good comments from Bills players in this new Athletic piece

[Comebackkid]

i feel like the bills are hard headed.   like torrence said....this is what worked all year so were going to keep doing it....

sure that makes sense but then it really doesnt.    

when we played the pats twice  a year and they were good..they always changed up what they did the second time and

we always went into it prepared for what they had done the time before.

 

its nice to have great players but you also as coordinators need to coach up advanatges for your guys on the field and i feel

thats something we dont do.    

we make it easy for a team as good well prepared as the chiefs because u dont show them anything they havent already seen from us.

 

[peterpan]

Mahomes always runs on us.  He always beats us more with his legs than arm.  This isn’t new.

 

maybe the bills need to watch more of their own tape, less of others.

[peterpan]

5 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

Another way to say what I mean is that all of the best individual plays came from the Bills. A couple amazing Allen throws, Cook's acrobatic TD, Phillips crushing his guard off the snap, Milano chasing down Mahomes in the backfield. On the Chiefs side the only exceptional individual play I can think of was that Worthy catch. Everything else their coaches handed to them. What was Mahomes' signature play from this game? He played exceptionally but he didn't need to do anything exceptional.

 

So it's two playoff losses in a row now where the game was close at the end, but the degree of difficulty for the players on each team was massively different. On the drive that decided the game their coaches beat ours, big time. No player on the Chiefs needed to do anything on that final 4th down except go where Spags told them to. Allen almost beat it anyways because he is Allen, but that's what I mean. Our players are expected to do more than their counterparts because the coaching details aren't there for us.

 

I always try to explain this to non-bills fans.  Everything is difficult for the Bills.  It’s made easy for players on other (good) teams. 
 

wonderful post.

[GaryPinC]

12 hours ago, Simon said:

 

It's wildly off target when it's 15 yards from where it's supposed to be, regardless of the end result.

I guess wildly off target for me would mean the receiver had little or no chance to catch it, which I completely disagree with.

Kincaid had to adjust and did.  His body wasn't stretched horizontal trying to reach the ball, his chest was angled up and he tried to arm scoop it into his body instead of reaching towards it with both hands.

The distance and angle of the ball were such that he got his core close to the ball and was unimpeded.

 

The throw was off but more than adequate IMO.

[North Buffalo]

21 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

O’CyrusTorrence - “Chiefs called a better play than we had on offense”

Also chiefs were in the neutral zone 3x... still same cadence... gotta change it up... by the time Josh did it was too late... cant just keep running the same play against the best adjusting team in the league... gotta match it and anticipate they will.

[LarryMadman]

14 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

It's an interesting matchup because there is a huge gap between the respective QBs and head coaches, and those are obviously the two most important people on the team, but the Eagles otherwise have a legit super team with elite players and elite depth at every level. I'm still very confident the QB/head coach gap is insurmountable though.

 

Unfortunatly I expect the Chiefs to crush the Eagles, they will take away Barkley and force Hurts to beat them with his are which he won't come close to doing.

[nuklz2594]

run the damn ball. our bs combined are top 5. the oline great at run blocking. it aint rocket surgery

[DCofNC]

22 hours ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Outcoached again

Let’s be fair, it’s only every time.

[BillsFan2313]

14 hours ago, Simon said:

 

It's wildly off target when it's 15 yards from where it's supposed to be, regardless of the end result.

 

Cool, he should have caught the ball. 

[GaryPinC]

21 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

The more I reflect and read about the game the more I come to this conclusion. The dead giveaway is that all of their TD drives were easy with barely any resistance, while ours relied on multiple 4th down conversions, James Cook making a miraculous individual play at the goalline, etc. We were threading needles and biting our nails while they were casually waltzing downfield. Just a massive coaching gap on both sides of the ball. I don't know how we are going to suddenly bridge that gap while Allen is still in his prime. It's demoralizing to think about.

Thanks for this, I only wish our coaches could see this.  It's easy to blame missed plays but you're right on in that this is how the coaching gap translated.

 

What to do about it?   I believe Beane/FO should bring in an experienced "consultant" coach to assist McDermott, a la Ernie Adams  for Belichick (my brother mentioned this after the Rams game).  Someone who's won it all and can work with McD and provide guidance, experience and advice on how to up their coaching game and self scout the Bills for the playoffs.  Suggestions on what to change up in the playoffs.  He could potentially provide anticipatory in-game suggestions also, like how to play that goal line situation with the Rams.

 

2 things jump out at me with McDermott:

1.  He is a system guy through and through.  He's shown some progress in opening his thinking (4th downs, no prevent D vs Mahomes) but it's a struggle for him and that's ok.  His system has gotten us this far.

2.  This is his first head coaching job and his system struggles in the playoffs.  Get a respected voice in here to work with McD and find a new angle.

 

A change is needed.  This Athletic article points to the impending degradation of McDermott's process.  The team did everything right and it wasn't enough.  

[MrEpsYtown]

On 1/28/2025 at 4:25 PM, HappyDays said:

 

The more I reflect and read about the game the more I come to this conclusion. The dead giveaway is that all of their TD drives were easy with barely any resistance, while ours relied on multiple 4th down conversions, James Cook making a miraculous individual play at the goalline, etc. We were threading needles and biting our nails while they were casually waltzing downfield. Just a massive coaching gap on both sides of the ball. I don't know how we are going to suddenly bridge that gap while Allen is still in his prime. It's demoralizing to think about.

 

It sucks. It's coaching purgatory. Our best hope is Reid retires eventually. 

[Puckman5]

Which team did a better job of putting the other Teams QB in more uncomfortable situations? I’m not an advocate of firing team McBean, but it’s not unreasonable to expect them to understand their deficiencies and improve.  I have far more faith in Josh and the offense to perform to a high level than our defense.  Too many missed or meh draft picks on the defensive side and it showed against all of the better offenses we played against.  Just like many of you pointed out, KC’s defense appeared to have better players and scheme.  Outside the first couple drives, I thought Josh was as good as Mahomes.  What he had to face was a more talented better prepared defense than Mahomes had to.