starrymessenger

Speaking for myself, I'm with Bear Bryant. Act like you've been there before (and mean to be there again). But as long as he can make a play (which apparently Foster cannot) I would put up with some hotdogging. I don't consider that conduct detrimental, but maybe McD does.

JMO but at this point Foster over DW makes little sense. I get that STs are important but my take is that Williams would add more to this offence in particular (lacking a physical WR with good hands) than Foster adds to STs. Plus Williams plays with passion and football is that kind of game. As a presence on the football field Foster completely fades into impalpability by comparison. To me that right there is reason enuf to sit him if not release him outright. Coach is outsmarting himself here IMO. Can't get away from the notion that personalities might have something to do with it. If that is true it's more on Coach than the player. Williams would seem to have bought in and has kept his nose clean. I'm all for culture - except when it turns into dogma. Having said that Foster will probably rack up 100+yards and 2 TDs in Houston - but I'm not holding my breath.

Coach doesn't like him because he's a hotdog.

I agree. I was going to say that I could not remember ever having seen Yeldon break a tackle or run through a defender. That's why he never realized expectations. That's pretty much the Yeldon story. I'm ok with he and Williams seeing the field more. They are limited but they can make a play.

Pats were more physical. Bills tackling sucked. Hated the ultra conservative gameplan. Daboll or McCoach? Singletary has shown that he's capable (and potentially dangerous) receiving out of the backfield. On a positive note my sense of it is that this was another useful learning experience for Allen. He overthrew a few but he also connected on a few, two beautiful throws (smoke and Knox TDs). Not long ago he was overthrowing all of them. So he's starting to settle down I think. If we play NE again in the playoffs, a better effort on both sides of the ball, but within what the Bills are capable of, and I like their chances. If we are locked into the #5 seed I'd like to see Yeldon and Williams before it's over.

Thanks. I will check him out.

Not dressed anyway.

How about a big physical receiver with good hands in the red zone...nah. Daboll must go.

Daboll.

Lamar clearly deserves better marks as a passer than he was given credit for in the pre-draft process. Petrino and a handful of observers said so but the powers that be were not listening. Shame on them and kudos to the kid. Having said that he still has plenty to prove in the passing department. In the scheme he's running he is taking full advantage of good accuracy, ball placement, quick release and adequate arm strength. But everything, including the Raven's passing game, leverages off the run, including of course what he contributes to that personally. The test will be what happens when, as I believe is inevitable, he finally has to transition to a more fully developed conventional passing attack with more challenging throws and multiple downfield reads etc...I don't think that skill jumps out of his college tape, or such of it that I remember seeing. I'm sure Belly is thinking the way to beat him is still to force him to be less of a runner and more of a QB. I have no doubt that the next time the Pats and Ravens match up, Bill will be much better prepared. It is quite possible that the shelf life of the Raven's offence will start to expire fairly soon, like in the upcoming playoffs.

I'm hardly qualified to evaluate talent (except as a rank amateur, for what that's worth) but it looks to me that Duke doesn't dress largely because he does not fit in Daboll's offence. He prefers speedy smurfs, lots of them apparently, to a big possession receiver whose skillset relies more on physicality and good hands than it does on the ability to separate. Maybe that's entirely justified, idk. OTOH maybe if Anquan Boldin was on the roster he wouldn't get to dress either. Not saying Duke is Anquan, but Boldin's 40 time was 4.71, pretty much the same as Duke's. Boldin caught lots of balls in traffic when the D was in man and he was a good and smart enuf route runner to find the soft spots in coverage when facing zone. Is Daboll perhaps a little to dogmatic in adhering to his scheme? In the NFL the ability to adjust is generally necessary to avoid predictability.

Daboll really loves him some surfs. If Duke is no good so be it, but I hope the Bills don't opt for another diminutive receiver in the upcoming draft out of deference to Daboll's scheme. Like if Shenault is there in the second and we pass I think I'll wring my own neck.

I take nothing away from Lamar but this O he is running has a limited shelf life. It may well start to sour later this year in the playoffs when the game speeds up. If and when they next play the Pats I believe Belly will be ready. Ravens will more likely go as far as their D can take them. Comparisons of Lamar with Mahomes are very inaccurate IMO. Right now PM is capable of executing a fully diversified attack at a high level. Lamar is not, at least for now. Our D, which is disciplined and plays fast, was a good test, but McD and Frazier really are amongst the very best in the business when it comes to preparing/scheming for a specific opponent. Kudos to them.

Assuming you've got the arm strength, and JA does, the long ball is a touch pass. Touch (or the lack thereof) has been Josh's kryptonite as a passer. The encouraging thing is that he has improved his touch throws in the short passing game Eg to backs in the flats. Hope it's just a question of time.

Dont kid yourself. League will adjust, and when it does ...they will struggle. This is not an O you can run successfully indefinitely. Either it evolves (with Jackson) or it will eventually go the way of the dinosaur.

What they do they do well. But this is strictly a limited purpose offence. A half way decent TE goes down and they struggle.

Jets have a lot of problems, O-line being just one of them. They can't pressure the quarterback so they draft another DT, Q. Williams, ahead of Josh Allen (the pass rusher). Q winds up just replacing L. Williams, with his talent relegated to run stuffing. There are some good DTs in the next draft. They will likely wind up picking another one lol. Their secondary is in need of an overhaul almost as much as their O-line. I would have no confidence in Gase. Right now it's not looking good for Sam. I see his floor as being another Andy Dalton, with his ceiling as somewhat higher. But his HC is a bug eyed zombie. Oddly, I actually see Rosen in a better place. Unlike most rotten branches of the Belichick tree, Brian Flores strikes me as someone who might actually be quite good. We will see if they decide to go with Rosen or draft another QB. The AFCE has been a boring division for more than a decade now. I wouldn't mind seeing a more competitive landscape TBH. And I suspect it will be.

I get that the "business as usual" tone is what you expect to see from a professional athlete, but of course the game is huge not just for its post season implications but even more so because of its compelling interest for football fans and pundits everywhere as a fascinating match up. For reasons that we all know, the Ravens have the most electric and exciting offence in this year's NFL. It also is something of a scheme dependant novelty that in and of itself naturally attracts a lot of attention and challenges a lot of conventional thinking. Against that you have one of the very best defences in the game, arguably elite or close to, guided by a couple of the most capable defensive minds. The Raven's have an physical, ultra aggressive O. The Bills have an attacking, mostly single gap responsibility defensive alignment. Advantage Raven's? What adjustments to their front and pressure packages will McDermott and Frazier implement? Is the Raven's passing game good enuf to stand alone if they are held to short yardage on early downs and are forced to pass against the league's most efficient pass D? Would this be a recipe for turnovers? And of course you've got two of the most promising and exciting young QBs going head to head. What more could you ask for if you are in any sense a fan of the game itself and not just of a particular team? That's why this game will be played under the spotlight of intense national attention and is really not just another game. Im just hoping that it lives up to its billing (and that the Bills can pull off the upset of course). Its been a very long time since the Bills have gotten to perform on so prominent a stage.

You trade up if you need to to nab a legit franchise QB prospect. Always. Ravens did it too.

Pope gets all kinds of presents. Didn't Lyndon Johnson once give him a small statue of himself as President?

To me it's not rocket science. they are both phenomenal athletes. Allen has great wheels but nobody has Lamar's wheels, never in league history. Allen has a significantly stronger arm, but Lamar's arm is strong enuf. Both are improving a lot with regard to accuracy/ball placement (especially Josh, but he had further to go). They both show good football smarts. Allen probably has a better chance of developing into a more complete pro QB executing a more diversified offence. Lamar has notably not been asked to make the kind of downfield reads that are necessary to a fully developed passing game. Probably he will get there in time but they are bringing him along carefully. Being able to do that is crucial because otherwise eventually he wind up in concussion protocol. I very much doubt that Lamar will ever be able to make all the throws quite as well as Josh will if Allen develops simply because of the difference in arm strength. They are both great young players at the all important position but they are not the only promising novices. We have come a long way since the days when Jameis and Mariota were considered elite prospects.

That offence is not sustainable without Lamar. He's the motor that makes it go, not only because of what he can do physically (which may be unique in league history), but because of Roman's brilliant play design that, leveraging off fear of what Lamar can do, creatively opens running lanes for guys like Ingram. To Lamar's credit he needs to make the right reads at the LOS and post snap for that to happen and he's been able to do that with great proficiency. In the passing game they are not putting too much on his plate. He's effective throwing to his TEs especially when out of the pocket when the defence has to account for him. He also does throw outside the hash but almost only in the relatively shallow flats. If he's to progress to Wilson's level he will need to show that he can manage downfield reads, which so far he has not done. If he can do that while maintaining the good accuracy and ball placement he has shown look out. In fact IMO he will need to do that because otherwise he will wind up in routine concussion protocol. He's a pretty big guy and is good at avoiding major impacts but in this league it's really only a matter of time. Personally I'm sceptical about his chances of executing a fully developed passing game and suspect you might start seeing turnovers. So I say "show me". But if he can he's going to be flat out great.

Brown is a very good and polished professional receiver. He can help you in a lot of ways. I was of course aware of his rep as a burner but I'm now even more impressed with how smoothly he comes out of his breaks and with how complete his route tree is. He knows how to help out his QB and has had, and will continue to have, an important role in Allen's development as a passer. The same can be said about Beasley, who is a top slot receiver and who almost impossible to cover underneath and in the red zone. Really impressed with Beane's acumen in pursuing these guys. Worked out well for them too needless to say.

Because of their backs and O-line Ravens have a good NFL calibre ground game without Lamar. With him and Roman they take it to another level and best in class. Being himself a great runner he makes the other parts of it that much better. The Ravens O is not unidimensional but their passing game largely (and I would say disproportionately) leverages off the ground game. At the end of the day, great as it is, it is not really a balanced and properly diversified attack. All the pre-draft scuttlebutt about Lamar not being able to throw was nonsense. His arm strength is good but not great. Some question his accuracy but I don't. His ball placement looks pretty good to me. Having said that I see no evidence of him being able to make all the throws and while of course he may improve my sense of it is that there is probably not a lot of upside there otherwise we would have seen more of it by now. In fact we have seen none of it IMO. So while it was wrong for people to call him a running back (or a wide receiver) at this level he is and is likely to remain a running quarterback. Lamar is great at what he does but he, and the Raven's O, is not likely to ever get any better and it is vulnerable because of its necessary dependence on the ground game (because Lamar is limited as a passer). DCs will eventually catch up and I agree with what other posters here have said about setting the edge, bringing pressure up the middle, maintaining gap responsibility and covering the middle of the field (and control time of possession if you can). Over time if Allen continues to progress at the rate he has he will be a more complete pro quarterback and with a few more playmakers the Bills offence will ultimately be harder to defend. Much as I like Lamar I would not today trade Allen for the league's likely MVP. As others have said we probably match up reasonably well with Baltimore. Not confidently predicting a win because they are at the peak of their game but it should be very interesting. Really eager to see how McD and Frazier deal with it. They are pretty good after all.

I agree. Shenault is probably the greatest playmaker in college football - period. And as you point out he's incredibly versatile. While true that he has missed playing time with nagging injuries it's nothing that puts his career in doubt and it explains why you may be able to land him in the second round when he is top ten material. As a second round pick he would be a colossal steal. Some observers actually speculate third but that's not happening IMO. Beane sometimes has a tendency for drafting the most spectacular athlete with the highest ceiling. Shenault fills the bill. Unlike Metcalf there is plenty of tape to back him up.