hondo in seattle

When Knox is in motion but stops in the middle of the line and puts his hands under the center, it's a sneak.

I'm conflicted. After playing poorly for a while - starting in the 2nd half of the Packers game - Josh seems to be trending upwards. I feel like - finally with some decent rest - he'll return to form. On the other hand, he's not going to have QB-friendly weather the Jets have the 4th ranked pass defense in the NFL. The logic, rational part of me says this isn't the week. But my gut tells me the same thing the OP's gut tells him - 300+ yards with multiple TDs.

I visited Miami back in the Kelly years when we had to play the Fins in the playoffs at Joe Robbie Stadium. The local newscast had a story about the tens of thousands of Bills fans (like me) in South Florida for the game. But they explained it away by pointing out how much better Miami was than Buffalo, showing clips of snowy, gray Buffalo City Hall contrasted to the bright, sunny beaches of South Miami. Of course, Buffalonians were showing up in Florida, the narrative went on - who wouldn't want to escape frigid, dreary Buffalo. Miami media taking shots at Buffalo is nothing new.

Yes, it's McD's defense. And on one hand, any schematic contribution Frazier was going to make to this D, he's probably already made. McD has learned everything he could learn from Frazier. It might be interesting/beneficial to hire a new DC who will bring fresh ideas. On the other hand, it might be mostly McD's defense, but Frazier runs it on a daily basis. He supervises the film study, the position group meetings, the scheme sessions, the walk-thrus and so on. And he makes the calls on gameday. By and large, by all accounts, he does those tasks well. He's been a good right-hand man to McD. For his sake, I hope he gets a chance to be a HC again. But I'm not sure that's the best scenario for our sake.

Defense really hard hit this season. All our best players missing time. Hopefully we’ll be mostly healthy for the playoffs.

As an old-timer, Hamlin's hit looked like a good, praise-worthy football play to me. It's a violent game and Hamlin did his job: separate the receiver from the football. But with so many players suffering lingering injuries (CTE, etc), the league had to pass rules protecting the players. I have mixed feelings about this one.

As a TV-watching fan, I didn't notice him a lot. He wasn't making the noticeable mistakes of, say, Dane Jackson. But I wasn't seeing any big, positive plays either. So I was wondering what other, more observant, fans thought. Our secondary was supposed to be a strength with Poyer, Hyde and White as stars with Jackson and Elam competently rounding out the quintet. But the stars have been hurt and Jackon has been disappointing in a bigger role. (And Elam's been benched?) I hope Rhodes can solidify things a bit.

He logged 47 snaps yesterday? How did he do?

I get the rule. I don't like it. He had two feet inbounds. And he caught the ball - he never dropped it. That should be a pick. Back in the 1920s when football was raw, that would have been a pick. And it would have still been ruled a pick just a few years ago. But the technocrats have overwhelmed the rule book with head-scratching details and subjective ideas like maintaining possession and securing the ball.

I didn't like his opinionated takes on many subjects. I thought his view on Covid was selfish and put the team at risk. But good teams are made of guys with differing views who choose to see past the differences and agree on one main thing: working together to win. If he can still contribute - don't know what kind of shape he's in - and the team captains want him back, I'm all in.

Von vouches for him. I think he knows the kid's character better than we do.

I'm not much of a college ball fan, but I am a Purdue alum. Not expecting a dub but miracles happen.

Get a 22 year old clone of Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida to huskily whisper it in our ears…

My guess has been that the elbow first became sore in the second half of the Packers game... Twinges of pain that effect some throws but not others.

I'm still a Jackson & Benford fan just because I'm a Bills fan. But I've spent a lot time cursing both those guys - especially Dane - during the course of the season. Neither has been good. Although not as good an athlete, Jackson reminds me a bit of Leodis McKelvin. Even when he has good position, he fails to stop the receiver from catching the ball. Too often though, unlike McKelvin, Jackson doesn't have good position. I was surprised we entered the season with him as our #2 CB (I was hoping for a FA signing) and totally dismayed when he became the #1 with Tre's prolonged absence. Hopefully, with Tre coming back, we won't see Dane lining up against the other team's #1 wideout.

Go back and watch our losses. Most of the big plays that resulted in scores, or keeping scoring drives alive, involved our backups. It's not like our starters are perfect, but too often our backups are unable to disengage blocks, make tackles, and/or plays on the ball.

Game management is a small - though important - part of a head coach's responsibility. Think about all the offseason-training and in-season preparation. The coaches have to put that together. How much time do you spend on the field? What drills do you run? How much time in the filmroom? How do you break down film with the players? How does the HC lead and develop his coordinators? How do the coordinators lead their position coaches? How do you game plan for an opponent? Yeah, McD screwed up 13 seconds. Hard to understand what went wrong there but it is notable that our ST coordinator lost his job. Accountability. As for Cam, did you hear his interview? He absolutely knew he was supposed to knock it down. He just didn't do it. Even good coaches have players who unaccountably screw up from time to time. I tend to believe McD is an average to above-average X-and-O game tactician.

When he threw 5 INTs in a half with the Bills, I thought his career was over. Yet he lingered on. When the Bills finally released him after he achieved a 2-year passer rating of 32.6, I thought his career was over. Yet he lingered on. Not to get political, but how does this guy have a job and Kaep doesn't?

The current level of play is concerning: we've lost 2 of the past 4. The O is off. The D is off. But we're 8-3 despite dealing with injuries to several key players. If we get healthy before the playoffs, we'll make a run.

Total games missed by players is a pretty meaningless way to look at injuries. If your mediocre guard is injured and replaced by another mediocre guard, it's not a big deal. We've been missing guys like Poyer, Hyde, Milano, and White whose replacements aren't nearly as talented. Our backups haven't played horribly all around but they have come up short in critical moments and cost us games. Josh hasn't missed any games yet - so is not part of the fancy chart - but his injury has clearly hurt the team.

If Josh started to feel his UCL bothering him in the Packers game, why would he mention it? QBs often hide injuries as best they can so opponents don't take advantage of them.

Josh's UCL problems date back to his rookie year. I think maybe, contrary to the popular narrative, his UCL started bothering him again in the Pack game.

It would be an extremely beautiful thing if the Bills D was fully healthy for the playoffs. Extremely beautiful and extremely unlikely. One can hope.

Coaches, as well as players, have good as well as bad games. Since Frazier's been here, we've had far more good than bad. Given all the hospital time, bandages and pain shots the D has been through this year, Frazier is doing pretty well.

We've been missing some very talented players. The backups seem capable much of the time but fall painfully short in big moments.