hondo in seattle

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.

Like every NFL roster, our has its shortcomings. The one that disappoints me the most is OL. These guys don't protect our QB well-enough and struggle to open holes in the running game (the recent success against Cleveland not withstanding). But we'd probably be 9-1 if not for injuries - most of our star defenders have missed significant time. We'd probably be 10-0 if not for the Miami heat. If everyone suddenly got healthy, I'd like our chances for a SB run.

Agreed. Not cool in the summer, not warm in the winter, not ever comfortable. And they do get stuck. Once in Korea, my driver and I were driving a narrow dirt road that was bordered by a 4-5 foot drop. I told my driver he was too close to the edge, but he insisted he was fine. I said him, "Okay. But if we fall off the edge, you have to get someone to two us back up." Sure enough, the side of the road crumbled and we ended up stuck with two wheels over the edge. Another time in the Arabian Desert, a different driver was swearing that it was virtually impossible to get stuck in a Humvee. Based on my experience in Korea and elsewhere, I disagreed. But he was persistent, confident that his driving skill combined with the capabilities of the Humvee made it impossible for us to get stuck. I let him drive over a big sand berm, built as a defense wall, to prove his point. Only it didn't. We ended straddling the berm with four wheels dangling in the air. Stuck. It is hard to get a Humvee stuck, but possible. Maybe the Bills need to provide players with snowmobiles? Or put Squirrel on the payroll and give him the addresses of all the players and staff?

I’m not either. But imagine this squad if everyone was healthy!