Why the Bills don't care and neither should you

[Bockeye]

7 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

 

That's the thing. The year the Bills "should" have won it all, they lost their SIXTH (6th) game by week 13/14. Last 3 out of 4. 

 

Tapping out as a fan is weird. It's such an emotional response. So vulnerable and reactive. Makes it a bit childlike. No offense. 

Sports are emotional so we agree on that.  It’s one of the reasons we watch. Once I believe the season is a wash though, I see it as wasting my time.  I’m retired and have a bunch of hobbies which include being outside a ton. I’d rather pursue those than frustrate myself watching a team which isn’t making the playoffs.

 

Judging by the empty home stadiums when the Bills were struggling, I’d say a large majority of folks are in line with my way of thinking.  

 

I’m not there yet on this year though.  

[colin]

i get blackpilled in the moment, im guilty of that.

 

looking at this team the way a handicapper does, the defense simply has to get back to competency, and you have the match up nightmare we've been for 4 seasons now.  at times it feels like it will never happen, but adding a guy or two before the deadline would help, DT followed by corner and then WR (or RT, but i don't think that's possible right now) would make the biggest impact.

 

if our d just pulled its head out on a couple drives we win 2 more games even with the trash we have put up.

 

i just hope mcd can get taht going, but my faith is not high at the moment.

[Gregg]

Terry better care more than anybody. Good luck filling the seats at the incoming new stadium with massive price increases and PSL fees. Nice momentum going into that with a declining team and a coach most don't believe can get it done anymore. Good luck Terry.

[All_Pro_Bills]

I'm not going to worry because reality is what reality is and this team just isn't playing good ball now.  But to make the playoffs a team will need 10, possibly 11 wins.  Looking at the rest of the schedule except for the home games against Denver and New England which gets them to 6, where are the other 4 or 5 wins coming from which are needed to get a wildcard spot in the playoffs?

 

They play the way they've been playing you can count Bengals, Eagles, Chiefs, Cowboys, and Dolphins as losses.  That's 3 + 5 losses and at best a 9-8 record.  Not good enough. 

 

10/26 BUCCANEERS

11/05 @ Bengals

11/13 BRONCOS

11/19 JETS

11/26 @ Eagles

12/10 @ Chiefs

12/17 COWBOYS

12/23 @ Chargers

12/31 PATRIOTS

01/07 @ Dolphins

Edited October 24, 2023 by All_Pro_Bills

[NewEra]

9 hours ago, Buddy Hix said:

The Bills lost to the Pats. I repeat, the Bills lost to a joke of a team, the New England Patriots.

 

This isn’t some situation where the Bills are working through things, learning as they go. This team has horrendous coaching and the window to win with McD is closed. It’s over…

The chiefs lost to the colts and Matt Ryan last season….. and still won the Super Bowl.

 

It’s one game in October.  Time to improve

[boater]

If they were 5-2 today instead of 4-3, this wouldn't even be a topic of discussion.

 

Bills fans, evidenced by threads like this, are so fickle.

[PBF81]

9 hours ago, Buddy Hix said:

The Bills lost to the Pats. I repeat, the Bills lost to a joke of a team, the New England Patriots.

 

This isn’t some situation where the Bills are working through things, learning as they go. This team has horrendous coaching and the window to win with McD is closed. It’s over…

 

The Pats have their issues, but they're also not as bad as everyone makes out.  

 

Three of their losses have been to Miami, Philly, and Dallas, and one-possession losses to Miami & Philly.  

 

Our three losses have been to them, the Jets, and Jags.  The only decent team we've beaten is Miami, which we got up for as if it was the Super Bowl.  Even then, without two (2) TOs handing us 10 points, that game's in play.  

 

Our team's been overrated from week 1.  So has the defense.  More on that in another post.  

 

We need to get over this notion that losing Milano and Jones knocked us from contenders to also-rans.  Damaging, sure, but not completely incapable of being overcome, particularly given our most recent 20, 14, and 25 point offensive performances.  

 

 

[mjt328]

Some fans are living in a fantasy world, and are going to be really disappointed in the coming weeks/months.

This isn't just a case of the Bills playing down to an opponent.  They haven't just hit a rough patch, and need to flip a switch.

 

The injuries on defense are a MAJOR issue.  You can't just replace Matt Milano with Dorian Williams and hope to keep playing at an elite level.  We've seen over the years how this run defense operates without a good 1-Tech, and we no longer have DaQuan Jones.  Our performance against the Patriots wasn't a fluke.  Teams are figuring out how to attack us, and I think it's going to get worse in the coming weeks.

 

The offense hasn't been consistently good since the middle of last year.  And now they are trying to turn Josh Allen into a check-down pocket passer.  Defenses can just double Stefon Diggs, and dare someone else on the Bills to do something.  Most of the time they can't.

 

Everything about this team is screaming 9-8 right now.

[dorquemada]

10 hours ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

If this is all about working out the kinks, why are they even showing up to these games then and risking career ending injuries?

 

really they need to save themselves for offseason golf tourneys, that's what this is all about, besides the draft isnt that far off

[BuffaloBillyG]

10 hours ago, Gugny said:

The Bills don’t care because of guaranteed money. 

One of the reasons I stopped letting wins/losses dictate my mood was watching the players after the game. Be it a win, loss, blowout, get blown out or a tough win/loss at the very end of a game....these guys are all smiles and yucking it up on the field right after the game. Swapping jerseys, dabbing each other up. 

 

That's all it is these days. Money. 

[ddaryl]

 

.I said before the season by mid October we would know what this team was going to be.  There is a chance of making the playoffs ZERO chance of going to or winning the SB IMO
 

[Peace Frog]

Between the injuries, lack of talent in key areas, age/performance of some vets, and finally bad coaching, this team has the potential to stink on f-ing hot ice. (Borrowed that line from Cheech in Bullets Over Broadway).

 

 

 

[PBF81]

12 hours ago, Hermes said:

At this point in the Bills "window" they already know what the score is.... winning a superbowl or bust.

 

Now, I know a division game should probably mean something..., but at the end of the day the Patriots are not a threat to the Bills playoffs chances, in the least. The team knows this (unfortunately) and doesn't view these weaker teams as threats, either.  Which has led to the lackluster performances we've grown so (dis/un?)fond of, the past 2-3 years. 

 

The issue is that the Bills aren't some up-and-coming team that other teams are caught offguard by. They have been a juggernaut for the past 4-5 seasons, regularly taking the lunch money of the weaker teams, especially those in their division..  At this point, every team that the Bills play against look at this roster as a litmus test, of sorts, to see where they rank in the NFL hierarchy. While the Bills, are trying to do what they can to play their best football in the late season and playoffs.

 

It's a stark difference from the games games they played against the Patriots as "our superbowl" from the drought era. And that's the learning curve that the team has fallen behind on. For a lot of the teams in the league it's obvious that the Bills are their superbowl. They want to say "Yeah we might have finished 2-15, but one of those wins was against the Bills!" The other team's players get extra jazzed up to make a play against Allen (or Diggs, et al). It's easier to do that, than say, Allen or Diggs getting up to make a play on some JAGs. They'd rather make plays against the top teams and top players (it just means more).

 

What we are watching is a team that is trying to work through the kinks early in the season rather than later and I'm all for it. I'd rather see them lose on the late TD to the Pats instead of the Chiefs. Let them work things out now and head into the bye at 7-5 or 6-6 (or better).  I'm sure it wouldn't surprise anyone to see them finish 12-5 or 11-6 in either scenario. Unless you have no faith of course. But I digress.

 

What I've seen from this team is a concerted effort to win games in a variety of ways. To be able to go on long clock draining drives (even, at times, to the detriment of the offense) and control the game a different way. Sure, the offense could go no huddle and score almost at will, but at the end of the day how sustainable is that  really.  I'm sure teams will figure it out or the offense will burn itself out eventually.  Why not save the squeeze for crunch time?

 

When it comes to the defense, it has almost certainly been as disappointing as the offense as of late.  (Although they get a minor pass with the injury situation).  But, It's frustrating to see all of the blitzes and manufactured pressures not hitting home and then  Mac and cheese making the defense look like swiss.  Hopefully this is less of a trend and more of an aberration for the rest of the season. The true test for the defense is coming up soon and I'm excited to see how they respond. If they're still sucking hopefully the offense can regroup and pave the way for more wins. 

 

It's almost time to turn on the gas and see what teams can handle the pressure. I know the Bills can, and hopefully will, ramp up the intensity when it comes down to it, and I, for one, can't wait for these late season games to separate the cream from the crop.  I know things seem dire but of all the teams the Bills are behind in the standings only the Chiefs have a true game up on them. On top of the fact that the Bills themselves are still in position to make the playoffs if the season ended today. I like those odds. Go Bills!

 

That all sounds marvy (NPI), but there's also a good chance that the centralization of control by McD has led this team further away from improving than it has moved them towards it.  

 

We came out of the gates swinging and beat the hell out of three poor offensive teams and began beating our chests about how great our D was.  Miami made it a game in our house with that energy, despite the final score.  The game was pretty even otherwise and Miami also gave us 10 points on TOs.  

 

We've sucked mole teets since then.  We've only won one game without a 2+ TO margin, that was the Giants, who beat themselves if we're going to be honest, and had an opportunity to win a two-possession game there.  

 

We need to quit making excuses and start optimizing the talent that we have.  We're not going anywhere until that happens.  The problem appears to be shaping up that everyone on board appears to be searching for their own lifevests now instead of being united in the task at hand.  Sure, I may be way off, but reading between the lines of some of what's coming out it would also be foolish to ignore that possibility. 

 

Here's my take, that McD has finally overstepped his bounds and his hubris is now on full display.  I mean honestly, he's got the entire Carolina coaching staff here from when he was there, all but.  Who on earth truly believes that that is the bunch to win us a Lombardi?!?   That they are really the best candidates out there of all that were/are available?   It's far from a reach that McD wouldn't hire an OC that would be a threat to take his job.  

 

The other thing not talked about, unless I bring it up, is that McD was a patently average DC in Carolina.  13th average Yardage D and 17th average Scoring D there.  So why are we expecting more here, now?  

 

We all applauded how our D allowed 3, ... three, fewer points in four games than the year prior, last year.  But in that analysis few if any caught on that we'd also allowed over 100 yards per game more which some dismissed with excuses or being insignificant otherwise when the fact is over 100 yards/game more is hardly insignificant, particularly when it's against bottom half offenses contrasted with top-half

 

And we need to get over ourselves regarding injuries, as if we've been the only team over the years that's needed to overcome major injuries.  And perhaps this will eventually spawn a true conversation about Beane's efforts at bringing in depth.  Everyone applauds and cheers our offseason acquisitions, ignores 7 seasons of play and extrapolates one or two maybe good seasons of a brought on JAG as if they're going to best their singular decent season while here.  

 

This team is no different now with White out than it was for all of last season.  

 

We talk about Jones, a very average reliable starting DT, but little else over a decade with zero recognition to back it up, as if he's Aaron Donald.  He's not.  Not even close.  OK, great, he had a few great games but it's not as if his pace to nearly match his career totals for sacks was going to materialize in a single season.  He didn't perform like that all of last season, not even close.  In fact, he's already exceeded last season's sack totals, thanks largely to Howell, the most sacked and on record-shattering pace for most sacks allowed in a season, QB, and he's matched his last season TFL total and is halfway to his QB Hits total.  He had a few great games, it's unlikely, ridiculously unlikely, that it would have continued all season.  Let's not overrate a few games here.  Groot came out of the gates similarly last season before fading too.  It's what we do, we play our September as if going 4-0 therein locks us into playing in the AFC CG.  

 

Milano, OUCH!  But hey, I know I've been preaching "what happens if Milano goes down?" for at least two years.  One would think that the same question had crossed our illustrious experts' minds also at some point.  If not, then shame on those "experts."  If so, well then, why didn't they do anything about it besides leaving no other well-rounded LBs on our roster?   That's a Beane issue, not ours.  

 

At the end of the day, what we're witnessing is coaching malaise.  McD's bitten off more than he can chew, predictably.  Dorsey, say whatever anyone wants about him, but he's not particularly creative or imaginative contrasted with the OCs that win regularly in the playoffs, which is a terminal problem.  Unless Allen plays lights out, with an accompanyment by a WR, like Davis in the 13-Seconds game, we don't do crap in the playoffs and our defense all but goes on vacation.  That's a coaching issue.  

 

For anyone not getting it, it'll clear up more as the season goes on.  This "culture" soft undefined nonsense is fine, but how about a coach that can motivate the team to hit the field as if there's a game in a few minutes rather than one that allows them to go out as if the first 30 minutes are warm-ups, while then often being out-adjusted by his or his selected coordinator's counterparts in the final 30 minutes.  

 

Or a coach than can take the unconventional defensive pieces and reconfigure them like he's reconfigured his D's to begin with to account for the lack of a 3-down well-rounded LB beside Milano in the past?  

 

Maybe this is what happens when you build a defense almost exclusively to disrupt the passing game.  You suffer injuries and it's impossible to adjust much for lack of competent depth, that everyone was cheering about upon their signings, but have nothing but diminutive LBs that specialize in pass-pro.  Seems to me that the expectation is that you'll get run on, down your throat.  That's common sense.  

 

As to Oliver, he's been hit-n-miss four four seasons and one of our most inconsistent players.  He was on pace for 17 sacks and about 40 TFLs and 40 QB Hits.  Who in their right mind thinks he would have even come close to that?  His season highs to date have been 5, 10, and 14.  Sounds as if he was in for another "inconsistent" last dozen games.  

 

And maybe our pace over the first four games has fed into all of our injuries.  Had we sustained that, we'd have shattered both franchise, player, and team records.  Things like that don't happen, ever.  If they did it wouldn't be with this roster.  

 

Sometimes you just run a hot streak, like we've done at the beginning of the season now for three straight years running.  It's a coaching trademark for McD.  

 

Someone posted in another thread that without White, Milano, and Jones having taken any snaps, our defense has allowed 5.6 Yards-per-Play.  That stuff is meaningless without context.  I just ran the numbers for our first four games, and unless a mistake was made, we allowed 5.7 YPP with them in.  

 

This season is a mirage.  Our start against the Jets and last three games is closer to reality than our having lit up the Raiders and Skins, and played the Fins equally but winning that game on the merits of two TOs with it otherwise having gone either way.  

 

We're not as bad as we were against the Giants, but we're also not as good as we were against the Raiders and Skins.  

 

We'll see how it shakes out, but it's seasons like this where coaches earn their keep.  

 

There were five seasons in the drought years where we won 8 or 9 games.  Our QBs in those seasons were Rob Johnson, Bledsoe, Orton, and Taylor.  If McD can't win 10 or 11 games with Allen, .... SMH.  

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by PBF81

[NewEra]

31 minutes ago, ddaryl said:

 

.I said before the season by mid October we would know what this team was going to be.  There is a chance of making the playoffs ZERO chance of going to or winning the SB IMO
 

It doesn’t matter you say.  There’s time to improve.  There’s time to make changes.  There’s time to make trades.  We have no clue what this team is capable atm.  
 

is Milano out for the season?  Is Daquan out for the season?  You don’t know…..so you don’t know what this team is capable of if we make the playoffs.

 

So many couch experts.  

[bmur66]

53 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

That all sounds marvy (NPI), but there's also a good chance that the centralization of control by McD has led this team further away from improving than it has moved them towards it.  

 

We came out of the gates swinging and beat the hell out of three poor offensive teams and began beating our chests about how great our D was.  Miami made it a game in our house with that energy, despite the final score.  The game was pretty even otherwise and Miami also gave us 10 points on TOs.  

 

We've sucked mole teets since then.  We've only won one game without a 2+ TO margin, that was the Giants, who beat themselves if we're going to be honest, and had an opportunity to win a two-possession game there.  

 

We need to quit making excuses and start optimizing the talent that we have.  We're not going anywhere until that happens.  The problem appears to be shaping up that everyone on board appears to be searching for their own lifevests now instead of being united in the task at hand.  Sure, I may be way off, but reading between the lines of some of what's coming out it would also be foolish to ignore that possibility. 

 

Here's my take, that McD has finally overstepped his bounds and his hubris is now on full display.  I mean honestly, he's got the entire Carolina coaching staff here from when he was there, all but.  Who on earth truly believes that that is the bunch to win us a Lombardi?!?   That they are really the best candidates out there of all that were/are available?   It's far from a reach that McD wouldn't hire an OC that would be a threat to take his job.  

 

The other thing not talked about, unless I bring it up, is that McD was a patently average DC in Carolina.  13th average Yardage D and 17th average Scoring D there.  So why are we expecting more here, now?  

 

We all applauded how our D allowed 3, ... three, fewer points in four games than the year prior, last year.  But in that analysis few if any caught on that we'd also allowed over 100 yards per game more which some dismissed with excuses or being insignificant otherwise when the fact is over 100 yards/game more is hardly insignificant, particularly when it's against bottom half offenses contrasted with top-half

 

And we need to get over ourselves regarding injuries, as if we've been the only team over the years that's needed to overcome major injuries.  And perhaps this will eventually spawn a true conversation about Beane's efforts at bringing in depth.  Everyone applauds and cheers our offseason acquisitions, ignores 7 seasons of play and extrapolates one or two maybe good seasons of a brought on JAG as if they're going to best their singular decent season while here.  

 

This team is no different now with White out than it was for all of last season.  

 

We talk about Jones, a very average reliable starting DT, but little else over a decade with zero recognition to back it up, as if he's Aaron Donald.  He's not.  Not even close.  OK, great, he had a few great games but it's not as if his pace to nearly match his career totals for sacks was going to materialize in a single season.  He didn't perform like that all of last season, not even close.  In fact, he's already exceeded last season's sack totals, thanks largely to Howell, the most sacked and on record-shattering pace for most sacks allowed in a season, QB, and he's matched his last season TFL total and is halfway to his QB Hits total.  He had a few great games, it's unlikely, ridiculously unlikely, that it would have continued all season.  Let's not overrate a few games here.  Groot came out of the gates similarly last season before fading too.  It's what we do, we play our September as if going 4-0 therein locks us into playing in the AFC CG.  

 

Milano, OUCH!  But hey, I know I've been preaching "what happens if Milano goes down?" for at least two years.  One would think that the same question had crossed our illustrious experts' minds also at some point.  If not, then shame on those "experts."  If so, well then, why didn't they do anything about it besides leaving no other well-rounded LBs on our roster?   That's a Beane issue, not ours.  

 

At the end of the day, what we're witnessing is coaching malaise.  McD's bitten off more than he can chew, predictably.  Dorsey, say whatever anyone wants about him, but he's not particularly creative or imaginative contrasted with the OCs that win regularly in the playoffs, which is a terminal problem.  Unless Allen plays lights out, with an accompanyment by a WR, like Davis in the 13-Seconds game, we don't do crap in the playoffs and our defense all but goes on vacation.  That's a coaching issue.  

 

For anyone not getting it, it'll clear up more as the season goes on.  This "culture" soft undefined nonsense is fine, but how about a coach that can motivate the team to hit the field as if there's a game in a few minutes rather than one that allows them to go out as if the first 30 minutes are warm-ups, while then often being out-adjusted by his or his selected coordinator's counterparts.  

 

Or a coach than can take the unconventional defensive pieces and reconfigure them like he's reconfigured his D's to begin with to account for the lack of a 3-down well-rounded LB beside Milano in the past?  

 

Maybe this is what happens when you build a defense almost exclusively to disrupt the passing game.  You suffer injuries and it's impossible to adjust much for lack of competent depth, that everyone was cheering about upon their signings, but have nothing but diminutive LBs that specialize in pass-pro.  Seems to me that the expectation is that you'll get run on, down your throat.  That's common sense.  

 

As to Oliver, he's been hit-n-miss four four seasons and one of our most inconsistent players.  He was on pace for 17 sacks and about 40 TFLs and 40 QB Hits.  Who in their right mind thinks he would have even come close to that?  His season highs to date have been 5, 10, and 14.  Sounds as if he was in for another "inconsistent" last dozen games.  

 

And maybe our pace over the first four games has fed into all of our injuries.  Had we sustained that, we'd have shattered both franchise, player, and team records.  Things like that don't happen, ever.  If they did it wouldn't be with this roster.  

 

Sometimes you just run a hot streak, like we've done at the beginning of the season now for three straight years running.  It's a coaching trademark for McD.  

 

Someone posted in another thread that without White, Milano, and Jones having taken any snaps, our defense has allowed 5.6 Yards-per-Play.  That stuff is meaningless without context.  I just ran the numbers for our first four games, and unless a mistake was made, we allowed 5.7 YPP with them in.  

 

This season is a mirage.  Our start against the Jets and last three games is closer to reality than our having lit up the Raiders and Skins, and played the Fins equally but winning that game on the merits of two TOs with it otherwise having gone either way.  

 

We're not as bad as we were against the Giants, but we're also not as good as we were against the Raiders and Skins.  

 

We'll see how it shakes out, but it's seasons like this where coaches earn their keep.  

 

There were five seasons in the drought years where we won 8 or 9 games.  Our QBs in those seasons were Rob Johnson, Bledsoe, Orton, and Taylor.  If McD can't win 10 or 11 games with Allen, .... SMH.  

 

 

There it is. Excellent synopsis of the Bills current state of affairs.

[Homey D. Clown]

you just don't get a pass in this league when a team you should beat rather handily flat out punched you in the face.  Let's just stop with the nonsense.  I think we can all see this team has been in a downward sprial since they got de-panted by Cincy at home, and to make anecdotal excuses are just that, as each week brings another batch of "reasons" the team is still good.

[PBF81]

And BTW and FWIW, we presently have the second easiest schedule in the league for games played.  Three of our four wins have been against 3 teams with Point-Differentials in the bottom-7 of the league, one of which is DFL.  

 

Our losses include teams having the second worst Point Differential, and the Jets who are also negative.  

 

That speaks even less in support of McD in our predicament.  He'd better figure something out real quickly with the opposite of that ahead of us.  

 

 

[Jauronimo]

100%!!  They don't care!!! Nothing we can do except cut our ***** off now.

[ALLinALLEN]

Yeah I mean they have room for 4 more losses this year to even make the playoffs and its week 8.....but sure give them more passes.

[PBF81]

We've started 4-3  times in the drought era.  

 

The last of those times mimics this season nearly to a T.  Ryan's 2016 season where we finished 7-9 with Taylor at QB.  

 

The other times we started 4-3 were ... 

 

2015:  8-8 with Taylor 

2014:  9-7 with Orton 

2011:  6-10 with Fitzy after starting 5-2  

2008:  7-9 with Edwards after starting 5-1 

2003:  6-10 with Bledsoe 

2002:  8-8 with Bledsoe 

 

There were several other seasons where we started 3-4.  

 

If McD cannot at least do a couple of games better with Josh Allen at QB, ... SMH ...  

 

Arguably, Allen alone as the sole difference would have put most if not all of those teams in the playoffs in those seasons.