Hapless Bills Fan

From PS to maybe starter in 2 weeks https://www.nfl.com/news/jake-fromm-giants-prepping-qb-to-start-chargers-mike-glennon-concussion I'm actually pulling for Fromm (as long as he's not playing us). I didn't think he looked All That in pre-season, but he looked like he was well-prepared, and after agreeing to be our 'Bubble Boy' his rookie year, I feel he deserves a shot (and success, if he can bring it).

I thought they did some effective runs with Gilliam as a lead blocker hmmm hmmm Jets game? We showed a more varied run game to some success there, as I recall. But Gilliam has been nursing an ankle injury, was questionable for the game, and they had him inactive - need two legs and feet to play FB effectively "That guy on the practice squad" is always the fan favorite to "fix" the team, but the coaches see these guys every day. I have to think if they felt the PS guy could play more effectively than the guy on the field, they'd get their shot. Agreed. That Must Stop. There has to be a play, and it has to be "your next play, your best play". I wish our "hard hitting journalists" would ask McDermott or Daboll about this issue.

Unfortunately, on a weather day, you can miss a 33 yd fieldgoal - which simply emphasizes your previous point. Run for no Gain 9 yd sack Incomplete pass to Knox Of the 3, taking that 9 yd sack was killer. Without it, it's a 24 yd fieldgoal, and maybe it's 3 points and we can kick another for the win the next drive.

To McDermott, it's very simple and it's pretty hard to argue. We had 4 trips to the red zone and we only scored a TD on 1 of them, any points on half. That has been a consistent problem for us this year. In the Tennessee game, 2 of 5. 3 of 5 we win. The reasons are varied - offensive penalties, sacks, drops, incompletions. Offensive penalties have been killer. But IMO it comes down to, we have the talent and we're kicking ourselves in the nuts.

I'd be interested if you could construct an argument for that based upon specific plays or a drive. Given that Allen threw a couple of incompletions to the R that drifted R (and one was nearly picked off) and that Allen in his presser pointed out that the wind affected the threw to Gabe Davis, I think it's a pretty hard argument to make.

I don't have all-22 but there were a couple of big run plays where Dodson got shoved aside like wet tissue paper. I think Klein sticks those plays. Taron Johnson has played good run D most of the season, so you're taking him off to put on a guy who struggled I think if Dodson struggled less, they play him more. I think if AJ Klein had been available we would have played base D more.

There's a reason my screen name is "Hapless Bills Fan"

Would you describe Ford as a "quicker athletic guy"?

From how the pass protection goes sometimes, it could be argued that they aren't putting enough time in working on pass blocking But I forget who it was, might have been Chris Simms talking about the Bills, pointed out that one factor in having a lot of plays in a pass heavy offense is, that practice of running plays and run blocking gets short changed I believe that's true Frankly sometimes this season I've wondered if the Bills just don't work as hard and as focused as they need to

This. Although just to show that I'm a born moderate and can get both sides of an issue mad at me, I will say that other teams manage to meld rookies or bargain-bin FA into a servicable OL (Pats did it for years with Coach Scar), and also manage to taylor their game to work with the abilities of their OL - for example, if your OL can manage to protect for 2.5 seconds but not 3.5 seconds, design a passing game for completions in 2-2.5 seconds. And it's possible RB fumbling also has a connection to coaching.

Brady has been doing it "all by himself" for years. Riiiiiigggght.

7 days, 1 game on the Covid list for Doyle

Was this a trick question? 1) don't give up a 64 yd run for a TD on 3rd and 5 2) don't give up a 9 play drive featuring runs of 10, 12, 6, and 16 yds and ending in a FG right after the Bills scored a TD to make it 8-7 3) don't give up a clock-grinding 14 play drive featuring runs of 10, 12, 6, and 16 yds and ending in a FG right after the Bills scored a FG to make it 11-10 The league average for rushing yards is 113 per game. 222 yds/ game is atrocious. If you don't want to count the 64 yd run for some reason (which I don't think one should, but I'll go with it for the sake of argument) we gave up 158 yds, which is way way way worse than average for run D Do I agree that a lot of the focus for the loss rightly belongs on the offense, which had 4 trips to the RZ and came away with 1 TD? Sure. But that doesn't absolve the defense. 222 rush yards is abysmal.

Wasn't that short of a field. Drive after the fumble started on the NWE 31 yd line, and featured giving up a 64 yd run on 3rd and 5. That's a problem. The offense was more of a problem, it's true, but that doesn't mean it's not a problem to give up 222 yds If you want for some reason to discount the 64 yd run, that's still 158 yds rushing, otherwise known as "a fine day at the Boat Races"

This. 4th and 14 is was "Hail Mary". Yeah, the distance was shorter, 18 yds, but this was a night when a normally-rock-steady FG kicker missed from 33 yds. When you have the ball 1st and goal on the opponent's 6 yd line, you MUST come away with points. This was not novel to the Patriots. It wasn't even novel to the games we've lost. We've gone from being one of the better red zone teams in the league, to the last 3 games 50% and this past game 25%.

Spencer Long retired from football prior to the 2020 season. We did, and it improved our OL from sub-par to "serviceable". But Ford seems to be a bust, and we need an upgrade.

I was watching the Manning cast. Peyton Manning thought it was all on Breida. He had Aqib Talib as a guest and he thought so too. For whatever it's worth, but Manning ought to know a thing

We Lost. There Is No MVP.

And if that wasn’t enough, try the 5 RZ trips vs Tenn and the Jags game

Yes, that is where I got the info in the post you quoted. It doesn’t get me the leave-wide info I’m looking for

I understand that's how you feel. But in fact, the Patriots made a HUGE error receiving a punt, that resulted in a turnover and a Buffalo TD They had another fumble, but managed to recover (vs 1 fumble that led to a NE TD for Buffalo) They were also penalized more - 6 penalties for 47 yds vs 3 penalties for 20 yds They objectively made more mistakes than B'lo did by several metrics

He's 0 for 2 this year 2 for 3 in 2019 2 for 3 in 2018 0 for 6 in 2017, so he obviously did something to improve Anyone got data for other current head coaches or for the current NFL data on this?

Yeah, I like to wait 24 hrs after a loss to let people settle down a bit, but since it's here we'll go with it.

He gave an "I don't trust my players" answer. He could have given a straightforward answer (as I outlined above) that chose to be positive rather than to dump on guys who are already upset because they were benched during a game when (McKenzie at least) with his misdirection and threat of reverses/jet sweeps, could potentially have helped the team. You're giving two guys who are struggling with being benched an extra dump. Pointless. Poyer went back to receive a kick? When? KR I saw was Mr Fumble, Breida. PR was Hyde. And there's no need to bring struggles into it. Just say Hyde, as one of the best safeties in the league, has among the best ball-tracking skills and the surest hands on the team and those were more important in the weather conditions than superior returning skills.

I do recall some of those plays. We used them to good effect against New Orleans, some against the Colts, and some against the Jets.