hondo in seattle

In years past, I hardly cared about Goodwin's status. But him being cleared for this game is very good news considering what our WR corps looked like in the Pats game.

Maybe the reality is that his ceiling as a passer is low. Maybe he's a more effective runner than passer. To play to his strengths, maybe the right progression for him is (1) throw to primary, (2) run.

Just a little. There might have been a tiny amount of flawed logic in your OP. Just a dash of homerism, maybe.

Of course it does.

I think Rex's record says he's a purely average head coach. He wins more games than he loses when he has a good roster. He loses more games than he wins when he has a bad roster. He coaches .500 ball when he has an average roster. I can't hate a guy for being average at his job in such a competitive profession. But it did bug me when he was smiling over the challenge flag at the end of the game. How can you smile when you're team got embarrassed in front of a home crowd? Competitors don't smile at a loss.

My wife says she likes when the Bills lose because I turn off the TV in disgust at the end of the game and drown my sorrows in frenetic yard work and household chores. Today I grabbed a machete and started hacking a trail through our backyard forest. When we win, I watch football all day to luxuriate in our victory. F**k football today. I don't want to see any scores or highlights to remind me of this shellacking. And this is enough of TBD; I'm going back to hack some more trail.

I'm 4-3 on predictions this year because I've predicted the Bills to win every game. Not this time. They have their best offensive weapons playing and healthy. Our best offensive weapons will be watching from the sidelines. Even at full strength, they're the better team. Pats 33, Bills 10.

Great guy, great coach, very sad news. Gives lie to the myth that if you keep your brain active, you'll keep Alzheimers at bay.

Exactly right. And one of the reasons the Pats are throwing team is because they have arguably the best QB of all time. We all agree that it would be awesomely helpful if Tyrod became a better QB. But comparing his passing output to Brady's is fairly meaningless.

Tyrod (44) has more bad throws than Fitz (34). That's worrisome. But I'd still like to see yards-per-dropback numbers for TT. He deserves credit for the designed passing plays he transformed into positive running plays.

IMHO Mighty Taco has lost its edge and has become too much like Taco Bell.

I'll watch and then ask myself, "Why did I waste three hours of my life watching this game? Am I a masochist? Why do I punish myself this way?"

UC, I give you credit. You knew you were going to get clobbered posting this idea but you did it anyway.

It's feast or famine when the Bills O gets the ball. Simplifying, either a big play helps us get points on the board or we go three and out. While we're 10th in points per drive, we're only 25th in yards per drive. And we're losing the battle of field position: giving up 2.5 more yards per drive than we're gaining. We're good enough on both sides of the ball to be 4-3 but we need to get better. Losing all our opening day WRs to injury doesn't help. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/drivestats

Surprised that the statisticians and computers are giving us a roughly 50-50 chance. Flesh-and-blood humans seem much more pessimistic in their odds. This might explain it.

I'm with you... both the biggest surprises and biggest disappointments are on defense. I will add that I'm not surprised Lorax and Zach are capable players. I am surprised that have been playing like outright superstars. Another big surprise, of course, was learning that Roman was fired. I didn't see that coming. I was wondering if last year maybe Richie prepared like crazy because he had a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. Maybe this year he just didn't work as hard - and his age might be becoming a factor.

Landry does launch himself at Williams. But he actually looks like he lets up a bit. This is an NFL athlete. Under the circumstances, he could have hit Williams much harder than he did. Illegal play? Maybe. Dirty? I just don't think so.

I hate to be pessimistic but I'm prone to agree with FireRex here. Rex and staff are going to have to do some great film study/game planning/play calling to pull out a win this week. And if only combined with some inspired performances on the field. We may play an angry, talented opponent this week without our best defensive player and our best two offensive players. A fan can always hope. But I'm feeling less hope - despite the home field advantage - this week than any previous week this season.

While I don't think Tyrod played a great game (despite what PFF says), I don't think we can lay the blame at his feet either. We lost for a number of reasons: we were out-coached on both sides of the ball, our 3 top WRs didn't play, our star RB was hurt, our OL played poorly, our DL and LBs played poorly, and we were missing our best defensive lineman... And for all that, we only lost by 3 points. If we were entirely healthy, I think we would have won. But we weren't - that's life in the NFL - and with tough games against the Pats and Hawks coming up, this defeat really sucks.

So far, TT looks like an efficient QB who can effectively manage a run-first offense. But there are times when the Bills are losing and need to move down the field with an aerial attack. In those times, it's easy to lament.

You might be right 26CB. But I'm not entirely convinced so - especially given Landry's reaction - I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't think Landry's dirtiness is as nearly well and clearly established as Burfict's, for example. I know if I was A Williams I'd be asking myself "How did I not see that coming?" more than I'd be asking "Why did that m*th*r f*ck*r lay such a cheap hit on me?"

Back in the day, a guy once hit me in the neck so hard I couldn't breathe for maybe 30 seconds. For a moment, I actually thought I might suffocate to death. In another game, he hit me as I was going high for a ball. I saw stars as I was turned upside down and landed square on my head. Nearly 40 years on, that guy's still a close friend. In the heat of battle, when you're making split second decisions, things happen.

Every game we've won, we've won by more than a TD. Every game we've lost, we've lost by less than a TD. Does that mean we're bad at tight games? Or does it mean that when we're good, we're much better than our opponent. But when we play poorly, we're only a little worse than our opponent?

Agree with all of this. Suspect we started Shady to bring the Miami into the box so we could throw the ball. A better approach probably would have been to start MG and run the same kind of offense we've been running.

I'm thinking Lynn started McCoy knowing he was not 100%, hoping that would force Miami to put 8 in the box thus opening up the passing game. The plan clearly didn't work. I think MG should have started and that the Bills should have continued doing what they've been doing during the win streak: run-first, run often, pass when the box gets crowded. Lynn could have had a better game plan but Rex and the Run D get the blame for this loss.