starrymessenger

McD had everything to do with drafting Bernard. His kind of guy.

Turned a stud into a gelding.

It might not be the playcalls. I thought I saw an angry Cook on the sidelines. Maybe he said something.

The Bills are counterpunchers on offence lol.

So now the offense craps out.

He's not happy about it either.

Just about anywhere else.

Best Bill on the field tonight.

Carolina had a great pass rush with four down lineman. They had great LBs. We have neither.

Exactly. The defensive scheme has proved it could work very well (in Carolina). Now as to whose fault that is maybe Beane, maybe McD, probably both.

Personally I don't think it's a scheme thing. He doesn't have the players to execute.

He wouldn't do better with this crew.

I thought he established control before dropping it.

Bet they say they can't reverse it.

Man vs boy.

Why am I laughing.

Yeah it ain't the steel curtain.

What was that.

About time. Deep and between the numbers.

We will clean their clocks after the bye. Trust me.

They always call it, whether material to the outcome or not.

True. Bills receivers average depth per reception since Josh has been under center is not far off that of the game’s best receivers. Probably the difference in quality/production is attributable to scheme, targets and YAC (except for Shakir). But although you dont need to run go routes and post patterns all day you do need to be able to credibly run deep routes successfully on occasion IMO so that the risk has to be accounted for by the opposing secondary. Maybe thats a large part of what a Chase, Lamb, Tyreek, Jefferson etc… actually do for you. Bills passing attack basically takes what the opposition appears to give you. But what seems to be intentionally given can sometimes more easily be taken away (see NE Patriots) so sometimes you need to be able to take what they dont want to give you. Bills dont seem to do much of that. I dont buy the argument that the problem is Josh’s long ball inaccuracy. He’s thrown many long balls laterally as deep outs and he has shown that he can do so with the necessary arc and touch- witness his game breaking toss to Palmer to beat the Ravens. He just needs to do more of that between the numbers.

Diggs apparently is still a top tier receiver when he’s motivated but despite his game against us he must so far be an expensive disappointment (69MM 26MM guaranteed, 12MM signing bonus) to the Pats. If it was only a question of stroking him I think that could be managed, though I doubt that Vrabel is the kind of guy who will do much of that. But you actually need to do more. He simply refused to play in Brady’s run heavy conservative passing offence where everybody eats. So you need also to feature him in a predominately passing offence. Don’t do that and he will respond with mediocre, uninspired play.

Depending upon the offensive philosophy and scheme I might trade our stellar offensive line for the Bengals' line and their #1 and #2 receivers. With those guys, Shakir, Kincaid, Cook and a good bottom of the order to fill out their receiving room (which I think the Bills have) we might score a thousand TD's. I would however never consider a trade like that unless my QB was at the level and had the attributes of Josh Allen or Pat Mahomes. It was a bad bet by Bengals management to take the route they did with Burrow. He goes down and the whole structure collapses. It's just that protecting him is a higher priority than it is in the case of the other two. All QBs need to be protected, but some a lot more than others.

As a league wide thing (not just the Bills), much pain and much unreasonable optimism (just ask a Ravens fan). The way things are shaking out now is hardly abnormal. I think many of us understood that the Pats game could be difficult. It was a real risk of loss even if not likely. What's important is that a team, that is any big team credibly in the running for a championship, make the playoffs and, crucially, have its machine in gear by then. The big team that best does that will probably win. Even now I would consider the Ravens a "big team" (assuming Lamar is soon back) and also the Chiefs. These organizations, like the Bills', are comparatively very good. I expect these teams, including the Bills, to get better as the season progresses (assuming no catastrophic injuries). Bengals chances have faded because of Burrow. I think that's unfortunate. The game is elevated by the play of its greatest players. I want to see all of them play (and beat the ones we need to beat).