - Kumerow, McKenzie, Saffold, Morris. But I still worry about the lack of true top end talent. Right now to start the year it is still just Allen and Diggs as elite players at their positions. A lot of it will depend on how Von Miller recovers. Hopefully by December he'll be the same player he was for us before injury, I mean he practically won the Chiefs game for us. If we get him back to his old self that gives us three elite players. Ideally though you want at least four. Maybe Tre White will find himself again, I'm just not counting on it.

 

Especially on the offensive side I worry that outside of Diggs we have no true game changers at our skill positions or on our OL. An elite QB can make up the difference but we need a few of those depth pieces we signed - notably Harty and Harris, and to a similar extent Kincaid - to maximize their potential in order for that gap between us and some of the other contenders' weapons to be bridged. This is why I am still hoping for Hopkins although that possibility appears to be dwindling with each passing day.

 

Most importantly the coaching needs to be much better in the playoffs. This is something no one can predict until we see it. McDermott can't trot out the same old predictable scheme that smart offensive coaches led by smart QBs like the Chiefs and Bengals have can easily take advantage of. And Dorsey was taken to school by Lou Anarumo, he has to take a big step this year to prove he is capable of calling a chamionship caliber offense. No one would confuse our overall roster for the best in the league, but if we stay relatively healthy the roster combined with Josh Allen is certainly good enough to win a Super Bowl. Another disappointing playoff exit would be more on the coaches than the talent IMO.

[Simon Says]

2 hours 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 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? 

Also signed Edwards.  Considered a guard but was a good RT in college 

[gjv]

I'm expecting this to be the most competitive AFC East race in decades. Based strictly on rosters, I would have to say the Jets improved the most, followed by Miami. Buffalo and New England have made changes to their rosters, but nothing that really moves the needle for either team. It might come down to the winner of the AFC East being the team who stays the healthiest throughout the season.

[Billl]

2 hours ago, NewEra said:

@Billl

care to elaborate on the eye roll?  
 

as if missing elite players doesn’t have an impact on games. How many elite players did KC miss last year?  
 

I clearly remember KC getting trounced by tampa bay in the Super Bowl.  Why did they get embarrassed that game?  Think it might have had to do with injuries along the OL?

Or was it Mahomes not playing well enough to beat them?  

You don’t believe that there’s a gap between the Bills who just got dog walked in the Divisional round and the team who has been in 3 of the last 4 Superbowls with 2 championships.  I disagree.  The last 4 years, the Chiefs have either beaten the Bills in the playoffs or beaten the team that did the following week.

 

Kansas City was decimated by injuries in the Super Bowl against Tampa.  They responded by replacing all 5 starters in the offseason.  Buffalo has had issues with injuries to Tre White, Von Miller, Micah Hyde, and Jordan Poyer.  They’re all back, and three of the four are well into their thirties.  Kansas City was a very healthy team last year.  They also had 12 major contributors who were 22 years old or under.  Buffalo had the oldest roster in the league.  There’s a pretty strong correlation between age and injury.  I don’t think Beane has done a very good job of replacing aging veterans with younger players who can pick up where they left off.

[RiotAct]

this is a solid post, @Einstein.  Our D might suffer a little bit with no more ‘Maine; but I think our offense definitely got better - and more sustainable - with the additions of Sherfield, Kincaid, and Torrence.

[harmonkillebrew]

I think we got better on Offense, not as much as I had hoped (no consistent RB or #2WR option, or even RT competition).

 

But we look worse on Defense. I'm hoping McD can address with more direct coaching, but talent-wise LB and DT (and how they fit together) are a concern.  I am cautiously optimistic Elam will take the next step, but if he doesn't our CB room also looks weak. Also, if Von does not return to form, our pass rush will suffer again.

 

A lot will be on Josh again to get us to the promise land

[Einstein]

29 minutes ago, Billl said:

You don’t believe that there’s a gap between the Bills who just got dog walked in the Divisional round and the team who has been in 3 of the last 4 Superbowls with 2 championships.  I disagree.  The last 4 years, the Chiefs have either beaten the Bills in the playoffs or beaten the team that did the following week.

 

There are many posters who write-off the Bengals game as a fluke.

 

They ignore the Dolphins game the week before. And the start of the Bengals game in Week 16. etc, etc.

[Aussie Joe]

14 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

There are many posters who write-off the Bengals game as a fluke.

 

They ignore the Dolphins game the week before. And the start of the Bengals game in Week 16. etc, etc.

I was one of the people saying at the time that their play was deteriorating over the second half of the year whilst most seemed to just point to their record.. “ well they are 13-3.. what are you complaining about?”..

 

Then the playoffs came and they were terrible against Skylar Thompson and then when they played one of the elite teams the next week they weren’t even in the contest…

 

However…. Next year is a new season.. they we’re definitely hampered by injury last year  so they will need some more luck here..the coaching was average at best and Allen never seemed the same after he injuried his wrist .

 

There is no reason to think their end of season form is more likely to continue instead of their early season form when they we’re dog walking teams and beat the Chiefs away..

 

They will contend again for the championship in 2023 IMO…

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Aussie Joe

[Boatdrinks]

18 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

There are many posters who write-off the Bengals game as a fluke.

 

They ignore the Dolphins game the week before. And the start of the Bengals game in Week 16. etc, etc.

Bengals may not be a fluke, but more of a matchup / strategy type thing. The Bills looked outcoached both times. Dig a bit deeper on the Dolphins playoff game though. That game was likely headed to blowout status before some self- inflicted wounds by the offense . The D actually did their job, surrendering few yards for just FG’s on very short fields. 

[SCBills]

1 hour ago, Billl said:

You don’t believe that there’s a gap between the Bills who just got dog walked in the Divisional round and the team who has been in 3 of the last 4 Superbowls with 2 championships.  I disagree.  The last 4 years, the Chiefs have either beaten the Bills in the playoffs or beaten the team that did the following week.

 

Kansas City was decimated by injuries in the Super Bowl against Tampa.  They responded by replacing all 5 starters in the offseason.  Buffalo has had issues with injuries to Tre White, Von Miller, Micah Hyde, and Jordan Poyer.  They’re all back, and three of the four are well into their thirties.  Kansas City was a very healthy team last year.  They also had 12 major contributors who were 22 years old or under.  Buffalo had the oldest roster in the league.  There’s a pretty strong correlation between age and injury.  I don’t think Beane has done a very good job of replacing aging veterans with younger players who can pick up where they left off.

Bills were a shell of themselves both mentally and physically in the playoffs. 
 

KC also relies on a 33/34 year old in Travis Kelce.  Let’s not act like he isn’t the second most important player on your team. 
 

In the Bengals game, the Bills were essentially without the equivalent of Chris Jones & Frank Clark on their DL with Von and Jones out.   
 

I can’t give you any excuses for why the offense played so poorly in that game.  They were checked out and the OL was constantly confused by Cincy’s pressure packages. It was bizarre to watch.  
 

Do you think the Chiefs could stop Burrow without your two best DL pieces and starting Safety?

 

Pointing to us getting dog walked as correlation to this coming year is a bit much given the circumstances.  

 

Age is a concern.  I’d agree with you.  Bills defense is heavily reliant on aging players in Hyde, Poyer and Von. 

 

At the end of the day, gloat all you want … not much we can say about it … but KC stayed healthy while Buffalo and Cincinnati were held together by duct tape in the playoffs and y’all were handed the 1 seed.. a bye.. and Jacksonville.  
 

Edited April 30, 2023 by SCBills

[Eastport bills]

Hard to  expect improvement on defense especially because we don’t know Miller’s status and the front seven has no additions and no Edmunds. The secondary will be better with the new safeties and White being fully recovered.  I expect Sean to be better than Frazier.The offense should be improved with the new weapons at receiver and an improved O-line, but the OC is the wild card. Can Dorsey improve the play calling and not depend on Josh to be the entire offense. Can we develop a conventional running attack. Maybe an additional signing could tie everything together. I personally think we are thin at RB and ILB. With Josh anything is possible so at worst we will be right there competing for the SB again.

 

new 

 

[ProcessTruster]

4 hours 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 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? 

The roster is fine.   We'll be right back there this year in a single-elimination tournament and just need to play better on that particular day.   Simple as that.   Trying micro engineer success likelihood improvement based on an accumulation of relatively minor incremental off season moves is silly. 

 

I consider regular season record and winning the division to be somewhat a better indication of improvement as it is a body of work, not how you did in one individual game, where all kinds of one off factors can swing the outcome.  

[Einstein]

34 minutes ago, SCBills said:

 

Do you think the Chiefs could stop Burrow without your two best DL pieces and starting Safety?

 

This ignores the fact that the Bengals were down multiple O-linemen that day too.

[streetkings01]

4 hours 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.

I gotta agree with this…..that first Bengals game was either headed for a shootout or a blowout in favor of Cinci.

[SCBills]

31 minutes ago, Eastport bills said:

Hard to  expect improvement on defense especially because we don’t know Miller’s status and the front seven has no additions and no Edmunds. The secondary will be better with the new safeties and White being fully recovered.  I expect Sean to be better than Frazier.The offense should be improved with the new weapons at receiver and an improved O-line, but the OC is the wild card. Can Dorsey improve the play calling and not depend on Josh to be the entire offense. Can we develop a conventional running attack. Maybe an additional signing could tie everything together. I personally think we are thin at RB and ILB. With Josh anything is possible so at worst we will be right there competing for the SB again.

 

new 

 

When healthy (Von back), I’m expecting the defense to be a top 10 unit that gives up more big plays than we’re used to, but also makes more big plays (sacks, tfl’s, turnovers).   Some of that due to personnel & philosophy and some of it due to playing a lot of good QB’s. 
 

Im expecting the offense to be a juggernaut.  We’ve consistently been a top offense and this will be the best OL Allen has ever had, along with the most talented group of weapons.  
 

We have a very talented team, but there are some legitimate question marks.  
 

-OC

-RT

-WR2

-DL (for now.. think we add a DT & DE)

[Maine-iac]

5 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

This ignores the fact that the Bengals were down multiple O-linemen that day too.

Take away Frank Clark and I doubt the Chiefs win.  Take away Frank Clark, Chris Jones, and most of their secondary and I guarantee the Chiefs don't win that game.