Malazan

Context matters, a lot of those yards came in garbage time on some big runs when the defense was sitting back. Earlier in the game, they had trouble blocking 4 with 5. Regardless, it's a new week. Go Bills!

Well, he looks like he can walk at least.

Quick, name all the former panthers without cheating and looking it up.

I think attention seeking trolls starting BS threads should have a timeout

Yes, but to be fair I avoid it after a win too. It flips to one extreme or the other.

I've been under the impression that McDermott his staff struggle when they don't have good tape. McDermott is a preparation guy. He prepares for as much as possible and when he gets tape of a team from in season, he's good. The first game is always a crapshoot of what's changed and I think that makes it harder to prepare.

You do understand that this is about people who are trying to go to a football game. It's the entire topic of the thread. It's all people are talking about. You may be unaware of this, but the government is not trying to force people to attend a football game. So this strawman you're trying is just silly. You've also been dunked on by a bunch of other people. "Nor would a wise man, seeing that he was in a hole, go to work and blindly dig it deeper..."

I see we only have a federal government now.

How can people be this unaware? The government has been making vaccines mandatory for a long time.

I'd be more concerned with losses when up by 10 or more.

It amazes me how fast people go stupid.

Not quite a "I know you are, but what am I", but close. Really close.

You often strike me as a 'If there was a 3rd half..." kind of guys.

The Steelers were 18/32 passing for 188 yards and only gave up 16 points. Can you point to specifics about where you think they should improve?

No, we wouldn't. On a day when the offense is humming, if the game was a shootout then sure... on this day, against this team it was pure idiocy even if ended up working.

You have a QB who can act like a RB as well. You could throw 2 lead blockers in there for him if you wanted to try smash mouth running it there.

The defense gave up 16 points even with the 2nd half. They played well. Well, for starters, you can't spend the offseason saying how you're not going to run and paying little attention to it. The Bills HAVE to figure out why their 5 offensive lineman can not create hole against 4 defensive lineman. It's way too consistent that it's a "they just suck" problem. There is a scheme problem in how they're blocking or what they're doing that they need to invest time and effort into figuring out. It feels like they just aren't interested and will rely on pass game always working which let's not forget there were 3-4 games last year where it didn't. Remember beating the Jets with only field goals? For one, stop going 5 wide. Bring Knox in tight and throw quick passes to him. He seemed like could catch the ball yesterday when some others seemed to struggle. They have Gilliam...put him and singletary in the backfield for help blocking and a quick outlet. Also, I'll take 3 yards on 1st and 2nd down. 3rd and 4 with the defense having to at least respect that the Bills might run it is better than 5 wide with zero belief they were going to run.

The only drive they moved the ball well was at the end of the 2nd half when they were in a hurry up offense. I don't think that is coincidence. Started with a run then short pass, short pass, deep strike to Davis. Then it literally went run / pass / run / pass to the endzone.

Look, I won't completely discard the notion, but there's a lot of factors that are a LOT more likely. 1. They spent a whole offseason reading their press clippings. Daboll has been touted as the HOTTEST HC candidate for next offseason and it seemed like he was trying to prove it with his gameplan. 2. Last offseason, we heard about how hard they worked outside of team activities in an offseason where many teams didn't get much work at all. This season, I didn't hear about any of that occurring for the Bills. Long story short, they outworked people last season to have early season success. 3. They barely played in pre-season. That timing/rhythm doesn't necessarily carry over year to year. You have to work. I heard a lot on twitter from the Bills this offseason, but little about how much they were outworking other teams this offseason. 4. Defenses didn't have time to prepare last year. Defenses usually are ahead of offenses early in the season. They had a season of tape to learn what everyone knew. Blitzing Allen is a way to get beat. Get the pressure you can with 4 and flood the coverage zones. Tackle the Bills receivers immediately and cut down on the YAC. 5. The Steelers are much better than they are given credit for.. They won 11 games in a row last season. Towards the end of the season they got banged up and Ben slows down later in the year after taking hits, but that defense is a top 5 defense year in / year out and they still needed a blokced kick returned for a touchdown to win. 6. The offensive line penalties brought plays back that would have sustained drives / had points. No one on the offense looked good, but you can't kill drive after drive with stupidly bad penalties. See #1 with a coordinator who seemed more interested in "his" gameplan working than adjusting to the reality on the field that the players were sucking at what he wanted executed and it's that much harder.

All offseason long, the genius offensive coordinator has been saying the Bills won't do that and they're going to run it like they did last season, but "hopefully" more effectively when they do..

These reporters should have pounced on that. WTF about 2004 Seattle defense reminds you of the recent Steelers defenses under Tomlin?

That sounds like a callout on Daboll to me. If so, cheers to McDermott.

If a guy on special teams doesn't just up and decide to let a rusher come in unblocked.. we win. If, ifs and buts were candy and nuts then we'd all be having a merry Christmas

I agree that Daboll had a bad game, but it was because they WERE NOT running the offense from last season. He changed it up and it felt like he was trying to prove what a genius he is.. or based on statements from the offseason that he outsmarted himself. He talked a lot about how you have to change or other teams will pick up on it and stop it. That's true, but he made some critical errors in his scheme. Teams learned the Bills won't try to run and if they do, it will be largely ineffective. Like mind boggingly ineffective. So they just sit 7 guys back in coverage. The Steelers line is one of the best in the league, but Daboll should have put a lot more focus on the run game as it's the easiest way to make a team pay for sitting so many guys back in coverage. Instead, he outsmarted himself with his brilliant 5 wide formation.

I have no idea how you thought I said what you think I said