Saving the Buffalo Bills Season by Not Saving Ken Dorsey’s Job
Ken Dorsey getting fired is the first nice call made involving him. Naturally, it wasn’t his decision. The closest the Bills have recently gotten to a win involved realizing they weren’t playing right. Wondering whether they would either suffer a hangover or dodge one they deserve isn’t thrilling tension. It’s almost a relief they found unbelievable ways to lose, as they finally have to clean up their act. Having 12 guys on for a missed field goal that would’ve won them the game is a historical screwup even by franchise standards. Hold on: I’m looking up new swear words.
The Bills are cursing themselves like fans are cursing at them. The notion they’re destined to fall apart plagued the Dorsey era. Who’s going to make the next colossal mistake? An animated pie chart is fun unless you look at the slices.
Ken’s coda featured drama about whether it was going to be an unimpressive win like against the Giants and Buccaneers or another brutal loss. The latter again disappointed a league that thought the Bills would thrive. Numerous night games turned dark. It’s reasonable for fans to anticipate players are able to perform tasks like holding footballs.
Josh Hurt My Hands is the Netflix series about Bills receivers. Gabe Davis used to alternate marvelous and lousy games. Monday, he alternated between targets. Stefon Diggs getting ignored led to everyone paying attention to Dorsey. Waiting to use him didn’t save Dorsey’s job any more than holding off way too long to throw to the reliable Khalil Shakir.
Casual screwups are normal. This season has brought a new phase of Buffalo sports infuriation. I’m almost impressed this franchise invented novel methods to torment its fans who thought they’d seen all the ways they could be hurt for the crime of wanting to finally enjoy football.
An offense packed with individuals who can’t be trusted aren’t the fault of the coordinator unless his energy really was that bad. The past tense can bring modest relief. James Cook really set the tone. It’s easy to read too much into the first play, but the Bills are big into symbolism. Josh Allen can’t hold the ball on a handoff, but he played to his utmost otherwise.
Allen entering nightmare mode embodied bad vibes. His aggravatingly careless turnovers summarize how absolutely nothing will turn out happily. An insane risk on Buffalo’s second play after carelessness on the first made it feel like they were playing fate. Humans should know better than to think they’ll triumph.
The quarterback hasn’t been making worthwhile risks. If there’s such a thing as a skilled gambler, it’s one who recognizes there’s lots of losing ahead. Knowing the risk yet following through is part of the game. A quarterback who throws good bad interceptions sees coverage and still calculates the attempt is worth it. Knowing a risk might fail is as close to an acceptable turnover as there is. By contrast, Allen has been playing like he’s lashing out.
Buffalo is the place where people flip off Dorsey when he appears onscreen. Chances will blessedly plummet. Nobody can claim he’s a scapegoat anymore. Committing too many errors to highlight was his best chance to keep a wholly undeserved job. It thankfully didn’t work
Police should escort Dorsey and his bad karma out of the county. He’d praise their shotgun. His fetish for distancing the quarterback from the center was like a video game player insisting on using a certain rifle no matter the mission. Jim was similarly fixated on the sniper rifle. Sticking with that inapt formation on fourth and two during the second half’s opening drive was a dare to call Dorsey a moron. Now, call him jobless.
Take your time to not take your time. Not hurrying up slowed down the offense for just one more exasperating aspect. Buffalo’s final touchdown was notably not Dorsey’s call. The quarterback needing to improvise in order for the offense to work means the player did the coordinator’s job. Making him redundant was already redundant.
The 2023 Broncos just needed one last unearned chance. Not converting on opportunities was their identity until they faced a team that beat them at losing. Buffalo remained in a game they tried their hardest to hand away until their guests just couldn’t decline. Waiting for Denver’s receivers to out-putz their Buffalo counterparts was as fruitless as hoping missed extra points would be sufficient.
Sentencing Sean McDermott to reading every Twitter reply on the Bills account should only be the start of his punishment. He shouldn’t take the social media manager job, as that person actually performs competently. Special teams wouldn’t have been able to flaunt their struggles with Sesame Street lessons if he refrained from recklessly blitzing at the exact time to use the defense’s standard zone, namely when Denver needed just a field goal and was still out of range. Coaching is as bad as coordinating. That’s the McDermott balance.
Dorsey’s firing is a good start. McDermott seems to have plateaued just like his team. We miss when games that should’ve been more comfortable both before and during ended in frustrating wins. Now, blowing chances that should be scientifically impossible has become normal.
Looking for candidates has only begun. It might have to substitute for seeking wins. Detroit’s offensive coordinator Ben Johnson will be pursued relentlessly this offseason and should feel enticed by the chance to help Allen get back to meeting his unique potential. Hiring a trendy option would not be a lateral move: the Bills ought to be in the market for a new head coach focused on offense and a fresh start. I bet he wouldn’t have called those dumb blitzes.
This sport’s coach should be fired even before Don Granato. The fact both unimpressive One Buffalo team leaders should be racing out of town sums up a doubly regrettable ownership tenure. Terry Pegula is too busy counting his dimes to notice how much he’s lost.
It’s easier to fire a coordinator than replace the roster. In Dorsey’s case, it’s fun, too. But figuring who to blame is like a mechanic trying to determine what’s making that clunking. Woeful play may be blamed on actual players. They are the ones out there, after all. But consistent flubbing may be a sign of poor coaching. The fact the Bills are trying to determine it deep into November may serve as a sign that January will be free. Losing more games by Thanksgiving than they did all of last season is an early indicator they couldn’t postpone heeding.
Arithmetic struggles were merely the culmination of constant unfortunate decisions both on and off the field. Nothing looks right. It doesn’t take an empath to sense the team is skewed. Dorsey’s ability to shape the future was mortifying in what’s now the past. The Bills finally did something to affect their own augury. It’s uncanny how they underachieved once Dorsey got his way. He know has ample time to determine why.
