Super Bowl champions goes through adversity

[Solomon Grundy]

2 minutes ago, Pine Barrens Mafia said:

This isn't adversity. This is systems failure

 

When Josh Allen says in his press conference "I run the plays that are called", I call that adversity

[pocoboy]

2 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

If the Jets beat us on Sunday, they have a much better chance of making the playoffs than we do.  

 

Not sure that's cause for optimism or hope.  

 

The seasons over.  No playoffs for this team.  

 

The tough questions and decisions loom, and it remains to be seen how badly were going to take a good thing and destroy it.  

 

Knowing Pegula, he'll let McD run it into the ground and turn Allen into a veg before making a change there.  

 

 

 

It's a shame that a rather hefty batch of bad luck (injuries mostly), coupled with a lack of leadership & urgency, has put this team on the brink of a disaster of a season. Josh Allen needs to get better. Unfortunately the trend in the league is to reward guys and then have them go off the rails (see Deshaun, Kyler, etc). It's really going to be up to him whether he wants to return to greatness, because he holds some culpability in our current plight.

[PBF81]

1 minute ago, Gregg said:

 

I don't know about that. He fired Rex before the season ended as he saw it was a bad hire. His history with the Sabres also shows he will make changes if things aren't going well. If this season continues to go south, then I could see McDermott getting canned at the end of the year.

 

We'll see how it plays out.

 

Pegula's going to look like a moron if he fires McD after giving him that extension that hasn't even kicked in yet.  

 

Wisdom was to at least wait to see how the first part of this season played out before giving them that extension.  It would have been seamless to axe him that way.  

 

I hope your right.  

 

 

[strive_for_five_guy]

I get the OP’s point.  Gotta start by beating the Jets though, and then win a lot of more challenging games after that.   If somehow we can do that, we’ll have made it through it a really tough gauntlet and would be a scary team heading into the playoffs.  It’s hard to see happening though.

[PBF81]

4 minutes ago, pocoboy said:

 

It's a shame that a rather hefty batch of bad luck (injuries mostly), coupled with a lack of leadership & urgency, has put this team on the brink of a disaster of a season. Josh Allen needs to get better. Unfortunately the trend in the league is to reward guys and then have them go off the rails (see Deshaun, Kyler, etc). It's really going to be up to him whether he wants to return to greatness, because he holds some culpability in our current plight.

 

He does, but the question as to how well he's being coached looms large.

 

I'm far from convinced that he's been optimally coached here on McD's watch.  

 

I'd strongly suggest the opposite.  

 

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by PBF81

[pocoboy]

14 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

He does, but the question as to how well he's being coached looms large.

 

I'm far from convinced that he's been optimally coached here on McD's watch.  

 

I'd strongly suggest the opposite.  

 

 

 

I agree that the closer McDermott is to the QB room, the worse it would be. Daboll is a super-smart former defender, I think he had nuts to keep McDermott at bay for the most part, and when the offense was going well it staves off the meddling.

 

Let's be frank - this all started when Josh lost composure vs Green Bay and nearly cost them that game. That was likely the point where McDermott started forcing his way into the conversation, and ultimately soured it all. The only question now is whether McDermott will be willing to trust Brady, who does have some OC experience, to rid whatever bad habits, lack of prep, coordinator incompetence, etc have crept in.

Edited November 15, 2023 by pocoboy

[ALLinALLEN]

Yes, they do. But they go through adversity like the Ravens this year for example - Losing a blown game at home last week vs the Browns, having OBJ and other guys come back healthy (and STAY healthy) for an entire year, etc... They don't have adversity like this Bills team does; 13 seconds hangover, terrible injuries all over the defense, Diggs pre/off-season antics, firing their OC midseason, McDemott clueless....It's way more than "a little adversity" but I appreciate the angle.

[Heavy Kevi]

So many miserable people in this thread.

 

McD has alot of problems

 

Team has alot of problems

 

Defense has played pretty solid. Not world beaters, but good enough to win games.

 

Offense could see a significant spark from coordinator change. It has the personnel to be productive. We've seen Josh perform at the highest level.

 

Super Bowl (even playoffs) certainly not a guarantee, maybe not even likely, but everyone chastising the OP for their optimism could probably benefit from a deep breath. 

 

It certainly would make a good storybook ending. I know, we haven't seen any of those yet... But it could happen. The AFC is a bloodbath and pretty much any team could make it right now.

 

Crazier things have happened.

 

I wouldn't say I expect it or that I'm particularly optimistic myself, but let's not act like OP is an idiot because of their hope for more this year. That's why we're fans, and quite frankly I wish I shared that same optimism.

[dgrochester55]

I would share the sentiment of the OP if this was after one isolated blowout loss or even a two or three game losing streak, but we are looking at six games at 2-4 with poor offensive outputs against bottom half ranked defenses.  We are also looking at terrible coaching decisions game to game, a team that is in internal disarray and an incredibly tough schedule.

 

The only two times in history that I can think of a team winning a superbowl after being even close to a similar scenario this far into the season are the 2007 giants and 2020 Buccaneers.   The Bucs had a guy named Tom Brady at QB.

 

Buffalo is at a low enough point where one to two more wins for the entire season is more likely than playoffs.   Maybe if they beat the Jets and split with the Chiefs and Eagles, we can feel a glimmer of hope, but right now it is not good.   There are too many issues from the top down and a mini reboot/rebuild is likely needed after the season.

[PatsFanNH]

1 hour ago, kirkwoodus13 said:

Don’t buy into this BS everyone is saying. We have a top five QB in this league. In fact every team except KC, Cincy, Philly and maybe Houston would trade for Josh right now if he was available. Is he perfect? No! Is McDermott perfect No! However we have the pieces in place to make a run at the superbowl. Adversity will bring us together 

Allen on the Steelers this year wins a SB.. that D is nasty. Heck Cleveland wins a SB with Allen as well.  (Both those D’s are scary good when motivated)

[technobot]

Kudos for optimism and yes, adversity can make a person and a group or a team stronger.

 

However, the pattern that has developed under McDermott concerns me.

 

Quite simply, if we just look at football adversity, and remove injuries from the equation, we’ve had plenty of adversity or uncomfortable situations the team would have to talk about and overcome together.

 

13 seconds, Hail Murray, Vikings at Bills, even Broncos at Bills on MNF… this isn’t even a complete list but we are literally writing the book on how to collapse at the end of a game, within the final minute.

 

The concern here is are we learning? Is this making us stronger? Trevon Diggs running his mouth on Twitter about getting Stefon out of Buffalo makes me suspicious.

[stuvian]

when the Eagles make a mockery of us we can revisit this topic

[Gugny]

1 hour ago, nucci said:

you're not the first to say the team is struggling and you can't compare us to a Superbowl winner facing adversity because we haven't won a Superbowl

[Low Positive]

I think that this is so hard on us for a number of reasons. First of all, most of us have been waiting for the other shoe to drop since the Bills got good in 2020. It felt too good to be true. and this feels like the end of something. And the Bills will probably have to have an even worse year next year just to get out of the cap situation that we're in so we're looking at 2025 before being able to compete again. We'll have our old trouble attracting players and coaches to Buffalo because we can hire and fire coaches but all that snow is going nowhere. But more than anything, this feels like a regression to the mean. The Bills struggling just feels like the natural order of things. Having a franchise QB suddenly not being able to stop throwing the ball to the other team feels like a repeat of the Trent Edwards situation x100 because Josh was soooo good and the crash has been so sudden.  I don't know about other people, but this is uncharted territory for me as a fan. I have been angry about the Bills. I have been indifferent. But I have never been sad, and that's my primary emotion right now. 

 

 

 

 

[PBF81]

1 hour ago, pocoboy said:

The only question now is whether McDermott will be willing to trust Brady, who does have some OC experience, to rid whatever bad habits, lack of prep, coordinator incompetence, etc have crept in.

 

That's a pretty tall order and there's zero basis for thinking that it will. 

 

... other than that elusive "Winning Culture." 

 

Speaking of that ...

 

 

[FilthyBeast]

2 hours ago, nucci said:

you're not the first to say the team is struggling and you can't compare us to a Superbowl winner facing adversity because we haven't won a Superbowl

 

This is why I also loath these comparisons and continuously shake my head.

 

There's a reason why guys like Tomlin, Harbaugh, Carroll, etc continually get a pass when their teams have struggled, had down years, or made very questionable in game coaching decisions....they are proven commodities that have been to multiple SB's, won them, won road playoff games, etc. etc.

 

McD has done none of these things and you don't get a pass for winning a few division titles because in the grand scheme of things these are the true definition of 'hollow accomplishments' in pro sports and anyone with a clue understands this.

[zow2]

2 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

So long as McD is on the sideline making woefully ridiculous strategic decisions in crunch time NOTHING else matters….but I honestly love your optimism!

 

Go Bills

 

I agree. McD just loses too many close games, and some are the weirdest endings ever… to be a coincidence.  These good coaches like Reid, Siriani, Tomlin, etc don’t crap the bed as often as Mcdermott. So yeah unless things change dramatically, i don’t see him winning a Bowl.  

[Just in Atlanta]

Question:

 

Has a team that’s fired a coordinator gone to the Super Bowl the same year?

 

What about the following year?

 

We can probably shoulder one more loss and still make the playoffs. Not looking likely of course but bigger turnarounds have happened. The 10-7 Bengals are just one example.

[Low Positive]

1 minute ago, Just in Atlanta said:

Question:

 

Has a team that’s fired a coordinator gone to the Super Bowl the same year?

 

What about the following year?

 

We can probably shoulder one more loss and still make the playoffs. Not looking likely of course but bigger turnarounds have happened. The 10-7 Bengals are just one example.

In 2012, the Ravens fired Cam Cameron after week 14 and went on to win the Super Bowl that year.

[goldenboy81]

Be interesting to see if dorsey was the dark cloud. Time will tell