hondo in seattle

This was the Mary Celeste. The whole crew/team disappeared without a trace.

I agree it's still the coaching. Coaching is largely why we won the first three games. Coaching is largely why we lost to the Ravens. I was at Arrowhead a couple of years ago when we crushed the Chiefs 38-20. That game didn't prove that McDermott was a genius nor that Reid was unfit to be a HC. It didn't prove anything at all. Neither did this game - though the performance, all around, does have me concerned.

Miller had 9 snaps. He's more of a third-down pass rushing specialist than a physical run stuffer. I think the Bills were rightly more worried about Henry's running than Lamar's passing. In any case, we didn't force the Ravens into many third down passing situations, Von's speciality. I probably wished Miller had played more just to see what could contribute. Nothing else was working.

Then again, if Coleman doesn't drop that ball, we're probably back to 10. Still a horrible performance by the OC and the entire offensive squad.

I know Levy loved this quote and I can see why. But here's the story. Sir Andrew Barton was a Scottish privateer and pirate. He didn't bleed for a while and then rise again as he promised. He bled for a while and then died of his wounds. Afterwards his enemies beheaded him for good measure. When you evoke Sir Barton, I'm afraid it spells doom for the Bills.

I stupidly changed my routine which had been to wear my 17 jersey and eat wings during the game. We were undefeated this season with that simple combo. I was worried about the Ravens so to add some extra juju, yesterday I also wore my Bills socks, Billz zubaz sweatpants, and my "Just One Before I Die" sweatshirt despite the warm temps here. There was something wrong in the magical alchemy of that combination. Or maybe the Gridiron Gods were displeased that I overcompensated for my lack of confidence. Next week: Josh Allen Jersey and Buffalo Wings. Nothing more. As McDermott says during every halftime interview: it's about the execution of the fundamentals.

I don't agree with the positive assessment of Coleman's performance. And btw I wasn't against the Coleman pick. But that drop was huge and inexcusable. This is a guy who's not a great separator but supposedly makes up for it with his catch radius and ability to make contested catches. He didn't make a comparatively easy catch that could have made a big difference. Great players make game-changing plays. He potentially had the chance to make one and literally dropped the ball. Disappointing. I hope he has better days ahead of him.

I've read articles, and listened to guru interviews, saying the Bills OL is elite, the receivers form a legit complementary team, our RB room is strong, our DL is strong, our backup LBs are playing exceptionally well for backups, our outside CB pair are among the best, our safeties are doing a credible Hyde & Poyer imitation, Brady is brilliant as is our defensive coaching staff, Von is on fire, and Josh is the leading MVP candidate. I was starting to believe some of that myself. But after last night's performance, I don't know what to believe. If memory serves, we have lost this bad since 2020. Pass O, Run O, Pass D, Run D, ST... all phases of the game were a failure.

As well as the missed tackles. And missed assignments. But the missed FG didn't matter in end.

Sadly, this reminds me of the 1990s Bills - best team of their era not to win a Super Bowl. In a sport that has an element of luck and no best of 3, 5, or 7 series, it's a shame that good teams that don't win the Lombardi also win no respect. But that's the reality. When we do win the trophy, I won't care if we 'earned' it or not by decisively 'proving' we're the best team in the NFL. I just want to win a SB.

That's an interesting stat I've never seen before. It could mean two things: 1. Jacob Gibbs is right and LeFleur is really good at designing plays that get the primary open. 2. Willis has been coached hard to get the ball out on schedule to the guy he's supposed to get it to. Or maybe a litte of both.

Yeah. I like Cook a lot and think he's a great weapon. But that drop last week should have been a TD. That was not the kind of catch that ought to challenge a NFL RB. In the end it didn't matter. We scored on that drive anyway and the game ended in a rout. But how do we feel when he drops a ball like that and it makes the difference between winning and losing? I appreciate everything Cook does for the Bills, acknowledge his skills, and am aware that his catch percentage last year was actually pretty good - but his hands still worry me.

In battle planning in the army, we used to wargame best case, worst case, and most likely scenarios. I agree with finn that the worst case scenario is not the most likely scenario. It sounds nice: Bottle up the run game and let the passing rush dogs loose. But that plan didn't result in victories in either of the Raven's first two games and won't against the Bills. Their pass D is giving up 300+ yards per game and 8.1 yards per attempt.

I agree with the bolded for the most part. They have John Harbaugh for a coach and King Henry and Lamar in the backfield. But what happens if we get up double digits in the second half?

Offense: Dalton Kincaid Defense: DaQuan Jones The Ravens run D is stout. I'll be shocked if Cook ends up being the offensive impact player. Kincaid seems overdue and I'm not impressed with the Ravens pass D. Defense is a tough guess. I was tempted to go with one of the LBs. If we win, it'll probably be because one of the run stuffers stepped up and gives King Henry problems. DQ is my guess.

I didn't watch the whole video but the kid who covers the Ravens is pretty knowledgeable about the Bills for a non-local young man who specializes in covering one team.

Steve seemed a little restrained. Not a lot of personality. Still cool to see them building the stadium.

I've never seen this chart before and want to make sure I'm reading this right... Josh's EPA was adjusted downwards because his receivers aren't dropping balls but are getting Yards After the Catch? This seems weird to me because one of the reasons they're not dropping balls is because he's throwing eminently catchable passes. And YAC is happening partly because he's hitting guys in stride. Just think of Monday night. A couple of the TDs wouldn't have been TDs if Josh had made the receiver slow down for the ball. I think they're trying not to give the QB credit for the good work of his receivers. But he deserves some of that credit. I also think it's weird that DPI is a modifier. I probably like "Actual EPA" more than "Adjusted EPA."

538 used to do ELO ratings and make predictions off of those - but not anymore. For those who may not know, ELO was developed by a physics professor to evaluate chess players and was adopted as the official international rating system 50+ years ago. ELO works in sports, too. There's a website called nfelo that does football ELO ratings. There might be some other sites as well. Currently, nfelo has the Bills as the league's top ranked team. Surprisingly, it has the Ravens ranked #2. More surprisingly, they give the Bills only a 44% chance of winning. If I understand their methodology correctly, they don't just compare ELO ratings to make their predictions. They also consider home field advantage and the "market" (betting lines). They write, "Markets produce incredibly accurate predictions about the future... Even the best models can benefit from regressing their predictions to those of the market." Whatever. I'm predicting a resounding Bills victory. www.nfeloapp.com

I do worry about the "bludgeoning of Derrick Henry" runs. But this isn't the Ravens D of years gone by. Josh is going to move the Bills down the field and put points on the board. Eventually, reluctantly, Harbaugh will have to start passing more to catch up. It won't work. Well, that's both my hope and official prediction.

Obviously, the two most important guys are the GM and HC. And when the HC is a defensive guy, the next most important guy is the OC. We seem to have found a good one. Allen has been through 4 OCs in his career so far and two of them were not good. It would be cool if we could have a Reid-Spags thing for a while - continuity with two guys who are talented on their side of the ball.

I'm surprised how many people in the media are picking the Ravens partly because they want and need it more. Didn't the Ravens want the 2 games they've lost already? Bills 27 Ravens 20

That's what I'd be thinking. I usually don't do that. But I did check out FinHeaven after the Miami game and ended up feeling very sorry for them. The misery was overwhelming and some folks actually wrote complimentary things about Allen and the Bills.

The analytic gurus can go down deep statistical rabbit holes at times. But the most important stat in football is Win-Loss record. The Bills and Chiefs have identical 3-0 records. The next most important stat is points scored/allowed. This is what NFL teams train to do: score points and stop the opponent from scoring. The Bills have a league-leading +64 differential. The Chiefs have a mere +13 differential. Next, we could go to yards, strength of schedule, DVOA, and all sorts of other things. But the most meaningful stats give the edge to Buffalo. Right now, at this present time, it's fair to say the Bills are the best team in the league. Though, sadly, the Chiefs might still win another Super Bowl. Still - for now - I'm enjoying the view from the top of this temporary hill.

My memory is imperfect so I was probably wrong. But the general idea remains. Injuries suck. All teams get injuries but our D seems to be cursed with multiple injuries to key players. Yet McD seems to, maybe not right away, field a capable D despite whatever injuries we suffer... but only until the playoffs.