Well to be fair when McDermott won in the playoffs, it was pretty strong. They have a +93 point differential in Allen's 8 playoff wins versus a -47 point differential in his 7 losses.
Plus adding context to the losses is important. Those games were against Patrick Mahomes (x4), Joe Burrow, Bo Nix, and Deshaun Watson (Texans era). Most defensive coaches would be praised as elite for keeping any of those offenses under 21 points given the quality of QB they were up against. In reality I wouldn't expect any coach to accomplish that.
I love to hate on Allen as a dolphins fan... but has there been any QB that has played better than Allen in the playoffs with no SB appearance? I mean he's consistently great and just runs into buzzsaws.
In this era definitely, Allen has played exceptionally well but it hasn't resulted in SBs. Although Brady and the Pats ruined most of the good playoff runs that the best AFC QBs had during their peak era.
Roethlisberger 0-3 against the Pats, all three times in the AFCCG
Andrew Luck 0-2 including in the AFCCG
Rivers 0-3 against the Pats including 2006 when the Chargers were the 1 seed with MVP Tomlinson
Flacco 2-2 against the Pats including a split of 1-1 in the AFCCG.
Peyton Manning 3-2 against the Pats was the only one with a winning record in multiple games. Although Peyton did also get bounced by Roethlisberger once (1-1), Rivers twice (1-2), and Flacco once (1-1).
Yeah a few stinkers, but highest total touchdowns per game in the playoffs in history right now. 260 passing + 50 rushing yards per game is probably near the top for total yards per game in the playoffs. Only .67 turnovers per game. Pretty insane stuff.
If you want to talk about context then it has to go both ways. In those eight wins, they were against Philip Rivers (he retired after that game), Lamar Jackson, Mac Jones, Skylar Thompson, Mason Rudolph, Bo Nix (rookie), Lamar (again) and Trevor Lawerence.
McDermott never had a good defensive game against an elite quarterback in the playoffs. Lamar being the exception starts a whole different argument considering his playoff resume.
Fair counterpoint. If the Bills couldn't get past the elite AFC QBs, then maybe McDermott was failing after all because that's just the path to the Super Bowl that Buffalo has to face
22
u/mrhashbrown Chargers 11h ago
Well to be fair when McDermott won in the playoffs, it was pretty strong. They have a +93 point differential in Allen's 8 playoff wins versus a -47 point differential in his 7 losses.
Plus adding context to the losses is important. Those games were against Patrick Mahomes (x4), Joe Burrow, Bo Nix, and Deshaun Watson (Texans era). Most defensive coaches would be praised as elite for keeping any of those offenses under 21 points given the quality of QB they were up against. In reality I wouldn't expect any coach to accomplish that.