RunTheBall

I’m friendly with one of our ex offensive coordinators and sometimes talk some football in the gym with him. He mentioned our current OC gave him a call last week to discuss some run and shoot concepts that he’s been slowly integrating into the O. I guess that TD pass to Beasley was something Beasley learned from June Jones back at SMU and has been lobbying Daboll to put in for some time. I seem to recall an Athletic article along the same lines. Anyway, I guess the gist of the call was Daboll wanted to pick his brain about putting more run and shoot route concepts into the O. The issue with it as I understand is that the QB and WR make both pre and post snap reads so they must be on the same page or balls will be going all over the place. Kind of like what Brady mastered in NE for so long but it takes a lot of time and chemistry to develop and is difficulty to implement in the middle of the season. This ex OC is very impressed with Daboll and says he’s always looking for new wrinkles or how to expand the offense and is very open to player suggestions on how to improve it. I told him if he talks again to tell him to spend a little time on the damn running game.

There hasn’t been one instance of transmission on the football field. As long as sick Titans players aren’t in the visitors locker room coughing up a storm just prior to the Bills entering they will be fine. Not saying it’s optimal at all but if you are going to play games you have to accept some risk and so far playing football on the field seems extremely low. The only way to get to zero risk is to not play games.

Or maybe Tre tweaked his back and McD is doing his normal conservative thing with injuries and holding him out of practice. It’s not like at this point missing a couple practices is going to do anything other than let him heal up a bit. To suggest he’s got a psychosomatic illness just because he took his time to make a decision on whether to play this season is a stretch.

Stop with the “Trey is going to sit out” crap. He made his decision at the beginning of the season. You really think he’s going to let his teammates down and fake an injury so he doesn’t have to play? Jesus the stuff people come up with.

There is no way anyone who feels comfortable with a 4-0 record before even playing the Pats was a fan before the Superbowl years. All this talk about winning the conference, getting a first round bye etc is absolutely ridiculous. It is way too early to be talking about anything other than the Titans game. All you guys talking like we've already arrived - we haven't done crap yet. Yes it's great to be 4-0 and up 2 games in the division but there is a long season ahead and until we beat the Hoodie and beat them definitively we haven't done jack.

Very reasonable. I should have phrased that better and said I think we can still be effective against the run even with a drop in run stopping talent with better adherence to the scheme. I’m confident McD and Frazier can get that improved.

The only problem I see on the D right now is the front seven, particularly the D lineman. They aren’t maintaining gap integrity, they are getting pushed around and our ends aren’t generating much pressure. I think there’s been a bit of a drop off in run stopping talent with the loss of Star and Shaq but McD was hoping to make up for it with improved pass rush from Addison and Jefferson and the return of Harry who has been average at best. I think this is more of a scheme problem than overall talent problem and McD/Frazier will get it fixed. It seems like so many people on this board are ready to jettison players way too quickly. The Hyde comments are ridiculous and aren’t worth responding to except to say it demonstrates a lack of understanding of his role in this D. Edmunds had a bad game, big deal. He’s definitely got a bruised or separated AC joint and he’s out there trying to make tackles. If any of you guys had this you wouldn’t be able to wipe your ass let alone take a shot to the shoulder. And get off Moss’s jock while we are at it. The guy is a rookie with zero pre season games trying to learn how to hit holes at the NFL level. He was overhyped in camp but that doesn’t mean he can’t play or is a bust. He will be fine and Motor should get the majority of carries anyway.

It’s not a technically difficult fix at the humerus. You basically grab the tendon and nail it back into the arm bone. It just takes a lot of time to heal and tendons recover a lot slower than muscle because they have less blood flow. I wouldn’t expect him back for a while. I think the talk is a little premature.

The overwhelming majority of these injuries occur at the humeral (upper arm) insertion. That’s the weak point. It is exceedingly rare to have a pec tear at the sternum and that’s very difficult to fix.

I mentioned this in another thread but I don’t think the red jersey is any indication that Edmunds will play or not. If it were a serious shoulder injury or high risk of worsening it he would be on IR. I’d guess “just” an AC joint bruise/mild separation which is more of a pain control issue which is why they don’t want him taking shots in practice. Numb him up on Sunday, don’t drop his lung in the process, and I’d bet he plays. 100% conjecture on my part so take it for what it’s worth (not much haha)

I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the lack of leaks from 1BD. We really have no idea what’s going on with Edmunds except it’s a shoulder issue and that means McVay doesn’t know much more either. I think this is McD trying some Hoodie level disinformation tactics. Keep your opponents guessing. If Edmunds shoulder was really damaged he’d be on IR. That makes me think it’s more of a pain issue hence the non contact jersey. Hopefully just an AC joint sprain but that’s a 100% guess on my part. I don’t think McD would have him on the practice field if there wasn’t a good chance he’s going to play. Why waste the reps if he knows he’s out? I’m thinking Edmunds is in, especially if the risk of further damage is low which I think it probably is otherwise he’d be on IR.

Every QB has dropped interceptions. Every QB air mails a ball every now and then. Mahomes did the exact same thing Josh did last week and missed a wide open guy in the EZ by 5 yards. So what, they all do it. Only Allen gets dissected to the degree that he does with armchair analysts trying to prop up their pre-draft conclusions. PFF is the worst they can go blow a goat and get off the Josh Allen train now that it’s left the station. Those guys did everything in their power to support a crap narrative and are not unbiased in the least.

Did you watch last weeks game? He had a number of throws where he threw with anticipation. It’s a marked improvement over last year and I hope it continues in this game

What are so many of you seeing in Miami that I’m missing? They stink. Yeah Fitz can ball once in a while but Parker will be limited, their TE is ok, and they have a couple pedestrians at RB. Their D has a couple cover guys who should not be a match for Diggs/Brown. If Josh plays similar to last week, without the fumbles of course, this is an easy W. Doesn’t mean it will be but there aren’t any objective reasons why we shouldn’t win big. I don’t want to hear about how hard Flores guys play, talent wins in the NFL. We are the kings of hard playing no talent teams that sucked in Buffalo.

How is no one talking about Allen’s marked improvement in throwing with anticipation? He threw guys open all day and I’m not talking about the throws where Diggs/Brown left CB jockstraps on the field. To me this is one of the biggest indicators that Josh is the real deal and will develop into a great franchise QB. The fumbles and mechanics on roll outs to the left are easily fixable.

One of the best posts I’ve read on here in years comes from a friggin Titans fan (it was a forward pass btw). Allen pisses off all you internet calculator jockeys because he breaks all the analytic rules that look at stats as the end-all-be-all of QB evaluation. Allen has IT. Everyone here knows it. He will never be a good QB in the eyes of stats guys. He will have above average stats at best, but he wins. This year will likely determine his future although no matter what happens he will be back for year 4. He was the rawest QB by far and everyone has seen his jumps in improvement during each year and also from year to year. He needs to continue to improve this year because he has a ways to go before he hits his ceiling. He’s never going to be Mahomes but I believe he can get good enough to get us to a Super Bowl. I can’t wait to see if this kid reaches his potential. For once we have an organization that is giving our QB every chance to succeed. It’s all on him now, there are no excuses. I’m praying he’s got it because he is a Buffalo guy through and through. You can’t teach the intangibles, how to want it, how to be a leader, how to be humble yet confident, how to get guys to want to follow you. Just look at that 4th down play against Dallas, that’s Josh, and us, in a nutshell. Now let’s just hope he hits a couple deep balls and continues to improve on last year because the sky is the limit but not guaranteed.

100% this. The NFL is in full CYA mode because it was a BS call and they know it. Of course they missed the head shot Josh took on the same play which would have offset it at a minimum.

Fuller is out, Hopkins will be doubled regularly or at least Trey will have deep help so he can be aggressive. The D plan should be stop the run, double Hopkins and contain Watson to the pocket. That means a LOT of Zone with 4 man rush and occasional A gap blitzes, basically our standard package which should work. If their running game gets going we will need to switch it up as the RPO and play-action game will get our LBs to bite. On O, we should be able to run enough. Texans can't defend the middle so I'd hope to see a lot of Beasley/Knox over the middle. The only reason I think Duke might be active is because he's a big target in the short and mid range which Daboll might want to use to exploit their poor middle D. I'm not worried about Watt. If he's in there I'd show pass and do draw plays right at him to exploit his overeagerness to get to the QB

We are further along than we should be, but not where we want to be, which is both exciting and frustrating at the same time. We really have to keep the big picture in mind which is we are at least one and probably two seasons from super bowl contention if things continue to progress. On D, we were out coached by McDaniels, outmuscled on the line, and the poor tackling didn't help. I sure hope that was a vanilla D by design because I was not impressed. On O, everyone knows what we are. Josh needs more polish and needs to get rid of the early game yips. I was discouraged by his poor mechanics which is why he missed some easy throws. I was encouraged by his leadership, his ability to move on from poor plays, his ball protection, and he hit two deep throws with touch! We were outmuscled on the line again, and they keyed in Singletary and took him away. No moral victories, I friggin hate that team with a passion and their fans too. Simply put, they are still the better team and we aren't there yet.

Daboll isn't going anywhere unless he gets a head coaching position. I'm not thrilled with him either but in no way is he on the hot seat with the way Josh has progressed. There is zero chance McBean brings in another coordinator

I see the next two games as like a playoff pre-season. We definitely need to play-to-win since the Division is still in play (barely) and to get the New England monkey off our back. That doesn't mean trick plays to me, but I'd work on formations and tendency breakers that target NE weakness against stopping the run. Throw in some heavy packages, unusual formations (Gore and Singletary on the field at same time) different RPOs etc. Heavy play action to work on Joshs deep shots too. Our bread and butter seems to be 11 personnel with Josh running the no huddle. If it's close in the 4th, break that out and win the game.

I like your post about the D and giving up the big plays And players learninf to do their 1/11, I think you are spot on. I understand why people would be skeptical about "culture change" but for some reason Mcdermott was the first guy I actually believed (Rex? Hahaha, Maroon? Hahaha). McDermott practiced what he preaches with the Peterman decision. People still moan to this day about starting Peterman but if you look at it from a culture perspective it was the right call to start him, and the right call to yank him. If you remember we were not very active in the FA QB market and ended up with Mccaron because McBeane knew they were getting their future QB in the draft and wanted someone to handle the position for the year. Unfortunately AJ was a complete misfire for us which left Peterman and Allen. Peterman clearly outplayed Allen in the preseason. If McD had started Allen right out of the gate it would have undermined his culture message to the lockerroom that how you perform in practice/games determined how much playing time you get. When Peterman crapped the bed again he was yanked quickly and Allen started. I don't have a problem with how that was handled if you look at the big picture.

I've seen a lot of commentary recently on here and in the media reflecting this opinion. I don't agree with it at all I think most long term fans who've been with the team through the thick and thin recognized that the culture of losing was the number one thing that had to be changed first before this ship could be turned around. This entire $hitshow of a franchise needed to be fumigated from the stench of losing that Ralph (God bless his soul and thank you for keeping the team in Buffalo) allowed to permeate his team. It was refreshing to hear McBeane not only voice this but put it into practice year one. The one major thing I saw early on was a team that played hard for their coach and didn't fold when there was a turnover or a tough stretch. That's when I knew we had a good coach and if he could grow and get some talent we'd have a competitive team. So many people have a hard time seeing the forrest for the trees. Good football teams are more than the sum of its parts and more than just a collection of talent (aka Browns) although talent is important. I think these guys have earned a lot of patience from the fan base to continue to put their plan in action. Fans need to take a deep breath next time there is a bump in the road or set back, and there will be. I could care less what the national media, amatuer Twitter film analyst hacks, or local media thinks.

This a big game, definitely not the proverbial "must win" some are describing. Last week's game was more important. It's the least important game left in terms of making the playoffs. Yet, in terms of Buffalo pride and changing the narrative of our team, this game couldn't be bigger. Thanksgiving day, primetime, friggin Dallas, the entire country watching - wow! I don't care how we do it, just go get the W. We've heard a lot of talk from the D about the lack of respect they perceive. Time to back it up with their best effort of the season. I hope the stench of decades of futility has been fumigated from this franchise because in years past this is where we'd completely crap the bed. Gut is telling me this team is different. I hope I'm not just projecting. Go Bills!

Time. That's all that we need to get this offense clicking even with the lack of a legitimate #1 WR and TE. The game needs to slow down just a touch more for Allen. He's making his reads, just getting there late so throwing late and with rushed mechanics. Guys are open, but rarely does Allen have time to get through his whole progression before the heat is on. It's a combination of Allen getting through his progressions a split second quicker and the O-line holding up just a fraction more. As Allen gets more experience, especially against the blitz, the game will slow for him and he will be getting the ball out faster with better mechanics. Unfortunately, as long suffering Bills fans, most have little patience to allow Allen to develop and Daboll to figure out how to call a game that maximizes Josh's chance to succeed while reigning in the turnovers. Daboll is still a work in progress too. I'm thinking unless there is a complete collapse the next 8 games there is no question they will both be back next season despite many calling for their heads. The next 8 games will tell us a lot.