hondo in seattle

QBR is an imperfect metric. An informed observer - like most of us - can evaluate a QBs performance than any existing metric. Josh wasn't good in the 4th quarter and did not play at his potential yesterday. As talented as the Bills are on offense and as banged up as the Packers were on defense, I expected a better show from Dorsey, Allen and company.

I don't notice what other fans are saying. I only care if the Bills are winning.

Worst year ever in the NFL for overall quality of play... 1920. Those guys looked like rank amateurs! There's bound to be some ups and downs but overall quality is generally improving over the decades with better schemes, physical training, understanding of performance science, etc. I think the evolution of the game is interesting. It used to be the best athletes became RBs. Now the best athletes become WRs and DBs. LBs used be thumping fireplugs - now they need excellent coverage skills. QBs could be unathletic as long as they had poise and could throw the ball. Athletic QBs who can both throw and run - like Allen and Mahomes - are now becoming the prototype. FB quality sucks right now because it's a position that's no longer valued. The quality of position groups - and how it's defined - varies as the game evolves. As for overall quality, I'm not disappointed in this season at all. The Bills are playing well and that's pretty much all that matters to me.

I did 7 years active duty including a fun field trip to Iraq. You more-or-less quadrupled me. Thank you for your service and hope you have a great time. I haven't been at a home Bills game since the Bills Monday Night upset of the Raiders where OJ got hurt. I envy you. My Filipina wife, who has heard so many stories about the Bills Mafia and our tailgating traditions, is wondering when I'm going to take her.

This is good advice. If you watch some Youtube videos, I'm sure you'll be able to see the technique. But a warning: not all QB grips the ball exactly the same way. Every human hand is a bit different and some QBs have their own personal preferences. How many fingertips you have on the strings and how far your fingers overlap the strings may be somewhat different from whatever vid you watch. Like BringBackFergy, I used to only have 2 fingers on the laces. Malcolm Gladwell says you can master any task with 10,000 hours of practice. Get busy and good luck!

Any team would love to have a true 3-down back who excels at running, pass pro, and receiving. The only question is how much are you willing to pay? We already have a high-price QB, high-price WR, and high-price DE. I'm pleased to know Beane is not willing to overpay for a RB.

Somewhere I read adding a few more seats added a disproportionate amount to the total cost. Ralph/Terry/Erie County is cheap

As a kid, I had a fever like that. One of the blankets laying on me had tassels. I was sure the tassels were maggots and they were squirming around. I held my breath to make sure it wasn't me making them move but they kept squirming. Anyway, I appreciated the utter defeatism of this Packer fan/comedian.

I can't feel sorry for them. They were the highest scoring team in the league that year and finished undefeated (11-0-1). The only blemish on their near-perfect record was a tie against us (Buffalo All-Americans) that they 'earned' on a disputed last-second field goal. Screw them!

We signed DQJ for two years but for how much?

DaQuan was a great signing. Tim Settle, on the other hand, is in the wrong quadrant of this chart.

Not my kind of music but cool people are singing about us.

I want Dorsey to have a burning passion to win. But his breakdown was childish.

So easy that 31 highly knowledgeable GMs fail every year

This was a good analysis but entirely focused on the good stuff. But the run game Thursday was a mixed bag. Why no analysis of the plays that didn’t work? The video felt a little like a Bills PR production - all optimistic and laudatory- without any balance.

51-3

I think it’s weird to call Edmunds a MLB even if that’s his official position. The Bills typically only play 2 LBs so neither is in the middle. And Edmunds doesn’t play the old run-plugging, halfback-destroying Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus MLB role. Edmunds is not as physical but he’s more agile and better in coverage.

Maybe 300 yards is the wrong threshold for passing. I wonder what the win percentage is for teams with 320 yards passing? 350 yards passing?

I hope the new stadium minimizes wind and maximizes crowd noise - the way Seattle’s stadium does.

The refs do offseason training and certain rules get emphasized. I think that will influence the flags far more than any hype about either of the two teams.

Listening to player interviews, I think they're handing the expectations well: focus on the grind, one game at a time, etc. I worry more about other things: our cornerback situation while Tre is out, the development of Boogie and Groot, the depth on our offensive line, will even the starting OL be good enough? The Lombardi isn't being handed to us. I expect challenges we'll need to meet.

When I first saw the poll, I thought the results would be 100% for the Bills. Then I remembered there are always people like wjag who feel compelled to escape from the herd.

OJ, the man, is an evil monster. But OJ the running back: poetry in motion. He played back in day when defenses were designed to stop the run, DE's were tackling edge-setters, linebackers were killing machines, and the very best athletes became halfbacks anyway. And OJ was the best of them all. The youngsters here may not remember that at USC, OJ was part of the relay team that set a 4x110 world record. OJ was fast and, as far as I know, he's the only Bill to own a world mark for non-football athletics. But as good as a track athlete as he was, with his size, agility, strength and insane elusiveness, OJ was born to be a running back. While backs like Cookie ran over people and backs like Barry jitterbugged his way away from people, OJ drew graceful curves in the gridiron that left defenders impotently grasping at the demigod that just blew by. He had tremendous vision and a remarkable innate understanding of geometry that allowed to see opportunities before they even developed. In the 1970s, thousand-yard seasons were the benchmark for greatness. The season, of course, was only 14 games long back then. And it was hard to average 71 yards/game when stopping the bell cow back was typically Job Number One. Still, in 1973, both John Brockington and Calvin Hill managed to rush for 1140 yards or so. Given the defensive schemes and priorities of the time, it was a great accomplishment. Yet OJ ran for over 2,000 yards - 75% more than the nearest competitor. When has any other Bill produced 75% more yards, sacks, receptions, TD, INTs, or any other meaningful stat than his nearest competitor? OJ, in his prime, was beyond comparison, beyond words.

I know wealthy people who are wealthy because their parents' money bought them business opportunities that the rest of us don't have. Nice to see Jessica succeeding on her own. Seems like a good young lady.

I'm struggling with my Top Five. But I'd put OJ #1. I think it's crazy that some RB rankings have him #8 or #13 or some other lowly grade. Either the author focused on career stats or took away points for OJ being evil. But in his prime, he was other-worldly. Bruce would be my #2. After that things get murky. But I do believe Josh is scary good. Brady's presnap reads are uncanny and he throws the ball amazing consistency. But Allen makes plays with both his legs and his arm that make you think, "Wow!"