mjt328

Didn't notice many other passes completed against Tre White throughout the rest of the game. The Hail Mary was a freak play, by one of the best WRs in the entire NFL. Honestly, I thought that our defenders played the ball pretty good. Just because Tre jumped with two hands in the air, does not mean he was trying to intercept the ball. I've seen hundreds of Hail Mary plays in my time, and defenders often bat the ball down with both hands. DeAndre Hopkins is known for having extremely strong hands. It's very likely that White believed he needed the power from both his hands to keep the WR from snatching the ball out of the air.

Very surprised at the number of people saying we cut bait. Having athletic linebackers like Matt Milano is an absolutely essential piece to the McDermott/Frazier defense. I believe Milano's extended absence is another reason we are struggling on that side of the ball this year. Our gameplan against Seattle was brilliant, and we did a great job of using AJ Klein as a blitzer. But eventually teams will catch-on to that tactic, and we will need someone at LB who is more versatile. If our biggest concern is health, I say the Bills offer an incentive-laden deal that gives bonuses for staying injury free.

I've always believed that if Scott Norwood made the kick, we definitely would have repeated as AFC Champs in 1991. The Bills were still the best team in that conference by a wide margin. But the Redskins were always a very tough matchup and we very likely would have still lost that game. After that, it's anyone's guess. The Bills always seemed to be driven by an "unfinished business" attitude that I'm not sure would have existed if they had already won the Super Bowl once. Would they have put together the "Greatest Comeback" if not for that drive? Hard to say. They certainly had the talent to make 4 straight Super Bowls. But it was that edge that seemed to put them over the top. My biggest question has always been, "What if the 90s Bills had played the 49ers in one of those Super Bowls?" Buffalo no doubt had an excellent team from top to bottom, loaded with Hall of Famers. But their one weakness was occasionally stopping teams with big/physical offensive lines, and strong running games. Most of the time we could jump out to early leads against run-heavy teams, and force them to abandon the ground game. But every so often, our offense wouldn't get into a rhythm, allowing these units to dominate the time of possession and gradually wear down the defense. It just so happens that during the 90s, the NFC East teams were known for this kind of style. And in every single Super Bowl matchup, our offense came out flat. I've always thought the Bills matched up way better against the 49ers, who ran the West Coast Offense at the time. The 49ers made the Super Bowl in 1988, 1989 and 1995. Our Super Bowl run was 1990-1994. What are the odds?

On one hand, most owners are not involved in the direct day-to-day operations of the franchise. On the other hand, the owner hires the General Manager, and everything trickles down from that point. The greatest period in Bills history was when Ralph Wilson hired Bill Polian, and just let him run the show. Now consider that Polian was an internal hire for a Bills team that was among the worst in the entire NFL. So honestly, the fact that Polian turned out to be a Hall of Fame GM was purely dumb luck on Wilson's part. And Wilson ended up firing Polian in the middle of the 4-straight Super Bowl run, which was one of the most ignorant decisions in the history of our franchise. After that point, Wilson became the nightmare meddling owner. He fired John Butler (who was fairly successful replacing Polian) over money. He demanded Wade Phillips fire the Special Teams coach, and then fired him when he wouldn't. When the Tom Donahoe experiment failed, Wilson reassumed the role of president and named Marv Levy the GM. There are many credible stories about Wilson dictating moves in the draft room. So the short answer is... probably not. Unless Wilson was willing to step aside completely, and got lucky hiring the right guy, nothing would have turned around for the Bills.

Not sure what people are smoking with the "favorable schedule" nonsense. The Patriots upcoming slate is extremely difficult. Five of their remaining 8 games are against teams with winning records. That doesn't count the Texans or Chargers, who are both way better than their current records.

The number one concern for our defense will be keeping Kyler Murray in the pocket. He's arguably the best running QB in the NFL. Murray doesn't have Lamar Jackson's juke moves, or Josh Allen's ability to run over tacklers. But he's still very fast, and very elusive.

I would imagine that most fans have never stood on the sideline during a football game. It would be impossible for Sean McDermott to see whether Gabe Davis was inbounds from his vantage point. Ultimately, information on challenges need to come from someone else on the Bills staff. There needs to be someone with access to video replays who is immediately checking on these plays in slow-motion, and then communicating that information down to McDermott. I'm not sure how other teams handle this procedure, but it definitely seems like the Bills are behind the 8-ball compared to others around the league. It seems to me that we often miss good opportunities to challenge, but then throw the red flag when the chances of overturning are slim. And McDermott's record at challenging calls is the proof. It's something I wish he would research and find out what successful teams are doing differently.

I was 14-years-old, living in Philadelphia. At that point of my life watching the NFL, I had never witnessed the Bills finish worse than 9-7.

During the offseason, Cover 1 did a full breakdown of Josh Allen's mechanical issues. https://www.cover1.net/taming-josh-allens-arm-how-mechanical-tweaks-have-buffalos-qb-primed-for-a-year-3-leap/ It's a fantastic article, for anyone who hasn't gotten a chance to read it. While a lot of Allen's early struggles involved footwork and head control, they also have an entire section about how his left arm (keeping it tight) is key in affecting balance. I'm certainly not an expert in QB mechanics, but I thought Allen's throwing motion was noticeably different starting with the Titans game. So it's interesting that Seattle was his first game since Week 4 without the brace, and definitely lends support to the theory that the injury was affecting his play.

I believe the first $20 million QB only came around 5-7 years ago. Amidst that time period, we've had a handful of New England wins... while Tom Brady was giving them a massive discount. So the recent "trend" has only really applied to Patrick Mahomes (win), Jared Goff (loss) and Carson Wentz (won from the bench). Not really a big sample. Looking at the current Super Bowl favorites, there is very high chance this trend is broken this year.

The NFL's most consistent team over the last 20 years (New England) was built to have balance, so they can attack the opponent's weaknesses. I've watched many pass-heavy teams over the years, who failed to get homefield advantage and then ran into problems during January playoff season. I've watched many run-heavy teams get steamrolled because their defense let up too many points, and they had to abandon their normal offensive attack. It's pretty awesome to see us go 2-0 in consecutive weeks... with one being very run heavy, and the second being almost all passing.

Going into this season, there were tons of people worrying if Josh Allen would ever have a 300 yard passing game.

After the Kansas City game, I really started worrying this defense was getting WAY too conservative. Especially in the secondary. Yes, they were blitzing quite a bit. But the defensive backs were playing so far back, it was getting way too easy for QBs to find open guys underneath. Today was the aggressive Bills defense that we saw last season. Which really surprised me. They were sending extra pressure from all over the place, but were also up challenging the receivers most of the day.

I really let AJ Klein have it, but he played great today.

Since Sean McDermott became coach, this team has seemed incapable of putting together a full team effort (at least against a good team) for an entire 4 quarters. We had good offensive games and good defensive games. But almost never at the same time. If the Bills started the game hot, they would inevitably slump in the second half. And vice-versa. Today was a true TEAM win. It started with Andre Roberts and the big return on the opening kickoff. It continued with an offense that was virtually unstoppable all day. And it concluded with a defense that forced 4 turnovers and 16 QB hits against one of the best offenses in football.

I'll readily admit that I was very frustrated with the Bills after last week, and was quickly losing confidence in the team's overall progress since 2019. Today was a HUGE step forward. I would argue that it was our best overall game since Sean McDermott became the coach. The offense was dominant the entire game and it showed on the scoreboard. If it wasn't for the sacks allowed, I would say this unit played absolutely flawless. The defense also played very good, despite letting up 34 points. Going against possibly the league's best offense in the NFL, they forced the Seahawks to earn it. Russell Wilson was under pressure all day, and they got the turnovers needed to maintain the lead.

I've been on these message boards (also the one over at BuffaloBills.com when it still existed) for a few decades now. Certain draft prospects were always very popular with Bills fans, and sometimes its fun to think about the "what ifs" if the GM had listened to the fans. Sometimes our front office made the correct call, and other times they did not. Lots of people were definitely pounding the table for Russell Wilson that year, and there was a total meltdown when we ended up taking TJ Graham instead. There was a growing frustration with Buddy Nix, who seemed unwilling to roll the dice on a QB and was always hoping one would fall in his lap. Others that I recall: - The fans wanted Haloti Ngata. The Bills took Donte Whitner. - The fans wanted Rob Gronkowski (Buffalo native). The Bills took John McCargo. - The fans wanted Brian Orakpo. The Bills took Aaron Maybin. - The fans wanted Josh Rosen. The Bills took John Allen. It seems like during the Brandon Beane years, the GM has often agreed with the fanbase on the top picks. For instance, Ed Oliver and Zack Moss. The year they passed on Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes, people seemed to be split on whether we should have drafted one of those guys or traded down.

Our tackles have both played great this season, along with Mitch Morse in the middle. Overall, I think our pass blocking has been incredible. Pressure on the QB has not been a significant problem at any point this season. The weak spots have been our guards in the run game (up until the Patriots game). Getting back Jon Feliciano was huge. Unfortunately, the moment Feliciano comes back... Morse gets a concussion and becomes a question mark going forward. If we can get Morse back, I think the last question becomes whether we roll with Cody Ford or Ike Boettger at the Left Guard spot.

I usually prefer to give a QB at least 3-4 seasons before moving on. However, if they have Trevor Lawrence staring them in the face... they absolutely must pull the trigger.

Quite a few teams have been able to put together full games on both sides of the ball. Since we are arguing about Miami, I would say they accomplished this against the Jags, 49ers and Jets this year. Regardless, I guess we can just agree to disagree. A lot of Bills fans seem to think the very idea Miami could eventually take the AFC East is ridiculous. They seem to think Sunday's win pretty much buried the Pats and wrapped up the division. I think that discounting the Dolphins (even with a rookie QB) could end up being a huge mistake. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Trent Murphy may be overpaid. But he occasionally makes plays. AJ Klein has been like having 10 guys on defense.

The Bills have not played "great" at any point this season. Certainly not for a full 4 quarters on both sides of the ball. Only one of their wins (Week 1 against the Jets) was by more than a single score. Their offense played great the first 3-4 games, and has been average (at best) ever since. The passing game is trending in the wrong direction, by virtually every metric. That includes Josh Allen and the wide receivers. Their defense has been dreadful, outside of maybe a few quarters. The first half of the first Jets game. The 4th quarter of the Raiders game. The second half of the second Jets game. The first half of the Patriots game. Out of the 32 quarters they have played, the defense has been terrible in about 25 of them. I would like to believe they can improve. But we are now at the midpoint of the season. Time is running out. The Bills look like a team with an average offense and a bad defense, which has been fortunate enough to get some lucky calls (Rams) and well-timed turnovers (Raiders, Patriots). They have also played the Jets twice already. All signs are pointing towards a VERY ugly second half for this team.

I agree that punt returns/defensive touchdowns are not a sustainable way to win games. But neither is counting on a practice squad call-up to punch the ball out, just before the opponent scores the winning touchdown. The Dolphins are playing WAY BETTER than the Bills right now. They have been playing better for well over a month now. And honestly, it's not even close. Anyone who denies that... either hasn't been paying attention around the rest of the NFL, is only looking at the standings, or is just willingly blind to the truth. They held the Rams to 17 points (most of which came after they got out to a huge lead). They destroyed the the 49ers 43-17. They hung with the Seahawks until late in the 4th Quarter. They blew-out the Jets -- which is the standard for everyone in the league except us. The AFC East is not wrapped up, by any means.

Definitely Beane's worst signing since becoming our GM. At least most of his whiffs could be cut easily after a season. Klein will be taking up a worthless roster spot for the next two years, unless we are willing to take the dead cap hit.

I don't understand why people keep pointing to Tua's stats. The Dolphins destroyed a legitimate playoff team (the Rams) on Sunday, using the same formula that we used last season. And if not for resting our starters in Week 17, we most likely would have won 11 games using that formula. As I pointed out in another thread, the Dolphins next five games are against the Cardinals, Chargers, Broncos, Jets and Bengals. They could easily cruise through that stretch with a 3-2 record, putting them at 7-5 going into the final quarter of the season. The way they are playing right now, it wouldn't be a far stretch for them to be 8-4 at that point. During that same stretch, the Bills get the Seahawks, Cardinals, a bye, the Chargers and 49ers. The way this team has been playing over the last month, I would be shocked if we are better than 2-2 over this next set of games. I don't think the Bills can outscore the Seahawks and the 49ers are an absolutely terrible matchup for our defense. We should beat the Chargers. The Cardinals are a toss-up. My guess is that we are sitting at 8-4 or 7-5, which is exactly where I anticipate the Dolphins being. Every week, I become more skeptical that McDermott/Frazier can get this defense on track. At this point, we can no longer look at the 2019 defense and say the 2020 version is just having a bad stretch. For whatever reason, this year's unit is just plain bad. I would venture to say the 2020 Bills defense is among the worst in the NFL. At the same time, the offense has clearly come back to Earth. They aren't a unit capable of regularly scoring 30+ points. Put those things together, and I think we are looking at a pretty rough second-half of the season. I still think we can scrape together 9-10 wins. But don't be surprised if the Dolphins are right there too.