Utah John

Bass missed two kicks. The atrocious miss was actually blocked. Not that that's not at least partially on Bass, who needs to get enough elevation to prevent a block, but it's also on the O line.

Bass has indeed missed some kicks on his own, but some of his misses are actually blocks. That terrible kick against the Jets? It was caused by a Jets player getting a hand on the kick. In some cases, when a kick is blocked, it's the kicker's fault for not getting enough elevation. In other cases the kick would be just fine by the defender makes a good play or the kicker's protection breaks down. It's hard for us fans to know which is which. My criticism of Bass isn't based only on the misses. He also doesn't have the same range as other kickers. Other teams routinely get FGs from 55 yards, which used to be considered heroic, and which seems to be beyond Bass's range. Or maybe McDermott won't take the risk on long FGs because if they're missed the opponent gets great field position. Combine the lack of range with the number of misses that aren't blocks, and yeah I'm thinking the Bills need a new guy.

When was the last time the Bills played with the standing buffalo on the helmets? I think it's been at least a couple of years but I'm not sure.

I'm happy with the Cooper acquisition, but the Browns player I really want is Myles Garrett. The Bills continue to struggle in rushing the QB except against weak O lines when the other team has to pass, and none of the Bills on the roster seem to be able to threaten consistently. Cleveland is going nowhere as long as Watson is their QB, so they might as well not waste more years of Garrett's career and get draft capital for him. The Jets have demonstrated the ability to lose to anyone. The Bills lost road games to two powerful teams, and actually had a decent chance to win the second game. Unless injuries really set in, the Bills should win the AFCE by two or three games.

If we're going after Bubba, why not get Forrest too? He was a great kickoff returner in college -- made All-American if I remember correctly. And stamina for long-distance running...no problem.

Do you remember last year's playoffs when we had NO depth LBs and had to bring back Klein to face Mahoes and Kelce?

Considering Cooper is moving from degenerate Watson to Superman Allen, he might be willing to play for free, more or less.

WHAT will only come down to Super Bowls? Whether we think Allen is any good? Don't be silly.

What's with these delicate little Jets? Two personal fouls on simply ordinary tough football plays. The roughing the passer call was egregious.

Why not just not rush anyone? Two guys are never going to get home. Wasted personnel. OK so the Bills played it stupidly but I am still willilng to give Rodgers credit for a good play.

Yeah I thought so too, but that never gets called on Hail Marys.

Ahem. Davis had 5 catches for 45 yards and 2 TDs. He did have a couple of egregious drops. So, yeah, he's the same guy we knew and cringed about, sometimes making good plays but more often killing drives with drops.

Well, the best player in franchise history played in four straight Super Bowls. As for all the gloom and doom, this team is the best that Beane could put together, pretty much. I think he made some mistakes but considering all the losses and departures, plus the key injuries, he still did a good job. The realistic goal for the year was a winning record, and the enhanced goal is winning the AFCE again. Ever since the Diggs trade ate so much cap space, it's been clear this year's team was not SB bound. It's next year that Beane is planning for.

You make it sound like this is a long-term trend, that Josh is doing that game after game. He did it far too much against the Texans but he wasn't doing that in previous games.

I have to say the problem is the O line. Given time, Josh can make decent receivers look great. It comes down to the decision not to re-sign Mitch Morse. DCs have figured out how to confuse McGovern and the guards, and we see stunt after stunt producing a free rusher. McGovern is a bigger body than Morse so the thought is he'd be a better road grader, but he's not playing guard anymore. He has far more responsibilities and doesn't seem able to get the job done. The Bills are running more but it always comes down to what Josh can do.

If the Bills are really thinking about this, they could make an offer for a 28 year old game wrecker of a defensive end on a floundering team that will not win for at least two more years while it does a QBectomy. I'm talking about Myles Garrett and the Browns of course. Garrett would give the Bills what they tried to get with Von Miller, and actually did get from Miller for a few games before he wrecked his knee. Schwartz has always been a good DC. The only reason he didn't stay with the Bills is that Wrecks Ryan wanted to replace Schwartz's excellent defense with his own, and that turned out to be a disaster. Would Schwartz return here? No chance while McDermott is HC. Just like Ryan, McDermott wants to run the defense his way. There's no place for a strong innovative DC to take over the defense.

What a nice statement from the club. And good on Cook for the way he handled it.

My takeaway is that Seattle's defense is really bad. Couldn't cover receivers crossing 8-10 yards downfield, couldn't tackle anyone without giving up 10 YACs, couldn't stop the run until SF's starting RB got hurt. Also, I'm impressed with Brock Purdy. Good decisions, good accurate passes. Not much of a deep ball. Also a much better runner than you'd think, until he zooms past someone for a first down.

I suggested 22 or 21 recently because we need Gilliam in the backfield to protect Josh. With Morse gone, the line is not picking up stunts and twists from the opposing defenses, and Josh is running for his life. McGovern is a big body which is fine but he's not doing a big part of the center's job, getting the O line working together properly. Or instead of Gilliam, use Anderson. Have him declare himself eligible every down, and let him be Josh's guardian. We have to do SOMETHING to protect Josh.

So this is the situation the Steelers are stuck in. They never have a losing season under Tomlin so they never get high draft picks, and so they're always hanging around but never winning it all. I hope the Bills never have losing seasons too but they eventually will, and that pain is what's needed to get a top pick.

I never thought this would be a lost season. I thought and still think it's a season where the Bills should have a winning record but not have a reasonable chance at the Super Bowl. To some, that is by definition a lost season, and I understand and respect that. My view is that the 2022 team was the one where everything was in place and on schedule to win everything, and we screwed that up, and we've been playing damage control ever since, trying not to let the whole thing collapse, and working to figure out how to get better in the future. My view since the offseason is that 2025 and 2026 are now looking like our championship years (in part because KC has to lose its mojo some day, right?). So spending future resources on a WR1 to replace Diggs seemed like grasping at straws, and like a great way to keep 2025 and 2026 from working out. I still think that. The Bills spent millions of dollars on band-aids for the receiver group, and got pennies on the dollar for their investment, at least so far. But you could take all those millions and still not be able to afford one of the top tier WRs available in FA. And trading a second rounder for an aging WR just looks foolish if you're viewing the process from a long-term perspective.

The situation was apparent in March. Too many departures, too many aging players, too little cap space. And then Milano, Johnson, Bernard all out. Geez. I remain convinced the Bills can and should win the AFCE again, but it was never realistic to expect more this year. Look around the league. With few exceptions (KC for instance) even the top teams take dips in some seasons, and often they rebound with more excellent seasons. I think what has Bills fans petrified is our history, that after we get good, we don't dip and come back, we dip and then sink, for a decade or more. The Bills were strong with Lou Saban v.1, then fell apart for six or seven years, got better with Lou Saban v.2, then fell apart for over a decade until Chuck Knox, then fell apart for a decade until Marv Levy, then fell apart for a generation before McD. To be a Bills fan is to know the abyss is always just around the corner. I simply don't believe we're in that situation right now. I think the strong core of the team remains, and added pieces next offseason plus maturity from Cole Bishop on the back end will right things.

I think the key losses in the offseason were the two safeties -- who were both too old and slow anyway, so it was necessary to move on from them -- and Mitch Morse, who was NOT old and slow and was playing very well. What Morse did and what McGovern isn't doing is calling the blocking assignments to pick up the packages that defenses are throwing at us. Josh is running for his life almost every play. Against the Texans, he had a clean pocket once, when the Texans rushed four and didn't do anything exotic, and Josh hit Coleman for a TD. And that was the last time the Texans did THAT. They immediately got back to the stunts and twists, and the Bills just aren't blocking them. Maybe the Bills need to go 21 or 22, to keep a solid pass blocker in the backfield, and that's probably got to be Gilliam, who's more stout than any of the three RBs. As for the safeties, Poyer and Hyde did magic, year after year. Smart, aggressive, fast -- both were terrific players. NOT easily or quickly replaced. Hamlin is not the guy. He was too slow before he died and he isn't faster now. Bishop is making mistakes, which hurt but come on, he's a rookie learning a complicated system when most of the defensive playmakers are gone. The Bills took several shots at the bargain bin in WR FA, overpaying for them (Curtis Samuel, OMG, Valdez-Scantling, oh crap). They're overpaying Bass (who might have us all quaking every time he lines up, but he's actually been doing well).

Well if it makes you feel better Josh could very easily have three or four picks this year. A couple of LBs and DBs have had INTs in their hands and have dropped them. Josh IS trying to do more and more, probably too much, to overcome the deficiencies of the roster.

With all the departures and losses and the aging of former core players, and no cap money to spend, and a few lousy purchases in FA, the Bills simply don't have a team good enough for the SB this year. The outlook for this year was always, just see if we can win the division, just to keep the streak going, and then in 2025 and 26 when there's more money available, then make the run. So it's going to be a rocky year, with a lot more excitement than we're used to. Fortunately the AFCE is incredibly weak so the Bills should be able to win the division again. Opposing defenses are focused on taking away Cook and Kincaid, and without Shakir no one else can get open. The O line problems -- what the hell is going on? is it pass protection schemes, individual mistakes, or what?