Alphadawg7

Fair question...and I will give you my honest answer...Yes. Keep in mind, I did not give a team grade here or defensive grades. I do not consider the Bills grade overall an A for this game, and you can see some previous posts of mine in this thread stating that as well. My grades were only on the offensive groups and how well they executed their individual jobs. I would not change my grades on the offensive groups because the ST gave up a TD KO return and then the defense would have gave up a game ending drive in your question above.

I have no issue with your grades as I don't expect everyone to have the same grading scale as me or anyone else for that other. For me, I have a high value on the execution and the dirty work, and that stuff popped for me from this game, which is where my grades are gonna differ more than some others, which is fine. And for me in reviewing the film, it was honestly one of the best group efforts I can recall seeing in that regard to go along with all of them making the plays when they got their targets as well.

I came here to say this…well more like Groot and combo of Cook/Davis. Miami is a mess in the trenches. As much as I am sure we want to watch Allen light the fins up per usual, I have a feeling we are going to have a lot of success on the ground. 1 - It’s a short week, and it will be hot and humid. That affects the DL more than anyone. I can see us having a day on the ground like we did against Dallas last year. 2 - Best way to negate speed is by keeping it off the field and dominate the TOP. So if the run game is clicking it won’t surprise me to see them lean into it.

I agree. Did you watch his Mic’d up video? If not, I posted it in my Calling it now thread about Shakir earlier today. It was a good watch and you can see he is the leader in that WR room and emerging as a leader on this team. You wouldn’t know it from his calm demeanor in his interviews, but he’s bringing the juice out there all game long.

I get that, and I don’t think you’re being unfair, just capping his ceiling too much. All I was saying is that the opportunities to get Shakir say 8 targets Sunday was there. He was open a lot more than he got targets for. But Allen only had 2 completed passes with just over 2 min left in the first half. And it resulted in just 18 completions, but to 9 people. So I was just saying I didn’t come away from the game that his low targets Sunday were because of his limitations. On many completions Allen had multiple places he could have went with the ball but only one can get the target. And it’s why no one individual got a heavy target load on a relatively low volume passing game by Allen in general. But to your point, if this spread the ball around philosophy keeps working this well then maybe no one will get enough targets on the season to get a 1000+ yards individually. It’s gonna be fun seeing his this develops this year though

I was just coming here to do the same. It gave me goosebumps too

Your opinion isn’t bad on Shakir, but I do think you’re selling Shakir’s ceiling a little short here. For example, Shakir could have easily had a 100 yard game this week, he was getting open, but Allen only completed 18 passes and did so to 9 players spreading the ball around. It wasn’t because Shakir wasn’t effective enough or capable of higher volume.

MIC"D UP! Debated on starting a new thread or not for this...but figured might as well put it here rather than a new thread. Shakir was mic'd up week 1...and one thing is clear, he has emerged as the leader in the WR room and one of the leaders overall on the team too. Third straight game with a TD too going back to the 2 playoff games last year. He was getting open a lot too on Sunday and flying all over the place as a blocker when he didn't get the ball. The genuine excitement he has for others when they make plays and get the target is awesome to see too.

Fair criticisms, and I will add Josh was carrying the ball on runs like a loaf of bread all game and he needs to fix that. I still think it was an MVP level performance overall, but I can't disagree really with anything here. I agree on Groot, and I agree it wasn't AJE's best overall game, he still did have some good reps out there too. Agreed. Von was never gonna "be back", it was always an unrealistic expectation IMHO at his age. But the positive is he showed he can maybe still have some value this year which is a big improvement over no value last year. Agreed, the fact he was not looking back for the ball could have drawn the flag, but I agree, it was the proper non-call and shockingly a play the refs got right during a terrible day from these refs who blew calls against both teams. Preach! Yeah, this is what they wanted from him when they signed him. It is only one week, but it was an impressive first week. If there were fans upset at the amount of times we ran the ball compared to throwing, then I think they may be upset again Thursday. While I don't expect Allen to only throw 23 times every week, this weeks matchup is a fast fins team who is a mess in their front 7. The run game has a real shot to be clicking this week like we did against Dallas last year, and the best way to negate speed is to keep it off the field and dominate the TOP. So if the run game is clicking, I wouldn't be surprised to see another run heavy game. Good post and go Bills!

That is where his basketball background is a real benefit to him giving him now 2 advantages over the DB in both size and body control. FWIW, Randy Moss loves him and thinks he is going to be a star as do some other highly successful past WR's. And the thing that keeps coming up the most often is that athleticism combined with elite body control.

I am all there with you on the optimism on Keon...but for this week...I don't know...the Fins front 7 is a mess. Don't be surprised if the run game is clicking all game this week. One way to negate speed is keep Miami's offense off the field and dominate the time of possession. And don't forget, one of the lone bright spots for the Fins D is still Ramsey, so he may see a lot of him this week which will be a much stiffer test than anything he saw from AZ too. However, its still possible, especially if we are a more pass heavy offense this week. But I do think we are going to find success running on Miami and look to dominate the TOP this week on our way to a decisive win.

His All-22 film week 1 was quite impressive. He easily could have had a big game this week between the slant he won for a TD that Allen said he should have thrown him before running it in himself, to other times he was open but so were others and the ball was spread around. What I highlighted in bold is exactly what Allen alluded to in his post-game conference too. He said he should have thrown Keon the ball and seeing him win there and throughout the game made him realize he needs to just trust in him fully and it gave him the confidence to throw that deep shot he caught. What I loved the most about it is how hard he played when he wasn't getting the ball, he was all in committed to all the dirty work and it was pivotal on some other players big plays, including Shakir's TD. Its one game, each game is different, and teams may start giving him more attention. So not sure what the next game holds, but it was an impressive start to his career here. Its a shame Ward doesn't get more recognition for just how good he was.

I didn’t give the Bills as a whole an A. I graded only the offensive groups individually. I wouldn’t give either the D or ST an A.

Ha good throwback reference with Sammy, man am I glad those days are gone haha But not sure what agenda you think I have is, but I can assure you there was no agenda on my TE grade. If you want to show me film of them doing their job poorly, I am happy to revisit it, I just didn't personally see it...it's just as simple as that for me.

And that is fair, although I think you are taking my words a bit more vanilla and of context of what I was implying, but I get where you are coming from. I already posted this earlier in this thread a page or two back, but posting here again to show where my personal grading scale is impacted above the stat sheet and what I mean doing everything that was asked of them, and at a high level. Look at the Hollins block on the Nickel here. That is executing at a high level, an A+ block on this play that was vital to the outcome. Then look at Coleman, again, another instance of where Coleman completely took his defender out of the play to keep him from preventing the TD. That was an A+ block on this play as well. Then you have Dawkins destroying the safety too, again, an A+ play...and all of that was equally necessary for Shakir to make what was maybe the play of the game, and certain A+ play to get in and score on this. All 4 of those guys execution on this play had to happen, and 3 of them were WR's, or Shakir doesn't get in for the TD in a game we won by 6. In my personal grading style, this stands out for me. And this was not an isolated incident. Keon, Shakir, and especially Hollins were all over the field blocking on plays the pass went to someone else, runs, or scrambles. So, I value this a lot personally, and hence where my personal grade came from.

To answer your question, they would have had to do their jobs poorly. Show me the film that shows them doing a poor job and I will happily change my grade. You seem to want to base it on stats, but they can only catch what is thrown to them. Allen only completed 18 passes Sunday, and that was to 9 different players. And what does a poor outing look like...not getting open, not making their blocks, dropping passes, bad penalties, etc. None of that occurred. Instead, what the film showed was there were plenty more opportunities to throw them the ball, but Allen had multiple choices and spread the ball around. They blocked well, and despite one catch, Kincaid sold his routes well that opened up the field for other players. For me, they did exactly what was asked of them.

It is going to be interesting to see how they handle Knox this offseason. His cap hit is going to cause something to happen this offseason, and Kincaid looked much improved as a blocker at least this first week. I wonder if Kincaid keeps showing he can be a better blocker and more complete TE than was say expected when we drafted him, it makes me curious to how they will view Knox this offseason. I forget exactly what it is, but if I am not mistaken I think Knox cap hit next year is like $14M or something like that.

Given so much talk has come about regarding my receiver grade, let me provide a single example of what I am talking about when I said they earned their A grade. This is the Shakir TD, and I just went to Twitter to get the clip where it shows all the replay angles so you can see all the great team play on this TD. Ironically the person posting this also is pointing out all the people around Shakir like Hollins making key plays for this TD to be possible. You will see Hollins just wipe out the Nickel off the snap. Coleman blocks his guy all the way into the endzone to keep him from coming up and stopping the TD. Dawkins just destroys the safety. All these things led to Shakir's doing what he does best and utilizing his YAC and strength to get this all the way to the endzone. This is what an A+ performances look like that you don't find on stat sheets or fantasy football scores. And this is not an isolated play, this was happening all over the field on passes and runs. This play does not happen if any one of those blocks don't happen. If people don't think this is valuable and deserves to be part of a players grade, then I will just have to say let's agree to disagree. These are things that earn a guy like Davis a game ball against Dallas when he had 0 targets and no stats but still heavily impacted the game.

To be honest, I did not hyper focus on Knox as I just don't have enough time to really do that for every player on both sides of the ball. So I didn't catch anything that I noticed where I would say it was a bad play, but that doesn't mean none happened either. He made a huge play when we needed it on his grab and I did see some nice blocks from him. But I did watch Kincaid more to try and see how AZ was playing him, and why despite leading the team in snaps only got the one catch. And what I was most impressed from Kincaid from is that he sold his routes well, even on runs, and at least for this one game he was much improved as a blocker.

No, it was the other TD run where he had Keon. On the one he hurt his hand, Keon ran a short crossing route outside the endzone. On the one he could have hit Keon it was a perfectly ran slant but Allen saw the lane to the right and took off and in his post-game said he should have just thrown it. But I get it, Allen is still getting comfortable back there, building timing and trust with his new targets, etc. So when he has the short run there, I can see why his instinct had him take off.

You want to grade them on projected total stats when we had 9 people catch the 18 passes Allen completed? Huh? Let's just agree to disagree as this is going to get off the rails. No disrespect, and nothing personal, but I can't keep discussing this when you are talking about fantasy football rankings in your grading scale on how well they did their jobs Sunday. It is perfectly fine to have differing opinions, and this is only one week and proves nothing for the season anyway. GO Bills!

Yeah, that is Tuas game, we just have a history of getting to him and disrupting him and getting him off his early reads which is when he struggles. If you go back and look at every game Tua has played against us since Hill got there, neither have ever had a big day against us. Now our defense is missing two of our best players and has a lot of changes, so whether we can replicate that this week is yet to be seen. But Miami's OL struggled again week 1, so I am at least optimistic we can still get some pressure on him.

I won't argue against removing the +, but no way they should go to A- or B+. The receivers executed their jobs the entire game. They can only catch what is thrown, and Allen only had 2 pass attempts before our final drive of the first half. This team still put up 34 points. And many of the big plays that were runs had a lot to do with the receivers blocking down field. It was total unselfish football at its finest on film.

I did not give the Bills an A...I only gave grades on the positions on the offense. And the only reason the Cards were in this game was because of a ST blunder where 4 Bills should have tackled the runner but blew it, including Elam unfortunately. I would have given the Defense as a whole a B or B- given they adjusted and shut down the Cards for 3 points in the 2nd half after a rough start. But they also lost one of their best players in that half in Taron. I would have given ST a C as they had the big return, Bass made his kicks in the wind, but they made a huge blunder missing tackles to almost let the Cards steal the game. Overall, I agree, I think the Bills grade on the day was more of a B and wouldn't argue too hard against a B- with the penalites, fumble, and blown ST play. But the offense put up 34 points and outside some early rust, really had their way with AZ and all the units overall did their jobs really well.

Yeah, I agree and that is why I said its just one week, it proved nothing on the season. My grades are solely for this one game and I can only grade them on how they played regardless of who was lined up across from them. More importantly, AZ had no film on this offense coming into the game. And as the season goes on, we will be putting more and more film out there for DC's to use to try and game plan better for us. That is where Brady comes in and needs to show he can adjust once DC's start finding ways to disrupt the offense too.