Well it’s been almost three weeks since my last rant. Lucky for me I was in the Dominican Republic when the Bills lost to Denver. The best part of watching the game down there was that it was in Spanish and I didn’t have to listen to the announcers. After that game and the 12 men on the field causing loss I was despondent to say the least. I spent the next few days reading articles by guys like Warren Sharp, Matthew Fairburn and others about the Bills, McDermott, Dorsey and the like. Consensus at the time was that this team had a number of major problems which started at the top with McDermott and Dorsey and ran through the team. The players and the staff weren’t on the same page. Offense was struggling. Defense was playing pretty well given the number of injuries. There were questions surrounding McDermott’s conservative nature effecting the offense as well as his handling of the defense at the end of games (they’d lost to the Jets, Patriots and Broncos and should have lost to the Giants on game ending drives).
Within a day, McDermott fired Dorsey and made Joe Brady offensive coordinator. Lots of “Mea Culpa” in the lockerroom from Josh, Gabe and others blaming themselves for Dorsey’s discharge.
Next up were the mighty Jets. Bills started out a bit slowly but came around to beat a terrible Jets team 32-6. Defense played well (granted the Jets QB sucks) and the offense showed signs of life under Brady. Some hurry up mixed in with some motion and it looked like the Bills of 2021 and early 2022.
Then came the Philly game. I’m not really sure how to start. It’s been two days and I’m still dumbfounded at what I saw Sunday afternoon and evening. Let’s discuss:
1. Referees- One of the worst refereed games I’ve ever seen. Blatant pass interference calls missed on passes to Sherfield and Diggs. An absolutely horrible missed Horse Collar tackle on Josh on a second and goal from the three combined with an intentional grounding call when the ball landed a few feet from Gabe Davis. 10 penalties against the Bills in the first half and one (a coincidental penalty) against the Eagles. It was an absolute abomination. The fact that McDermott didn’t lose his shit after the horse collar non-call was absurd. His lack of energy (other than clapping his hands) was maddening. Sometimes when your team is getting screwed over you just need to react. Take a penalty. Get pissed. show the team you care.
2. Tyler Bass- the kid has lost it. He started out the season so well making his first nine field goals. After missing two easy ones in the Giant’s win (the last of which could have sealed the game), he’s looked shell shocked. He missed a huge one in New England and his two misses against the Eagles cost the Bills a win. All four of his non-blocked misses have been wide right. Something is wrong here and he needs to get it fixed.
3. Joe Brady- Yes I see good things. Yes the offense is running better than with Dorsey. Yes Josh has his swagger back. Still, there is something missing. The 3rd and one runs from the shotgun have to go. He started out the game Run, pass run with the Murray/shotgun/handoff on 3rd and 2 failing like usual. Second series was the same. Third and 2 again with the Murray/shotgun/run/fail. Lucky Josh made the first on a sneak on Fourth down. Next time they had rd and 1 Josh was under center. Murray had a head of steam when he got the ball and picked up four yards. Amazing how that works!!! Two more times in the first half the Bills ran on first down from the shotgun. 12:00 left in half: no gain; 7:00 left in half, ball on own 5 and they try it again-loss of three.
Another issue with Brady is the number of times, starting in the first quarter on a 3rd and 16, Diggs is NOT on the field in big third down situations? He clearly isn’t “tired”. Instead, Sherfield is on the field. Twice in that game against the Eagles Sherfield clearly ran the wrong route. One time, had he moved inside where Josh was throwing the ball, it would have been a TD or long gain. The second time was on a quick WR screen where he took off downfield. Maybe the lack of playing time for him and Harty has effected their effort during practice to pay attention to their prescribed routes. Either way, there is absolutly no reason why Diggs is off the field on third downs.
Last issue with Brady- Late in the fourth quarter Josh drove the Bills down the field and threw a 7yd TD pass to Davis with1:52 left in game. The drive started with five straight runs, all from under center. Cook for 11, Cook for 11 more, Murray for 13, Murray for 6 and Murray for no gain. Later in the drive from the Eagle 13 they ran Johnson for 4 and Cook for 2-all from under center. Running from under center works!!! Running Murray or Cook from the shotgun, especially on short yardage situations does not work. So what happens in OT? 1st and 10 from own 25: Shotgun run by Cook for 1 yard. After Josh picks up first down on 3rd and 9 pass to Davis they again ran Cook out of the shotgun for one yard. After Josh scrambles for 15 yards on 3rd and 9 they again run Murray up the middle for no gain. Three times in that drive these bad run calls on first down left the Bills in 2nd or 3rd and long. The first two times Josh was great enough to make huge plays on third down. The last time, however, his pass on third down fell incomplete (on an apparent miscommunication/wrong route run by Davis). As a result we settle for three and we all know how well that ended up. Sometimes it seems tome that Brady, being new on the job, is trying to appease McDermott with some of his play calls. Three runs on first downs in OT made no sense especially out of the shotgun formation.
3. McDermott-Ah, here it comes. I’ve been listening to the call in shows the past two days and it’s all been “FIRE MCDERMOTT”. If you’ve read my blog over the past three years I think you know how I feel about him as a head coach. I’ve pointed out his conservatism. I’ve pointed out his issues with Dabol’s pass oriented offense. I’ve pointed out his inability to close games out, his terrible usages of replay challenge as well as usages of time outs. I’ve talked about his arrogance and stubbornness in his refusal to learn from the “13 seconds game” loss to the Chiefs when, a year later, he allowed the Chiefs to get a FG at the end of the half when they started with the ball at their own 27 with 12 seconds left. I’ve harped upon his conservative nature and dinosaur mentality of “complementary football”. After the Bronco’s loss Aaron Sharp wrote a great article @sharpfootballanalysis.com about McDermott and his inadequacies. Please read it as it goes into detail about the same things I’ve been esposing for three years now.
So let’s look at McDermott v the Eagles:
1st half: Defense was absolutely terrific. Hurts had 22 yards passing. Bills bottled up their offense except for the Eagles second possession where they scored a TD which was helped by four penalties against the Bills on that drive. Other than that, Bills defense did what no other NFL defense had been able to do against the Eagles. It was awesome.
2nd half: wow, what a turn around. Some people laugh when “second half changes” are discussed. Some people poo poo the idea that teams make adjustments at halftime. Well if you watched Sunday’s game v the Eagles and still don’t believe that good coaches make halftime adjustments then you are either stupid or stubborn (usually both). The Eagles started out the half like they started out the game-3 and out. After that, however, they changed their offensive strategy entirely. Swift for 26, swift for 2, Swift for 6, pass for 14, Swift for 3 to the Bills one and the Brotherly Shove for the TD. The Eagles scored TDs on their next two drives in the same manner: mixing run and pass and using Hurst’s legs. After a three and out in their fifth possession the Eagles got the ball back down three with 1:52 left in the game. We all know what happened in the Bills losses to the Jets, Patriots and Broncos when our McDermott led defense allowed the opponents to drive down the field at the endof the game to win. We all saw the Tyrod Taylor led Giants almost do the same thing in week 6. We all say Baker Mayfield almost pull out a win on a Hail Mary in week 8. So what does McDermott do here? Same thing. Eagles get game tying FG with 20 seconds left after traveling from their own 25 to the Bills 36. Now let’s remember exactly what happened here. The Eagles kicker Jake Elliott is one of the best kickers in the league. He’s a veteran. With two time outs left and the opportunity to get the ball back with 20 seconds left on the clock what does McDermott do? He calls time out to “freeze the kicker”. When has that ever worked? Especially with a great veteran guy like Elliott. Elliott makes the FG and Bills get the ball back with 20 seconds left and one time out remaining. You would think that McDermott having seen Mahomes get two FGs in 13 seconds and 12 seconds from the same spot on the field would have learned. You’d think he would have remembered how Josh took the Bills from their own 25 to the Lions 27 in 21 seconds to allow Bass to kick a game winning 45 yard FG. Yes the Bills had three TO’s left in the Lion’s game and only had one left v the Eagles but they SHOULD HAVE HAD TWO TO’s left but for the “icing the kicker” waste. Let’s also remember that McDermott blew his 1st TO with 30 seconds left when he called TO on an Eagles third and 12 from the Bills 36, AFTER THE CLOCK HAD ALREADY BEEN STOPPED due to an Eagles penalty. That’s three TO’s the Bills SHOULD have had with 20 seconds left. That would have been plenty of time for Josh to move the ball. Just think about earlier in the game the rocket he threw to Shakir from his own end zone for 31 yards. Just remember what Josh has done in the past as well as what other QBs have done to us in less time. Even with one TO left the Bills could have gotten into FG range. Instead McD KNEELED ON THE FUCKING BALL. He was willing to take the chance that we lose the coin toss in OT, have the Eagles drive the field and score a TD and Josh never even getting the ball. He showed exactly the type of coach he is: soft, conservative and dinosaurish. Did you hear Tony Romo talk about how the Bills still had time to score with 20 seconds left and how he reacted to the kneel down? It said it all: McDermott doesn’t trust his offense.
We all saw what happened next. Bills FG and Eagles TD. Just another game where his soft defense gets torched at the end of a game and the Bills lose. A perfect example came when the eagles were faced with a huge 3rd and three from the Bills 39. Let’s recall a similar situation last year in the playoff loss to the Bengals. Bengals had 3rd and four from Bills 20. I can still see the tweet showing the Bills CB’s OUT OF THE PHOTOGRAPH when the Bengals lined up. There wasn’t a Bills pass defender within 8 yards of the line of scrimmage. What did Cincinnati do? Short 2 yard pass and run for a first down on their way to a game clinching TD. Many were calling for Leslie Frazier’s head after that call. Fast forward and now McD is put into a similar situation. What does Mr. Arrogance do? What does Mr. Stubborn do? Learn from last year’s mistake? Not a fucking chance. Bills CB play soft coverage 8 yards from line of scrimmage. Hurst throws easy pass to Smith who gains 11 yards on a 2 yard pass. Just arrogant and stubborn. We all saw the rest. Defense caves like it has all year. Bills lose. McDermott’s post game: blah blah blah, execution, can’t let refs determine outcome, learn from mistakes, etc… Same BS every time. Think about it. Why was Von Miller in the game at all, much less in OT? He has one tackle this ENTIRE YEAR!!!. He puts absolutely no pressure on the QB. In fact there was one play where he mistakenly thought the ball had been handed off and tackle a guard while Hurst sat in the pocket. We acquired Kingsley, a young 25 year old who is young and healthy. Instead, he continues to play a guy who clearly is not the guy he once was. Remember the end of the Cinci game? Big 3rd and four with just under two minutes left. Bills need a stop to get the ball back and have a chance to win. Remember the play? Hand off to Mixon around right end. Who is there too stop him and give the Bills a chance? It’s Von Miller. What happened? Von got juked to the ground, Mixon ran for 1st down and game was over. Why was he on the field then and why was he on the field v the Eagles? Surely Espinosa, Rousseau, Lawson and Floyd were not ALL hurt or tired!!!
Lastly I want to talk about scapegoating. Cook fumbled at beginning of Bronco’s game and was benched for rest of the half. Cook drops a would be TD pass in Eagles game and Murray lines up as the RB the next 14 plays. Yet Gabe Davis drops an easy first down pass which results in an interception v the Broncos and runs the wrong route v the Eagles all the while Shr=erfield twice ran wrong routes yet neither of them get benched. Inconsistancy leads to locker room issues. McDermott has lost this team and needs to be fired NOW>