24 Hours after London, The Good (yes there is good), The Bad, The Ugly.

[Poleshifter]

I don't know if anyone has addressed this issue, because I have not read every thread.

 

I place the blame for the horrible London performance on the decision makers who decided to treat this game like any other Sunday road game. They seemed to give zero consideration to the jet lag factor. It's a 3500-mile trip, some 1100 miles more than a West Coast game.

 

Sitting on a plane for 7-8 hours (?) is not good for athletes who would normally do things to stay limber. I think this was a factor in some of the injuries, as well as the sluggish offensive performance. I'm not a doctor of fitness expert, but this is my opinion on their travel logistics.

 

IMO they should have treated it like a Thursday night game, travelled a day or two sooner, and been more physically ready when game time arrived.

 

I don't know if McDermott or Beane was responsible for the travel timing, but I feel that they royally screwed it up. They really pi--ed me off by the way they arranged this overseas trip.

 

[Chaos]

6 minutes ago, Poleshifter said:

I don't know if anyone has addressed this issue, because I have not read every thread.

 

I place the blame for the horrible London performance on the decision makers who decided to treat this game like any other Sunday road game. They seemed to give zero consideration to the jet lag factor. It's a 3500-mile trip, some 1100 miles more than a West Coast game.

 

Sitting on a plane for 7-8 hours (?) is not good for athletes who would normally do things to stay limber. I think this was a factor in some of the injuries, as well as the sluggish offensive performance. I'm not a doctor of fitness expert, but this is my opinion on their travel logistics.

 

IMO they should have treated it like a Thursday night game, travelled a day or two sooner, and been more physically ready when game time arrived.

 

I don't know if McDermott or Beane was responsible for the travel timing, but I feel that they royally screwed it up. They really pi--ed me off by the way they arranged this overseas trip.

 

Its an organizational embarrassment.  So bad, the NFL really needs to pass rules to prevent other teams from making such a blunder. 

[oldmanfan]

8 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
 

1. 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. 
2. 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. 
3. 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

 

1. 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

 

1. 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".
   
    

 

I would disagree about Jones.  He was playing at an All Pro level and was key to the overall performance of the D line.  His loss is as huge as the others

[PatsFanNH]

4 hours ago, NewEra said:

Yeah…time got lots of teams to make trades…..

 

JC Jackson sucks.  Beane is smarter than to trade for a player that refused to go into the game and forced an injured player to l play while hurt.  He’s a bum. 

He’s a head case, but he is talented when he plays. I would think the locker room in Buffalo could handle his attitude better than most. 

[NewEra]

11 minutes ago, PatsFanNH said:

He’s a head case, but he is talented when he plays. I would think the locker room in Buffalo could handle his attitude better than most. 

The locker room in Buffalo can handle it…. Beane didn’t think he was worth it

[zow2]

I heard a couple players mention on Friday that the club was making them stay awake all day Friday and go to sleep at their normal time. That wouldn’t work for me, i imagine it may not have worked for all the Bills players.  I sleep when i’m tired.  If i got poor sleep or no sleep on the plane and i was tired at 3pm UK time so be it, i’d want to lie down.  They just botched the travel.  Josh even mentioned he couldn’t sleep on the plane.

[iinii]

12 hours ago, Chaos said:

 

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. 

 

 

That would be clever…….

 

they will never see this one coming. Why would they use there best play?????

 

nice Goodfellas reference as well.