SI Article on Bills Successful Re-load

[PBF81]

5 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

Isn’t that the goal? A Super Bowl? Something beyond what one would expect? Did you not expect a Wild Card appearance in the worst division in football with a hall of fame QB? That is the absolute floor and exactly what we have accomplished. 
 

Sorry I don’t join the ball wash club after every regular season win vs Mac Jones. 
 

If you want me to change my tune win a game that matters in the postseason. That SHOULD matter, to all of us. Until that happens it’s not very hard to see these threads as exactly the reason things will never change. Which is exactly why I’m a prick in every one of them. 

 

A number of posters have said in the past that they're perfectly content with us playing well in the regular season regardless of what happens in the postseason.  

 

So the expectations of fans such as yourself, myself, and many others are different.  I can see if that if all they're looking for is some fun during Sept thru December, all is well.  

 

It really is a matter of perspective.  But it's also incredibly disappointing when you have a football gift like Allen to fail to do more than we've done in the playoffs if you have the Championship perspective.  Some people obviously don't have that and don't care about it, that doesn't make them wrong, again, it's all a matter of perspective  

 

 

[Mikie2times]

1 minute ago, DrMaxPower said:

Who on earth is saying anything of the sort?

 

There's a big gap between that and 'fire McDermott because he's so inept, the grass must be greener elsewhere'.

 

We all want to win. Some don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater because it hasn't happened yet.

Given the state of the AFC East since 2020, having Josh, what would you have expected us to accomplish thus far? Missing the playoffs? The league has about 5 real difference makers at QB and having one is a massive advantage. 

[PBF81]

1 minute ago, DrMaxPower said:

Who on earth is saying anything of the sort?

 

There's a big gap between that and 'fire McDermott because he's so inept, the grass must be greener elsewhere'.

 

We all want to win. Some don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater because it hasn't happened yet.

 

Seems that ToGoGo did, implied in unmistakably.  

 

Take it up with him.  

 

And when you say "we all want to win," if you mean a championship, then wanting to win and caring whether or not we do win won are two different things.  There are fans here that have posted that they don't care whether we win a championship, all they care about is entertaining football.  That's a fact.  So again, you'd have to talk to them as to why they take that tack.  

 

But getting back to the premise of your statement, for anyone caring about winning in the postseason, given the glaring underachievement therein, and considering that it's primarily coaching related, I'm not sure how that's a defense for the people criticizing those that criticize McDermott.  

 

It can't be both ways.  

 

 

[BullBuchanan]

20 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

We beat 4-3 Seattle.

Seattle is 4-5

[chongli]

34 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

Would you trade what we have done for what the Bengals have done? Multiple conferences title appearances and a Super Bowl appearance? 
 

Keep in mind they lost Burrow last year and still nearly made the playoffs. 
 

I don’t know how you couldn’t trade that. The AFC East champs is like being the fastest one legged man at this point. 

 

Seriously? Cincy has missed the playoffs in two of the four years Burrow was QB, and is probably going to miss them again this year. Plus, they didn't have to play KC twice in the divisionals like we did, or we would have been in more conference championship games. And Cincy lost to an average Rams team in the SB. We would gave won.

[Mikie2times]

3 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

A number of posters have said in the past that they're perfectly content with us playing well in the regular season regardless of what happens in the postseason.  

 

So the expectations of fans such as yourself, myself, and many others are different.  I can see if that if all they're looking for is some fun during Sept thru December, all is well.  

 

It really is a matter of perspective.  But it's also incredibly disappointing when you have a football gift like Allen to fail to do more than we've done in the playoffs if you have the Championship perspective.  Some people obviously don't have that and don't care about it, that doesn't make them wrong, again, it's all a matter of perspective  

 

 

The 90’s filled my bowl of winning without winning the big one. I want the actual big one now. I guess that makes me miserable. As for the regular season, let’s shoot for reasons why we might think the postseason will be different. Let’s start with winning some games against contenders. 0-2 in that regard thus far. Chiefs and Lions on deck. I think we can hang with regular season KC but I still really want to see it happen. Lions will likely steam roll us. 

1 minute ago, chongli said:

 

Seriously? Cincy has missed the playoffs in two of the four years Burrow was QB, and is probably going to miss them again this year. Plus, they didn't have to play KC twice in the divisionals like we did, or we would have been in more conference championship games. And Cincy lost to an average Rams team in the SB. We would gave won.

Burrow was hurt 2 years in that stretch and they got robbed on a phantom call in the Super Bowl Bills fans would still be talking about if the role was reversed. Not to mention, they beat KC, nearly twice in the playoffs, and kicked our A$$ at home. Sign me up for those Cincinnati failures vs the McD success story. 

[chongli]

2 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

Seattle is 4-5

 

We beat them when they had a winning record. And the Cardinals could lose next week. It doesn't really matter until all the games have been played, and even then, who cares?

[DrMaxPower]

11 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

Seems that ToGoGo did, implied in unmistakably.  

 

Take it up with him.  

 

And when you say "we all want to win," if you mean a championship, then wanting to win and caring whether or not we do win won are two different things.  There are fans here that have posted that they don't care whether we win a championship, all they care about is entertaining football.  That's a fact.  So again, you'd have to talk to them as to why they take that tack.  

 

But getting back to the premise of your statement, for anyone caring about winning in the postseason, given the glaring underachievement therein, and considering that it's primarily coaching related, I'm not sure how that's a defense for the people criticizing those that criticize McDermott.  

 

It can't be both ways.  

 

Not wanting to blow things up doesn't mean you don't want to win. That's a dichotomy that only exists in the minds of the anti-McD group.

 

This all stems from the theory that; a) McDermott is below replacement level, with damn near any choice being equal or better and b) Josh is so good that almost nothing else matters.

 

I disagree with both but I don't expect to convince you otherwise.

 

Not wanting to blow things up doesn't mean you don't want to win. That's a dichotomy that only exists in the minds of the anti-McD group.

 

This all stems from the theory that; a) McDermott is below replacement level, with damn near any choice being equal or better and b) Josh is so good that almost nothing else matters.

 

I disagree with both but I don't expect to convince you otherwise.

Edited November 5 by DrMaxPower

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

33 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

I'm tellin' ya.  It's definitely not something to be crowin' about.  

 

 

I’ve always refused to buy any AFCE Champion merch … that just guarantees us a place in the dance. Tired of getting to tango with the uglies while the homecoming queen contestants laugh in our faces 

[Mikie2times]

Tell you what, if McD gets us to a Super Bowl I will wear a dress and take an adult size inflatable sex toy with a shirt that says McClappin for life to my local watering hole. Order dinner for two. And take plenty of photos for the board. Not that it’s very far off from my normal post work Monday. But the point is none of the “haters” want to be right on this. We would all want nothing more to be epically wrong. To eat crow for life and bath in shame for eternity.

[DrMaxPower]

5 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

Tell you what, if McD gets us to a Super Bowl I will wear a dress and take an adult size inflatable sex toy with a shirt that says McClappin for life to my local watering hole. Order dinner for two. And take plenty of photos for the board. Not that it’s very far off from my normal post work Monday. But the point is none of the “haters” want to be right on this. We would all want nothing more to be epically wrong. To eat crow for life and bath in shame for eternity.

Sounds hot....

 

Please do share haha

[BullBuchanan]

7 minutes ago, chongli said:

 

We beat them when they had a winning record. And the Cardinals could lose next week. It doesn't really matter until all the games have been played, and even then, who cares?

Well, you should if you're going to pretend like we're fielding a high-end football team. our wins have come against opponents with a combined 20-41 record, with 9 of those wins coming from seattle and arizona. We've played against historically bad football teams this year and we haven't always looked good doing it.

Josh has been playing very well this year, maybe the best of his career, but we still have issues on offense (two bad drops by Coleman yesterday, and one by Cook), and our defense is nowhere near the level it needs to be to shut down good teams in the playoffs. We're absolutely in store for another scenario where we can't count on them to stop anything and Mahomes just bleeds us out at the end of a playoff game unless something massive changes. Given that all the defensive talent we have has already bloomed, it's unlikely we can count on too many guys getting hot by the end of the year that make a sizeable difference. Bishop maybe?

If your goal is to win meaningless games before Christmas, well good news. We should get to 10-12 wins easy because our division is a dumpster fire and we have 3 more gifts on the way. If you're actually trying to win a championship, I don't think this is a team you can seriously consider at this point. We're nowhere near the top 4, and maybe aren't in the top 6.

[balln]

Just now, Mikie2times said:

Tell you what, if McD gets us to a Super Bowl I will wear a dress and take an adult size inflatable sex toy with a shirt that says McClappin for life to my local watering hole. Order dinner for two. And take plenty of photos for the board. Not that it’s very far off from my normal post work Monday. But the point is none of the “haters” want to be right on this. We would all want nothing more to be epically wrong. To eat crow for life and bath in shame for eternity.

I’m exactly where you are

 

I’m in the fire McD crowd bc I know he’s sub par w the elite coaches in crunch time. I don’t need to see more. And I don’t want to wait and HOPE he figures it out. Allen doesn’t infinite prime years. It’s professional sports. Time to move on. 

[SoTier]

43 minutes ago, ToGoGo said:

McDermott is the scapegoat for all the fans with issues. 
 

Only a Super Bowl will exorcise the demons inside many of those fans. 
 

 

Guaranteed that there will complainers even after a Bills Super Bowl win. 

 

 

 

[DrMaxPower]

1 minute ago, balln said:

I’m exactly where you are

 

I’m in the fire McD crowd bc I know he’s sub par w the elite coaches in crunch time. I don’t need to see more. And I don’t want to wait and HOPE he figures it out. Allen doesn’t infinite prime years. It’s professional sports. Time to move on. 

Coaches fail at about the rate of a 6th round pick.

 

I'm not going to throw away a pro bowler because he hasn't been all-pro yet. Odds are the next guy isn't as good.

[julian]

1 hour ago, Mikie2times said:

That’s not what the data shows 

The league average win rate with QB play at Josh’s level is exactly what we have done. 
 

 

Ok makes sense, thanks.

[PBF81]

8 minutes ago, DrMaxPower said:

Not wanting to blow things up doesn't mean you don't want to win. That's a dichotomy that only exists in the minds of the anti-McD group.

 

First of all, I love your choice of words.  "Blow things up."  

 

So firing a coach that has obviously held us back is "blowing things up" despite keeping most else, particularly a generational talented QB, in place then?  

 

Otherwise that's simply not true.  Those that simply want entertaining football in general and for whom winning a Championship isn't as important, yes, "not wanting to blow things up" does in fact mean that they don't care if we win in the playoffs.  

 

Pick your words better.  Every Bills fan wants the team to win.  We all want an extra million dollars too.  But there's a huge difference between caring whether or not we do and wanting to.  Does that really need an explanation?  

 

 

8 minutes ago, DrMaxPower said:

This all stems from the theory that; a) McDermott is below replacement level, with damn near any choice being equal or better and b) Josh is so good that almost nothing else matters.

 

I disagree with both but I don't expect to convince you otherwise.

 

LOL 

 

No, it stems from the theory that the #1 thing holding us back come playoff time is McDermott.  Allen covers a wealth of issues that closes that gap and is the only part of our team that shines with any regularity whatsoever come the postseason.  

 

This season we're 0-2 against teams that appear to be headed for the playoffs, with one of those losses entirely on coaching, and clearly the other, the shellacking at the hands of the Ravens also having a good bit to do with coaching and preparation.  For those that care about beating the Fins, whom we own, twice, the Jets, LOL, the Jags, Titans, Seahawks, and Cards, good for them.  I think all of us are happy we won those games.  No one has argued that.  

 

How many people were claiming that the Ravens or Houston loss wasn't that bad?  ... with 10 and 20 point offensive performances against the 22nd and 14th ranked scoring defenses.  

 

It's ridiculous not to see significant coaching issues come playoff time with this team.  In that regard, again, if a regular season record is more important than not underachieving in the playoffs, that's in the eyes of the beholder.  Many think that it's a real shame that there aren't more fans that care as much about winning in the postseason as they do in the regular season, but more importantly, reconciling why the winningest team in the regular season over the past x number of years doesn't have a postseason record to match.  

 

That is something that clearly you won't be convinced of.  

 

 

12 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

Well, you should if you're going to pretend like we're fielding a high-end football team. our wins have come against opponents with a combined 20-41 record, with 9 of those wins coming from seattle and arizona. We've played against historically bad football teams this year and we haven't always looked good doing it.

Josh has been playing very well this year, maybe the best of his career, but we still have issues on offense (two bad drops by Coleman yesterday, and one by Cook), and our defense is nowhere near the level it needs to be to shut down good teams in the playoffs. We're absolutely in store for another scenario where we can't count on them to stop anything and Mahomes just bleeds us out at the end of a playoff game unless something massive changes. Given that all the defensive talent we have has already bloomed, it's unlikely we can count on too many guys getting hot by the end of the year that make a sizeable difference. Bishop maybe?

If your goal is to win meaningless games before Christmas, well good news. We should get to 10-12 wins easy because our division is a dumpster fire and we have 3 more gifts on the way. If you're actually trying to win a championship, I don't think this is a team you can seriously consider at this point. We're nowhere near the top 4, and maybe aren't in the top 6.

 

The games of importance on the schedule yet to be played are the Niners, KC, and @ Detroit.  

 

The rest is garbage.  Hopefully we can do better than we did vs. Baltimore and Houston.  Bills fans were leaving the Ravens game in droves in the 3rd Q.  

 

If not, then any criticism is fair.  

 

 

[notpolian]

Yep it's all about the postseason.  Regular season success is much better than failure, but it's necessary, not sufficient. 

 

I think McDermott can prepare the team well, motivate them, and makes good in-game adjustments.  But he is poor/mediocre at in-game decisions.  His defensive philosophy is not compatible with postseason success (too dependent on zone, overemphasis on DL penetration vs. clogging lanes and power).

 

I think Beane tends to overpay for ok/good players at times (Oliver, Knox, Bass, maybe the tackles) and hasn't drafted enough difference making WR, OL, safeties and DL to push us over the top. Obviously he hit the home run on QB.

 

I'm not an advocate of replacing the current regime unless you can get someone with a proven record of success.  They almost doesn't exist outside of the Dark Lord of Foxboro, which ain't happening.  We've got what we've got, which is better than 75% of the NFL. I fear it'll never get us to the promised land, but I hope I'm wrong.

[DrMaxPower]

Just now, PBF81 said:

 

First of all, I love your choice of words.  "Blow things up."  

 

So firing a coach that has obviously held us back is "blowing things up" despite keeping most else, particularly a generational talented QB, in place then?  

 

Otherwise that's simply not true.  Those that simply want entertaining football in general and for whom winning a Championship isn't as important, yes, "not wanting to blow things up" does in fact mean that they don't care if we win in the playoffs.  

 

Pick your words better.  Every Bills fan wants the team to win.  We all want an extra million dollars too.  But there's a huge difference between caring whether or not we do and wanting to.  Does that really need an explanation?  

 

 

 

LOL 

 

No, it stems from the theory that the #1 thing holding us back come playoff time is McDermott.  Allen covers a wealth of issues that closes that gap and is the only part of our team that shines with any regularity whatsoever come the postseason.  

 

This season we're 0-2 against teams that appear to be headed for the playoffs, with one of those losses entirely on coaching, and clearly the other, the shellacking at the hands of the Ravens also having a good bit to do with coaching and preparation.  For those that care about beating the Fins, whom we own, twice, the Jets, LOL, the Jags, Titans, Seahawks, and Cards, good for them.  I think all of us are happy we won those games.  No one has argued that.  

 

How many people were claiming that the Ravens or Houston loss wasn't that bad?  ... with 10 and 20 point offensive performances against the 22nd and 14th ranked scoring defenses.  

 

It's ridiculous not to see significant coaching issues come playoff time with this team.  In that regard, again, if a regular season record is more important than not underachieving in the playoffs, that's in the eyes of the beholder.  Many think that it's a real shame that there aren't more fans that care as much about winning in the postseason as they do in the regular season, but more importantly, reconciling why the winningest team in the regular season over the past x number of years doesn't have a postseason record to match.  

 

That is something that clearly you won't be convinced of.  

 

 

I've seen enough of your essays previously. You can save the time and 500 words.

 

I still don't even think we are that great this year. It's a reload with 1/3 of our cap chewed up on dead space. I'd probably have us 3rd or 4th in the AFC right now. I expect the '25 and '26 Bills to be better. I'll still hope for the best on any given Sunday and I'll still think firing McDermott is foolish.

[PBF81]

12 minutes ago, SoTier said:

Guaranteed that there will complainers even after a Bills Super Bowl win. 

 

If only ... 

 

I'll join Mikie2times at his dinner table if that happens.  

 

Here's the thing, you say that as if it's been close when it hasn't even gotten a sniff, and the primary reason why it hasn't is for the thing you're defending.  

That makes no sense.