Dorsey Out
In my mid-season blog on the Buffalo Bills' 2023 NFL season I expressed concerns about the team's recent performances, drawing comparisons to the struggles and resolution of the 2021 season. The issues with injuries, offensive instability, and the team's inability to adapt during games. We are now 5-5 with seven games remaining on the schedule. Where at least three of them we will at least be favored to lose in. ‘BillsMafia,’ has been feeling frustrated and emotionally drained pretty much since the Jacksonville game in London. The call for simplicity, variety and more tempo in the offensive approach, emphasizing the utilization of key players like Diggs, Davis, and Cook has not been heard or heard and not properly executed. Protecting quarterback Josh Allen and improving special teams are as crucial but again, no real improvements have been made on the field. Most still BILLieve the Bills still have a chance to turn the season around. With a very hard schedule ahead, focusing on the immediate goals getting our offense scary again, winning games and cautions against prematurely thinking about the playoffs. It’s unlikely we will be there unless we win all three of our division games and at least one or two more wins pending on what the other teams do. There’s hope that the Bills can make a playoff push despite the challenges they currently face.
There is hope but it isn’t a real expectation either.
Buffalo Bills Offensive Coordinator Ken Dorsey was fired November 6th, 2023, a morning after another crushing Bills lost on Monday Night Football to the Denver Broncos, a move that hits quarterback Josh Allen personally, given their working relationship since 2019. Dorsey, who initially served as the team's quarterbacks coach, became the offensive coordinator in January 2022 at Allen's request, with the departure of Brian Daboll to the New York Giants Head Coaching position. The Bills had a chance to win against the Broncos, but a penalty for having twelve men on the field, another situational football issue, negated a missed field goal, leading to Denver's last-minute victory. Head Coach Sean McDermott attributes the decision to part ways with Dorsey to the overall performance of the season. Quarterbacks coach Joe Brady has been named interim offensive coordinator. The Bills' offense has fallen below expectations this season, showing signs of predictability since Week 5. This is something many experts and non-experts alike have pointed out about the 2023 Buffalo Bills offense. With a 2-4 record during this stretch, the team's average points per game has dropped significantly. Turnovers per game have increased, and slow starts have been a recurring issue.
The Buffalo Bills can still spoil the division if we win our division games and get some help, but what's the point? We host any of those other teams coming up in a wild card game, the only way we can get in now as a wild card division winner, only to show we still cannot play situational football. I have a laundry list of examples of why the BUFFALO BILLS are the worst situational football team, probably in the history of the league. There are plenty from the last four seasons, now five seasons, to show that statement to be true, including this season. We learned nothing from the Houston wild card game going on four years ago now. Learned nothing from Arizona. Learned nothing at Kansas City. Learned nothing vs Minnesota, NYJ, MIA and all those other games where conventional logic would say we should win the game, leading, with moments left. Where McDermott says we are sound and has been sticking to that since the Houston wild card loss and the evidence that shows that Coach is 111% wrong with that assessment. I think if he just came clean with that the Bills might be able to move forward but I don’t know now. A lot of the comments from ‘BillMafia’ on all the platforms are not that far off. Can we regroup this year for a push? Sure, it’s possible, but a lot of things in this reality are merely possible. Are they practical? Are they probable? I seriously doubt that. We have not seen anything to give us that assessment. So I guess the Buffalo Bills will make more excuses, dodge questions that should have been answered three or four years ago and just see if we are playing for pride at this point or actual jobs are now on the line. The other response is we win the division, limp into the playoffs, mysteriously get healthy and go on a run that will be talked bout for decades to come.
McDermott did a fine job of answering questions at the Monday Night Football press conference this time but hiring/firing assistant coaches isn’t going to fix anything. There are bigger problems than it just being Dorsey or the Special Teams. Now is this a step in the right direction. We will have to tune in and find out. We are home against the New York JETS. Terrible offensive line, but a playoff ready defense. It will be a very good test of this teams resolve. We can say that firing Dorsey is the first step of getting things right or we can also say this is the first leg in the chain of replacing personnel till only the last one accountable has to go. If the Bills completely tank out the rest of the year McDermott might be gone. I am not saying it’s right and a losing season will get him fired but having a good team and still stinking, that’s a culture problem, not a player personnel issue. We have the players. This team, last years team should have been a whole lot stiffer. Stuff did happen last year that shook a lot of football players and fans alike. Now, though, we just can’t say injuries are the problem, cause they are on the defensive side of the ball. We have fifth and sixth stringers playing on defense and they are keeping us in games. The defense is just too tired and beat up to have them be expected to close a game out at the end. We have too many weak spots for a one drive, all in or nothing, sort of thing. They have failed us a few times this year trying that under these circumstances and the Giants game was lucky, that should have been against us as well. It’s like the team’s brain shuts off at the end of these games and no one seems to know what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it. Another example, on Monday Night of twelve men being on the field. One guy jumping up and down instead of counting players on the field. Just stuff like that. This isn’t one instance either. We’ve been botching this stuff for nearly 4-5 seasons now. But hey... FK it... There is always next year but that window is now on the back end of time over looking forward. I still BILLieve the Bills can muster a comeback but if they do, how far can they go even hosting a wild card game? At this point it isn’t insane to feel the Bills might end the season 8-9 or worse. Even 9-8 doesn’t do anything. Another home playoff loss likely. First we gotta beat the “Goddamn JETS…”
They have had our number a little bit the last two or three seasons. We can beat them but they can also beat us and have. I like the idea of new juice calling the plays but against the JETS it’s a very stiff test. However, if we muster a win things can still happen. What if we win the game 35-3, where the defense didn’t give us points from turnovers or anything? Our offense just goes out there and puts on a “new pretty hot” show on turf, maybe not the greatest but still a good show. The media be changing their takes pretty quickly. Especially if we rip off some wins against teams right now that we probably shouldn’t beat after losing to New England and Denver. Right now, no one is now scared to play us. The JETS think we are just gonna lay the FK down and not fight. Cool… Keep thinking that. Seven games left. We win our division games and the Dolphins crash and burn again toward the end we are playing at least one home game in the Wild Card Game and then anything can happen. It has happened before and it will happen again.
I say, why not us. I say it every damn time I play a scratch off ticket.
Why Not Me?
So… 2023 Buffalo Bills…
Why not us…
Why Not Us…
WHY NOT US…
Go Bills…
“Fight on my men,” says Sir Andrew Barton,
“I am hurt, but I am not slain;
I’ll lay me down and bleed a-while,
And then I’ll rise and fight again.”
― Thomas Moore
Made famous in recent years by Hall of Fame NFL coach Marv Levy. He read this poem to the Buffalo Bills after losing their 1st Super Bowl. As history shows. The team rallied behind these words for years and three more consecutive Super Bowl appearances to come.