hondo in seattle

I'm jealous! As a guy who hasn't been to a home game since 1974 - and clearly an expert - here's what I do: * Go to Hammer's Lot to see all the Pinto Ron and other shenanigans. * As long as your in Buffalo, get the true Buffalo culinary experience. Eat wings at the Anchor Bar (even if Duffs are better); sample a Beef on Weck at Charlie the Butcher; and try some good Buffalo Pizza (pizza aficionados rank Buffalo's pizza up there with NY & Chicago and miles ahead of LA). If you like sponge candy, go to Parkside Candy near UB - a beautiful, dilapidated relic of great Buffalo architecture with a wonderful selection of chocolate. * I personally stop at the gift shop at New Era Field to gear up whenever I'm in Buffalo. Hoping we win for your first home game. Have fun!

I doubt he's wasted his time on suspension. I'd guess he's in great shape and has a fair understanding of the D already - though 6 weeks of no practice/contact does hurt. But I agree that he's bound for the PS at best. He's a marginally talented UDFA rook coming off a suspension - hard to see him making the 53.

The title of article - combined with the focus on Milano & Edwards - implies the two LBs are THE reason the Bills D excels. Obviously the real situation is more complicated. The Bills have talent at all three levels: DL, LB, and secondary. And one thing I really enjoy is listening to opposing coaches talking about how fundamentally strong this D is and how it doesn't make mistakes. McD, Frazier and the entire defensive coaching staff are doing a nice job. Thanks for sharing, 17. I thought it was an interesting article.

Curiously, despite all their concerns about his character, effort and speed, NFL.com rated Duke (5.25) only slightly lower than Zay (5.71) out of college. Listening to Duke talk - and his teammates talk about him - it does indeed seem like he's turned his life around.

Good post. When I watched this live, I thought it was a good play call by Daboll and a good throw by Josh. I didn't give Duke much credit - but it actually was a nice route.

49 out of 50 voters thus far have put the Bills in the Top 6. Who's the one traitor??? Here's what I think is interesting. The Bills are pretty much who we - the wildly intelligent fans of Buffalo - thought they would be. The D was very good last year and it is very good again this year as we expected. With massive changes to the lineup, the O is improved but still not elite. Josh Allen has taken some steps forward in his 2nd year but is still not Jim Kelly. Despite this season unfolding more-or-less the way an informed fan would expect it to unfold, the Bills are shooting up the national power rankings. In fact, the Bills are not getting better as the season progresses - the national media folks are simply catching up to the new reality. At the beginning of the 2019 campaign - when they were placing the Bills in the bottom 5 or 10 - they were wrong about the Bills. As we all knew.

The author - Curtis Rush - used to cover the Bills for the Toronto Star. Is it possible he knows something about Duke's 40 time that we don't know? At his pro day (not combine), Duke ran between 4.66 and 4.69. Maybe I'm wrong but he doesn't seem that slow. Then again he doesn't seem to be 4.3 fast either. Incidentally, I found this in a 2016 draft report: SOURCES TELL US "I can tell you that he burned all of his bridges over there (Auburn). He's a selfish, me­-first guy and I don't think he's trustworthy in the locker room at all. He didn't compete at all this year. I wouldn't draft him in any round." -- NFC Director of Personnel http://www.nfl.com/draft/2016/profiles/dhaquille-williams?id=2555210

I probably cheered as wildly on the clock-kill drive as on the winning-TD drive. Maybe more. I think it confused my wife who - being from the Philippines - doesn't yet understand all the nuances of American football. We had a banged-up, no-name line out there and we shoved the ball down their throats to seal the victory. I was surprised, impressed, and wonderfully happy all at the same time.

I guess the key doesn't work.

* Chunk plays. * Open targets. Either the WRs can't get separation or Daboll isn't designing/calling the right plays. * Ball security/decision making. Too many dumb picks by Allen. * Passpro. Not consistent enough. * Holes for backs. Not consistent enough.

I'm not surprised that Allen's better with medium passes. We have better wideouts this season and Allen's been working hard on this. I'm not completely surprised with the turnovers. I expected more growing pains. I am surprised with the anemic deep game. The Bills have guys who can run and Allen has a cannon for an arm. I expected more accuracy and productivity than what we've seen so far. I admit, I'm worried.

I thought passpro was poor in the Pats game - though the Pats blitzed a lot and I'm not sure how Next Gen Stats graded out the five offensive linemen in those situations. Someone else may be assigned the blame when the D blitzes. I think passpro has been average-ish thus far this season. And I'm happy with the progress versus 2018.

1990. I witnessed some of the wins leading up to our first SB experience didn't suffer the pain of watching that SB - I was deployed in Saudi for Operation Desert Storm. Great to watch the Bills offense that season move the ball almost at will. 1973. I loved watching OJ play. His skill was preternatural. Going to a Bills game was like visiting the Sistine Chapel - you would gape in awe - except that Bills games were a lot more exciting of course! 1989. A fun team: Jerry Butler, Joe Cribs, the "Bermuda Triangle"... Breaking the Fin Streak gave me a sense that good times were coming. 1991. Another great offense and SB run. 1975. Another great year by OJ as the Bills led the league in scoring, producing 30 points per game (which was awesome in that era).

deja vu all over again

My musical tastes are pretty eclectic: from Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix & Buddy Guy to Kitaro, Ricky Lee Jones and Les Mis (10th Anniversary). But I've never intentionally listened to a Shakira or JLo song in my life. That said, I think these are fine choices for the SB. Neither is a big enough headliner anymore to be center stage at the biggest party in the world, but together they make a formidable act. I personally don't watch the halftime show for the quality of the music. It's more for the spectacle of it all. Halftime shows tend to be a good family bonding moment. Not everyone in my family likes football, but we all watch the halftime show and talk about it afterwards.

A... so far. The Bills are 3-0. The offense and defense both look well-coached and prepared. They play hard. They play together. McD isn't a genetic scientist so I don't blame him when the talent on the other side is greater than - and outperforms - the talent on our side. So far he seems to be getting about the most you can get from this particular roster.

Lee Smith is a solid blocker and a great mentor to the younger players. Definitely a process guy. He's just not a productive pass catcher. I'm glad he's on the team but we need a TE that creates problems for defenses.

Beating the Pats is a monumental task. Their O is good. Their D is good. They've owned us. To win this game will take more than a good game plan. It will require some Bills players to play better than they've played this season so far. And it will require some execution errors from the Pats. But here are my general thoughts... Offense. We've got to force the excellent NE defense to defend the entire field. We have to take take shots deep shots. We've got to throw crossing routes over the middle and take shots at the perimeter shots. We need Gore going up the middle and Motor running outside. We have the potential to run a multifaceted offense and need to live up to that potential on Sunday. A one-dimensional offense won't score enough to keep pace with a Pats team averaging 35 points per game. Allen and company need to bring their 'A' game. Defense. Brady may be the GOAT. It's hard to pressure him because he gets the ball out so quick - 2.45 seconds on average - but if you don't pressure him, he'll pick you apart. 2.45 seconds isn't long enough for an offensive linemen to beat his man so we've got to attack Brady with exotic blitzes. We've got to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Brady - but not on every play. We've got to blitz enough to get him nervous but we can't continually give him the opportunities downfield that comes with blitzing. Our blitzes need to be smart and aggressive - so he thinks about them every play even if they only happen 1 play in 3.

The Bills Bills D sometimes looks dominant and our offense has played efficiently at times. If we put it all together - and the Pats make some mistakes - we'll win. While I have hope, I think Jauronimo is crazy.

Buffalo's Dominant Defense CATEGORY STAT RANK Drives/Gm 11.8 29th Avg Starting FP 69.4 31st Pts/Drive 1.51 3rd Yds/Drive 24.8 1st TD% 17.1% 3rd TO% 16.1% T-2nd Score% 28.1% 3rd Three-and-Out% 36.2% 1st There isn't one stat that defines a defense. But the defensive stat I've always thought best measures defensive success is yards/drive. And we're ranked #1 there. That's exciting.

I wonder if Daboll and McD were a little gun shy because we turned the ball over 4 times against the Jets on relatively low risk plays. With a solid lead and confidence in the D, they may have decided to be conservative in their risk-reward analysis.

Personally, I don't think we need to start a new thread every time a national media guy has something good or bad to say about the Bills. Maybe others think differently. But I only want to see new threads based on national media if they offer something new and/or insightful. As Virg said, this is "basic generalist BS" - and thus doesn't interest me. The Bills will have detractors until they start beating quality teams with some consistency. Who cares? The Bills have had a good D since last year. It remains to be seen if the O is any good. As a fan who has watched this team closely, I'm encouraged by the signs of progress. Allen looks better. The OL looks better. The receiving corps looks better. Singletary might be good. But, although I'm more optimistic than he is, Middlehurst-Schwartz is correct when he observes that the sample size is still small. All we can do is keeping watching games, hope for the best, and cheer our team on!

I don't really care. Several media guys had us in the mid-twenties. Now they're moving us up - acknowledging they were wrong. Most of the guys who do power rankings don't truly study all 32 teams.

I'm pretty ambivalent because I don't like either epithet. "12th Man" isn't original. "Mafia" has negative associations. But since the "12th Man" moniker isn't used anymore and Bills fans are widely called the "Bills Mafia" now, I get BB's point.