Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott made it known to the football staff last season that he didn’t want to hear about the Bills Super Bowl years. To that point the team has removed the names of Jim Kelly, Paul Maguire and Van Miller from the large indoor stadium seating areas, have taken down the large photos of former Bills greats from the ADPRO Fieldhouse and has dismissed or forced out staffers from that era.
Apparently McDermott felt too many people were living in the past and he wanted to create a new culture. Slogans like “Trust the Process” and “Playoff Caliber” have resonated throughout the glossy video features cranked out by Pegula Sports Entertainment and all over the team’s social media platforms. Then the 47-3 defeat happened and now it looks like the sizzle was better than the steak.
This team came out flat and played poorly against Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chicago’s starting units in the last three preseason games. That obviously was a sign of what would happen in the opener against Baltimore, but who wanted to believe it? How could training camp and three weeks of practice result in the dismal performance Sunday? Whatever process Sean McDermott is using, it’s obviously not working.
Lady luck smiled on the Bills last season as they finished with the same record as the year before under Rex Ryan, but a series of fortunate incidents propelled them to the playoffs. That’s not about to happen this season as McDermott and GM Brandon Beane have assembled a roster that just suffered the worst season opening defeat in franchise history.
Many in the media blame the loss on McDermott starting Nate Peterman, but this team has bigger problems than the play of the quarterback. The offensive and defensive lines were embarrassed by the Ravens, the secondary was out of position and receivers had zero separation. The Bills looked like they had taken the summer off and drove their own cars to Baltimore to meet up for a scrimmage.
After the game McDermott could only repeat “we’ll have to look at the tape” over and over, which kills me because they no longer use tape, but I guess it’s better than saying “look at the film”. It was obvious he had no answers to how his team could play so poorly. Why players he continues to bring in from Carolina or Philadelphia have failed to improve the roster and players he traded away have done well.
McDermott may be tired of hearing about the glory days in Buffalo, but it doesn’t look like they will be replaced anytime soon.
Filed under: Buffalo Bills
Tagged with: Brandon Beane, Buffalo Bills, Sean McDermott
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