hondo in seattle

It seems every year there's a HC hiring that surprises me. I'm not discounting the possibility.

Watching him play, I assumed McD activated Miller and gave him playing time because it (1) made Von happy, and (2) helped him get back into playing shape.

When it comes to points scored, it depends on your frame of reference. We had some big offensive games under Dorsey, including 3 of our 4 first opponents. The O went flat after that. I don't miss Dorsey. I just don't know if Brady is The Guy. I'd like to see us find a better OC than Brady but I recognize that the best offensive minds already have OC and HC jobs. If we do keep Brady as OC next year, I hope we surround him with great minds. The best position coaches are guys who teach and motivate their players to consistently execute at a high level. They're not necessarily good X-and-O guys. I think we mostly have good position coaches (minus the fact we currently lack a QB coach). But we also need good scheme guys on staff - coaches who excel at the tactics of NFL football - to help Brady dissect tape and game plan. At least that's how it seems to me, a simple fan without any behind-closed-doors knowledge.

You think so? What has he done? I guess it depends on our playoff run. But his 1/2 season experience as an OC without moving the needle much on total yards gained or points scored doesn't seem enough to make him the belle of the ball.

It would probably be awkward, but I hope McD finds an OC better than Brady and Brady reverts to being the QB coach.

This is the stat that matters. But it is interesting how the Bills don't get blown out. I'm not sure what that means. Some of those close losses should have been wins, so that's bad. But none of the close losses turn into big losses which suggests the Bills never give up and keep on fighting, which is good.

Do we? The Dallas game was a thing of beauty: Cook hitting nice holes with burst and vision. But against the Fins, for example, both backs averaged less than 3 yards per carry. Josh's plunges and scrambles were our run game. Bad weather hurts passing teams. We're a passing team.

I don't agree with the personal attacks on brethren mafia. But I do agree that Brady hasn't been an obvious improvement as OC. It's been good to see more players involved in the offense. But our overall production remains about the same.

I agree. I sincerely doubt if Sherfield will have a big game like that. But I do believe that Sherfield's typical game as a #2 won't be worse than Gabe's typical game.

For those who say the D won the game, I don't disagree. But, if you're old enough, think back to how the Giants beat us in the Super Bowl. They held our high-flying offense to 19 points mostly by controlling time of possession and not letting us have the ball. We scored a point per minute of possession that game. That's good production. We just didn't possess the ball very much because our defense kept allowing their offense to convert on third down. Yesterday, the Fins only held the ball for 21 minutes. While the turnovers certainly hurt us, our offense gained 26 first downs and 473 yards. Our offense contributed more than the 14 points they scored. Their drives kept Miami's boy-genius-led, high-scoring offense off the field.

After watching the two picks and the missed deep ball to Diggs, I felt like Josh was having a really bad day and never quite shook that feeling till the 4th quarter. But that angry 3rd down run made me reassess his game. Here's his stat line. He completed 79% of his passes for 359 yards. (And the passing stats would look even better if Cook hadn't dropped that TD). He was also our leading rusher (15/67), outgaining Fournette and Cook combined. Both of the backs averaged less than 3 yards a carry. Josh was effectively both our passing attack and our running attack. Most importantly, Allen fought like a warrior. Some of the comments Fin message boards are interesting. One Fins fan called Allen a "lion." Another said he was a "f@cking baller." There were many other remarks along those lines. Yeah, the TOs sucked. But let's appreciate that we have a lion, not a lamb. Agree!

We've got to give both Beane and McD credit for this. Beane doesn't draft and sign prima donnas. He goes after team-first ballers willing to commit to 'the process.' And McD seems to have a talent for creating a culture where guys work well together, communicate, and play hard for each other.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't find Collinsworth unbearable. He's opinionated. Color guys are supposed to have opinions. In any case, I don't care. His opinions on the Bills are sometimes negative and wrong. Again, I don't care. Like all color guys, once in a while he makes an insightful or interesting point. For that, I'm grateful. I tune out the rest. But, yeah, he seemed more positive about the Bills and their fans than usual.

The star player on each level of our defense is hurt: Miller, Milano, and White. They may have more starters injured but we might have more quality lost due to injury.

I'm interested in what other teams think about us. And I think they tell us - in a roundabout way. The expression damn-with-faint-praise comes to mind when I read what they say about our offense. I think opponents truly respect how well coached our defense is and how well they play together and how they don't make many mental errors. Reading what opponents say about our offense, I get a different picture. They respect Allen, of course, and some of our other players. But our scheme doesn't challenge them. I have no idea what my opening post count is, nor could I care less.

I'll angrily swear off football till next season.

I didn't mean it as a criticism. I wasn't expecting a whole lot of Flacco either. A lot of us were wrong.

Interpreting coach-speak and what other teams really think of the Bills... Reporter: So how big a challenge is this Bills offense? McDaniel. It’s a challenge, for sure. Allen, of course, is super talented and has given us a lot of problems in the past. Fortunately for us, he seems a little off his game lately. And we know he takes chances when he feels the game’s on his shoulders so that’s a weakness we want to exploit. Of course, the Bills don’t have any real receiving threats outside of Diggs. And their coordinators this year struggle to scheme guys open. Just look at Trent Sherfield. He did a lot of good things for us last year but hasn’t done squat for the Bills. I think that’s more of a Dorsey-Brady problem than a Sherfield problem. Their offense is talented but it’s also unimaginative and predictable. I trust Vic to outcoach Brady. I don’t think coaches normally lie in pressers. But they don’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They edit their responses and focus on positive responses while keeping critiques to themselves. McDaniel might say and believe the highlighted parts but he’ll never tell the press his full, unedited opinion. Here’s a real quote from DC Vic Fangio: “They’re really talented on offense… Everybody obviously knows about Josh Allen and his ability…” Here’s a real quote from OC Frank Smith: “They play very well together. They’re a very well-connected defense, well-coached…” What Smith doesn’t say, “Though their D would be a lot more formidable if their star players at each level – Miller, Milano, and White – were healthy.” But he’s thinking of it and glad he’s facing a diminished Bills defense. And here’s what Fangio doesn’t say, “They play very well together. They’re a very well-connected offense, well coached…” And that’s been the trend for a couple years now. We keep hearing from opponents how well-coached our defense is and how well they play together. We rarely hear similar comments about our offense. Instead, we hear compliments about Josh and Diggs. Teams playing against the Chiefs will talk about Reid’s schemes. I rarely read compliments of our offensive coaches or scheme. And I think that speaks volumes.

Agree entirely. Bills 27... Fins 20

Bernard and Davis

My first thought is we need to hire someone from the Ravens or Giants because they apparently know to scheme guys open. Then I remembered, we had Daboll. Frustratingly, neither Dorsey nor Brady seemed to learn from him how to design a passing game that creates separation.

There were a lot of bad takes early in this thread.

I don't agree that the team always looks mentally exhausted. But the team does look unexceptional at times. I think that a factor of (1) poor offensive scheming, and (2) an unfair share of injuries to key players.

If the Bills keep playing like they've been playing, our playoff run - if we make the playoffs - won't last long. But we've seen our D play really well at times. We've seen our O play really well at times. Sometimes teams get hot in the playoffs. We have the ability to be that team this year.

As any away game should be.