Buddo

TBH, that's a pretty poor list. Tasker had more direct impact on games than a lot of those guys. If the HOF is truly about celebrating the whole game, then it needs to find space for the likes of Tasker - and not as an afterthought.

The line that finished the game against the Patsies, should be the line that starts against the Falcons. Simple as. I saw more cohesiveness in that group, than I've seen from any other of the myriad groupings we've used this season. Bates should definitely start at LG, the only other possible change could be Feliciano at RG for Williams - but I certainly wouldn't start with that. They weren't perfect, but they looked like a unit, not a random selection of big uglies.

Taking those early checkdowns, that got us in very manageable down and distances, made a big difference. The Patsies thought that Josh was going to just try and beat them on longer throws, and they were wrong. It allowed for just that moment of hesitation, that the elite QBs take advantage of. I also thought that the Patsies suffered a bit from their gameplans being of the 'smartest kid on the block' variety, and they weren't. I think that was evidenced by how often McKenzie gashed them, but they didn't do anything different to try and cover him better. Knox's blocking was also exemplary for the most part, and we put him against Judon quite a bit. That was something of a revelation tbh. One thing I would say, is that when the line ended up as Dawkins Bates Morse Williams and Brown, they really looked like a unit. For sure, they got beat at times, that's always going to happen, but what we didn't see was assignment issues, which we have far too often in the past. For that reason alone, I want to see that same lineup be starting for at least the next game. It might have been by accident rather than design, but we might have found our best combination to work as a unit.

The 'traditional' QB rating, is actually just a passing rater. But it is exactly the same for everyone. In the above quoted one, Rodgers gets a passer rating of 117.04 Tebow gets one of 101.67 Burrow gets a passer rating of 143.21, Wilson 89.58

I'm not sure the Browns can get over themselves. Mayfield was still throwings ints, when their RBs had been going for 8yds a carry. (There was plenty of time left in the game). If you can't work out what's going well for you, then I don't much fancy your chances.

This is a bit of a 'chicken and egg' argument. While we did have the football to start the 2nd half, there's a reason why we could keep the football away from the Patsies, and that was because the D was getting it back for them enough. I'd also say that where it's concerning, and annoying, that they scored 3 rushing TDs, apart from probably the one in the first half, the Patsies had to work incredibly hard to get the others, having to dig deep into relatively 'trick' plays that they hadn't used before, just to keep drives alive. That stat of 1 from 10 3rd down conversions, is the one that tells you how hard a time they were actually having. They also used an extra lineman, a lot, which I don't think would have happened if the Bills D hadn't been standing up to them decently in the first instance. Historically, with McDermott, our 'weakness' is against the run - there's no two ways about that - but all things considered, it wasn't that bad last Sunday. I understand where Shaw is coming from, also. 'Bend but don't break' as a 'philosophy', isn't just black and white - i.e. if a TD is scored on you, that doesn't automatically mean you've broken - it's also about making life very difficult for the opposition to score. Which the D did do last Sunday, imho. If you are limiting your opponents to around 20 points a game, when you have the sort of offense we do have, you should be winning many more games than you are losing, which for the last two seasons looks like beiing the case. There are always areas for improvement, our own run blocking being one obvious one, alongside finding a regularly available, run stuffing, NT, as another fairly obvious one. That being said, this is a pretty good football team, who on their day, are capable of beating any other team in the NFL.

While I believe it was an honest attempt to quantify the overall performance of a QB, that included rushing, it has pretty much failed to achieve that. There are simply too many instances like the one mentioned above, for it to be taken seriously.

I don't know about that, but I did see the play. Teller was like a statue, and definitely didn't even blink, let alone twitch. I just wonder if it was the same crew who didn't know which number was which in one of our earlier games. That crew that called Trubisky's number out, when he wasn't even in the same state, let alone on the field.

That's assuming that they can get rid of it quickly, and without any debilitating side effects. Atm, iirc, they both are very likely to be unavailable for the Falcons game. This is not a good thing. Simple as.

If they can beat Indy, they can certainly beat the Chargers, who atm seem to be stuttering.

Interestingly, Obada is getting more snaps than previously. I'd like to see them keep him around, but have no idea what his value might be. I think there's room for more growth with him.

I think that that is possibly the perfect summation of Josh's play yesterday. Something else that I've either read, or heard, but cannot remember where, is that Josh announced to teammates that when he woke up yesterday, he felt violent. Quite possibly something in the way of a motivational speech. On the UK broadcast, they also had Jordan Palmer at some point, talking about Allen, in referene to one of the presenters calling him a 'dawg' . Palmer basically said that off the field Allen is one of the nicest people you could wish to meet, but on the field, that whole different animal surfaces, making him one of the toughest guys you would ever not wish to meet, on the football field. I think we can all see it, it just is nice to have it confirmed by people who are genuinely in the know. The Bills might have won the game more handily, but for all the Patsies just about hung with, for a fair time, it took just about everything in their trick play book on offense, to do so. Allen ended up with a QBR of 104, which isn't shabby, yet doesn't account for at least 3 drops (2 for what should have been TDs), and how viciously he gashed the Patsies D with his legs. It was a man amongst boys performance. For all of the deserved superlatives Josh will get, this was still a complete team performance (well, apart from Haack, who didn't have to do anything, lol), with plenty of good performances around - good gameplans, coaching, and, by the players, execution. The D simply wasn't going to be passed on, and while they did give up rushing TDs, when the Patsies are using an extra lineman often, it isn't going to be easy to stop a team completely. Thing is, they always looked like they could stop them enough, with the offense almost scoring at will. I'm sure the Patsies idea of how to win was TOP (rushing) and stopping the Bills from scoring. Their problem with doing that was that they didn't have gale force winds to help them stop Allen. Have we found, by accident rather than design, our best O-Line combination? After Boettger had to go off, it seemed as though with Dawkins back in, Bates at LG with Williams at RG and Brown at RT, we had an O-Line that was all on the same page. One last big shout out to Knox, whose blocking skills were evident a lot, often going against Judon. He was a beast out there, and if he continues to catch the football consistently, he might just become the answer we have needed at TE. He just needs to replicate that performance on a regular basis, and he can become a star in his own right. Great win, just need to keep the performance levels up for the next two games to get a home field for the playoffs. Found where the 'violence on his mind' came from, and it's Peter King. So it must have been the UK broadcast, as he regularly does a segment there.

First thing to do against the Patsies, is not to beat yourself - either with penalties, drops, ints. etc. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hodgkins (sp?) get some early action - he's been in the system long enough to know it, even if he's a rookie in real games, and the Patsies likely don't know enough about him to be sure of how he plays. Depends on how much confidence the coaches have in him.

You would have to guess that Dawkins being available as of yesterday, will have fueled some of the movement. Has to be a big plus for the Bills in betting minds, irrespective of what fans may think.

Players want to be paid. Cancelling games will stop that happening. If I understand the way things are happening, players on the covid list, still get paid, assuming the game is played. The players will complain about it to an extent, but will have street FAs playing if it still means they get paid.

I think this is a fair assessment. I'd also say that a couple of the toughest divisions atm are in the AFC.

Enough time to pass the pigskin, without being hit. 'Blocking for Dummies' is probably his stocking filler for them.

Browns weren't aggressive enough once they intercepted Carr. It was obvious they needed just a couple of first downs to ice the game, or to make it very difficult for the Raiders, and they pretty much just gave the football back into Carrs hands. From just having gained the momentum in the game, they simply handed it back. It was the sort of conservative play calling we've seen plenty of over the years, both on offense and defense, that has cost us games.

Well, the Zebras have had it in for Jerry Hughes for years now, I can only assume it's spreading to other parts of the team. ;(

It might be useful to try and find someone as a ‘run game coordinator’, who actually can implement something that works regularly. Where it appears that coaches understand the differing approaches to running schemes, it also appears they aren’t committed to anything - whether it’s a zone blocking type, or just a ‘hat on a hat’ type.

Nice job Shaw. I'm pretty down on the team atm, and it's nice to have a somewhat different perspective, which actually isn't far wrong. One thing I am somewhat incredulous about, is the fact that the Bills cannot seem to run block, at all. The Cheats only used really, about 3 or 4 serious run plays all game, but they executed them at a high level, as a unit. The play that got them the TD, was evident all through the game, and quite regulaly got decent yards, for example. Surely it isn't beyond the ken of man, for someone on the Bills coaching staff, to get our O-Line to block a few run plays efficiently, as a unit, and just use those plays. While I don't necessarily think this game was one of them - it was closely fought - I believe we have too many instances where our coaches try to be the 'smartest kid in the room' with their gameplans, and it can result in some right clunkers. People have discussed before that this is a 'finesse' team, and there's obviously some truth in that. Thing is, it shouldn't be. It isn't just that when the time comes around to push for the playoffs, it's autumn going into winter, but also the fact that the Bills play home games out in the open, in an area somewhat notorious for 'changeable' weather. Oh, and add in that two of our divisional rivals also play often in adverse conditions (Jest and Cheats), and being a 'finesse' team, simply isn't going to cut it. I still believe we will get to the playoffs, and we might win in the wild card game, or our first game but I don't see us either getting to, or beyond, the AFC Championship game, again, this year. Well, not unless we suddenly discover some sort of running game.

The O-Line has no sort of identity. They pass block okay, for the most part, but I’ve not seen a run play that they have executed consistently. The Cheats didn’t use that many different run plays last night, but they executed them as a unit, regularly. We need to find a few run plays that we can actually execute regularly, as a unit, and forget about other stuff. Just run those few plays, and let the passing game take care of the rest. Unfortunately, I have little confidence that that will be an approach that is taken.

Wouldn't surprise me if part of the coaches 'issues' with McKenzie, are related to his decision making under the football. i.e. When to run and when not to. The fumble against the Colts was a really bad one, because it took the options away from both the offense and defense, and ultimately gave the game to the Colts. While I think he had to try and run that one out - it was from inside our 10 yard line - fumbling it with no outside intervention, is pretty much inexcusable.

The only thing I will say in relation to this, is that Allen generally, doesn't appear to get the same treatment when it comes to 'roughing the passer', as many other QBs seem to. Now, Josh is a big unit, and he shrugs off a lot of stuff, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be called regardless.

Game will be as much about how well our offense performs, as anything else. The D will often look suspect early in games, yet bring it back.