Hapless Bills Fan

I'll try one more time. The oft-quoted metric is that if a team holds their opponent to less than 20 points, they should generally win. Let me say that again a little louder for the guys in the back: if a TEAM holds their opponent to less than 20 points, they should generally win. It's a TEAM thing. The defense doesn't get to sit back and say "hey 23 points? Well ***** only 16 of 'em were ours, so who the ***** cares if we let the opponent score on every single drive in the 2nd half while the offense needed time to come from behind? We did OUR job!" That's not how football works.

I think Draft Kings is mis-quoting Coach McDermott. He said it was a numbers decision and that Breida is "very important to us on Special Teams". He never specifically said it was Moss vs. Sweeney.

I strike me as an "I have no idea what that means" kinda guy Ouch. But apparently true.

I quote "You don't get to disregard the points off ST"

I would have to re-watch, but I think one reason the Steelers put pressure on our secondary in the second half was in part we weren't getting as much pressure up front - playing like we were gassed. So Big Ben had a bit more time to pick us apart. We have (relatively) smaller guys on our DL and they have to play with very high energy to beat the bigger guys on OL

The points still count if ST or the other team's defense scores them. I take your point that when the defense allows 16 points you generally expect a good offense to score more, so you win, but we don't get to disregard the points off ST.

Well, clearly the coaches disagree with you going into the season. Time will tell.

Actually.....we didn't win 13 games without running. We had 2 games where we had more rush attempts than pass attempts and more rush yards than pass yards. We won both (first NE game and Chargers game). We had another couple games where we ran significantly more than league average, but had higher passing attempts and yards (2nd NE and Denver)

What part of "I think they may need to revisit who they activate at other positions to make room for Moss on the gameday roster. Sweeney doesn't play ST either, and he played what, 3 snaps or something?" did you disagree with exactly? The thing is @ThurmanThomasEnglishMuffin, I didn't see us in a lot of (1,1) sets even in the 3rd and 4th Q, did you? I need to watch again but I'm gonna guess "no". And Knox isn't a pass blocking specialist, but both he and Sweeney can block. Bates has also blocked as an extra OLman. So with respect, while I agree Moss should have been a gameday active, there are several issues being conflated here. The Bills could have provided extra protection WITH the players they had active, and in fact one could have argued that if they scratched Sweeney in favor of Moss they were taking out a good blocker (but I would argue that Moss has shown more. That block on Bosa! *swoon*) I think they needed to have Breida active as a KR/PR, but I also think they could have made other choices and found room for Moss.

I would like to know how you reached this conclusion? His rookie season, Singletary was poor at pass protection. Nothing against Singletary - he improved to "OK" last season, but Moss could really "bring it".

For this game, anyway, I think Breida was important to the Bills as a backup KR/PR. But I think they may need to revisit who they activate at other positions to make room for Moss on the gameday roster. Sweeney doesn't play ST either, and he played what, 3 snaps or something?

Who TF is Ty'Son Williams?

If you're making the point that the failed 4th down conversions were a turning point and there was bad decision making on both whether to go for it and on play calling - I 100% agree.

If 99% of kicks are touchbacks now, can you help me understand why pro football reference says 992 out of 1687 (58.5%) of kickoffs were returned in 2020? I hear 99% of statistics are made up. Imma have to pin @gunnerbill's excellent post on the different ST roles. Here it is: Bottom line at minimum, in addition to the kicker, punter and LS you need: a KR/PR; 2 Gunners, a Personal protector (we saw what happens when that doesn't work) and a couple of some inside wing protectors/wedge players No offense to Epenesa (who surely tried his best) but having him fill in as long snapper was an undesireable adventure and made it clear that the LS has value. Ah. Then I agree with you. I think Breida was active because of ST. McDermott even said that in his post-game presser, that "he is a very important player to us on ST". I'm not sure what other roles he has on ST - he could be a gunner I guess, though that's usually Taiwan Jones and Siran Neal - but I'm pretty confident he was active because the Bills wanted a "backup plan" to McKenzie at KR/PR On the other hand there's this on how having a backup plan can sometimes backfire

Not sure who "he" is in this context?

Like @Simon sez, Congrats on the birth of your son

Huh?

This made me spit wine on my keyboard laughing Still can't fathom why more people haven't voted for "Shut up, Giuseppe; this is obviously just another "Josh Allen sucks in front of home fans" thread disguised as something else."

OMG Peterman still on the team, What? Cog also inactive.

^major ^only ^(fill in your thing here) Sorry but a defense that folds its lawnchairs in the 2nd half was absolutely an issue in the early part of last season and we saw it again on Sunday It may not be the major issue, it certainly wasn't the only issue, but it is, by Jinx, an issue.

A nit, but Haack's previous blocked punt(s) were in 2018, so 3 years ago. One guy here pointed out that we got him to shank one last season vs. Miami but I'm not sure about that? He had a decent average of 43.6 yds on 5 punts. That was two short punts of 32 and 34 yds, one moderate punt of 42 yds, and two 55 yd punts (one of which McKenzie returned for a TD so.... Sounds like the blocked punt was a communication and/or execution failure on the blockers, compounded by the punter being too close to the line. Whether that was a bad practice on his part, or an appropriate adjustment made for wind or snapping issues, can't say. When You're Right, You're Right. When much is given, much is expected!!!

B word a lot on twitter, call-in shows, and bulletin boards.

I think he's right, only question is whether there was a legit reason for that which is not on the punter- dealing with wind, adjustment for Reid Ferguson low snaps, whatever.

OK cool. Got some data then. From Sharp Football Stats. 5 WR (0,0) 1% of plays (8 plays). Pass rate 75% Pass YPA 22.3 (Air YPA 21.5) 4 WR (1,0) 15% of plays (186 plays). Pass rate 74% Pass YPA 8.4 (Air YPA 7.4) 3 WR (1,1) 71% of plays (860 plays). Pass Rate 64% Pass YPA 7.6 (Air YPA 8.8) 2 WR (1,2) 8% of plays (91 plays). Pass Rate 36% Pass YPA 9.6 (Air YPA 12.2) Unsure why Air YPA are higher than YPA in some cases - guys running backwards trying to find some room? The most successful was 5 WR, but we only ran it 8 plays. Someone whose stat mojo is weak sauce might look at that and say "Oh, OK, look at that, we should run it more often" but the Franks Hot Sauce Stats Mojo says "danger Will Robinson when you compare two groups where one group has 10 or 100x higher numbers than another" What you say here seems logical, not to mention that the threat of an occasional run or such might be of assistance in keeping the defense guessing. I agree with you completely. The open question to me is whether McDermott will have a raging mad-on sufficient to persuade Daboll to work on it. I would kinda like to be a fly on the wall for that discussion.

Just imagine - Strap on my sandals