TB / Buffalo Postgame thread

[Bruffalo]

I don’t understand the mentality of putting the game in the hands of your most injured and depleted defense time and time again. Especially when you have a documented history of making questionable (at best) choices in high pressure situations.

 

The Bills dominated and still almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. To me, it’s becoming clear that the coaching staff need to pivot. 

[Warcodered]

6 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

I'm fine with 90% of it and those punts were the right call tonight against that particular offense, but he has got to stop with the ***** defensive timeouts, especially on 4th downs.

The punts were the right decision, didn't like going into a more conservative offense as soon as we did, I get we had a two score lead but I'd have preferred staying aggressive to get at least a 3 score lead even if it was just a FG.

14 minutes ago, VW82 said:

I'm glad we won. It buys us more time to figure this out.

 

Josh had his fourth bad game in row. Stats say otherwise but tape will say different.

 

We scored 24 points and were a Godwin spin from being 4-4.

The stats and peoples eyes but sure. 🙄

[ALLinALLEN]

2 minutes ago, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

If we're grading this game a pass fail it's a pass. Letter grade would be e C for the uninspired second half. No killer instinct.

I’d give it a B- 

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

1 minute ago, Best Williams Available said:

The team is 2-1 in their last 3 games against bottom half teams. The Giants game should have been a loss too. So possibly 1-2 against not high powered Os. Any above avg O and they could be 0-3. The point being, the D is not up to snuff AND the rules favor offense so you have to do something to mitigate that as a coach. This idiot refuses to acknowledge that.

 

I’m not even advocating for going for it on that last 4th down but there were plenty of opportunities to put the game away earlier that he passed up. Being aggressive then is a way to mitigate the end game scenario.

Your logic is flawed….they are making these in game decisions with the current opponent in mind.  That is my whole point.  They’re not gonna say ‘well the chiefs have a good offense so let’s go for this 4th and short on the 40 against the bucs’ lol it’s illogical. 
 

Tbs win percentage probably goes way up if we attempted those 4th and shorts.  One stop and it’s a ballgame.  They’ve got a bottom tier offense but a pretty good defense 

 

giants and pats the offense struggles moving the football and the offensive line got pulverized.  Tonight was a much better result against a better defense

[Boatdrinks]

McD / Dorsey started out with the right idea : more Josh Allen. Trouble is when the offense stalled a few times in the second half , he just couldn’t help himself and his conservative nature . They punted and it worked out, but the opportunity arose again to go for it on 4th and 2. The Analytics would probably say to go for it , get another score and effectively end the game. Again - you have Josh Allen! Get the 2 yards. Now, I understand his shoulder was sore but he was back in the game and doing fine. Instead he put it in the hands of his wounded defense to close it out. Not surprisingly, they were back on D with the game in the balance for a third consecutive week. They turned a B+ / A game into a C-. This one shouldn’t have been that close , and was almost another mind boggling debacle in the end. 

[Niagara Dude]

42 minutes ago, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

WTF was that timeout on defense 

Allowed Tampa regroup,  first on the 4th down and then again on final drive.  

[K-9]

3 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

I'm fine with 90% of it and those punts were the right call tonight against that particular offense, but he has got to stop with the ***** defensive timeouts, especially on 4th downs.

Agreed. I have no problem with punting the ball up 14 in the 4th and making them face a long field. Nothing wrong with that. 
 

I have a huge issue with not being able to get a game clinching first down, which is a mark of a good team. Good teams close out games late when they have the ball. I don’t know how much of that is on McD or not. But if you’re gonna punt on fourth down anyway, then throw a four yard pass and covert a first down instead of running into the teeth of the D that is playing run all the way. 
 

But that’s not my main gripe tonight. Instead, once again, McD’s game management vis a vis those timeouts, left a lot to be desired. A HC must be a good game manager, period. And too often in his tenure, McD has shown he just isn’t up to the task. It’s quite maddening and it’s why I feel he lacks the chops to get us there. 

[BringBackFlutie]

46 minutes ago, Since1981 said:

Those punts were dumb. 
dominated but couldn’t  close the deal. 
good teams coming !!

 

Is this a haiku?

[BillsUberAlles]

Ultimately made it way closer than it needed to be, but I liked most of what I saw during the game.

 

 

[Niagara Dude]

44 minutes ago, Cray51 said:

How can we prove an opinion wrong?  Factually, we won the game.  We played conservatively in the 4th because we didn’t respect that team on the other side.  Bills won.  Against the chiefs, we go for it on 4th down no questions asked

Agreed ,  all because they let up when they had an opportunity to stick a fork in them.  4 and 2 and I would go for it and just end the game

[Warcodered]

45 minutes ago, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

WTF was that timeout on defense 

I understood the first one, considering on the last two fourth downs we'd had penalties that extended the drive, so it made some sense to me.

[The Wiz]

7 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

Baker Mayfield already looks like a fat old drunk and I pin him deep in that situation every single time.

Playing not to lose vs playing to win.  That's what will matter against good teams.

 

The game was fine all night and then they changed in the 4th for no reason.  A two TD lead isn't the same as it used to be.

[Franco_92]

5 minutes ago, section122 said:

I fully support the punt with 30 seconds left.  Make them drive the length of the field with 20 seconds.  They had a very low percentage chance of winning on that play.

 

Yup. when you get to needing 2 yards or more, it is way too easy for a defender to get a hand up, or to blow a gap, to be worth giving them 30 seconds to go 45 yards or whatever it was. Perfect offensive execution on a 4th and 2 can still fairly often lead to turnover on downs. Torrence not locking down Payne's hands did exactly that against Washington this year. 

 

Also, Neal made a really bad play on that ball, it should have been downed at the 1. 

[Straight Hucklebuck]

Started out good, Allen got a designed run, spread formations, 4 wide empty out of shotgun.

 

And then slowly we reverted back - tight formations, shotgun runs from the 1-inch line, 2nd-down runs in the red zone, McDermott taking horrible timeouts at the end of the first half and second half, the pace slowed down, the energy dropped.

 

And my gosh you see Harty making those kind of returns and you can’t find a way to get that guy the ball on offense????????????????

 

Freaking 2-feet and Tampa wins this game. 
 

 

[Buffalo03]

23 minutes ago, HomeskillitMoorman said:

I only kind of understand that though…because if you’re looking at the bigger picture…you surely see that he’s still making some of the same exact game management mistakes that he was 5 years ago right? 

I understand that. But I also look at a coach that broke a 17 year playoff drought and changed the culture, 5 playoff seasons in 6 years, 3 straight division titles and Ironically, most issues have occurred after Daboll left. Everything looked easy in 2020 and 2021. Everything has looked much harder the last year and a half. I always felt like he got unfair treatment from a lot of fans too early. People wanted him fired going into last season and after 13 seconds, I get it. But look at everything up to that point and that one loss made fans wanna shove him out the door? and even up to the last 3 or 4 weeks. We were humming for 3 weeks and now are back in a funk. Yes, his timeout usage always has made me wanna rip my hair out and at times, I think he gets a little conservative. But up until the last few weeks, I look at everything else and have always defended him but it is wearing thin

[LABILLBACKER]

9 minutes ago, The Wiz said:

Normally I'm in agreement with you but he coached scared tonight with they punts.

 

Then Dorsey did the same with running the ball.

 

They are both hurting each other.

They're both bad coaches.  We're simply going to be forced to win games the remainder of this season inspite of 2 struggling coaches.  Just tell Josh to do what he's always done. Be Superman.  While your HC & OC are playing Lois Lane.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

3 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

McD / Dorsey started out with the right idea : more Josh Allen. Trouble is when the offense stalled a few times in the second half , he just couldn’t help himself and his conservative nature . They punted and it worked out, but the opportunity arose again to go for it on 4th and 2. The Analytics would probably say to go for it , get another score and effectively end the game. Again - you have Josh Allen! Get the 2 yards. Now, I understand his shoulder was sore but he was back in the game and doing fine. Instead he put it in the hands of his wounded defense to close it out. Not surprisingly, they were back on D with the game in the balance for a third consecutive week. They turned a B+ / A game into a C-. This one shouldn’t have been that close , and was almost another mind boggling debacle in the end. 

The analytics would absolutely say to punt against an opponent like the bucs and it is not even remotely close… that td drive required a lot of luck and took foreverrrrr

[Nelius]

McD on WGR now. Doubt anything new 

[Mango]

9 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Other than Lawson's blocked fg, ST had another disappointing night. The lack of discipline & coaching creates those 4th down penalties. 

A play or two I would like back but a handful of punts inside the 10 and a couple inside the 5 isn’t a full pit “disappointing night”.

[CincyBillsFan]

28 minutes ago, VaMilBill said:

Yeah. After watching Josh’s post game interview, I think Josh knows this team is cooked based on the offense going cold at the end and the defense not able to stop diddly squat. 
 

offense was obviously better this week, but still couldn’t put a bad team away

 

i think we are in for a rough November 

The offense was great today.  Over 400 yards, 25 first downs and 24 points 3 minutes into the 3rd quarter.  McD then made a decision to play it safe and protect his D with a 14 point lead.  In hindsight it almost bit him in the butt.  Over the next 10 days McD has to consider what this team needs from the offense. IMO McD is to quick to use the O to protect his injury riddled defense.  But that's the wrong approach.  Keep the peddle to the metal and score points.