I am at a loss for words. I know that most of you who know me would think that me being at a loss for words would be a blessing. Sorry to disappoint but while I was speechless at times yesterday at the ineptitude of this team, I promised my readers my unbiased and straightforward assessment of yesterday’s debacle and, more importantly, where this team stands over half way to what was supposed to be a Super Bowl season. Here it goes:
MANAGEMENT: As a whole this team’s management composition, from Owner to GM to Coaching staff is at best a mediocre bunch. Our owner, Terry Pegula, he of the 14 straight non-playoff Buffalo Sabres, gets little or none criticism from the media or the fans. We look at what this team was like before he arrived as owner (17 consecutive absences from the playoffs) to a team that year in and year out is one of the best teams in the NFL. Maybe we’ve been spoiled, especially when you look at other teams around the NFL (Jets is the best example). That said, we also have to look at what he has done and what he hasn’t done as owner. He started out with Rex Ryan and Doug Whaley running the team. After firing Rex, he interviewed various candidates and found Sean McDermott. He was so fond of Sean that he allowed Sean to handpick the GM Brandon Beane. Both had worked together previously in Carolina. Both were experienced in professional football. What was odd about the hiring and the manner in which it was done was that in EVERY professional sports franchise that I’ve ever been aware of the GM is the Coach’s BOSS. This was a recipe for disaster from the start. Does McDermott control the draft or does the GM. Where is each in the team hierarchy? Who has the direct line to Pegula?
What has transpired over the past seven, very successful campaigns, is mediocrity in management. We have a head coach who is as defensive minded as any coach in football. We have a GM who seems to draft the guys that his coach wants rather that what is needed to win a Super Bowl. We have a coach whose Offensive Coordinator seems more interested in “Complementary football” than winning.
McDermott: we have a coach who year after year is by far the worst in the NFL in challenging referee’s decisions. 25% rate of success. Maybe he has such a fear of being overturned that he seems frozen when in-game fast paced challenges need to be made. Three examples of that this year: 1. Baltimore game- Josh scrambles out of the pocket and runs for the first down before sliding. The referees mark him short by a full yard. Replays clearly show that he didn’t start his slide until one yard after gaining the yardage needed for the first down. Instead of challenging the clearly wrong ball spot he allowed the next play to go on which was a two yard loss and punt. We were down by 15 points at the time. That blunder could have cost the Bills the game; 2. First Dolphins Game- First series of the game. Dolphins have third and a long four at the Bills 42. Tua throws a pass to Tyreke Hill for a five yard gain and first down. Replays clearly show Hill bobbling the ball as he went out of bounds, a clear incomplete pass. In spite of the obvious, McDermott froze and allowed the Dolphins to run their next play. This led to a Miami TD; 3. Yesterday- after a Tua pass that as ruled a completion, replays showed that the receiver bobbled the ball and it moved when he hit the ground. Clear incompletion. In what appeared to be a feeble attempt to claim that he was trying to challenge the call, McDermott, at the very second that the Dolphins were hiking the ball for their next play, dropped the challenge flag BEHIND the referee, who never noticed it until the play had transpired. This lack of game management, his incessive use of time-outs in bad situations (last year v the Rams after the Josh tush-push failure), his refusal to challenge the spot of the ball in last year’s AFC championship game v the Chiefs when Kincaid clearly got the first down on the play prior to Josh getting stuffed on the fourth down play. Time and time again since the “13 Seconds” gaff, McDermott has shown an inability to make correct in game decisions. He is way too conservative. Just look at yesterday and the beginning of the Bills loss. On the Dolphins first possession we stopped Miami by intercepting Tua. Bills ball at their own 25. First down incompletion. Second down Cook for 8 yards. Third down Cook for one yard. Here, instead of going for it on fourth down and setting the tone of the game McDermott punted. Miami got the ball and scored and never trailed the rest of the game. We are the Bills. We have Josh Allen. We come into Miami, a team that was 1-7 and who’d had two of their best defensive players traded earlier that week and who had two other starters out of the lineup. An aggressive “play to win” coach goes for it there to set the tone of the game. Passive Sean punts and we all saw what transpired.
BEANE: I’ve spoken ad nauseum over the past two years about Beane’s arrogance, stubbornness and ignorance so I won’t repeat myself here. That said, Beane’s refusal to do that what is necessary to give Josh some weapons at the WR position is grounds for dismissal. We have no speed at Wide Receiver. When was the last time Josh threw, much less completed a bomb (a pass where the receiver runs under the long pass rather than a back shoulder throw)? Was it when Diggs dropped one in the KC loss two playoffs ago? We don’t throw it because we have no one who can stretch a defense. In our three losses this year our opponents figured out early that the Bills don’t stretch the field. As a result, defenses play much more press coverages and dare Bills receivers to beat them. The don’t because they have no speed nor do they separate. Did anyone watch last night’s Charger game and see what Ladd McConkey, the guy drafted three spots AFTER Coleman can do? The arrogance of trading down in the 2024 draft and then drafting a slow Coleman was brutal. For him to continue with his failures at WR in free-agency makes matters worth. We have spent approximately $40 Million dollars on retreads/role players such as Knox, Palmer, Moore, and Samuel. We brought back Gabe Davis. WTF!!! And at the trade deadline we get the old “ I tried to make a trade but you need two to tango” BS.
Here’s the thing: how do you fire Beane without firing the guy who hired him. Just look at the two of these guys and how they work together. In a league dominated by offenses, the Bills continually spend first and second round picks on defenders. Oliver, Basham, Rousseau, Elam, Hairston, Bishop, etc… None have become stars in this league.
BRADY: In nine games this season the Bills offense has looked good to great in six quarters of football. The second half against the Ravens and the game against the Chiefs. Every other game was mediocre at best. We started out with three wins after the huge Ravens comeback, engineered by Josh and a hurry up offense, against bad teams. In the games against the Dolphins, Saints and Jets our offense looked pedestrian for most of the games. Yes we won. Yes we scored 30 points but it was clear to me (see my prior rants) that there was something majorly wrong with the offense. WR’s not separating and getting open, predictability of the play calling and the stubbornness and arrogance (notice the trend here) of the play calling by OC Brady. Brady and McDermott defended it by claiming the Bills were playing “Complementary football” and that “everybody eats”. I went into last weeks Chiefs game thinking the Bills would get destroyed. I actually bet $50 on the Chiefs under the guise of it would be worth $50 for the Bills to win and if they lose at least I won $50. I was shocked at the outcome. I was away last week which was the reason for no rant, although there wasn’t much to rant about. Coming into this week’s game I’d hoped that we’d gotten the stupidity out of our play-calling and that we’d dominate against a depleted Dolphins defense. Like Fonzie once said in Happy Days: “I was wrrrrrooooooooooonnnngggg”.
How many times is Brady going to call that stupid wide-receiver screen pass. Last year in the Chief’s playoff loss he called it on the Bills last drive, a 2 yard loss to Cooper. This year, time and time again he has called that play in critical situations to ne avail. Remember the NE game? Our ball, 1st and 10 at the NE 27 with 2:47 left in a game we were down by 3 points. First down: WR screen to Shakir who, thankfully, dropped the pass or else it would have been a three yard loss. When was the last time that that play actually gained significant yardage. Three times Brady called it yesterday, the result: one incompletion, one two yard gain and one no gain. Each time it’s called and fails the Bills are put into a long yardage situation. And how about the “Jet sweep” with Elijah Moore? How many times is he going to call that play? Again, yesterday he calls it and we lose a yard. The past five times that play has been called the Bills have fumbled twice (Knox and Moore) and lot yardage every time. Arrogance and stubbornness.
I watch a ton of football and see how every other good team’s receivers, whether or not they are speed burners, seem to get separation. In yesterday’s games time and time again receivers ran routes from which the QB could make easy 7-12 yard throws. When does Josh ever get receivers wide open? His best throws yesterday to Kincaid (three targets, two nice gains and a bad drop) and his back shoulder throw to Coleman for the TD were threaded into the receivers. Nobody gets open. Where is the wheel route to Cook? When did we last run a successful screen pass to a RB? Why do teams seem to know what we are going to do? Why can teams blitz us successfully this year when, in the past, we would exploit it. Josh runs around like a mad-man and guys still don’t get open. Brady’s play calling is terrible. Combine it with McDermott’s conservatism and Beane’s ineptitude in bringing in an impact WR we are in big trouble.
4. Training Staff: This is pure conjecture but I have to wonder whether this year’s new strength and conditioning coach is competent. Never have I seen a team plagued with so many soft-tissue muscle pulls and strains. Never have I seen so many players get injured during non-contact practices. Time and time again we come out of a game rather unscathed only to see our injury report grow during a non-contact week of practice. We saw rookie Max Hairston “sprain his MCL” in the preseason. He indicated that it was “supposed to be” a 2-4 week injury. Last week he took the field for the first time after an 11 week hiatus. Ed Oliver, Benford, Palmer, Milano, Rapp, etc… all have missed considerable time due to non-contact injuries. Do these guys stretch properly? Are they given appropriate modalities to prevent these types of nagging soft tissue injuries from occurring? I don’t know the answer to this but it just seems odd that these types of injuries seemed to pop up with the new coach.
5. TALENT: The Bills have a talented QB and a talented RB. Both would rank in the top five of their positions in the NFL. Name another guy who is a star? Do you wonder why Josh got the MVP over Lamar Jackson lst year? It was mainly because Josh was the ONLY guy on his team voted to the Pro Bowl while Jackson had 8 teammates selected. We have no star WR. Our Offensive line is made up of a bunch of good but not great players. Our TEs are marginal at best and oft-injured at worst. Our Defensive line has a bunch of decent guys who year in and year out don’t get sacks. Joey Bosa has been a good surprise and Deone Walker has played well. Milano and Bernard are old and slow. We rely on retreads like Tre’Davious White, Justin Poyer and Cam Lewis to fill a porous secondary. Where is the talent? Where are the stars? Yes we’ve had some mid to late round picks play well for us (Benford before this year), but where are they guys who stand out as stars? There are none. This “everyone eats) mentality isa result of not having a star. Think about other teams in this league that are successful. Every one of them have stars. Watching young receivers in this league routinely get 100 yard receiving games has become common place, but not in Buffalo. For Fuck’s sake Mack Hollins had 106 yards receiving yesterday. Moore and Samuel have 177 yards COMBINED this whole Fucking year!!! We spend millions of dollars on retreads who other teams don’t want only to watch other teams draft picks excell. Wide receivers DJ Metcalf, Puka Nacua, Jayden Reed, George Pickins, Cooper Kupp, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyreek Hill all were non-first round picks yet became superstars in this league. Is it bad drafting or poor development? Either way we’ve gone way to long with this crew. We are wasting a generational talent in Josh Allen (yes Josh wasn’t at his best yesterday, yes he fumbled and threw an interception. That’s the problem here. In games like yesterday he has to be superman for his team to win. Sometime he tries to do too much-I’d rather have that than a coach who punts on 4th and 1.
At 6-3 we are behind the 8-ball. Two games behind the Patriots for the divisions and behind in the conference. We have games coming up against Tampa, Philly, New England and Pittsburg-teams with a winning record. We also play a Houston team that is starting to gel. We lost three games so far this year, two to teams with five wins combined. We are not that good. In retrospect, maybe Beane made the right move by not mortgaging to future in trying to get a wide receiver last week. Next years team with Oliver and Hoecht back, with Hairston and Walker and hopefully Sanders and Jackson getting better. With Bosa keeping healthy and Kincaid progressing maybe this team is better next year with a first round pick as a stud WR. Lot’s of maybe’s here. Problem is that unless management changes or drastically improves I doubt any of it transpires.
Go Bills