Hapless Bills Fan

I felt it was ruled out by Micah Hyde last Weds saying "it's great to have him back" and Harrison Phillips saying he's been talking to him and it's good to know that it's not as bad as it could have been. In context they both sounded as though they felt Star was fine from a health perspective. Yes, absolutely could happen, although less likely with a milder case than with a more serious case that requires hospitalization I could be wrong but I have the impression these guys Insta and DM and Snapchat and (how old fashioned!) text each other all the time just to keep in touch.

No, 14th -> 24th (tomorrow)

Star showed up in pretty good shape after a year off, when many speculated he would "let himself go" and either show up too skinny or too fat. I expect he will have continued to work out as his medical condition allowed, but there are too many unknowns to even speculate if he'll come back ready to play or in need of a week or two to work back into shape.

Where did you hear he didn't have any symptoms? What I heard was Horrible Harry saying it wasn't as bad as it could have been - not quite the same thing

Sorry for following my own post https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/sports/bills-news/capaccio-stevenson-practices-for-first-time According to Sal, this is correct

Depends upon whether McKenzie fumbles or muffs another punt.

Not quite correct....a vaccinated player can return sooner IF they are symptom-free for 48 hrs and test negative twice 24 hrs apart, OR after 48 hrs of no symptoms and 10 days (like an unvaccinated player). IIRC I read Allen Sills (NFL Chief Medical Officer) saying overall, vaccinated players are returning sooner than unvaccinated players, but only 20% of the return sooner than 10 days.

No flack. The bottom line is there's no fixed timeline. If Star has no symptoms for 48 hrs, he's eligible to return in 10 days even if he still tests positive. Since he went on the Covid list Sunday Nov 14, he would be eligible to come off Wednesday Nov 24th, provided he has obtained medical clearance. He may be required to undergo progressive conditioning before playing. I THINK (but don't know) both of these can happen while he's still on the Covid list. Star will then be exempt from daily testing for 90 days.

Oh, wow - I thought we'd signed Hart to the PS but I see you're right, he's on the roster. Stevenson activated to return to practice. Am I correct that this means he has 3 weeks before the Bills either activate him to the 53 man roster or shut him down for the year?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "Josh and the OL were the very definition of out of sync". Are you thinking or arguing that the protections were wrong? And I don't agree that "Josh panicked". What he did, do, is try to take too much of it on himself, and try to do too much. Then the question is "why?" What flat footed Tom Brady does when opposing teams get pressure, is turn to a run game or to dump-offs to guys who can consistently get 3-5 YAC. We don't seem to have a run game, and when we do try...Motor and Moss both average 2.2 yards after contact. Beasley averages 3.8 yards after contact, but I believe that's been markedly lower the last 3 games (since Miami). That's not enough for Josh to feel comfortable counting on them to go get us a first down when it's 3rd and 5 or more to go. Knox is doing better with 5.7 YAC per reception, but he's been out and is perhaps still hampered - which brings up another point, a lot of these teams with alternatives have two capable TE. We need commitment to making a run game work, and we need commitment to getting YAC.

With all due respect, I gave specific and accurate examples of things the Bills did to "beat themselves" in the Colts-Bills game. If you want to argue that somehow these examples (several of which directly led to Colts points while taking potential Bills points off the board) don't matter, or that other examples of the Colts simply making great plays mattered more - you certainly could make that argument. But you don't, in fact, make that argument - instead you resort to the "ad hominum" which is to dismiss what I say as "crazy as when the goofball Little League dad blames umpires...." (of course, I did not blame the refs, I blamed the Bills players for committing the penalties, making the turnovers, dropping the passes). That's also ironic, because despite leading off "with all due respect", it is, in fact....disrespectful. We're all down on Daboll and Frazier and McDermott right now, but there's a reason when asked what they need to change, they talk about fixing the turnovers and the penalties. Because when you have 3 turnovers that were NOT forced - they were bad decisions and bad ball security - plus pre- and post- snap penalties. plus catchable balls that aren't, your team is beating itself. Period. I specifically said "So yes, the Colts played well and deserved to win. But the Bills beat themselves in all 3 phases, with dumb penalties, drops, and turnovers. If the Bills hadn't beaten themselves, they might have won; they might still have lost, but it would have been a close competitive game. They wouldn't have shat the bed in a rout. I'd also like to point out that you object to saying "the Bills beat themselves" but you say "the Bills sucked". What exactly is "sucking", if it isn't...beating yourself? If the Bills show up on Thursday and commit the same stupid turnovers and penalties and miscues, you're not going to see "this absurd stuff" stop, you're going to see more of it.

The way Daboll's offense is designed, it's both. The WR has the freedom to run one of several different route options depending upon the coverage he sees after the snap. The QB and the WR need to read the defense the same way and the WR needs to communicate to the QB *during the play* what he's going to do. This is why Beasley and Allen talk so much about "body language" and "giving me good body language"

I see that last part of the sentence as true: $50M cap on D, $41M cap on O. And "to whom much is given, much should be expected" ought to hold. The point about Allen being our only 1st round draft pick, (or Allen and Diggs if you count him), is valid; we have 4 of our own and 3 (I think - Butler, Hughes, and Lotulelei) of other team's 1st round picks on the roster. But a different draft perspective, if you look at the top 3 rounds of the last 4 years drafts, is that there's been a roughly equal investment (if you count Diggs as equivalent to a #1 pick since that's what we invested in him) on offense and defense. The problem may be that we aren't getting the quality of play we need from the picks on either side of the ball - I don't lke the word "Bust", but they're not the consistent contributors we need picks in the top 3 rounds to be, and moreso on Offense than Defense. Since 2018: 6 picks on D : Rousseau, Basham, Epenesa, Oliver, Edmunds, Phillips 6 picks on O : Brown, Moss, Ford, Singletary, Knox, Allen (plus Diggs) Overall, that Rousseau, Epenesa, Oliver, and Edmunds have shown some signs they can play. Knox is just starting to have the lightbulb flicker, Brown looks promising, Ford looks like a total bust at this point. Singletary and Moss look like guys you could elevate from a practice squad at this point. Yep. Not only have players regressed or fallen off, but there's a lot of tape out there on Josh Allen and the Bills offensive tendencies, and now a lot of tape out there on how to hinder it or shut it down. The counters aren't rocket science, but we're not doing them or able to do them.

I'm not arguing this POV just trying to get into McD's head a little bit I think he believes that the defensive scheme is sound and that on D, it's a matter of players executing. He did call out stupid penalties, and physicality at the point of attack, as defensive problems. (I would argue not being able to stop the Titans or Colts argues a schematic and a personnel weakness. Like I said, just trying to get into his head) I think he believes that the offense is not sound, going back to last year's playoffs - that we don't have enough of a run threat to make teams respect it. This is an issue I suspect he's raised over and over and over again with Daboll, and it's not getting fixed. Now there are back-and-forth arguments there - we don't necessarily have the OL to run consistently, and we definitely don't have the RBs who can make yards without blocking. After Pittsburgh, an argument could be made that it was the surprise, and a top-quality DL But it's now become clear that pretty much any D can handle us on O. The Colts are NOT the defense we could barely handle in last year's playoffs. Their DL isn't as good, their LB is playing hurt, and they're missing their starting safeties, and they killed us. I think that McDermott and Daboll have a genuine difference of philosophy on how to fix the offense, and Daboll has his fingers in his ears going "Lalala not listening" or maybe "fix your own show, Mr Defense" and that's why we keep hearing about it at McD's pressers. Because of Star and Brown on Covid, right?

Fair point. It's not the only reason they are losing. But it's the reason why what could have been a close, competitive game where we had a chance, turned into a rout.

I'm confused here. You lead off your paragraph saying "the biggest and most critical analysis was about Bernon(sic) Butler" Then the rest of your paragraph is about Ed Oliver. Who are you talking about - Vernon Butler (lead sentence) or Ed Oliver? Please clarify.

Of course the Colts would disagree. But on the first drive, the Colts didn't commit two back to back pre-snap penalties that put the Bills into a 3-and-18 hole, then throw an interception. The Bills did that. On the drive after the Bills went right down the field and scored a TD, the Colts didn't commit a stupid "Roughing the Passer" penalty and a stupid DPI penalty that took it from 3rd and 8 at the Colts 27 to first down at the the Colts 42. The Bills did that, and if the rest of the drive is the same that's the difference between 3 pts and a punt. Josh Allen threw catchable balls that his receivers failed to haul in. It wasn't that they were super well defended; our guys just didn't hang on. The Bills did that. Isaiah McKenzie had an untouched fumble on a kickoff return, caused by the ground. The Colts didn't do that. The Bills did that. So yes, the Colts played well and deserved to win. But the Bills beat themselves in all 3 phases, with dumb penalties, drops, and turnovers. If the Bills hadn't beaten themselves, they might have won; they might still have lost, but it would have been a close competitive game. They wouldn't have shat the bed in a rout. And yes, the Colts would disagree, but it's not "cliche' to say that the Bills are beating themselves; it's true, critical to understanding what's going on and fixing it. The Bills don't need to wear pearls or have Joc Pederson playing music in the locker room or yelling at people; they need to get back to playing fundamentally sound, disciplined, football.

No one is "whistling past the graveyard". Everyone knows that the Bills have lost 3 out of their last 5 games and have gone from being a division leader in contention for the AFC 1st seed, to a team in contention for the wildcard slot. The question is how to fix it. There is a lot that needs fixing, but Joc Pederson (a single guy who is playing music and in people's face) is not the answer. That's a good question, but it illustrates the complexity needed for the answer. There are guys who can maybe hold up and not get pushed back into Josh for 2.5 seconds, but that won't help if Josh is holding the ball for 3.4 seconds. We can put more guys in to protect, but that won't work if the guys we send out to the pattern can't get open in 2.5 or 3.4 seconds and it results in Josh forcing the ball and turning it over. We can run for short gains and take short passes, but that won't work if we don't play mistake-free ball and avoid penalties that put us in a 3 and 18 hole.

Indeed. Among other things, MLB has a roster of what? 26?, 8 starters plus pitchers and backups. Of the starters, almost every player plays both offense and defense every inning of every game. In football, not only is there a separate offense and defense, there are separate position groups within each roster. So can one up-beat high-energy guy make a difference, sure, but not as much. Yep, especially this

It pisses me off that the Giants are looking more competitive against Tampa Bay than we looked against the Colts. And it’s not close

I mean, what do you want him to try to fix in 2 days? The turnovers were huge. They led directly to 21 points for the Colts, and in 2 cases quite probably took 6 points off the board for the Bills.

Tom Brady and Bucs beat up Giants on National TV /end thread But anyway, Discuss

Most years the Patriots ranked top-10 in rushing attempts and yards. Except for Brady's very first years, they were never a run-first team, but they have always had a good enough run game that if teams wanted to win over them, they had to respect it. I can remember several painful and frustrating Bills-Pats games where we successfully shut down their passing attack and they ran it down our throats- over. and over.

I think there's something to be said for this viewpoint. We doubled down on DE and doubled down on OT in the draft, as though we had no need for DT and OG help.

Can you give more detail, especially if you're a subscriber and have access to the whole thing (only excerpts in here of course)... Or just what you see as the bad takes in the publicly accessible part