starrymessenger

Good analysis. Like Dungy I wondered if we should have jammed Hop at the line. I actually also wondered whether it made sense to bring pressure, though thats not usually whats called for in that situation. Kudos to Hop. Great players make great plays. Nuff said.

As RBs go, neither motor nor moss are worth third round picks (maybe late fourth-fifth). Alvin Kamara was a third round pick. JMO.

This offence just isn't the same without a healthy John Brown. Even before the ankle it was so obvious that he was completely without his top gear. On the screen a healthy Brown probably scores. His fitness to play is a priority. Hope he can heal up.

Somebody was supposed to pick Beas up. Don't think it was on PP.

Where did I say that the Bills coaches failed to have a good gameplan on offence? The gameplan and doubtless the week's preparation (esp on D actually) was obviously excellent. And I very much doubt that Pete is unaware of the weakness in his secondary and of the opportunities that it presents to opposing offences. He actually had a plan for that. His plan was to pressure Allen and to some extent it actually worked. Hawks got the most sacks in a game for them in the last seven years. I mean would'nt you rather have Jamal Adams rush the passer than drop into coverage? I'll wait. But that wasn't enuf to make his gameplan successful and there is a reason for that too. The reason for that is despite the pressure Josh Allen was too good and had one of his best days ever. It's possible that Pete underestimated Allen but I could almost understand that because 1) the Bills offence in recent games had not been performing at that level and 2) this year Josh Allen's effectiveness tends to grow in leaps and bounds and when he takes a step back he is quite capable of following up with three steps forward. You can't always foresee that. On Sunday he was nothing short of elite. Pretty much in Mahomesland. In his post game comments Pete mentioned his team's turnovers as an obvious deciding factor. Frankly I'm more interested in understanding how Sean and Frazier were able to pretty much stifle the Hawks offence, partly because I didn't expect that. As a Bills fan I know perfectly well what I can expect from Allen, his receivers and that O-line when they are firing on all cylinders. The rest of the league is learning but there is probably a lag in familiarity. That likely won't continue for long. You say you hope that Sean/Daboll continue to do the right thing. So do I. Just bear in mind that doing the right thing does not always mean doing the same thing and one of the most encouraging things I see is that the Bills are developing an offence capable of implementing the gameplan that best addresses the strengths of the opposing D. If the trend continues they will be, week in and week out, one of the league's most dominant offences. Pete Carroll ain't so dumb. He's a great coach who over the years has built one of the game's most successful franchises. Both he and Sean McD are good at what they do. Sometimes your plans work out according to your expectations and sometimes not. Stuff happens.

I don't think that preparing to defend against a Bills ball control/ time management offence involving the running game was stupid. If you had your druthers you'd probably want to keep the ball away from Russ and the league's best performing offence. As he himself admitted, his real problem was his inability to make the necessary in game adjustments. Like any good OC Daboll just kept doing what worked until the opposition showed they could stop you. I'd be more interested in knowing his views on why our D was able to dominate Russ & Co. I'm not surprised that Allen and his skill players were able to shred a bad back end.

You are right of course. It's pretty much pointless and downright silly to affirm at this stage of his career that Josh is going to be a HOF QB. On the other hand it would be wrong IMO to simply foreclose on the possibility that he develops into that kind of player. That's what it means in his case to say that the sky is the limit. A lot will depend on how he continues to be handled and the quality of the team around him. So it's not really only all up to him. But much of where his career takes him rests on his shoulders.

Disagree. IMO in a year or two Josh Allen could very well be in the conversation regarding the best QB. He's already one of the most exciting QBs in the league. He absolutely has to continue refining his game but his stunning improvement this year is evidence that he's capable of doing exactly that. He's always reminded me of John Elway. I think he may have a chance to be even better when all is said and done.

Its unlikely that Allen will have the same success against the Steelers D as he had against the Seahawks. In fact his and his skill players' dominance last Sunday was so complete that it would be getting ahead of ourselves to assume that this is now to be our weekly fare. We are not yet the Chiefs, though we may well get there eventually. In fact, as the season progresses towards the playoffs I see it as entirely possible that the Bills develop into a credible championship contender. But if JA &Co are unable to routinely do to other teams what they did to Seattle, that does not mean that Allen has regressed. The team and Allen may have less success in the short term while Allen continues to play well and grow into his role. That's really the main thing right now at this point in the season.

One of my favourite was watching Darryl Johnson destroy a Hawks kickoff returner after a Bills TD. Plays like that are a message to a team looking to regroup and come back. The message is "no, not today". Bills had a number of plays like that yesterday. Truth is they dominated Seattle in all three phases of the game - beginning with the opening kickoff. I suspect that McCoach had something to say to his team during the week leading up to the game.

Ive also noticed how a flick of the wrist travels 30 yards on a rope. Every time I see it I shake my head and question my lying eyes. I just can't remember ever quite seeing that before.

JA grows in spurts. He grew a foot in height and 30 pounds in weight one year as a teenager. He's grown by leaps and bounds as an NFL QB since entering the league, especially year 2 to year 3. Scary thing is that he's got room to grow and is clearly still on an upward trajectory. He's got things to prove, but next year at this time (if not before) he may well be credibly mentioned in the discussion about who is the best QB.

Bills hit Russell 16 times yesterday, most hits on a QB so far this year. Klein was a big part of that (as was Jerry Hughes, as per the usual).

Tua landed in a much better spot than Darnold. With Flores, Chan and Fitz he is in very good hands. Darnold has Adam Gase and a generally disfunctional organization.

Tua can play. It's back to the days of Kelly vs Marino in the AFCE. Fun times ahead.

Don't know just what is going on with this guy mentally but if he's on his game he could be a major upgrade. He can play the run well enuf, can certainly pressure the passer and can drop into coverage. I can see it as a fit for SMs D since his gap management, when he's got the horses, is aggressive/penetrating and the secondary relies upon the front seven to pressure the QB, sort of like the Falcons during Beasley's tenure there. I could see him leveraging off Hughes like he did Freeney in his league leading sack year. If hes just fallen off the deep end then agree he's useless, but if he actually wants to play he certainly can.

Dude has the makings of a top tier passer IMO and he's legit as a dual threat (at least you have to account for him running). He just needs a new brain. I hope he gets one for his sake.

Something is holding this offence back. Lots of things come to mind but I'm not sure what it is. I suspect coaching, game planning and play calling, but idk. Production should be better than it is against good and bad teams. If the run game comes around esp on early downs maybe things will improve and we go toe to toe with Russell et al. So a shoot out instead of a blowout. Could be a pretty exciting game.

Agreed. I don't expect a blowout (of either team).

There is always a risk that we get blown out against the league's top performing offence. Maybe you could guesstimate/weight that risk at 20% (I would). If so, a blowout is unlikely. Bills are a funny team. They hang in there with a chance to win against both superior and, oddly, inferior competition (they could actually have beaten the Chiefs, a better team). They don't blow out the competition and they don't seem to get blown out themselves (at least not yet). Seahawks have to be favoured even if playing a road game but with legit big play capability in the passing game (against a weak secondary) and a run game showing signs of life (God bless Mongo) my expectation is the the Bills will be competitive with Seattle and should have a good punchers chance of winning. I also expect McDermot to react and make the best use possible of what he has on D and strategize fully taking into account the abilities of the opposing offence. I don't doubt his proficiency on that side of the ball. Ball control (aka a good ground game) can do a lot to limit Russell (maybe the only thing that can) and I hope Daboll tries to control the clock and run Single and Moss for as long as its productive. Regarding Metcalf, everybody (except maybe the Bears) got it wrong, very wrong, with Seattle being less wrong than the other teams. Dude was a top 5 pick for sure and I'm glad he's panning out as an elite wideout. If you like football it's great to see that type of rare talent develop. Good time for Tre to start earning his money (I don't want to see Wallace or Johnson trying to cover him, that would be both hilarious and painful to watch).

Idk. In evaluating the O's performance, I add something in the good column for the uncalled PI when Beasley was forced off the field, the Davis TD that was called back for an inconsequential and stupid penalty, and our TE kissing the carpet instead of walking into the end zone. So it really wasn't just a bag of field goals IMO.

Exactly. Always has been good. Just a top shelf professional slot receiver. Basically uncoverable in zone.

I get it but even when the run game was working (eg last year) he was always more a back who relied upon vision and elusiveness than burst. CEH is not straightline much faster than DS but he has burst and hits the hole fast. Different type of runner is all. Given DS’s game I’m not sure I fully understand the Moss pick. I guess we will see.

I agree. Lawrence Taylor showed what a world class athlete could do from the outside LB position in terms of aggressive play, bringing pressure etc...I would have Edmunds, who reminds me more of Taylor (in terms of natural ability/type) than Luke K forget about quarterbacking the D, reading and reacting etc... and just turn loose his phenomenal athleticism. If the problem is instead a lack of bad intentions, I would look to trade him asap and before it's too late. You need bad people to play this game right.

I'm not sure Q. Williams solves the Bills problem long term. True he is very talented and he's being used mainly as a space eater/run stuffer, like Leonard Williams (and all other Jets DTs for that matter), but that's probably part the problem. He should be developed as a 3 tech - for him the logical model is A Donald/Geno Atkins (at least as to the majority of his snaps), not Snacks. All of his great college tape that got him drafted high was I thought from the 3tech, but Gregg likes to bring pressure off the edge not up the middle even though he doesn't have the horses to do it. It's a bit of an exaggeration but maybe long term Q needs a space eater next to him as much as Ed does. If Star returns or is replaced in his role and if Harry can come back I'd love to see Williams as part of a rotation with Oliver. Who says you can't have two guys who can bring pressure up the middle. That's the best place to bring it if you can.