hondo in seattle

I think Bruce's record is as good as gone for a number of reasons. * Teams pass more than in the past. And I think teams will pass more in the future than they pass now. That gives defensive players more opportunities to get sacks. * Because passing is considered more exciting than running, I think the NFL will make more rules to open up the passing game - reinforcing my prior point. * Players are smarter about health and longevity than they were in Bruce's day. They're finding ways to play at a high level longer. * Reggie White career sack total is only two less than Bruce's. If Reggie can get 198 sacks back in the run-first days, someone else get get 200+ now. * Seasons are longer now.

Bills are #1 defense, #5 offense. Colts are #20 defense, #12 offense. Bills are +14 in give-aways/take-aways. Colts are solid but not as good as the Bills at +11. The Bills OL worries me but the overall statistical picture indicates the Bills are a much better team. I'll go Bills 30, Colts 20.

Shocking for us to see, but like TheBrownBear more or less says, she's not shocked at all.

Interesting but... We all knew RBs have shelf lives. I just never knew 1800 carries was the magic number. And I still don't. They only looked at backs from the past 15 years who had at least 2000 carries. That left them with a sample size of only 8. Not enough to draw firm conclusions. There are backs - like Shady - who never reached the 2000 carries mark to qualify for this study because they had fallen off their own cliffs long before.

Short NFL career. Started for the St. Louis Rams in 2013. Never played again after breaking his ankle as a Jet against the Bills in 2015. Retired supposedly to take care of his brother who has Down's Syndrome. Heartwarming if true. Clearly whatever good resides in the man, he has a monstrous side too.

I was 9 years in 1968, growing up in Cheektowaga, and just starting to develop an interest in football. No one in my family was a Bills fan so fandom for me was not automatic. The first pro game I saw was the Cleveland Browns (of the old NFL Century Division) against the Dallas Cowboys. Since the Browns were losing when I turned on the tv, I naturally rooted for them. They came back to win and for a while I was a devoted Browns fan. A friend down the street, though, was a big Raiders fan. For whatever reason, a lot of kids in the neighborhood were not Bills fans in those days. Anyway, my Raider friend was pissed by the Heidi Bowl and talked about it for hours the following day.

Agreed. And it's Beane's philosophy, too. For example, he used first round draft picks to get guys who help the passing game while using 3rd round picks on RBs. Most the offensive linemen he acquired are players who had better reps for pass pro than road grating. Our LBs are coverage guys - not Dick Butkus smash-you-in-the-mouth types. And so on. Under the circumstances, I'm not surprised our offensive running attack isn't better. I am surprised our rush D is as good as it is.

I agree with every point you make. But I do think you overstated your intro just a bit. We're #1 in yards and points allowed which is amazing. But #2 in pass yards allowed and #3 in rushing yards allowed. We're not really number 1 almost across the board but we are #1 in the most important metrics and high in others. It boggles the mind that a team that runs Nickel as much as we do can be #3 in rushing defense. I can only see using a 4-3 when facing a running team. And the Colts are a running team. When Taylor rushes for over 100 yards, they win. When he doesn't, they lose. That's been the trend. So it'll be interesting what Frazier dials up.

It's not like Motor has no skill but his good YPC stat is a result of running against defenses that are focused on the pass. Find a season where OJ ran for 5 YPC and look at the highlights. You'll see a guy juking and dodging and running thru the arm tackles of a defense that's hell-bent on just one thing: Stopping the Juice. If Singletary isn't a JAG, he's not much more.

Yeah, I remember those days. That argument is becoming obsolete. Nickel is the most common alignment in the NFL now, though there are variation of it. The Bills run it more than anybody. If I'm not mistaken, the 3-3 and the 3-4 (in that order) are the most common alignments. 4 man fronts are less common though Frazier, for one, loves the 4-2. Any good X-and-O guy out there who can break this down better with percentages?

I agree with all of this - especially the part about Fred being better. And I didn't appreciate Lynch's antics off the field or his hole move-to-Toronto thing. But I did greatly appreciate how hard he ran.

Boogie is a rookie getting limited playing time. I'm not sure how effectively any of us can evaluation him. My evaluation: He's not Bruce Smith. I don't know how good he might become but I'm confident in saying he'll never be Bruce-good.

I love the optimism. But it was very possible at one point to beat three consecutive one win teams (Fins, Jags, Jets) - but we didn't. A table-run would be awesome but, realistically, I'm not counting on it.

The NFL is a copycat league. Will more teams switch to the Nickel as their base after seeing the Bills success? Or are the Bills just blessed with unique talent that allows us to successfully utilize the Nickel against run & pass?

As I recall, we ran Nickel 91% of the time last year. Is that true again this year? I thought it was somewhat less, though still - by far - our preferred formation.

I noticed McD praised the game Daboll called against the Jets. I wondered if that meant McD wasn't happy with the game Daboll called the week before.

I think the OPs question was interesting because I hear it said on tv that the Bills employ the 4-3 as their base defense. Yet the OP suggests we try the 4-3. Why should we try 4-3 when we're already 4-3? Well, because we're actually a 4-2 defense as we all know. In the old days, the 4-2 would be called a "pass prevent" defense and it is good against the pass. An important consideration in a league where the pass is getting more and more important over the years - a trend that's likely to continue. With this lighter formation, we do seem to struggle against bigger backs. But, weirdly, the run D that McD and Frazier have created with this 4-2 is currently ranked as the 3rd best run defense in the league. Would the 4-3 provide greater blitz opportunities? Maybe. A 4-3 with a blitzing linebacker would mean, obviously, 5 guys going after the QB with 6 in coverage. But I think McD and Frazier prize coverage over pressure. They typically want 7 in coverage. And, given our rankings (#2 pass, #3 run, #1 overall), they're probably not eager to experiment with new/different ideas.

On the Breida/Moss thing... My guess is that McD and Daboll don't have a lot of confidence in the OL. While Breida is faster, he's not hard to bring down. He does best work in space and the Bills linemen don't create a lot of it. Moss is a more powerful runner who can sometimes get yardage even when the line-of-scrimmage is dirty and crowded.

The most important stat in football is W-L. In that stat, the Pats are only a half game behind us and that does make me a bit nervous. But comparing offensive production: The Bills are ranked #5 while the Pats are #15. We're significantly better on offense. On defense, we're #1 and they're #6. We give up about 54 yards/game less than them. Overall, they're a good team. We're better. But we need to prove this in our head-to-head matchups and on any given Sunday... The 4th down failure at Tennessee really sucks. But I think the focus should always be on winning the next game. That's it. Obviously players and coaches need to think this way. But even as a fan, that's how I tend to think. The Titans might go on a massive losing streak. The Pats may beat us and take over the AFCE lead. Who can predict the future in the full-of-surprises NFL? No one. So I enjoy the ride, one game at a time.

I'm not sure why you guys are beating up on Ethan. He's a fellow Bills fan, after all! He just wanted our opinion of Boogie. Bills Mafia - Brothers in Arms!

The OL will remain the weakest unit of the year - all the way until the Super Bowl ends and we're hoisting the Lombardi. What can you do? You can't sign new linemen. You can't hire a new OL coach. You can't suddenly overhaul the blocking schemes. You can hope (1) the OL gets healthy and we always have our best five on the field. (2) Daboll calls good games that make the OL look better - like he did yesterday. This offseason, though, Beane better attack the OL hard.

I wondered what Urban Meyer meant when he said we were a spread offense. Some football historians will argue that every offensive scheme in the NFL today is a variation of the spread offense. In it's simplest definition, a spread offense is one that spreads offensive players across the breadth of the field, with the intent of spreading the defense thin. It forces the defense to try defend all 53 yards of width and the entire length of the gridiron. That's it. A spread offense creates space and makes use of seams and/or advantageous match-ups. Every modern NFL team does this. But Meyer ran his own version of the Spread in college. Josh McDaniels spent a lot of time learning the Spread form Meyer and uses it with the Pats. Daboll learned it from McDaniels. So the Spread we run is a close relative of Meyer's spread.

It's hard for me to call this team "complete" when we can't run, can't block.

“You cannot lose sight of the core aspects of the game of football.” This quote is a little mysterious but I do not believe he was critiquing himself. I think he was bemoaning the lack of push by the offensive line. I believe McDermott understands that finesse is great but football is ultimately a physical game and you have to be able to impose your will on your opponent. The Bills didn't do that in the 4th and 1 at Tennessee. And failed all game against the Jags. I'm not sure how, at this point in the season, you make your OL more physical. He promises adjustments are coming. We'll see. Clearly in the offseason, we need to sign/draft different players.

When the starters are bad, the backups are usually even worse. Any injury to the starting five scares me. Finger crossed, we'll get a pleasant surprise.