Beck Water Posted January 8 Posted January 8 1 minute ago, Buffalo_Stampede said: Brady has more energy and McDermott did mention Brady’s energy. The offense goes as Josh goes. I don’t think it matters too much at this point who’s calling it. It doesn't matter when things are going right. But when things are going poorly, it matters. Quote
FilthyBeast Posted January 8 Posted January 8 Well I certainly thought this team was toast after that game, and pretty sure 90% of this board and bills fans worldwide felt that way as well. This team doesn't make it easy and is no good for your mental, emotional, cardiac health, etc wellbeing but now is the time for this veteran group to finally take care of business when it matters and get to (and hopefully win) a superbowl. Quote
BADOLBILZ Posted January 8 Posted January 8 12 minutes ago, Logic said: Three main tangible factors: Brandon Beane's mid-season defensive acquisitions. I'm not sure the Bills would've won some of the games they did without Rasul Douglas and, to a lesser but still appreciable extent, Linval Joseph. Sean McDermott's defensive about-face after the bye. Coach said that he and his staff took a long, hard look at the defense during the bye week and did a lot of tinkering, and boy, did it show. Ever since the bye week, the Bills defense has been lights out. They held the Cowboys, Dolphins, and Chiefs each under 20 points. The last few games, they're giving up something like 16.5 points per game. An incredible turnaround, especially given the injuries and mid-season replacements. Joe Brady. No, it has not been perfect. No, I'm not sold that he's the long term answer at OC. Still, his insertion as playcaller came at just the right moment to save the season, IMO. He focused on the run game when he needed to, oversaw an offense that turned the ball over less, and injected some spark and life and fun into this offense. And one main intangible factor: Resilience. Call it perseverance, guts, fortitude, toughness...call it whatever you want. Even with all of the above factors...for this team to come together the way they did, shut out the haters and national perspective on them, overcome the turmoil around the McDermott article, and take care of business the way they did is extremely impressive. "Mental toughness" gets used so much that it can sometimes be eyeroll-inducing. But in this case, it's absolutely an accurate term. Kudos to these players and coaches. To win the AFC East and secure the 2-seed after everything they went through this year is massively impressive, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I agree with all of that...........the defensive improvement has been legit.........but the rest of the points I only agree by the slimmest of margins. They lost 5 games to non-playoff teams and only played 5 good games of their own out of 17...........and 3 of those were in the first 4 weeks. The AFC was there for the taking this year and they have stretched the cap to nearly it's limits to build this roster...........and still they hadn't clinched a playoff spot until late afternoon in week 18..........they needed a big upset in Tennessee and a 1 score win filled with unforced errors to get into the playoffs. Hopefully your last point is the most important..........character is something that is built. The perception that you have resilience can be self fulfilling for a team. Last season they showed resilience getting the 13-3 despite all of the tragedy around the season.........but then promptly rolled over and played dead in the divisional round. So they really have to show resilience to a SB win for it to really become an organizational trait. Quote
BillsPride12 Posted January 8 Posted January 8 48 minutes ago, Bills fan since 87 said: Hard to beat the first one in 25 years but this one is really close. Now lets go win the whole thing Yeah that's probably true. That one was definitely the most exciting one...and I really hope we can win the whole thing. It's great being relevant again and winning the Division but I'd love to cash in our chips and win the real trophy we all want at least once 1 Quote
Buffalo_Stampede Posted January 8 Posted January 8 3 hours ago, PBF81 said: Just saying. Poor offense has not improved from a scoring perspective nor had Allen's passing games improved. Neither has or running game other than we're logging more carries. Our YPC is down significantly. I'm trying to figure out out, but the best that I can come to with is that Allen's become more of a game manager than a big-time-arm QB. Offense is actually worse under Brady, but the defense improved a lot since the change. 2 Quote
Warcodered Posted January 8 Posted January 8 5 hours ago, SoCal Deek said: Did anyone notice/hear Diggs and Josh telling each other “four more” as they hugged following the game last night? I was impressed that they demonstrated that mind set….and they did it with hands clasped over their mouths as if they didn’t want anyone outside the inner circle to know that’s the way they’re thinking. Josh in the postgame speech was on it still, the guy is completely locked in. Maybe it's not pretty but he does not give a ***** just win. Quote
FilthyBeast Posted January 8 Posted January 8 22 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said: Offense is actually worse under Brady, but the defense improved a lot since the change. This is what's key and should give all Bills fans hope that a SB run is possible. You take away that 2nd half/overtime against the Eagles and this defense has essentially been championship caliber since the Broncos MNF debacle. Credit to McD for getting this unit to come together and seems like everyone is getting in on the action except Miller who needs to go back to bench yet again for the playoffs. Quote
PBF81 Posted January 8 Posted January 8 50 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said: Offense is actually worse under Brady, but the defense improved a lot since the change. True, but that's also included playing against teams led by Shtick, Zappe, and Wilson, and a Pacheco-less KC. We didn't play so well against Philly or even Miami for a half. Let's hope that holds up tho!! Quote
Freak-O Posted January 8 Posted January 8 13 minutes ago, PBF81 said: True, but that's also included playing against teams led by Shtick, Zappe, and Wilson, and a Pacheco-less KC. We didn't play so well against Philly or even Miami for a half. Let's hope that holds up tho!! Other than the turnovers we played well against Miami. It’s easy to forget though since those are the most memorable things. As far as I can recall we played well against Philly too. And if you want to talk about teams decimated by injuries you’d be fair to also bring up our own. Quote
ngbills Posted January 8 Posted January 8 Record vs playoff teams: 5-1 Record vs non-playoff teams: 6-5 Weird year 1 Quote
CincyBillsFan Posted January 8 Posted January 8 2 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said: Offense is actually worse under Brady, but the defense improved a lot since the change. To be fair dropping from 3rd to 6th is hardly moving in a 32 team league. And given the caliber of the teams played in weeks 11 - 18 versus 1 - 10 it's easy to see that for all intents and purposes the Bills O performed better regardless what the stats say. In contrast the defensive improvements were substantial. 7 minutes ago, ngbills said: Record vs playoff teams: 5-1 Record vs non-playoff teams: 6-5 Weird year This bodes well for the playoffs. Also the Bills beat 3 teams that won their division this season. Quote
ngbills Posted January 8 Posted January 8 2 minutes ago, CincyBillsFan said: This bodes well for the playoffs. Also the Bills beat 3 teams that won their division this season. Sure does. And other than PHI they held each of those playoff opponents to 20 or fewer points. D is stepping up in big games. They gave up 21 or more in 7 of the 11 against non-playoff teams. 1 Quote
PBF81 Posted January 8 Posted January 8 1 hour ago, Freak-O said: Other than the turnovers we played well against Miami. It’s easy to forget though since those are the most memorable things. As far as I can recall we played well against Philly too. And if you want to talk about teams decimated by injuries you’d be fair to also bring up our own. I was referring to defensively. The Philly game wasn't great defensively, they hung 150 rushing on us in regulation. We're not a good rushing D. We were awful in the 4th Q in that game. In Miami we were also terrible in the first half allowing over 200 first half yards. Quote
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