Mango

Right, having Diggs has been awesome, and he’s been a stud. I think there are 6-10 guys who could fill those 4 slots. So I am not too upset that Diggs didn’t make that this. I could make an argument for all of them, just not Justin Jefferson. He’s been a surprise but not top 4 elite. Poyer on the other hand isn’t getting enough credit for keeping this defense operating/trending back towards average. He has been everywhere, the glue.

If you’re going to do it, all blacks v. all white.

I could make an argument for a lot of what they selected so I won't hate on it too much. (Except for listing Justin Jefferson as a top 4 WR in the league GTFO) The big miss here is Poyer I think. Leaving him out is criminal. Nice work DW!!!!!

This is remarkable. I have been critical of Josh the first two years, I thought he could would get better, but didn't think that the leap would be this large.

I mean, a QB having the ability to audible at the line isn’t a unicorn. Most do. Feels like seeing a cover 0 blitz and checking out to a screen is a pretty standard decision. Keep doing it until they stop it.

A lot going on. But in 2020/2021 content is king and ESPN hasn’t produced good original content in some time. It’s not that First Take is terrible so much as every single show they produce is exactly the same thing. They’ve watered down their own product. They need to keep the bar high for 30:30 but they also need to produce more of them. It seems ESPN should have jumper on the NFL camp show forever ago. Now between hard knocks and everything else it may be over saturated. Unsure if there is an NBA version. But if they can make it compelling I am a casual fan so I would probably tune in. Also, instead of trying sue Barstool for PMT, they should have been able to create that content themselves. At this point it would be in ESPNs to try and buy syndication rights for Macafee and PMT and drop their 37th versions of the same show mid day.

I don't remember this game but that is wild. Looking at the box score, Cassell had a pretty good day. Winning the game, 3 TD's, no picks, highly efficient at 300+ yards on 34 throws. Seems like the OC and starting QB were on the same page. What a weird sequence of events.

This was actually my gut instinct as well. I cut the chord so don't have a DVR and have not looked back at the game online yet. Unsure if my feels=reels. I noticed Klein and Edmunds being at the point of attack. Even yelling "yeah Klein" at my screen. Normally I see Edmunds behind a play making a tackle or chasing. Sunday he was in front of it.

Also Brady’s cap hit in 2018 was 22M. So this theory is debunked pretty quickly

I’ve been critical of Edmunds. He had a VERY good day. No complaints here.

Maybe possible they are seeing something in practice but want to confirm it live. That something could be good or bad.

I would generally agree. I would probably grade NE somewhere above slump but below good. Maybe a C. I could be convinced a third letter grade in either direction. Where I’ll probably disagree with you most is KC. Mahomes was something like 21/26, the weather wasn’t just super bad for Josh. He was 9/21 66 yards through 85% of the game. On top of that 1 completion for 15 yards was from the freebie Diggs throw underneath before the half. That freebie pass aside that makes the methodology of the passing game 8/20 for 51 yards. Discounting or not, that’s abysmal efficiency. Unless you’re playing in hurricane Katrina or that Indy snow game, there’s no answer for that other than “our QB played really poorly”. Especially when the other dude was 21/26 225 and 2 TDS.

Thanks for pointing that out. I was just using my scribble pad for work and grabbed the wrong number quickly. Don't tell my boss about how I spend company time! I did use PFR, but used percentage compared to his peers not total percentage, since a player will rarely hit 100% of defensive snaps. Although Preston Brown and Jordan Poyer have come pretty close at times. I thought it was more fair. Even if you just remove 2017 entirely, Milano has only been on the field about 72% of the time compared to his peers. If 91% is the goal as 2019 would indicate, he has missed a sizable chunk.. A story that missed games doesn't really tell.

Games missed is only part of the picture. I think you have to take into account total snap count compared to the defense. I wouldn't put him in the healthy range at the moment. Career wise he is averaging about 63% of defensive snaps which should be a concern. I think his high water mark of 91% of snaps in 2019 is right about where McD would like to see him regularly. 63% isn't great if the goal is 91% 2017 Defensive Leader (Preston Brown)- Total Snaps- 1098 Milano- Total Snaps- 450 (41%) 2018 Team Leader (Jordan Poyer)- Total Snaps- 1009 Milano- Total Snaps- 741 (73%) 2019 Team Leader (Tremaine Edmunds)- Total Snaps- 981 Milano- Total Snaps- 894 (91%) 2020 Team Leader- Total Snaps (Jordan Poyer)- 533 Milano- Total Snaps- 179 (33.5%) Total Snaps- Team Leader- 3621 Total Snaps- Milano- 2264 (62.5)

If we would have flipped those picks, what a lethal combination that would have been.

This! Beasley is getting tons of love because he is sort of appearing out of nowhere and making wild catch after wild catch. It is awesome for everybody...until it isn't. You can't expect your WR's to make high volumes of tough catches. It is not really a sustainable or realistic model. I also think Allen is slow to process at times, possibly why he struggles with zone coverage as well. Dude has a cannon attached to his shoulder. Because he can toss it 50 yards on a frozen rope at 60 mph, he gets away with being late with his reads. a 60 mph fastball thrown late in the NFL is a tough one to catch over and over again, even though it looks "catchable" on TV.

I don't think we see that. The defense is starting to trend overall to average-ish, problem is, so is the offense. I think McD tries to play keep away from Russ like we did KC. At some point I would like to see our offense with Diggs, Brown, Beasley, Davis, and Allen perform like are one of the top groups in the NFL and go toe to toe with another good offense. So far they have shriveled against the top teams, and have not found any swagger against the bad ones. I will still be worried if we can't put up more than 25 points (median= 25/mean= 23.75) on one of the worst defenses in the league. We are averaging 19 ppg the last 4 weeks. Time to prove we still have it.

The team is trending towards average on both sides of the ball. Is that an improvement? Should I be happy or sad?

I agree Miami is not a powerhouse. They are a good team, a sneaky team. I think the league wants the Dolphins to be good, but good under Fitz if that makes sense. Just sort of projecting Fitz as the starter, but he is not. Tua did not look good...like at all. If that doesn't right quickly, Fitz is either back in, or they are not a threat to anybody and we will laugh at this in January They do have an easy stretch coming up, so buckle up, they might get hyped a TON more if they string together some wins. I am concerned about Buffalo. Yes, lost to some very good teams, but we have been squeaking by. With all this offensive firepower, we should be averaging more than 19 pts per game over the last 4 weeks. We have not played any great defenses in that stretch.

How quickly we all forget the 2018 Minnesota Vikings who did technically win more games than they lost at 8-7-1.

Oh jeez, and have a bye, then SEA and TB. And then what if the Dolphins and Raiders go 1-1-1 over that stretch, and everybody we play is stuck at .500. We could have the worst NFL super power ever. The midas touch, except everything the Bills touch turns into a team coached by Jeff Fisher. Unrelated, Lindy Ruff would sometimes drive me bonkers (miss him now). The guy could take any 5 goal scorer in the league and turn him into a 20 goal scorer. He could also take a 40 goal scorer and turn him into a 20 goal scorer. It was a gift really.

Right, in order to have a game winning drive, you have to be not winning at some point. I think we all get that. To the point of the stat we are talking about, the Bills being 23-1 when leading at half time, and inversely being 8-26 when tied or worse at the half. That stat line actually carries through regardless of the point you are making about Peterman, Tyrod, WR corp. I am not saying those things don't matter to the success of the team, but we have shuffled that situation around a ton and seeing the same results. 7 or 8 of JA's 11 GWD come after leading at the half. We have not won a single game after being down at half time in 2020. This is probably the best the offense has been in McD's tenure and it is the best that Josh has played so far over 8 games. Our lack of being able to put together a 3rd quarter is biting us in the ass.

Most of Joshs GWD were games where we already had the lead. That includes all 3 this year. Both loses we were losing at the half. Using TT, NP, and a receiving Corp from 2 years ago isn’t playing out that way at the moment.

Just checked quick on my phone, it looks like of our 11 GWD we’ve been leading at the half in 7 or 8 of them. For whatever reason the 3Q is the worst for us.

McD is 32-27 as HC. So we are 8-26 if we are not leading at the half? I am about as surprised at how good we are leading at the half as I am at how bad we are at winning a game without the lead at half time.