Utah John

I hope Dennis Allen got a long contract -- at least 6 or 7 years -- on the grounds that it's going to take a few years to clean up the mess, and he doesn't want to get that job started and then get fired because he's not finished yet. It's a little late in the coaching carousel calendar to find a great new OC (and DC for that matter) in New Orleans. Everything is lining up against this guy's early success. He'll be coach of the year if he gets to 9-7.

The Bills had a great defense who Schwartz was DC, but they had built that defense to play his style. There is zero chance the Bills want to start over, building a new defense, when we're in the SB window NOW. Plus look at all the high draft picks on our D -- we've invested so much in building Frazier's and McDermott's idea of how a D is supposed to work. It was Wrecks Ryan who pushed Schwartz out. I don't think Schwartz would hold a grudge against the Bills. But for the reasons I mentioned I think he's the wrong man for the job.

Well, Allen was offered the chance to go as a replacement for Lamar Jackson. He politely told them to take their Pro Bowl offer and stick it where the sun don't shine.

I think that's a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

McKenzie apparently really likes Daboll, and a lot of people are expecting McKenzie to follow Daboll to the Giants.

I'd like to see McKenzie on the team next year, but I'm not sure he wants to stay. I think McDermott burned some bridges with McKenzie by benching him after the ridiculous fumble on a KO return against the Colts. But sometimes money really talks. Especially if Beasley is cut for salary cap and performance issues, McKenzie could take on some of Beasley's pay as well as the starting slot receiver role. Neither McKenzie nor any other player is the equivalent of Tyreek Hill. We can't get Hill so we need to have the best possible alternative plan. That could be McKenzie, or possibly another player via the draft or trade. Maybe some team with a quick slot guy really needs a road grader OL player, and wants Feliciano or Ford.

I don't think the world has ever seen Daboll's personality, unleashed. I have no idea what that might be, but he's now the head guy and doesn't have to let McDermott or Saban or Belichick represent the franchise. Daboll might just be trying to establish that he's The Guy. Who knows. Maybe he figures this message will get to the players on his team. Anyway, good luck to you coach, you did very well with the Bills and we're grateful, no offense taken of course that you'd leave for a HC job. But you're not a Bill anymore.

Likeliest option, as I see it.

The reason they don't have full time refs is that the refs all have careers and they don't want to give up those careers to go sit in a room every day going over the rule book. Refs move up through the ranks, and only a few get to be NFL refs. All the time they're moving up, they're also moving up in their day jobs. By the time they get to the NFL, they're also pretty high up in the food chain wherever they work. If they quit those other jobs to become full-time refs, they wouldn't be able to go back after their NFL days were over.

This does point out the silliness of the Rooney Rule as it currently stands. Teams know whom they want to hire, yet they're required to waste the time and effort of several other people to pretend anyone else has a shot. Overall, the black HCs have done about as well as the white HCs. Tomlin is an excellent HC. Caldwell had great success. Flores himself did a great job pulling the Dolphins up from being terrible to being not that bad -- although he didn't seem to be getting anywhere moving beyond that level. But there have been so few black HCs that the sample size isn't representative of their skill. The rule about how if you have a minority coach on your staff and you lose him to another team, then you get extra draft picks -- now THAT'S something that should help get more black coaches into the game. And yet it still doesn't seem to be working.

This will keep Josh happy, but who knows if Dorsey is ready for this job. Did he ever sit down with Daboll and talk about the thought process Daboll used to call plays? Fingers crossed this all works out, and Dorsey's offense isn't so predictable that opposing DCs can scheme up ways to stop it.

Her eyes are definitely not popping out of her head. Literally. They're wide open but they're still in their sockets. Literally.

I'd go further. Out of four games last weekend and two yesterday, the home teams lost all of them except the Chiefs beating the Bills (and even that one obviously could have gone the other way) and the Rams winning a close one.

I'm interested, not excited. Yesterday's games were more enjoyable in a relaxed sort of way for me than any games this year. The Bills weren't playing, and yesterday's results had no impact on the Bills, so I could just put all that out of my mind and watch the games. If I'd been a fan of any of the four teams playing yesterday, I'd have been a nervous wreck by the end of the day. As it was, I just enjoyed watching tight, close games. OTOH their O line is so bad they have Quinton Spain starting at guard.

Between Jones and Darnold, I'm not sure which New York QB was screwed up worse by their team. Darnold is going the same way as Josh Rosen, QBs who might have been successful if not completely mishandled. Of course there are a lot of other QBs who didn't succeed who probably feel the same way about THEIR teams. OTOH there's Josh Allen, who could have collapsed in his first year or two without the nurturing of the coaching staff in Buffalo and Beane's ability to put good skill players around him. Thankfully it worked out so well.

IIRC, during the game yesterday the announcer said no team had ever won two OT games in the playoffs, back to back. And the reason is probably what you said.

I'd be freaked out too if I saw someone's eyes literally popping out of her head. I am glad I record games and watch them a little after the fact so I can skip commercials like that.

Sorry for my misunderstanding. Yes, I agree about the earlier game.

I agree with everything here except the end. I don't recall thinking Mahomes was off his game in the second half against us. I remember Mahomes and Josh both lighting it up against the other team's defense. If I could bear the pain I'd rewatch the game to check on this, but I haven't worked up the courage to do it yet.

The Bengals won after the Bills lost because Mahomes in the second half played incredibly well against Buffalo and really, really badly against the Bengals. I am not sure what Cincy did differently in the second half, but it couldn't have been THAT different than anything Mahomes had seen before. The difference was that Mahomes started missing easy passes he usually makes without even looking (seriously, he can do that). As a result, KC couldn't sustain drives. The KC defense arguably played better against Cincy than they did against us, either that or Josh played so much better than Burrow did. Either way the loss yesterday is completely on Mahomes. I've never seen a top QB implode like that, certainly not the guy most people think is the best QB in the NFL.

McDermott's part in this would have come much earlier, possibly in training camp when the defensive schemes were installed. He should have made sure Frazier had a scheme all worked out and communicated to the players for a situation like the end of the KC game. And Frazier should have had the scheme worked out whether or not McDermott asked him about it. There was no reason for the Bills to be scratching their heads about what to do.

Does anyone remember why the Bills moved on from Dorenbos? The Bills originally signed him as an UDFA, and he played in Buffalo for two or three years. He had a pretty long, pretty good career so I wonder what the reason was we didn't keep him around.

Part of the explanation is that the teams that made the playoffs are good teams, and during the playoffs they played their best games. Good teams playing well commit fewer penalties. A lot of penalties come about through lack of focus and attention. The number of pre-snap penalties in particular was WAAAY down during the playoffs, and I think that's because everyone was doing their very best. If the officials are just letting the players play, and not calling the minor stuff, teams will get an unfair advantage. The Bengals had one play on offense where they had nine men on the line of scrimmage. That's illegal and it helped the Bengals on that play, but the refs either didn't notice or chose not to flag it. That's just wrong.

It's been a foregone conclusion all year that Daboll would get a HC job somewhere. So are Bills trying to act like they're just getting started now, looking for a new OC? That would be malpractice. They should have been talking to Dorsey to see about his interest in the job, as well as making quiet inquiries around the league or colleges. The Bills should have been in position to pull the chain on a new OC almost immediately after the Giants HC job was announced.

No, if he's offered the Giants OC position it's a promotion, not a lateral move. The Bills would not interfere.