hondo in seattle

I agree. Dennison is early in his tenure with the Bills so I hope he can adjust some things and get things going. But "hope" and "expect" are two very different words. When I talked about Rico making adjustments, #1 was top of mind.

No games this weekend. Too many other good ways to spend my time - with family, personal projects, etc.

I hope you're right but unfortunately I think more like Cookie. Tyrod may get better as a passer but he'll never develop Brady/Brees type skills. But Tyrod can run. And when we integrated him into the run game like we did last year, Shady was more effective and - more importantly - we scored points. When Lynn was calling plays and Tyrod was under center, we averaged something like 26 points per game last season. If we averaged 26 points per game with this defense, we'd win enough games to get into the playoffs.

That's the thing. Teams tried to stop the run last year and failed. This year teams try to stop the run and succeed. Tyrod is clearly not a great passer. But he is a great runner. So Roman designed an attack that forced defenses to attempt to contain both Shady's and Tyrod's running. That Roman/Lynn offense - even with a flawed Tyrod at QB - scored a lot of points. This offense - with the same QB - is impotent. A couple moments later: "This is an offense that's now built around the strengths of their QB and their RB." May be so. But it's not effectively built around the strength of it's players. I don't care how much Rico adjusts if he can't get the offense to put points on the board - something Rex/Lynn could do.

Yikes, BADOL, so many unfounded assumptions here. McD is alienating Glenn and Miller? McD is blind to the struggles of Zay Jones? McD is letting his ego interfere with sound judgment? McD is only 5 games into his tenure. Give him a chance.

I really hope Dennison uses the bye week to look at game tape of the 2016 run game and install some of the concepts.

Peterman didn't look like a starting QB to me in preseason. I'm not sure how he's developed since then. For all we know, he's regressed. We just don't know. I'm of the opinion, we just have to trust the coaches on this one. If they see Peterman is outperforming Tyrod in practice, they'll consider a change. How can things be worse? Did anyone watch EJ play the other day? We'd be 1-4 or maybe 0-5 with that kind of QB performance. Tyrod may not have made a lot of beautiful plays with his arms in our wins but he did make some great plays with his legs. Things can indeed be worse.

From what I've heard, Roman has some leadership/interpersonal shortcomings that tend to get him into trouble. But maybe you bring him back as the run-game coordinator. He clearly has a genius for run schemes and the Shady-Taylor-MG running machine last season was magical.

While I think changing OCs in mid-season would probably be a mistake, I sympathize with the sentiment. What Dennison has done to our running attack is criminal.

I've heard GMs say it takes about 3 years to build a roster. I don't know what you want from a GM who hasn't even run his first draft yet.

This was my thought watching my game. It's been my fear all year. Tyrod hasn't been great this season but he's not the weakest link. From my seat, Rico is the first person who needs to be upgraded. Maybe Rico just needs more time to get his scheme going. I don't know. But so far, he looks like the Rex of the Bills offense. He took a great running game and made it bad just like Rex took a great defense and made it bad.

30 Days in the Hole

Nice homework - good info. I haven't been especially pleased with the offense thus far except for the obvious (and it's a big exception): it's been good enough to earn us wins in 3 out of 4 games. Rico's only 4 games into his tenure with us and - as you've mentioned - we've faced some good defenses. I'm willing to give both Dennison and Tyrod some time to see where they can take us before I scream out "Success!" or "Failure!"

This is another example of the divisiveness that pulls America apart. Why throw stones with words like "psychopathy" and "narcissism"? Why look for ways to divide us by seeing Bills fans as either Tyrod-lovers or Tyrod-haters? However we evaluate Tyrod's skill set, we're all Bills-lovers and the Bills are 3-1 at the quarter mark. Why not enjoy the good start and find ways to reinforce our Bills fraternity? We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...

You say "every player" as if everyone who ever suited up did so for the very same motivations. That's far from true. Some players are more team-orientated and others are more me-oriented. Sammy admits he was toward the wrong end that continuum. A lot of us suspected as much when Beane and McD quickly sent him packing. Teams typically perform better - all other things being equal - when the players are selflessly team-oriented - so Sammy had to go. I'm glad, though, that Sammy acknowledges the problem - hopefully he can now correct it.

This is my thought when anyone mentions a non-mobile QB. If I could pick three instead of one, Jordan Mills would be sent to the bench by someone.

I'm think I'm more in agreement with you than I let on. Since Bledsoe had a good first half of a season many years ago, we've had some awful quarterbacking. I know a lot of guys want us to draft a QB in the 1st round next year. I wouldn't be disappointed if we don't. TT isn't a Brady or a Brees but he is a capable all-around QB and I think we can get to the playoffs with him under center if the supporting staff is strong enough. I'm okay with Tyrod being our guy-under-center for the next few years. Though I'd be thrilled if he was beat out by the next Brady/Brees.

I don't know if there's any Buffalo-bashing going on here. Even Richie seems to like Buffalo well enough. As we all know, Jim Kelly hated the idea of living in Buffalo. Then chose to live there when his career was over. Buffalo clearly offers something that people value. I think it's pretty clear that there are other places with more things to do, better restaurants, more museums, glitzier clubs, etc. But none of that quantifies quality of life. It depends on what you value. Fortunately, not all football players want the bright lights of the big city.

I remember when passer ratings over 100 were considered godly. They're still pretty damn impressive. And then there are those "jaw-dropping throws" which are often throws out of jaw-dropping scrambles. He does some things few other QBs can do. I like TT's performance thus far. However, I think a valid question remains unanswered. If the defense has a bad day and Dennison running attack can't get untracked again, will Tyrod pass us to victory? There's no need for TT to throw for 300 yards every week. But can he throw for 300 if we need him to? (I'm not knocking Tyrod, only asking).

I don't always read Rodak but my sense is that he was pretty uninformed about the Bills when he first got this gig but he's been working hard to catch up.

I'm guessing you're not old enough to remember Gary Marangi, Joe Dufek, Brian McClure or the great Dan Manucci. All started at least one game for the Bills (maybe that doesn't qualify as significant play time?). All were much worse. Let's not forget Dennis Shaw who started for us for three years, barely completed half his passes and threw nearly twice as many picks at TDs. C'mon man. EJ wasn't good here, but the Buffalo Bills - and the NFL in general - have put a lot of really untalented guys under center over the years. I like the kid and hope he does better in Oakland than he did with us.

Spend a week in San Francisco. Go to a couple of the Michelin starred restaurants - the greater Bay Area has 50+. Then head to Chinatown for authentic Chinese food. Then over to Japantown for some real Japanese food or North Beach for some awesome Italian flavors. Drive down Geary Street and pick a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant at random - there's probably 40 different ethnic cuisines just on that one street. Then ride over to the Mission District for some authentic and delicious Latin flavors. And after all that, tell me that Buffalo's cuisine's second to none. Buffalo is a great place to live populated by wonderful people. But let's be real.

Excellent post and I concur! Thanks to SDS and all who help make this site an enjoyable place to share our fandom!

I'm certainly glad WNY is on the upswing. But when Richie says there's 'nothing to do here' I think he means it in a comparative - not literal - way. My family and I were last in Buffalo in 2014 and we used Yelp, TripAdvisor, the advice of family/friends, and my own knowledge of the area to create a itinerary. And we had a great time. But we didn't find as many good places to visit, or as many good restaurant choices, as we have in some other American cities. As a native Buffalonian, I love Buffalo. But if I had out-of-country friends asking what 5 or 10 American cities they should visit, I wouldn't put it on the list. From what I saw a couple years ago, the food scene, in particular, really lags what's happening in the bigger east and west coast cities. It's going to take a while for Buffalo to catch up.

Yeah. I'm impressed by the progress.