fergie's ire

That disciplinarian "I am smarter and tougher than anyone else" act works for a while but then wears thin. Reports are that that is what eventually wore thin with Brady. Bellichick had Brady to back him up (for most of the run) and they won. But with that kind of coach things tend to snowball when a team starts losing. It's hard to listen to a coach who screams at you because he knows better than everyone else, when his record is 1-5. That's always been the problem with the Belichick coaching tree.

Then you can also have the situation where the starter goes down and then you have the starting QB as your holder. Either you have to take precious snaps away from your starter or from practicing holding. While quarterbacking is most important, if holding isn't practiced enough the guy could botch a hold and cost his team a playoff game. You said it was Parcells who said this, right? And have quarterbacks done this since Romo? I think that might have been the end right there.

I wonder if the person who made the original tweet searched a database and entered 4 weeks as a parameter....not considering the possibility of a bye.

Yeah, Dabo should be banned from watching film of the Mularkey years.

It's okay...One day at a time....but you may want to stay out of TE discussion threads.

Looks like they're cleaning up.

You DO realize that by saying you haven't spoke of him you have now spoken of him and need to re-start that clock. Good luck.

The Patriots with Brady would often do this thing where they would try to figure things out in the first 4 or 5 games...almost like a pre-season. They would look beatable and have some struggles...but by November they would have everything clicking and would become a juggernaut. It feels like the Bills are doing something similar...not seeing the same 4 and 5 wide we were seeing last year and it's almost like Josh is learning a new offense. Most have noticed that it looks choppy and his completion percentage is down. (And yet, thanks to the talent of Josh and others we still manage to have the top scoring offense while not looking as smooth as last year...which is a nice bonus) However, I suspect that soon he will have this new offense humming. Once he does, I suspect that this won't be the new offense...It won't replace what we did last year, but we will be able to switch based on conditions/opponent. If that happens, this team is going to be really scary.

Yeah, that's the part that gets me. Asking a source to look at an article to make sure he has been quoted fairly is common practice...but to say "Mr. Editor" as if Allen gets final say on the article, even if done jokingly, seems odd.

The one thing that makes me question whether he will be back is the bye week. Hamstrings are notorious for re-occurring and they might decide it would make sense to rest him this week which would give it three weeks off to heal (four weeks between games) and so he would be fully recovered. But maybe it was a slight enough pull that they feel it is already 100%.

I seem to remember a lot of runs to the outside. I suspect he might find a 6'7" defensive player of the week standing there this year.

He did have happy feet...or was at least rushing...and that's the reason the narrative that the interception was all because Hill dropped it really bothers me. I have seen Mahomes calmly float the ball out in front of Hill so he can grab in stride while keeping his eyes down field. However, on this play Mahomes seemed to rush throwing it and threw it on a line and hard, I think before Hill was really ready for it. Also, though they were playing deep, Hyde and someone else (Edmunds maybe?) were closing fast on Hill and I think he felt rushed to grab it before getting lit up. Yes, it is a ball he SHOULD catch but it was not an unforced error to use the tennis terminology. That's what pressure does and it's what we lacked in last year's game.

I remember playing touch football in high school. I was on defense and one of my friends was a receiver. He was standing in the end zone and looks back towads the QB and says, "What am I doing. He can't throw the ball this far." All of us on defense went, "Yeah...he can't" and moved up about 10 yards....and then the QB threw the ball over our heads to my friend standing in the end zone. That's what it looked like on this play...like "Yeah...he can't throw it this far on the run.....OH NO!!!"

Yeah, I don't know if they were resting him, but certainly seemed to be doing less with him. Against Miami, for example, he would drop in coverage they would blitz from several different places...I think even stunted him a bit. Seems more vanilla the last few weeks. However, I think Rousseau was selected to make Mahomes less comfortable the way he can peel off and get in a quarterback's way when he rolls out...so I think they really want to do more to unleash him next week.

Yeah, last year I watched the game late in the season between the Ravens and Browns. The biggest difference I saw between Lamar and Baker vs Josh is the pocket awareness. I was used to watching Josh and watching them made his ability stand out. Sometime between year 2 and 3 Josh developed that Brady-esque ability to sense pressure and make subtle steps to avoid it while keeping his eyes downfield. I am not saying he does it to Brady's level at this point (nobody does) but watching his classmates really made it clear how far Allen has come.

A great quote...I also remember the great t-shirt that some fans printed up during the second season. It said "Go for )" with a picture of a sinking pirate ship. Well, look at that....It's amazing what one can find on the interweb: Tampa Tee

And that is the problem. RBs have a high rate of injury. Yes, Saquon Barkley is a generational talent, but how much has he helped the Giants given that he has been out a lot of the time. Furthermore, I think I heard that when he was drafted, he was already top five in salary for running backs. So, even on a rookie deal he was not cheap. Because of their tendency to break down, few backs anymore seem worth it on their second contract (look at Zeke Elliot). Picking someone like Dobbins in the 2nd wouldn't be too bad, but I still wouldn't invest that high in a running back. The third round is about right...and just draft a running back often at that point in the draft. You might get lucky and find an Alvin Kamara, but otherwise you can get good, if not great, backs but at that position good is a better value.

I think their D is a lot like our O. Looked elite the second half of last year, but has underperformed so far this year.

Agree that because of his experience, Brissett was able to make quicker decisions which was needed against that pressure. So, it was fortunate for the Dolphins that Tua was out, but I also think it was fortunate for Tua. The way things were going, if he didn't get hurt, the kid was gonna get killed. Could've been MUCH worse than bruised ribs.

And though the sacks are great, Epenesa also showed why pressures can be just as impactful. He created an errant pass and knocked the quarterback out of the game on a 4th down play. This hit may have been the most impactful play of the game. (Though I think Brissett was better equipped to deal with the pressure.)

That confused me at first, but I THINK what he is saying is that because he missed time in training camp, they felt he wasn't as ready as others, so they benched him....even though he was healthy last week. So, scratched because of the previous injury...even though he had recovered from it.

Ya know, I've been thinking about that 4th down play based on a 2004 play. It looked great in the original, but then I thought 2004...but that's a Mularkey year. He used to LOVE those weird trick plays and while that one worked great against Seattle, most would have the results we saw Sunday: blow up in his face. I have a memory of a similar situation with a critical short yardage down about mid field. I think there was a pitch or handoff...and a little jump and then a lateral to the receiver on the sidelines....who was tackled for a loss. It was infuriating. He was a Sam Wyche disciple and I always remember Bill Walsh saying Wyche's problem was that sometimes he would rather trick you than beat you. In other words, you could have a 4th and 1 with a big physical quarterback who can almost certainly pick up the 1st keeping a drive alive but instead pitch the ball backward 7 yards. We do NOT need Daboll channeling his inner Mularkey. That would be bad.

Also, was it just me or did it seem like Beasley was not the same? I know, he's an easy target and that could create some bias against him that might shape my perception. But it seemed there were a couple of balls he could have hung onto but didn't, but also that Josh wasn't going to him the way he did last year. Last year whenever they needed some tough yards to pick up a first down, he would hit Beasley, and I just didn't see it much yesterday.

The lack of targets for Davis was infuriating. He looked like the best receiver out there.

I thought there were a lot of passes like that by a number of receivers. Beasley seemed to have a few. Yes, they were contested and knocked out (and not drops) but could have been held onto. They need to take lessons from the guy who COULD hang onto contested catches today: Knox. Josh also seemed off. Not terrible...but not his best.