Chaos Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) Since the 2020 season, the Bills fans have had legitimate Super Bowl aspirations each year. During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the stars had lined up very good with the Bills coming into the playoffs with more or less the healthiest team (I seem to remember threads discussing how this was not luck, but superior training and rotation strategies by the Bills). In 2022 the Bills were not so lucky, THE GOOD The Bills and Bils fans should still have Super Bowl aspirations for this season. The fans don't effect the play. If the team plays as if they have given up, or the coaching staff starts making excuses in the press about the challenges, they face, then this should be the coaching staffs last season. The fans do not deserve excuses. Even without Matt Milano, the defense has an opportunity to build on its success through the first five games. The defense is getting back Von Miller full time shortly. He played as if he had never been injured at times yesterday. The defense is getting Groot back. The defense is getting Benford back. Settle, Phillips, Oliver, Ford are a solid interior defensive rotation. Sucks Jones got hurt, but lets not confuse Jones with Von Miller or Matt Milano in importance. Groot, Floyd, Miller and the emergiing Epenesa give the Bills the what is arguably the best DE rotation in the NFL. The coaching staff probably was aware of Hyde's and Poyers age and injury history during the offseason. This is still one of the best safety combos in the league. Benford, Jackson, Johnson and Elam are not going to strike fear into the hears of anyone in the league. But the front four should make their life easier. Finally the LBs. They aren't replacing Milano with a similar talented player. But Benard has already been defensive player of the week one. Dorian Williams is probably more natural playing Milano's position than MLB, and should improve during the season with Experience. Dodson was not a disaster yesterday, and Klein will be brought up to provide at least some experience. Bills have one of the two best QBs in the league. Gameplan malpractice does not change this. There is some confusion among fans. No QB throws every pass directly into the recievers hands. Josh is not "off" if an occasional pass goes astray, or a professional NFL receiver has to make a small body adjustment to catch a ball. THE BAD Preparation. Sean McDermott has been the head coach for 6 years now. We still see too many games, where the Bills simply look unprepared. I am sure I am hyper sensitive to the Bills in this regard. But even when the Chiefs or Niners, or top historical teams lost, I don't recall many situation where I thought "these guys were not ready". THE UGLY Offensive Game Plan Roller Coaster. I am concerned Dorsey has a flaw, that I think Daboll also had, a fascination with their own importance on gameday. It is great to surprise the defense with a play call, or draw up a cleverly designed play that works once. I think the Bills OC's have placed to much emphasis on "out coaching" the other team with play calling. Let me give two examples of the opposite approach. First, from long ago, in the Redskins Hog/Riggins glory years, the opposing team knew the play was Counter Trey, on seemingly every down, and Redskins in their own version of Goodfella's (f.u. pay me) simply out exececuted the defense time after time. Incredible unstoppable rythm to the games. In recent years for nearly a decade in watching the Patriots, I felt like they ran two plays, slant to Welker/Edelman of pass to Gronk. (Mahomes to Kelce) has a similar predictable but unstoppable feel to it. How does this apply to the 2023 Bills. The entire NFL Media Complex was buzzing all week about how Josh Allen had a perfect passer rating for play action passing for the season. Casual fans on TBD picked up on the effectiveness before the media did. It is obvious. Surely, McDermott/Dorsey know the stats, and see the same. But Dorsey decided the better strategy is to use less play action in yesterday's game for no obvious reason, other than we were going to cleverly outcoach the other team by ignoring our strength. I am not a football coach, I feel like the Bills have a lot of offensive talent, and should be able to out execute every defense in the NFL, by being in rythm and playing to our strengths. We don't need to have a clever new solution for every game. 5 Years into McDermott/Allen, there should be zero games where it seems like the offense is "trying to figure it out". Edited October 9, 2023 by Chaos 7 3 1 2 Quote
poblano Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 The best DE rotation in the league are in the NFC, SF and Philadelphia's are over Buffalo's and SF maybe get stronger with the trade for Gregory 2 Quote
Big Turk Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) I mean it's hard to really talk about preparation when the Bills have an average margin of victory over the past 3 years of almost 11 points per game when including EVERY game(including losses). That's an almost impossible bar to maintain. Edited October 9, 2023 by Big Turk 1 1 Quote
PatsFanNH Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 15 minutes ago, Chaos said: Since the 2020 season, the Bills fans have had legitimate Super Bowl aspirations each year. During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the stars had lined up very good with the Bills coming into the playoffs with more or less the healthiest team (I seem to remember threads discussing how this was not luck, but superior training and rotation strategies by the Bills). In 2022 the Bills were not so lucky, THE GOOD The Bills and Bils fans should still have Super Bowl aspirations for this season. The fans don't effect the play. If the team plays as if they have given up, or the coaching staff starts making excuses in the press about the challenges, they face, then this should be the coaching staffs last season. The fans do not deserve excuses. Even without Matt Milano, the defense has an opportunity to build on its success through the first five games. The defense is getting back Von Miller full time shortly. He played as if he had never been injured at times yesterday. The defense is getting Groot back. The defense is getting Benford back. Settle, Phillips, Oliver, Ford are a solid interior defensive rotation. Sucks Jones got hurt, but lets not confuse Jones with Von Miller or Matt Milano in importance. Groot, Floyd, Miller and the emergiing Epenesa give the Bills the what is arguably the best DE rotation in the NFL. The coaching staff probably was aware of Hyde's and Poyers age and injury history during the offseason. This is still one of the best safety combos in the league. Benford, Jackson, Johnson and Elam are not going to strike fear into the hears of anyone in the league. But the front four should make their life easier. Finally the LBs. They aren't replacing Milano with a similar talented player. But Benard has already been defensive player of the week one. Dorian Williams is probably more natural playing Milano's position than MLB, and should improve during the season with Experience. Dodson was not a disaster yesterday, and Klein will be brought up to provide at least some experience. Bills have one of the two best QBs in the league. Gameplan malpractice does not change this. There is some confusion among fans. No QB throws every pass directly into the recievers hands. Josh is not "off" if an occasional pass goes astray, or a professional NFL receiver has to make a small body adjustment to catch a ball. THE BAD Preparation. Sean McDermott has been the head coach for 6 years now. We still see too many games, where the Bills simply look unprepared. I am sure I am hyper sensitive to the Bills in this regard. But even when the Chiefs or Niners, or top historical teams lost, I don't recall many situation where I thought "these guys were not ready". THE UGLY Offensive Game Plan Roller Coaster. I am concerned Dorsey has a flaw, that I think Daboll also had, a fascination with their own importance on gameday. It is great to surprise the defense with a play call, or draw up a cleverly designed play that works once. I think the Bills OC's have placed to much emphasis on "out coaching" the other team with play calling. Let me give two examples of the opposite approach. First, from long ago, in the Redskins Hog/Riggins glory years, the opposing team new the play was Counter Trey, on seemingly every down, and Redskins in their own version of Goodfella's (f.u. pay me) simply out exececuted the defense time after time. Incredible unstoppable rythm to the games. In recent years for nearly a decade in watching the Patriots, I felt like they ran two plays, slant to Welker/Edelman of pass to Gronk. (Mahomes to Kelce) has a similar predictable but unstoppable feel to it. How does this apply to the 2023 Bills. The entire NFL Media Complex was buzzing all week about how Josh Allen had a perfect passer rating for play action passing for the season. Casual fans on TBD picked up on the effectiveness before the media did. It is obvious. Surely, McDermott/Dorsey know the stats, and see the same. But Dorsey decided the better strategy is to use less play action in yesterday's game for no obvious reason, other than we was going cleverly outcoach the other team by ignoring our strength. I am not a football coach, I feel like the Bills have a lot of offensive talent, and should be able to out execute every defense in the NFL, by being in rythm and playing to our strengths. We don't need to have a clever new solution for every game. 5 Years into McDermott/Allen, there should be zero games where it seems like the offense is "trying to figure it out". The Bills will be fine! Look at the AFC as a hole outside of KC is there another Elite team to compete with the Bills. In the NFC I would say the Eagles and 49ers. My rankings of the 4 teams is: 1. 49ers 2. Bills 3. Chiefs 4. Eagles they are all close so come playoff time they could all beat eachother. So in the words of a hippie QB Bills fans should “RELAX” 2 1 Quote
Success Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 Great post. There was quite a bit of doom yesterday, which I get, given the circumstances of the day. But with the emotion taken out of it & taking an objective view, YES, we are still SB contenders. Agree 100% w/ the write-up on the defense. Milano - who I still hope can be back by the playoffs - was one of many good players we have on the D. Yes, he was among the best, if not the best. But we have a fantastic D-line, an excellent secondary, and the LB crew can hold their own. Williams will have plenty of time to gain experience & acclimate, and he showed some flashes yesterday that he can do just fine in that role. My expectations for this season didn't change yesterday. Especially when I look around the AFC. We are still the best team, imo. Quote
DasNootz Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Success said: Great post. There was quite a bit of doom yesterday, which I get, given the circumstances of the day. But with the emotion taken out of it & taking an objective view, YES, we are still SB contenders. Agree 100% w/ the write-up on the defense. Milano - who I still hope can be back by the playoffs - was one of many good players we have on the D. Yes, he was among the best, if not the best. But we have a fantastic D-line, an excellent secondary, and the LB crew can hold their own. Williams will have plenty of time to gain experience & acclimate, and he showed some flashes yesterday that he can do just fine in that role. My expectations for this season didn't change yesterday. Especially when I look around the AFC. We are still the best team, imo. I’m not sure how your expectations don’t change. I’d agree if we came out with an L but we’re healthy. Losing Milano and Jones for a significant portion of the season has a huge impact on my expectations. Couple that with Tre and you’re replacing 3 pro-bowl quality positions with JAGs. While it may not have been a sizable impact in-game, OCs can now prepare and game plan for glaring weaknesses. Edited October 9, 2023 by DasNootz 1 2 Quote
MikePJ76 Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 All the big picture talk is way to soon. The injuries are the biggest issue. The loss is going to hurt the team as we get later in the season if they are chasing miami in the division and a wild card spot. IMO The afc is very good. Its going to be a jumbled mess in december as teams are in the mix for the wild cards. My interest at the moment is going to be how opposing teams attack the bills defense going forward. They just lost their top corner, top linebacker and an excellent DT. Teams are going to change the way they attack the defense. We don't know how that will be yet be we are going to find out fast with a guy bringing his team in here who knows the bills organization inside out. Its about talent and the Bills should beat NY by a td or more but Daboll could put something on film that other teams exploit in the bills defense down the road. Buffalo has to get healthy, sans White, Milano and Jones obviously and regroup and win five of the next six. If not all six. Losing to the Bengals would be awful and losing again to the jets could cost them the division. anyway, in the short term these next two weeks they need to see how differently offenses attack them and respond. Hopefully the Defense continues to play well and the offense scores 30+. If the bills score a lot opponents will present lots of opportunities for what looks to be a very good pass rush. long term they have to go on a run here before that kc, philly dallas stretch. 1 1 Quote
Success Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 26 minutes ago, DasNootz said: I’m not sure how your expectations don’t change. I’d agree if we came out with an L but we’re healthy. Losing Milano and Jones for a significant portion of the season has a huge impact on my expectations. Couple that with Tre and you’re replacing 3 pro-bowl quality positions with JAGs. While it may not have been a sizable impact in-game, OCs can now prepare and game plan for glaring weaknesses. Where is the glaring weakness, though? Beane has done a good job building depth. Dodson & Williams are both capable LB's. Benford, Johnson & Jackson are all good starting CB's. With how good the D-line is, we'll still have a top 5-7 defense. Which is all we need with this offense. My expectations before the season were that this team is a SB contender. That's the same expectation I have today. 1 1 Quote
The Frankish Reich Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 46 minutes ago, PatsFanNH said: The Bills will be fine! Look at the AFC as a hole outside of KC is there another Elite team to compete with the Bills. In the NFC I would say the Eagles and 49ers. My rankings of the 4 teams is: 1. 49ers 2. Bills 3. Chiefs 4. Eagles they are all close so come playoff time they could all beat eachother. So in the words of a hippie QB Bills fans should “RELAX” 49ers have gained a little separation here. The question was whether Brock Purdy would be figured out by defenses and hit a wall. He hasn't. They have the most talented roster, are well coached, and are remarkably healthy right now. In retrospect they were the best team in the NFL last year until Purdy went down and they were forced to go with emergency QBs. I would agree that Bills/Chiefs/Eagles are all about even, fighting for second best. And I'd be inclined to throw the Dolphins in there, although there's a lot more variability there. But the injury situation in the playoffs will not be the injury situation today, so that will have a huge impact. 1 Quote
The Jokeman Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 1 hour ago, poblano said: The best DE rotation in the league are in the NFC, SF and Philadelphia's are over Buffalo's and SF maybe get stronger with the trade for Gregory AJE had more sacks yesterday (2.0) than Bosa has for the season (1.5). Their other three DEs have a total of 3.5 in total. The Eagles have one DE with a sack this season with Sweat who has 2.5 so maybe instead of guessing things look at that numbers. Quote
Boatdrinks Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 47 minutes ago, DasNootz said: I’m not sure how your expectations don’t change. I’d agree if we came out with an L but we’re healthy. Losing Milano and Jones for a significant portion of the season has a huge impact on my expectations. Couple that with Tre and you’re replacing 3 pro-bowl quality positions with JAGs. While it may not have been a sizable impact in-game, OCs can now prepare and game plan for glaring weaknesses. This is the sad reality. If you replace several top quality defenders with average ones the drop off is going to result in more yards, first downs and points allowed. That means less time on the field for the offense as well. The Bills no longer have a margin for error on offense. They need efficient, time consuming drives that result in TDs at a very high rate. The D will quickly turn into a liability. 1 Quote
Alphadawg7 Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Chaos said: Since the 2020 season, the Bills fans have had legitimate Super Bowl aspirations each year. During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the stars had lined up very good with the Bills coming into the playoffs with more or less the healthiest team (I seem to remember threads discussing how this was not luck, but superior training and rotation strategies by the Bills). In 2022 the Bills were not so lucky, THE GOOD The Bills and Bils fans should still have Super Bowl aspirations for this season. The fans don't effect the play. If the team plays as if they have given up, or the coaching staff starts making excuses in the press about the challenges, they face, then this should be the coaching staffs last season. The fans do not deserve excuses. This team still could emerge out of the AFC, but this team vs Niners feels like the last 3 times Bills made the SB where the NFC was the clear powerhouse teams and the AFC was weaker, so getting there was one thing, winning it was another. Losing Tre, Milano, and Jones (1 at each level of the D, and 3 of our best players) against a team like Niners is a big big loss in stopping what they do, which is already a style that would likely matchup well with our defense. 1 hour ago, Chaos said: Even without Matt Milano, the defense has an opportunity to build on its success through the first five games. The defense is getting back Von Miller full time shortly. He played as if he had never been injured at times yesterday. The defense is getting Groot back. The defense is getting Benford back. Settle, Phillips, Oliver, Ford are a solid interior defensive rotation. Sucks Jones got hurt, but lets not confuse Jones with Von Miller or Matt Milano in importance. Groot, Floyd, Miller and the emergiing Epenesa give the Bills the what is arguably the best DE rotation in the NFL. The coaching staff probably was aware of Hyde's and Poyers age and injury history during the offseason. This is still one of the best safety combos in the league. Benford, Jackson, Johnson and Elam are not going to strike fear into the hears of anyone in the league. But the front four should make their life easier. Finally the LBs. They aren't replacing Milano with a similar talented player. But Benard has already been defensive player of the week one. Dorian Williams is probably more natural playing Milano's position than MLB, and should improve during the season with Experience. Dodson was not a disaster yesterday, and Klein will be brought up to provide at least some experience. Sorry, the part in red is just wrong. Jones loss is nearly as bad as the Milano loss. Jones has been the best DT in football this year. HIs impact is felt on all 3 levels of the team. His ability to get pressure up the middle and disrupt the QB not only makes Ed Olivers job easier and the DE's, but the secondary's as well as it forces the QB to get rid of the ball quicker and under duress creating more turnover and PBU opportunities. Make no mistake about it...Jones injury is significant and nearly as bad as losing Milano and worse than losing Tre. I mean if you told me I could choose to have Tre back or Jones back, I would take Jones and that is not a slight on Tre, that is because this team is more equipped to handle losing Tre and Jones has been that good. 1 hour ago, Chaos said: Bills have one of the two best QBs in the league. Gameplan malpractice does not change this. There is some confusion among fans. No QB throws every pass directly into the recievers hands. Josh is not "off" if an occasional pass goes astray, or a professional NFL receiver has to make a small body adjustment to catch a ball. Agreed with the above. 1 hour ago, Chaos said: THE BAD Preparation. Sean McDermott has been the head coach for 6 years now. We still see too many games, where the Bills simply look unprepared. I am sure I am hyper sensitive to the Bills in this regard. But even when the Chiefs or Niners, or top historical teams lost, I don't recall many situation where I thought "these guys were not ready". I think McD is a very good coach, and I am not down on him. But, there does seem to be these games where the Bills do come out flat. Even in games we win, its not uncommon for the D to give up a quick easy first scoring drive or two before it suddenly starts to clamp down. I guess you can say its good to see the team capable of making good in game adjustments, but why does it take that so often rather than coming out the gate that way. Inconsistency on offense I put more on Dorsey as in a lot of those instances his gameplan is just poor to start before they adjust. 1 hour ago, Chaos said: THE UGLY Offensive Game Plan Roller Coaster. I am concerned Dorsey has a flaw, that I think Daboll also had, a fascination with their own importance on gameday. It is great to surprise the defense with a play call, or draw up a cleverly designed play that works once. I think the Bills OC's have placed to much emphasis on "out coaching" the other team with play calling. Let me give two examples of the opposite approach. First, from long ago, in the Redskins Hog/Riggins glory years, the opposing team knew the play was Counter Trey, on seemingly every down, and Redskins in their own version of Goodfella's (f.u. pay me) simply out exececuted the defense time after time. Incredible unstoppable rythm to the games. In recent years for nearly a decade in watching the Patriots, I felt like they ran two plays, slant to Welker/Edelman of pass to Gronk. (Mahomes to Kelce) has a similar predictable but unstoppable feel to it. How does this apply to the 2023 Bills. The entire NFL Media Complex was buzzing all week about how Josh Allen had a perfect passer rating for play action passing for the season. Casual fans on TBD picked up on the effectiveness before the media did. It is obvious. Surely, McDermott/Dorsey know the stats, and see the same. But Dorsey decided the better strategy is to use less play action in yesterday's game for no obvious reason, other than we was going cleverly outcoach the other team by ignoring our strength. I am not a football coach, I feel like the Bills have a lot of offensive talent, and should be able to out execute every defense in the NFL, by being in rythm and playing to our strengths. We don't need to have a clever new solution for every game. 5 Years into McDermott/Allen, there should be zero games where it seems like the offense is "trying to figure it out". Agree 100% on everything in the Ugly...Dorsey had me furious yesterday totally abandoning what has been working perfectly all season. Allen has a perfect passer rating in play action on the season, his stats and efficiency are through the roof on under the center snaps. Yet we went right back to shotgun snaps most the game and didn't call an under the center call until several drives in. NOW...in Dorseys defense, many of the early drives stalled (3 in fact, and 4 total) on dropped passes. But it doesn't change the fact that he went away from our most effective styles of offense and did so most of the game. Not to mention his utterly stupid play calling in other parts of the game. For me...Dorsey is the new weak link...the new Frazier. He wasn't good last year and I don't see the growth this year. I feel duped because I actually thought the Miami game, easily his best game in his career, was the turning of the corner. Unfortunately, he reverted back to his other ways one week later. If he doesn't get his crap together and start using the talent on this roster better and building game plans around what we do best, I am going to be beating the drum of fire Dorsey all offseason like I did last 2 years with Frazier. I, and many others too, were right about Frazier, the D is so much better under McD and its not close. I fear the same may be true with Dorsey, just hope he proves the doubters wrong before our season sinks because with the injuries to the D, our offense is going to be need to be at its best week in and week out. 1 1 Quote
SCBills Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) Great post OP. I agree with most of it. The fact that these games on Offense span both Daboll, now Dorsey, seems to indicate that this is an issue beyond just the OC. Whether it's an Allen issue and/or personnel, I don't know, but this is now two different OC's where we've seen a game like this against the Jags, never mind the Jets debacles. I do believe that with how AJE is playing, we have the best DE rotation in the league with Rousseau, Floyd and AJE. If we can get Von ramped up by the end of the season, this pass rush can carry the defense, no matter what injuries we have behind them (within reason). And for people asking how we can compete with SF, or how anyone can for that matter... Buffalo's Defense looked like THE best Defense in the league and proceeded to lose White, Milano and maybe Jones for the year in consecutive weeks. We're entering Week 6. Who knows how the season plays out. SF isn't KC. They will likely face some health adversity like everyone does. (except KC in recent years). Edited October 9, 2023 by SCBills Quote
Jerome007 Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 3 minutes ago, SCBills said: I do believe that with how AJE is playing, we have the best DE rotation in the league with Rousseau, Floyd and AJE. If we can get Von ramped up by the end of the season, this pass rush can carry the defense, no matter what injuries we have behind them (within reason). Add Oliver and.... Jones. The interior of the DLine was doing its job too. They wreak havoc. Yesterday they didn't do that much, but they were so banged up grrrr. Quote
Marcus Aurelius Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 1 hour ago, PatsFanNH said: The Bills will be fine! Look at the AFC as a hole outside of KC is there another Elite team to compete with the Bills. In the NFC I would say the Eagles and 49ers. My rankings of the 4 teams is: 1. 49ers 2. Bills 3. Chiefs 4. Eagles they are all close so come playoff time they could all beat eachother. So in the words of a hippie QB Bills fans should “RELAX” The AFC is a "hole" alright ... Something we need to climb out of after the loss to the Jags ... 1 Quote
Royale with Cheese Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 1 hour ago, poblano said: The best DE rotation in the league are in the NFC, SF and Philadelphia's are over Buffalo's and SF maybe get stronger with the trade for Gregory If we are talking on paper from last year, yes. But this year, our ends are both playing at elite levels without Miller. Rosseau and Floyd and our back up Epenesa have created havoc all year. I'm not saying it's a runaway, but the Bills DL all year have played well. While the Eagles have struggled in pass defense this year. 13 minutes ago, Jerome007 said: Add Oliver and.... Jones. The interior of the DLine was doing its job too. They wreak havoc. Yesterday they didn't do that much, but they were so banged up grrrr. I think we can be fine at DT if Poona doesn't suck. He's not going to be dominant like Jones was wear he's wrecking havoc....he just needs to not hurt us. Quote
poblano Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 49 minutes ago, The Jokeman said: AJE had more sacks yesterday (2.0) than Bosa has for the season (1.5). Their other three DEs have a total of 3.5 in total. The Eagles have one DE with a sack this season with Sweat who has 2.5 so maybe instead of guessing things look at that numbers. Instead of look at the numbers look the actual games Quote
TheBrownBear Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 Of course, we are still contenders, but with the defense about to take a step back, we really need to find a way to be consistently very good on offense from week to week. We can't afford to sleep walk through 2-3 quarters and expect to walk out with victories. We need to come out quick, put some points on the board and let our defense play with a lead and do what they do best. By the way, Epenesa, what a revelation yesterday. Has the light truly finally gone on for him? If so, he's a legit difference maker going forward. Quote
Toledo Bill Posted October 9, 2023 Posted October 9, 2023 2 hours ago, Chaos said: Since the 2020 season, the Bills fans have had legitimate Super Bowl aspirations each year. During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the stars had lined up very good with the Bills coming into the playoffs with more or less the healthiest team (I seem to remember threads discussing how this was not luck, but superior training and rotation strategies by the Bills). In 2022 the Bills were not so lucky, THE GOOD The Bills and Bils fans should still have Super Bowl aspirations for this season. The fans don't effect the play. If the team plays as if they have given up, or the coaching staff starts making excuses in the press about the challenges, they face, then this should be the coaching staffs last season. The fans do not deserve excuses. Even without Matt Milano, the defense has an opportunity to build on its success through the first five games. The defense is getting back Von Miller full time shortly. He played as if he had never been injured at times yesterday. The defense is getting Groot back. The defense is getting Benford back. Settle, Phillips, Oliver, Ford are a solid interior defensive rotation. Sucks Jones got hurt, but lets not confuse Jones with Von Miller or Matt Milano in importance. Groot, Floyd, Miller and the emergiing Epenesa give the Bills the what is arguably the best DE rotation in the NFL. The coaching staff probably was aware of Hyde's and Poyers age and injury history during the offseason. This is still one of the best safety combos in the league. Benford, Jackson, Johnson and Elam are not going to strike fear into the hears of anyone in the league. But the front four should make their life easier. Finally the LBs. They aren't replacing Milano with a similar talented player. But Benard has already been defensive player of the week one. Dorian Williams is probably more natural playing Milano's position than MLB, and should improve during the season with Experience. Dodson was not a disaster yesterday, and Klein will be brought up to provide at least some experience. Bills have one of the two best QBs in the league. Gameplan malpractice does not change this. There is some confusion among fans. No QB throws every pass directly into the recievers hands. Josh is not "off" if an occasional pass goes astray, or a professional NFL receiver has to make a small body adjustment to catch a ball. THE BAD Preparation. Sean McDermott has been the head coach for 6 years now. We still see too many games, where the Bills simply look unprepared. I am sure I am hyper sensitive to the Bills in this regard. But even when the Chiefs or Niners, or top historical teams lost, I don't recall many situation where I thought "these guys were not ready". THE UGLY Offensive Game Plan Roller Coaster. I am concerned Dorsey has a flaw, that I think Daboll also had, a fascination with their own importance on gameday. It is great to surprise the defense with a play call, or draw up a cleverly designed play that works once. I think the Bills OC's have placed to much emphasis on "out coaching" the other team with play calling. Let me give two examples of the opposite approach. First, from long ago, in the Redskins Hog/Riggins glory years, the opposing team knew the play was Counter Trey, on seemingly every down, and Redskins in their own version of Goodfella's (f.u. pay me) simply out exececuted the defense time after time. Incredible unstoppable rythm to the games. In recent years for nearly a decade in watching the Patriots, I felt like they ran two plays, slant to Welker/Edelman of pass to Gronk. (Mahomes to Kelce) has a similar predictable but unstoppable feel to it. How does this apply to the 2023 Bills. The entire NFL Media Complex was buzzing all week about how Josh Allen had a perfect passer rating for play action passing for the season. Casual fans on TBD picked up on the effectiveness before the media did. It is obvious. Surely, McDermott/Dorsey know the stats, and see the same. But Dorsey decided the better strategy is to use less play action in yesterday's game for no obvious reason, other than we was going cleverly outcoach the other team by ignoring our strength. I am not a football coach, I feel like the Bills have a lot of offensive talent, and should be able to out execute every defense in the NFL, by being in rythm and playing to our strengths. We don't need to have a clever new solution for every game. 5 Years into McDermott/Allen, there should be zero games where it seems like the offense is "trying to figure it out". Great comments… thanks. I do disagree with Jones not being as important as Milano or Miller. He has been a beast and I fear us now getting shredded by opponents running game. Quote
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