The Autopsy and the Bright Side

[msw2112]

47 minutes ago, 8BallSippin said:

 

that was obvious 10 minutes in, why wait until halftime to make the switch?  But that's McDermott, gonna to what we planned to do, no matter what.

 

I've played football, but never coached, and I certainly have not played at the NFL level.  Is it common or realistic to make major game-planning changes on the fly, or does that typically happen at halftime?  In my experience as a fan, it's typically at halftime that those adjustments are made. 

 

Marv Levy and the Super Bowl Bills were NOT good at that.  That team had so much talent and typically way more than their opponent, that they just did their thing all game long, and most of the time, it was good enough to win.  That team sleepwalked through a lot of first halves against inferior opponents and came back to win most of the time.  It came back to bite them in the Giants Super Bowl.  Obviously, they almost pulled it out, and were wide right by only a few inches, but had they made more adjustments at halftime, the outcome may have been different.

 

Back to the current team, I actually think that McDermott (and maybe Babich) is pretty good at making halftime adjustments.  I worked against the Cardinals and almost worked last night until the ill-fated trick play, when the wheels came off.

[Reks Ryan]

15 hours ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

Hamlin is a bad safety, once the strength of the defense is now our biggest weakness 

He's replacement  level at best.  Cam Lewis is another replacement level player who struggles against top offenses and more athletic players.   

 

The bright side to me is that the weakness was exposed early in the season.    Hopefully Taron returns in the next week or 2 and the staff puts in Edwards in place of Hamlin.   IMO Edwards & Bishop will be our safeties at the end of the year, if healthy. 

[BeastMaster]

I really think that it comes down to this

 

McDermott is a good coach. He's a good person that the players respect and want to play for. His defenses constantly do their job and can be dominant against lesser opponents. 

 

With that being said, his teams are known to not measure up against the big boys in the biggest moments. His teams get bullied and the offense has always been to put too much on Josh Allen's shoulders. His decision making is suspect, and he has tendencies to play to not lose instead of win.

 

At this point, there are two camps you can be in. One is to be happy about the success that this team has enjoyed in comparison to other franchises during this time period and the previous twenty before he arrived where we were basically a joke of a franchise and ride with McDermott until it eventually comes to an end

 

The other is to recognize that while we have been a good team and a franchise that is now respected and looked at as upper echelon, that we just are not going to be able to get over the hump and we'll have the same results that we've had when we play the other true contenders in the playoffs and it means not truly contending for a championship. That this is not an acceptable result, and so there must be a change with the coaching staff at the very top

 

I know what camp I'm in

[hondo in seattle]

For me, there is no bright side until we get our next win.

[GaryPinC]

4 hours ago, Captain_Quint said:

The defensive gameplan was the issue. Anytime we play Lamar, we have the dline playing contain, not rushing the passer, to account for his running abilities.

But with Derrick Henry back there too, we shouldn't have been doing that.. From the start, it should have been run blitz and create disruption since DH will literally run through you if you don't blitz and get there early. When we finally switched to that, they started to stall. But the game was already out of hand (barring a few miracles from our pedestrian offense). 

The other reason we did that in the past was because Lamar would only see the downfield in front of him and he was quick to take off running under pressure.  Unfortunately McD didn't account for the fact that Lamar has improved in two years and a different strategy is needed.

[ControllerOfPlanetX]

The bad..

Three #1 picks and a #2 were M.I.A.

(Rousseau, Oliver, Elam, Epenesa)

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

3 hours ago, msw2112 said:

 

I've played football, but never coached, and I certainly have not played at the NFL level.  Is it common or realistic to make major game-planning changes on the fly, or does that typically happen at halftime?  In my experience as a fan, it's typically at halftime that those adjustments are made. 

 

Marv Levy and the Super Bowl Bills were NOT good at that.  That team had so much talent and typically way more than their opponent, that they just did their thing all game long, and most of the time, it was good enough to win.  That team sleepwalked through a lot of first halves against inferior opponents and came back to win most of the time.  It came back to bite them in the Giants Super Bowl.  Obviously, they almost pulled it out, and were wide right by only a few inches, but had they made more adjustments at halftime, the outcome may have been different.

 

Back to the current team, I actually think that McDermott (and maybe Babich) is pretty good at making halftime adjustments.  I worked against the Cardinals and almost worked last night until the ill-fated trick play, when the wheels came off.

I really don’t think a wing and a prayer heave by Allen constitutes anything “almost working” last night

[WotAGuy]

What this thread needs:

 

 

[Orlando Buffalo]

I am not overly concerned for several reasons:

- we had a short week and in the NFL that one day matters 

- the receivers are still learning Josh, so they will get better, and need to be better when we face good DBs.

- the play calling was bad but that is a rarity for Joe Brady.

- the defense is usually much stouter vs the run, which once again at this point is a one off game. 

 

Team was not in sync at all, which means a good team will smoke us 

[msw2112]

51 minutes ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

I really don’t think a wing and a prayer heave by Allen constitutes anything “almost working” last night

 

They made some adjustments and got to within 11 points, had the ball and the momentum with more than a quarter and half remaining.  By NFL standards, they were right in the game.  They were moving the ball well and the defense had held the Ravens back a little bit.  So something was working in the first part of the third quarter.  They the trick play happened and the wheels came off.  Football is a game of momentum and the Bills had it for a small portion of the game, then proceeded to give it right back to the Ravens.