So, how is everyone feeling about this defense going into the playoffs?

[BigAl2526]

Depends on who Buffalo plays.  If the Bills ends up playing against Baltimore, I'll be concerned.  I'm not as concerned with just about every other AFC team Buffalo could face.   

[Boatdrinks]

1 hour ago, Coach Tuesday said:

And the odds are that unless the Bills go the distance, the heat will be turned up even more on McD this offseason.  The “Tyler Dunne Offseason Narrative” will be that McD has “added” to his resume by wasting an MVP season from Allen.  Fair or not that will be the discussion all offseason if they don’t win it all.  Will be intense.

If the Bills fail to advance to at least the AFCCG and the defense fails yet again, there should be strong consideration by Pegula/ Beane to making a major change. Many seem to think that he won’t , but I wouldn’t be so sure. The goal is a Super Bowl championship, and Josh Allen’s career will not be eternal. If somehow a playoff loss comes down to Allen and the offense failing, then it’s a different discussion altogether. These discussions would be 100% fair. 

[stuvian]

our improved run game is our defense's best friend

[DCofNC]

I feel like Cowturd said it best, these are McD’s playoffs.  Allen has played GREAT this year and perennially is very good in the playoffs, the D has gotten them beat too many times.  They MUST show up big this year or McD may be in some trouble.  You can’t be a “defensive genius” and continually have the Defense get you bounced from the playoffs.  With what we have seen this year, I do not feel great about it, but I’ll be gladly proven wrong.  I think JA can absolutely get it done, can the D keep it reasonable enough to allow him?  That will be the question.

[Rockinon]

I think the Bills defense has had only a couple of really bad games this season and the one against the Ravens is at the top of that list. However, I don't think their offense is the kryptonite that nearly everyone around here seems to think it is. The Ravens had a very good game plan against us, both on offense and defense and were able to control time of possession. The Ravens got lucky with a huge Henry run right out of the gate to put them up early. Also, they did a good job of sending blitzers after Josh. To me the game seemed kind of fluky. I just can't imagine the game going the same way twice. The offense was kept off of the field for long stretches and when they did have the ball didn't do much.

 

I think getting everyone healthy is going to be huge for our defense and our offense. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic but this team as a whole just seems more dangerous heading into the playoffs than in years past. A lot of that has to do with health. I see the defense making some big plays deep into the playoffs. Maybe it's just me...

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

If the Bills fail to advance to at least the AFCCG and the defense fails yet again, there should be strong consideration by Pegula/ Beane to making a major change. Many seem to think that he won’t , but I wouldn’t be so sure. The goal is a Super Bowl championship, and Josh Allen’s career will not be eternal. If somehow a playoff loss comes down to Allen and the offense failing, then it’s a different discussion altogether. These discussions would be 100% fair. 

I'm starting to get the feeling that the ultimate goal is not the SB.  It's continuity, regular season success,  revenue control and completion of the new stadium   Terry's not dumb.  He's sees the flaws of Sean but chooses to ignore them. Sean brought him Allen and a winning culture.  Why bite the hand that feeds you, and McDermott feeds him & the minority partners stability.  

[Chaos]

2 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

Sean brought him Allen

Sure about this?

[LABILLBACKER]

44 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Sure about this?

No.....but this is the ultimate truth I'm told from the legion of McD supporters. I'm sure it was more Beane but McD brought in Beane so he'll take credit for JA.

[Boatdrinks]

3 hours ago, LABILLBACKER said:

I'm starting to get the feeling that the ultimate goal is not the SB.  It's continuity, regular season success,  revenue control and completion of the new stadium   Terry's not dumb.  He's sees the flaws of Sean but chooses to ignore them. Sean brought him Allen and a winning culture.  Why bite the hand that feeds you, and McDermott feeds him & the minority partners stability.  

K

[Thurman#1]

10 hours ago, FireChans said:

Somehow other teams manage to not let them play one of their best offensive games of the year against them in crunch time.

 

Best offensive game of the 2023 Chiefs in the playoffs by EP AND fifth best of their season was against … the Bills.

 

Best offensive game of the 2022 Bengals in the playoffs by EP AND third best of their season was against… the Bills. 
 

Best offensive game of the 2021 Chiefs in the playoffs by EP AND third best of their season was against … the Bills.

 

Best offensive game of the 2020 Chiefs in the playoffs by EP and their best game of their season was against … the Bills.

 

And honestly it makes sense. We are the only team with a real argument of having a QB on Mahomes level or even better. Yet we keep losing in the playoffs. Is Allen a choker? Obviously not, he has a pretty incredible playoff resume. Deductively, it’s probably the defenses’ fault and the numbers bear that out. They choke and play terrible. Every year. And they are not just bad, but legitimately the worst playoff defense against them. Every year. And every year trots out “we had someone injured,” or some other excuse. 
 

What are the odds the Chiefs have their best offensive game in the postseason vs the Bills in the AFCCG? Pretty high probably, right?

 

 

What are the odds the Chiefs have their best offensive game in the postseason vs the Bills in the AFCCG? Yeah, pretty high. What would the odds be against any other defense in the league? Yup, also pretty high.

 

When playing well, the Chiefs seem to become almost unstoppable, at least in the postseason. Same with the Bills under Allen. Both guys, aided by the rules that make QBing and route-running easier have been almost eerie in their ability to be spectacularly productive. Mahomes slightly more so than Allan. That ... is what has happened.

 

Yeah, I'm not arguing that the Chiefs have been sensational on offense in the playoffs recently. Have you seen me arguing that? If you had, you ought to really let me have it. But let's be honest, you haven't. I haven't made that argument. So don't act like I have. It's intellectually dishonest.

 

As for all those other teams "not letting them play one of their best offensive games" against the Chiefs in the playoffs, yeah, I remember all of those games where other teams had the Chiefs down by less than a score and the Chiefs offense had the ball at the end and were coming down the field and those other defenses rose up, stomped the Chiefs and knocked them out of the playoffs.

 

Yeah, I remember well, there was the .... the ... um, the ... er, um. Give me a few weeks on that.

 

Three Super Bowl championships tell you. This Chiefs offense has done what they needed when they needed it. Nobody has stopped them when they were playing well. Pretending it's only the Bills says more about you than about other teams. The only team that stopped 'em was the Bengals that one year, and honestly that looked more like Cincy lucked into Mahomes just having a terrible game.

 

Oh, and the Bills defense against the Bengals was pretty bad. So was the Bills offense, including Allen. So was the STs. The whole team appeared absolutely emotionally devastated a

 

And that's not even mentioning the swatch of injuries to our defense in two of those years, specifically to the best players on our defense. When it's a fact, it's not an excuse, it's a justification.

 

 

[Mikie2times]

17 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

What are the odds the Chiefs have their best offensive game in the postseason vs the Bills in the AFCCG? Yeah, pretty high. What would the odds be against any other defense in the league? Yup, also pretty high.

 

When playing well, the Chiefs seem to become almost unstoppable, at least in the postseason. Same with the Bills under Allen. Both guys, aided by the rules that make QBing and route-running easier have been almost eerie in their ability to be spectacularly productive. Mahomes slightly more so than Allan. That ... is what has happened.

 

Yeah, I'm not arguing that the Chiefs have been sensational on offense in the playoffs recently. Have you seen me arguing that? If you had, you ought to really let me have it. But let's be honest, you haven't. I haven't made that argument. So don't act like I have. It's intellectually dishonest.

 

As for all those other teams "not letting them play one of their best offensive games" against the Chiefs in the playoffs, yeah, I remember all of those games where other teams had the Chiefs down by less than a score and the Chiefs offense had the ball at the end and were coming down the field and those other defenses rose up, stomped the Chiefs and knocked them out of the playoffs.

 

Yeah, I remember well, there was the .... the ... um, the ... er, um. Give me a few weeks on that.

 

Three Super Bowl championships tell you. This Chiefs offense has done what they needed when they needed it. Nobody has stopped them when they were playing well. Pretending it's only the Bills says more about you than about other teams. The only team that stopped 'em was the Bengals that one year, and honestly that looked more like Cincy lucked into Mahomes just having a terrible game.

 

Oh, and the Bills defense against the Bengals was pretty bad. So was the Bills offense, including Allen. So was the STs. The whole team appeared absolutely emotionally devastated a

 

And that's not even mentioning the swatch of injuries to our defense in two of those years, specifically to the best players on our defense. When it's a fact, it's not an excuse, it's a justification.

 

 

If Allen would have gotten the performance Burrow, Jimmy G, or Purdy had would we have won? Two out of three? 

 

It looks like in comparing the three that its a pretty significant difference in performance vs Mahomes? 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 04:46 AM by Mikie2times

[Thurman#1]

4 hours ago, Chaos said:

Sure about this?

 

 

 

Yup.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1167351/2019/08/29/is-your-guy-ready-for-the-league-inside-the-bills-decisions-meetings-and-scouting-trips-that-led-to-josh-allen/

 

"Beane knew this decision would define him as a general manager, so he meticulously laid out a plan. He and assistant general manager Joe Schoen studied the prospects extensively on film in August and made plans to see them live that fall. They saw Louisville’s Lamar Jackson play against N.C. State. They schmoozed their way onto the field at USC to watch Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen go head to head from the sideline. Beane relayed his findings to McDermott throughout the fall.

'He would go out and scout and come back, and there’s not a lot of GMs that do that,” McDermott said. “Some do, some don’t. He goes out, which I like. I appreciate that. It makes it harder on us during the week sometimes because we can’t do sitdown face to face. That said, player acquisition and knowing who’s out there is important.'

 

"McDermott knew he needed to start scouting quarterbacks earlier than he had the previous year. When the Bills flew to Atlanta for their Week 4 upset win over the Falcons, McDermott spent the time in the air watching film of Allen.

 

“'First thing that jumps off the film is how big he is, and you think about our weather here that we get and how much we needed a guy that you didn’t question the arm strength as the top guy,' McDermott said.

 

"With Beane scouting live and McDermott watching tape, the Bills’ brain trust started to formulate baseline opinions on the quarterbacks. Neither one had overseen the process of scouting and drafting a quarterback, but they drew on their prior experiences to know what they wanted in their franchise guy. Beane had been around for Cam Newton and Jake Delhomme in Carolina. McDermott saw Newton and Donovan McNabb when he was in Philadelphia."

 

And then from the Senior Bowl:  

 

“It’s a little intimidating, walking into a room with unknown coaches, unknown faces and them sitting down expecting you, getting ready to drill you with questions,” Allen said. “They have video up. That part was just the most nerve-racking part. Everyone else was just kind of meeting in the hotel where we were at with everybody, nothing crazy. I remember walking into that room and greeting coach McDermott first and then everybody else. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.“

 

 

And then from their visit to Laramie:

 

 

"The next morning, Daboll put Allen through a workout.

 

“'We threw a lot of footballs that day,' Allen recalled.

 

"With every pass, Allen had the owner of the Bills standing by filming.

 

“'That’s the coolest part about it,' Allen said. 'As I was going through drills, Mr. Pegula was filming me on his phone, like in my face as I was dropping back, going through all of these progressions. It was awesome to know the owners of the Buffalo Bills are very hands-on and very active in what they want to really accomplish with their franchise here.'

 

"While Allen was going through a strong workout, Schoen got an alert on his phone. The New York Jets had traded the No. 6 pick and two second-round picks to the Colts to move up three spots to the No. 3 pick.

 

“'We’re all like, "Oh man how is this going to work out?” 'McDermott said. 'He had a really good workout and it’s one of those deals where you leave that workout, it’s like leaving the store and you’re saying, "That’s a really cool whatever," but you’re leaving saying, "I don’t know if I can get that.’ It’s kind of bittersweet, like what did we come out here for?”

 

 

Did McDermott make the decision? Hell, no. That's Beane's job. But was McDermott involved in the decision? Absolutely yes.

 

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 05:13 AM by Thurman#1

[Mikie2times]

3 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

Nobody can have an intelligent response to this.

 

What, precisely, do those numbers represent?

Those are the defensive stats in the playoffs for teams that have faced Mahomes more than once. 
 

Your argument is the defense didn’t play any worse than other teams and if they did, it wouldn’t have mattered. So you can see the performance right there of the Bengals and 49ers vs Mahomes compared to us.
 

The last two playoff games vs the Chiefs we missed a game tying FG and lost in OT. So it seems like a pretty big stretch to say if we forced an INT or multiple INT’s or reduced a completion % by 8 points, that it just wouldn’t matter. 

[Thurman#1]

 

 

30 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

If Allen would have gotten the performance Burrow, Jimmy G, or Purdy had would we have won? Two out of three? 

 

It looks like in comparing the three that its a pretty significant difference in performance vs Mahomes? 

 

 

 

 

Nobody can have an intelligent response to this.

 

What, precisely, do those numbers represent?

 

And what, specifically, do you feel that these numbers show?

 

[Mikie2times]

5 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

 

Nobody can have an intelligent response to this.

 

What, precisely, do those numbers represent?

 

And what, specifically, do you feel that these numbers show?

 

Ray Charles showed these to me and said it seems to be fairly certain Mahomes plays the best vs Buffalo. 

[Thurman#1]

2 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

Those are the defensive stats in the playoffs for teams that have faced Mahomes more than once. 
 

Your argument is the defense didn’t play any worse than other teams and if they did, it wouldn’t have mattered. So you can see the performance right there of the Bengals and 49ers vs Mahomes compared to us.
 

The last two playoff games vs the Chiefs we missed a game tying FG and lost in OT. So it seems like a pretty big stretch to say if we forced an INT or multiple INT’s or reduced a completion % by 8 points, that it just wouldn’t matter. 

 

 

Then your numbers don't show what you think they do.

 

What you have there are QB stats. They are not team stats.

 

You're also apparently misunderstanding my point. I don't believe I every said anything like, "if we forced an INT or multiple INT's [sic] or reduced a completion % by 8 points, that it just wouldn't matter."

 

 

[FireChans]

53 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

What would the odds be against any other defense in the league? Yup, also pretty high

Huh?

 

I just showed that the last 3 times we played the Chiefs, their best offensive game in the postseason was against us. 
 

They played other teams during those postseasons. They didn’t post their best offensive game against them. They posted them against us.

 

I’m honestly confused.

[Thurman#1]

2 minutes ago, Mikie2times said:

Ray Charles showed these to me and said it seems to be fairly certain Mahomes plays the best vs Buffalo. 

 

 

Ray is dead. So those appear to be more hallucinations.

 

Did the hallucination say why Mahomes plays best vs. Buffalo? Did they say that it might well be because the Chiefs play their best when behind or under pressure? And that the Bills offense does that better than nearly any other? Because that is the pretty clear (and IMO reasonable) view of the Chiefs offense. They have turned it on when they needed it.

[GoBills808]

2 minutes ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Ray is dead. So those appear to be more hallucinations.

 

Did the hallucination say why Mahomes plays best vs. Buffalo? Did they say that it might well be because the Chiefs play their best when behind or under pressure? And that the Bills offense does that better than nearly any other? Because that is the pretty clear (and IMO reasonable) view of the Chiefs offense. They have turned it on when they needed it.

No, the reasonable view is that we put up very little resistance defensively vs the Chiefs compared to several other playoff teams

 

The fact that you even tried to claim the reasonable view is due to the Chiefs 'playing their best when behind or under pressure' is wild

[Mikie2times]

Just now, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Ray is dead. So those appear to be more hallucinations.

 

Did the hallucination say why Mahomes plays best vs. Buffalo? Did they say that it might well be because the Chiefs play their best when behind or under pressure? And that the Bills offense does that better than nearly any other? Because that is the pretty clear (and IMO reasonable) view of the Chiefs offense. They have turned it on when they needed it.

I was trying to follow your method of justifying our postseason defense and I finally had to turn to mind altering substances.
 

So you don’t acknowledge that the Chiefs have been better against the Bills than other teams they have played multiple times in the playoffs (and the Bengals for that matter). But if you did acknowledge that, you would make it conditional that Mahomes plays extra good against us because the games are close ( wasn’t the Super Bowl close?) or that we are emotionally sad or we are injured. 
 

I think all the bases have been covered.