My take on Mularkay

[ghz in pittsburgh]

I stated my stance on retaining Mularkay before. The number one reason is stability. Most of the successful teams in the league have stability on top, especially head coach position. There are exceptions of course, but think about - new philosophy, new staff, new schemes, and usually a gradual change of player personnel to fit the new philosophy. It takes time.

All of these guys going from Coordinators to HCs, they have done something great to warrant such considerations. Mularkay is no different. He had many original ideas running the Steelers offense and got a pretty good handle on how Cowher handling things. Now mind you all of these creative guys can go too smart, resulting designing plays that is really stupid in ordinary fan's eyes. People have raved about Marty Martz offensive genius, yet he designed so many stupid offensive passing plays that we routinely dismiss his team as a serious threat. Mularkay's philosophy is hard nosed smart football. I can see the number of run plays he called. The only problem is that the vast majority of run plays this season netted almost nothing. Now you have to rely on the smart part, which never wins you anything by itself. I have seen that when he was at Steelers before. I've always said that my concerns about him was trying to do too much on the smart part.

As far as a first time HC vs a veteran HC, I'd rather shoot for first time HC. All the good ones usually retained by their team because they are good. A few may whore themselves from team to team like Parcells and we all know they are not coming to Buffalo. There are reasons that those veteran HCs are available: they stunk up the joint in their previous ventures. So why not allow a new HC to grow just like a player would? Life was good for Mularkay in his first year here. This is a bad one. The issue here is whether he learned a lesson to improve himself. I gotta give him a chance to learn and grow. Hack even Cowher endured a couple of 5-11 seasons and like in Buffalo, there were many fans calling for his head during those seasons.

The one thing I believe Mularkay have to do is getting his hands dirty into the defensive side of football. Greg Williams has openly said that the biggest lesson he learned is that he'll be heavily involved into offensive side of football if he's HC again. My guess so far, looking at his body language in games, Mularkay has left Bills defense entirely to Gray and his staff. I remember Mularkay mentioned one time that he gave Gray the opponent offensive perspective view of the his defense. I don't think that's enough. Defense and offense should not be treated as separate entities. They should complement each other. A high power high risk offense works well with a bent-but-don't-break defense whereas a smash mouth offense works well with a stout run stopping defense. To that end I was not surprised to see the massive firing of defensive coaches. I believe a change of defensive philosophy is comimg to OBD. I just don't know it is Malarkay or Levy initiated the change.

[Tatonka]

that was an excellent post and it definately has given me a new perspective that i never really thought of before.. obvoiusly, as fans of the bills, we have no patience to see guys grow and get better..we want results right now.. but honestly, there really is no one out there that could definately come in and do better at this point.. any coach that comes in is going to strip everything down and start over.. which will put us behind even further.. maybe mularkey can learn from his mistakes and grow as a coach.. belichick was a loser before he came to the pats... like you mentioned, cowher was a loser too before he righted the ship in pittsburg (although he still has not won a superbowl)..

since mularkey is our coach for at least one more year, i am going to drop the resentment and just hope for the best. it is all we really can do.

[bernielivsey_1]

:peace: As long as he gets an OC who will call the plays and he doesnt, I think we will have a chance. But all his trick plays need to be shelved till we are a good team. I dont like his press conferences as well but maybe Marv can coach him up on those. :drool2:

[Historian]

Its half stability...half money.

[Mahdi]

I stated my stance on retaining Mularkay before. The number one reason is stability. Most of the successful teams in the league have stability on top, especially head coach position. There are exceptions of course, but think about - new philosophy, new staff, new schemes, and usually a gradual change of player personnel to fit the new philosophy. It takes time.

All of these guys going from Coordinators to HCs, they have done something great to warrant such considerations. Mularkay is no different. He had many original ideas running the Steelers offense and got a pretty good handle on how Cowher handling things. Now mind you all of these creative guys can go too smart, resulting designing plays that is really stupid in ordinary fan's eyes. People have raved about Marty Martz offensive genius, yet he designed so many stupid offensive passing plays that we routinely dismiss his team as a serious threat. Mularkay's philosophy is hard nosed smart football. I can see the number of run plays he called. The only problem is that the vast majority of run plays this season netted almost nothing. Now you have to rely on the smart part, which never wins you anything by itself. I have seen that when he was at Steelers before. I've always said that my concerns about him was trying to do too much on the smart part.

As far as a first time HC vs a veteran HC, I'd rather shoot for first time HC. All the good ones usually retained by their team because they are good. A few may whore themselves from team to team like Parcells and we all know they are not coming to Buffalo. There are reasons that those veteran HCs are available: they stunk up the joint in their previous ventures. So why not allow a new HC to grow just like a player would? Life was good for Mularkay in his first year here. This is a bad one. The issue here is whether he learned a lesson to improve himself. I gotta give him a chance to learn and grow. Hack even Cowher endured a couple of 5-11 seasons and like in Buffalo, there were many fans calling for his head during those seasons.

The one thing I believe Mularkay have to do is getting his hands dirty into the defensive side of football. Greg Williams has openly said that the biggest lesson he learned is that he'll be heavily involved into offensive side of football if he's HC again. My guess so far, looking at his body language in games, Mularkay has left Bills defense entirely to Gray and his staff. I remember Mularkay mentioned one time that he gave Gray the opponent offensive perspective view of the his defense. I don't think that's enough. Defense and offense should not be treated as separate entities. They should complement each other. A high power high risk offense works well with a bent-but-don't-break defense whereas a smash mouth offense works well with a stout run stopping defense. To that end I was not surprised to see the massive firing of defensive coaches. I believe a change of defensive philosophy is comimg to OBD. I just don't know it is Malarkay or Levy initiated the change.
Good Post. I think Mularkey just lacked the personnel to execute his gameplan, hopefully that changes this offseason.

[DMBcrew36]

Finally some respect for Mularkey. He's been catching a lot of flack from people who are merely looking for someone to blame.

[Turf]

Just become we can tolerate him doesn't mean there isn't a much better choice out there. Personally I don't think the guy has it. I'm actually giving Marv a chance because he says likes him, not MM.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

I watched most of the Pitt-Bengals game. In case you did not notice, the Steelers still play the Mularkay offense two year after he left town.

The difference between the Bills and Steelers on offense: Big Ben delivers whereas Holcomb and Losman cannot; and the Steelers's offensive line is back in force at the right time now whereas the Bills offensive line was never in sync all year.

[ICE74129]

I stated my stance on retaining Mularkay before. The number one reason is stability. Most of the successful teams in the league have stability on top, especially head coach position. There are exceptions of course, but think about - new philosophy, new staff, new schemes, and usually a gradual change of player personnel to fit the new philosophy. It takes time.

All of these guys going from Coordinators to HCs, they have done something great to warrant such considerations. Mularkay is no different. He had many original ideas running the Steelers offense and got a pretty good handle on how Cowher handling things. Now mind you all of these creative guys can go too smart, resulting designing plays that is really stupid in ordinary fan's eyes. People have raved about Marty Martz offensive genius, yet he designed so many stupid offensive passing plays that we routinely dismiss his team as a serious threat. Mularkay's philosophy is hard nosed smart football. I can see the number of run plays he called. The only problem is that the vast majority of run plays this season netted almost nothing. Now you have to rely on the smart part, which never wins you anything by itself. I have seen that when he was at Steelers before. I've always said that my concerns about him was trying to do too much on the smart part.

As far as a first time HC vs a veteran HC, I'd rather shoot for first time HC. All the good ones usually retained by their team because they are good. A few may whore themselves from team to team like Parcells and we all know they are not coming to Buffalo. There are reasons that those veteran HCs are available: they stunk up the joint in their previous ventures. So why not allow a new HC to grow just like a player would? Life was good for Mularkay in his first year here. This is a bad one. The issue here is whether he learned a lesson to improve himself. I gotta give him a chance to learn and grow. Hack even Cowher endured a couple of 5-11 seasons and like in Buffalo, there were many fans calling for his head during those seasons.

The one thing I believe Mularkay have to do is getting his hands dirty into the defensive side of football. Greg Williams has openly said that the biggest lesson he learned is that he'll be heavily involved into offensive side of football if he's HC again. My guess so far, looking at his body language in games, Mularkay has left Bills defense entirely to Gray and his staff. I remember Mularkay mentioned one time that he gave Gray the opponent offensive perspective view of the his defense. I don't think that's enough. Defense and offense should not be treated as separate entities. They should complement each other. A high power high risk offense works well with a bent-but-don't-break defense whereas a smash mouth offense works well with a stout run stopping defense. To that end I was not surprised to see the massive firing of defensive coaches. I believe a change of defensive philosophy is comimg to OBD. I just don't know it is Malarkay or Levy initiated the change.
Ok two questions. Who is Mularkay and who is Marty Martz?

I know a Mike Mularkey and a MIKE Martz....not sure who the other two are.

[Historian]

I watched most of the Pitt-Bengals game. In case you did not notice, the Steelers still play the Mularkay offense two year after he left town.

No doubt.

They sure had a full cadre of gimmick plays ready for Cinci.

[Dont drink the water]

I watched most of the Pitt-Bengals game. In case you did not notice, the Steelers still play the Mularkay offense two year after he left town.

The difference between the Bills and Steelers on offense: Big Ben delivers whereas Holcomb and Losman cannot; and the Steelers's offensive line is back in force at the right time now whereas the Bills offensive line was never in sync all year.

They also have much better backs. Willis says he is a 'show me" back but wos showing nothing. If Bills had a punisher like the Bus it would a lot easier to implement a smash mouth offense. Bills need to find a big back during offseason but find one in later rounds for lines need upgrading first.

[ublinkwescore]

I don't think as much of the blame should fall on Willis as it should the terrible O line - see the san diego game for the lowest I've ever seen the Bills field an Oline.

How many times did JP have someone in his face before he could even complete his dropback?

How many times Did Willis have someone in his face as soon as he got the ball from JP?

The fact that we managed to score even once in that game is a true testament to our offensive skill players given the line's performance.