THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - Gotta Like the Start

[transient]

1 hour ago, Avisan said:

Do you feel that this is consistent with the Bills having the best point differential in the league over the last several seasons?

 

 

I think it's consistent with the 2023 Bills getting beaten by the Jets, Broncos, Jags, and Patriots and nearly getting beaten by the Giants, Bucs, and Chargers.

Edited September 10 by transient

[Avisan]

1 minute ago, transient said:

I think it's consistent with the 2023 Bills getting beaten by the Jets, Broncos, Jags, and Patriots and nearly getting beaten by the Giants, Bucs, and Chargers.

Did the Bills lose to the Jets, Broncos, Jags, or Patriots due to conservative head coaching decisions?

[transient]

2 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Letting inferior opponents hang around is bullet point #4 in McD's playbook.

 

1 hour ago, Avisan said:

Do you feel that this is consistent with the Bills having the best point differential in the league over the last several seasons?

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, transient said:

I think it's consistent with the 2023 Bills getting beaten by the Jets, Broncos, Jags, and Patriots and nearly getting beaten by the Giants, Bucs, and Chargers.

 

5 minutes ago, Avisan said:

Did the Bills lose to the Jets, Broncos, Jags, or Patriots due to conservative head coaching decisions?

@Avisan, let me re-create the sequence for you that I was responding to.

 

Regardless of circumstances, playing down to inferior opponents and letting them hang around was a frustratingly common occurrence last season. It's why there was rampant talk that McDermott might not make it through the season last season, if you recall.

[Avisan]

3 minutes ago, transient said:

 

 

 

@Avisan, let me re-create the sequence for you that I was responding to.

 

Regardless of circumstances, playing down to inferior opponents and letting them hang around was a frustratingly common occurrence last season. It's why there was rampant talk that McDermott might not make it through the season last season, if you recall.

You missed two-thirds of the conversation there, chief.

 

Pretty much every team has poor stretches and loses to teams that they shouldn't.  Claiming that it's part of the McDermott playbook implies that the Bills are a particularly egregious offender and that it's due to his head coaching.

 

If you would like to supply statistical evidence that the Bills are notable on this front and/or posit an alternative explanation for the phenomenon besides McDermott being too conservative, have at it.

 

Or you can leave it at "Neener neener the Bills hit a rough patch last season" but there really isn't anything to discuss there.

[amprov56]

19 minutes ago, transient said:

 

 

 

@Avisan, let me re-create the sequence for you that I was responding to.

 

Regardless of circumstances, playing down to inferior opponents and letting them hang around was a frustratingly common occurrence last season. It's why there was rampant talk that McDermott might not make it through the season last season, if you recall.

Other than TBD hot air, can you source “talk that McDemott might not make it through the year,” never heard or read anything about that. Regardless of what happens in 2024 and fan tantrums he will be back in 2025!

[Scott7975]

I think they could be better prepared for kick returns by just kicking the ball through the endzone and not having them happen.  I was saying it all day in the GDT because I knew a return was coming.

[Shaw66]

3 hours ago, Scott7975 said:

I think they could be better prepared for kick returns by just kicking the ball through the endzone and not having them happen.  I was saying it all day in the GDT because I knew a return was coming.

Bass didn't have the leg to get it there.  The wind was fierce and unpredictable.   

 

No wind, I agree with you.  It's tough to pin the return man inside the 20 - he's going to get to the 25, and once in a while he'll break one.  Makes much more sense to kick it deep, and I think that's what we're going to see.  On touchbacks, they'll have to bring it out to the 35 to balance the risk-reward.  Or even the 40.  At that point, it's a big penalty, just like kicking out of bounds.  Make it a big penalty anyplace but in the landing area, and then teams will be forced to put the ball in play. 

[Nephilim17]

I wouldn't call the Bill extremely prepared to start the game — as per the penalties and sieve-like defense in the first half.

BUT... as we've seen the Pats do to us over the last couple decades, we made adjustments and played far better in the second half. Good teams adjust and average teams squander good starts.