Postgame Thoughts

[Franco_92]

There's a reason that Bellichick starts from scratch with, and harps on, fundamentals and situational awareness, more than any coach I've ever seen. And it's no coincidence his teams were so COMPETENT, even when you account for having the GOAT QB. The Bills do not do this well enough. This week they were embarrassing, in fact, and couldn't handle a close, back and forth game when both offenses weren't going to light it up. The problem is, that’s NFL football. Even the Chiefs with Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes, often find themselves in a slog. They win them. We don’t. There are a million people to blame, and a million tiny reasons why it keeps happening. But these guys need to learn that this is what football is, and they need to learn to be comfortable executing the boring stuff in those situations.

 

Josh is at the forefront of that. He was doing just fine in the first half, it looked like the second Jets game last year - accept that you aren't going to dunk on these guys, and dink on them instead. Even the first pick - it looks like he didn't have a rushing lane or an open receiver, so he heaved one up in hopes of a flag, and if it's picked, it's basically a punt. That's fine. I guess he decided he was done beating the Jets the way you are supposed to in the third quarter though, and he put on a display of the least-clutch, least-in-control quarterbacking I have seen from him since he was a guy I was convinced we'd be moving on from. @Shaw66's worries about Josh were on full display today - the kid could be the best in the world if he wanted to. It's year 6. I don't think he wants to. 

 

If you fumble a snap, fall on it. don't run straight at Quinnen Williams to try and get that extra half of a yard. Just sit on it. If the throw isn't there, don't force it. Put it in the dirt, live to play another down. Josh, you are human, and you need to be a quarterback for this team to go anywhere. Not whatever the hell that was. This game was all lined up to play out like last year’s home game vs. the Jets – the Bills would have found their way to 20 points, and would have left with a 20-13 win. Josh didn’t want it that way I guess. He’s taken this class 10 times, so I’m not sure it’s a lesson he’s capable of learning.

 

I am not trying to infer that Dorsey is perfect – but he was doing what all the film-heads said you have to do to beat the Jets. Josh is the one that bailed. Yeah, that draw play in OT was mind-numbing. Anti-clutch on all levels. 0-5 in OT. These guys are great when they are great. If they are drawn into the muck, they are as bad as any bad team can be. Whatever they are doing to teach composure and fundamentals, it seems to work less each year. They are on a timer and need to get this figured out.

You know, as I think about that last paragraph more, if Dorsey can’t keep Allen on track, it doesn’t matter what his plays look like. In 2020 Allen threw 10 picks. He’s a third of the way there after one game. In theory it’s possible to stop this.

 

Our safeties are old. Our defense has some great players that will make big plays this year, but they will not be a top 5 defense purely because of their personnel. Poyer struggled to tackle Allen Lazard. That is disturbing. They will try to get Kirksey worked up as quickly as possible I think. Bernard got lost too often. I am not particularly worried about the unit in today’s NFL, unless Josh plays like this every week. Then they will need to be better, they will need to be near perfect. But against teams that aren’t the Jets, I saw things that make me think the D will be fine on balance.
 

The Jets clearly know how to stifle Allen to a degree unmatched by any other team. I think Saleh took that 2020 game personally. And I think he’s put together a defense worthy of the talk they’ve been getting. This is not an excuse, as the Bills still should have beaten them.
 

The Jets have likely lost Rodgers for the year based on what I saw. Either way, when he threw that first pass  away, I wondered aloud how on earth that guy is going to make it through one full NFL game, let alone a season. He looked beyond shot. Their Super Bowl aspirations were probably a mirage, unless they really are the 85 Bears.
 

It’s a long season and nobody else on the Bills schedule can play defense that well. I’m not sure exactly who handled what well and poorly, the tape will tell us. But this offense is going to be able to move the ball and do damage against most teams. My concern is not that we have a bad team, I don’t think we do. It’s not that we won’t win a lot of games, I saw enough tonight to think we will. This game will be a distant memory in November, the Bengals and Chiefs will say the same thing. But I am starting to be concerned that they aren’t just drawing insane streaks of bad luck at bad times, or enduring fluky gaffes that surely won’t/can’t happen again. I’m starting to be concerned that it’s been too long, games like this keep popping up here and there, and players will start to be convinced in their core that it won’t be overcome. Because then things might will get ugly.
 

In the NFL, it’s usually true that things aren’t as good as they feel after a win, and aren’t as bad as they seem after a loss. That’s probably true here too, but there is a clock ticking and at this point nobody is denying that they can hear it.

Edited September 12, 2023 by arcane

[Dr.Sack]

An imperfect QB will get you unsteady results. Until Allen takes the easy checkdowns we will struggle. I thought Allen did well to take the gimmes until he started forcing it, then things unraveled. He simply needs to play with the objective to commit 0 turnovers per game. Now he needs 3 clean boring games to get below 1 per game. 4 TO Josh won’t win most games. 

[Mark Vader]

The Bills had a chance to put a big hurt on the Jets before halftime, and they threw it away.

 

After Milano's interception, the Bills were driving, but after the two minute warning, the Bills let the clock run under a minute and looked as if they were in no hurry to score.

 

By wasting all that time doing NOTHING, they had to settle for a field goal instead of getting a touchdown.

 

We've seen moments like this before, and it has got to stop.

 

This scenario was a one of the factors as to why we lost this game.

[Aussie Joe]

Short of injury on the Bills side… is there a worse scenario losing to Wilson? 

[SCBills]

Just getting real sick and tired of feeling like there’s now a logjam of teams that are physically, and mentally, tougher than us. 
 

Jets likely knew Rodgers was done for the year at halftime.  They came out and played with pure heart, knowing that the Super Bowl aspirations that franchise had are gone .. and they may only ever see those handful of snaps of Rodgers in a Jets jersey at 40 years old now with that injury/rehab.  Don’t be shocked if he hangs em up.  
 

We, on the other hand, got physically punched in the mouth.. just like the Bengals game, and just like the Bengals game, our QB and coaching staff had no counter punch.  
 

This team is mentally and physically soft… and until that changes, we will struggle against teams that want to bare knuckle brawl all game. 
 

Sadly, I think we’re stuck at this plateau level with McDermott.  I hope not, but it really feels like we’ve been churning to get over the hump the past two years and now we have to safeguard against the collapse.   I’d love to be wrong, but man… I wish Daboll was here.  

[UKBillFan]

Just now, SCBills said:

Just getting real sick and tired of feeling like there’s now a logjam of teams that are physically, and mentally, tougher than us. 
 

Jets likely knew Rodgers was done for the year at halftime.  They came out and played with pure heart, knowing that the Super Bowl aspirations that franchise had are gone .. and they may only ever see those handful of snaps of Rodgers in a Jets jersey at 40 years old now with that injury/rehab.  Don’t be shocked if he hangs em up.  
 

We, on the other hand, got physically punched in the mouth.. just like the Bengals game, and just like the Bengals game, our QB and coaching staff had no counter punch.  
 

This team is mentally and physically soft… and until that changes, we will struggle against teams that want to bare knuckle brawl all game. 
 

Sadly, I think we’re stuck at this plateau level with McDermott.  I hope not, but it really feels like we’ve been churning to get over the hump the past two years and now we have to safeguard against the collapse.   I’d love to be wrong, but man… I wish Daboll was here.  

Considering the Giants’ performance against the Cowboys, I’m not sure if Daboll is the answer to mental toughness.

[Big Blitz]

I thought we out physical-ed the Jets.  
 

Don’t overthink anything else other then having a horrible OC and Josh getting bored with life when up 2 scores.   

[newcam2012]

3 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Just getting real sick and tired of feeling like there’s now a logjam of teams that are physically, and mentally, tougher than us. 
 

Jets likely knew Rodgers was done for the year at halftime.  They came out and played with pure heart, knowing that the Super Bowl aspirations that franchise had are gone .. and they may only ever see those handful of snaps of Rodgers in a Jets jersey at 40 years old now with that injury/rehab.  Don’t be shocked if he hangs em up.  
 

We, on the other hand, got physically punched in the mouth.. just like the Bengals game, and just like the Bengals game, our QB and coaching staff had no counter punch.  
 

This team is mentally and physically soft… and until that changes, we will struggle against teams that want to bare knuckle brawl all game. 
 

Sadly, I think we’re stuck at this plateau level with McDermott.  I hope not, but it really feels like we’ve been churning to get over the hump the past two years and now we have to safeguard against the collapse.   I’d love to be wrong, but man… I wish Daboll was here.  

So many here refuse to see the obvious. 

1 minute ago, Big Blitz said:

I thought we out physical-ed the Jets.  
 

Don’t overthink anything else other then having a horrible OC and Josh getting bored with life when up 2 scores.   

Wish it was that simple with Allen. 

[SCBills]

1 minute ago, UKBillFan said:

Considering the Giants’ performance against the Cowboys, I’m not sure if Daboll is the answer to mental toughness.

All I know is Allen got better each year with him here. 
 

Now we’re stuck with a defensive HC and whatever tf Dorsey is supposed to be. 
 

McDermott isn’t our HC right now if not for Josh Allen … and the last two games of Josh Allen are making me slightly worried that the coaching staff and lack of protection have finally taken a toll on him.  
 

I would LOVE to be wrong, because I do not want to waste a prime year of Allen on an implosion season… even if that’s what’s it takes to change course.  

[BillsfaninSB]

20 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

The Bills had a chance to put a big hurt on the Jets before halftime, and they threw it away.

 

After Milano's interception, the Bills were driving, but after the two minute warning, the Bills let the clock run under a minute and looked as if they were in no hurry to score.

 

By wasting all that time doing NOTHING, they had to settle for a field goal instead of getting a touchdown.

 

We've seen moments like this before, and it has got to stop.

 

This scenario was a one of the factors as to why we lost this game.

That Milano taunting penalty was so stupid.  It felt like a big deal to me at the time.  This was game where the Bills had a small margin for error.   It was obvious by then.

 

It felt like the offense just curled up and tried to kill the clock.   May have been different if they were 15 yards closer to the end zone.

[BillMafia716ix]

Just once in my life I want to see the Bills play with a lead and chew up the clock running the ball. We have 3 very good backs we need to use them. 13-3 game playing the backup QB it should’ve been a no brainer. 

[Mark Vader]

8 minutes ago, BillsfaninSB said:

That Milano taunting penalty was so stupid.  It felt like a big deal to me at the time.  This was game where the Bills had a small margin for error.   It was obvious by then.

 

It felt like the offense just curled up and tried to kill the clock.   May have been different if they were 15 yards closer to the end zone.

The Milano taunting was very stupid.

 

Despite that, the Bills were in a great position, and they were moving the ball and had all three timeouts.

 

After the two minute warning, the plays they were getting were positive, but they just let the game clock run and did not show urgency to score!

 

This was a terrible moment from the Bills.

[John from Riverside]

51 minutes ago, Dr.Sack said:

An imperfect QB will get you unsteady results. Until Allen takes the easy checkdowns we will struggle. I thought Allen did well to take the gimmes until he started forcing it, then things unraveled. He simply needs to play with the objective to commit 0 turnovers per game. Now he needs 3 clean boring games to get below 1 per game. 4 TO Josh won’t win most games. 

A 13 and three season is a struggling season?

[Gunsgoodtime]

I am tired of Josh Allen being almost this whole team.   Yeah, I said it

[NY to VA to NV to TX to AZ]

The team is just a bunch of losers, it’s the culture, the club, the city…they get a quarterback after 20 years of irrelevance and the best they can do is hire a defensive minded coach and let go of the offensive coach that made the team and quarterback good. I totally understand why the media says Diggs wants to leave, it’s because he does…as it seems right now, every team in the AFC East has a better shot to make it to the post season. They just lost to a back up qb!!! And not even a good back-up!!!! The Bills “premier quarterback” lost to a back up quarterback and it’s not the first time. Hell, last year they almost lost to a third string quarterback in the playoffs…WTF!!! It really appears that what the national media says about the team and the narrative about the quarterback is the truth and we are just too fanatical to see it. Same thing year in and year out.

[Dr.Sack]

10 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

A 13 and three season is a struggling season?

Not the argument I’m making. In totality Allen should win a majority of his games unless the team around him totally implodes. 

[UKBillFan]

1 minute ago, Dr.Sack said:

Not the argument I’m making. In totality Allen should win a majority of his games unless the team around him totally implodes. 

 

Or he totally implodes.

[Dan Darragh]

33 minutes ago, Aussie Joe said:

Come back Leslie .. all is forgiven 

HUH?

[Gunsgoodtime]

I sat on the toilet many hours pondering this

Edited September 12, 2023 by Gunsgoodtime

[Dr.Sack]

11 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

 

Or he totally implodes.

Truth