The Bills playoff hopes are finally over as they got demolished by the Washington Redskins and have the longest drought in all of pro sports (thanks a lot Blue Jays). It was an extremely disappointing year as after finishing 9-7 last year, they regressed to at best 8-8 with better talent and an upgrade at offensive coordinator.
Losing Sexy Rexy Style
The Bills were horrible on offense and defense Sunday as it wasn’t until garbage time that they were able to do anything. The defense yet again was horrible as the Bills struggled to generate pressure causing Cousins to have time to throw the deep ball. The Bills also lack a cover LB with Bradham is out as Jordan Reed time after time was wide open. This has been a frustrating trend for a defense that last year dominated the elites at QB but now can’t even stop Kirk Cousins. The offense was just as bad as the offensive line couldn’t block and Tyrod wanted to show why he is a RB who can throw. Since the bye week the Bills passing offense has become very predictable as Tyrod locks on to the deep ball and if it isn’t there, he either gets sacked or scrambles. Tyrod was awful in the 1st half and it wasn’t until the defense let up that he was able to connect on a few deep balls to Watkins and make it not be a total blowout. The only bright spot has to be the backup RBs as Los and the no good Gator back did some thing well.
Blow It All Up
2014 was a very uneasy year in Buffalo as the death of Ralph Wilson made the whole organization go into a panic frenzy. Doug Marrone scrapped the offense in Training Camp that he ran since he got there to run a more conservative offense with little or not uncertainty. Despite a conservative offense, the Bills were able to win 9 games and if they were allowed to do anything on offense, might have made the playoffs. The Bills had a top 5 defense and special teams unit in 2014 under Marrone and many expected the Bills to be contenders in 2015. Then with the uncertainty of a brand new front office he bolted expecting to go to his hometown J-E-T-S. This left an opening at the Head Coach position and thankfully meant Bill Polian would not be a Czar and make his awful son the GM.
With the Bills looking for a new HC, they went on a gigantic search at every possible candidate to find the guy they wanted. The Pegulas along with Doug Whaley and Russ Brandon traveled the country on the Pegula plane and interviewed away. Focusing mainly on coaches with an identity on offense, the Bills were looking for a coach who could fix the offense and at the very least keep the defense the same. Dough Whaley wanted Hue Jackson as his hire as he had prior head coaching experience which the Pegulas preferred and had a plan to fix the offense. What Whaley was looking for was a candidate who would keep Jim Schwartz at Defensive Coordinator and keep the defense as it is. Hue Jackson agreed to this and was eagerly awaiting the second phone call about the job.
Instead, the Pegulas went another direction with Rex Ryan. The Pegulas wanted a splashy first hire and were swayed by Rex Ryan and the bold promises he had. The Pegulas were also influenced by Russ Brandon who sold them on the number of season tickets Rex Ryan can get the Bills and the Pegulas heard enough and made Rex their guy. Whaley only got on board when Rex announced his offensive coordinator was Greg Roman who has had success working with limited QBs and running a successful offense but still wasn’t 100% about it. With that Rex was made the guy and he made the bold promise that he will scheme based off personnel and the defense will be just as good as last year. However that all proved to be a gigantic lie as Rex stubbornly stuck to his defense which the majority of the front seven are a horrible fit for. The Bills had a top 5 defensive line that was really good at causing pressure with stunts and twists. However Rex hates that and instead uses them to take up blockers and drop into coverage thinking that will stop an offense. This led an elite defense to become mediocre at best and the Bills missing the playoffs. Instead of adapting his scheme, Rex says he needs players to fit his inflexible system which means guys like Bradham, Mario, Kyle Williams will be gone.
This leads to the most recent rumors coming out about the future of Doug Whaley, the man who gave the Bills their most talented roster since the early 90s and now being labeled a scapegoat. The recent rumors coming out are if Whaley wants to stay he will need a demotion which means he’s going to be gone. This means a new GM will be put in place and more likely than not will be stuck with Rex Ryan, a coach he didn’t pick. Since the beginning it seems like the Pegulas have wanted to put their own guy in the front office but did a lazy job at doing it. If their plan was to change the entire structure of the organization they just need to blow it all up. The Pegulas need to replace the front office with their guys and give them the complete freedom to make football moves without being overruled by a HC (Rex) that reports directly to the owner. They want to be successful owners, which means they need to put guys they trust in charge and give them the ability to run the operations and they can focus on their successful business operations.
Overall, this week has not bee a good week for Bills Nation, but at least JJ Abrams didn’t destroy Star Wars like he did Star Trek, so that’s great.
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