BarleyNY

Totally agree. And the Phish aren’t pushovers either. They are 3-3 and only one game behind us. They are on their bye, thus the 0% leverage for them this week. And who knows how Tua plays? He was an excellent QB prospect other than the impact of his terrible injury and general injury risk moving forward. If healthy I think he’ll be good. The division isn’t the cake walk it looked like it might have been.

Winning our division would automatically get us one home playoff game. To do that we have to take care of business against teams like the Jest.

Thanks for this. Serious question: 4 minute mark. Can someone explain why that was not Edmunds’ gap responsibility? He’s the only one lined up presnap in the gap the run went to and he vacated it to move toward the fake counter action. In a larger context, Edmunds has certainly done some things well. He scrapes very well and he has made some nice plays. But he has not been consistent in a good way. He gets out of his gap responsibility too often, he overruns plays and he is too slow to react too often. It’s not as though he’s trash, but he’s not close to what you expect from the 16th overall pick in his third year (even a young, raw prospect). He was taken that high to be a difference maker and while he does make some great, splash plays, he’s not doing close to well enough on a play by play basis. His option decision is due this offseason and I can’t see us picking it up. There’s just no way we can justify the kind of long term contract that and his draft position would set up. I see us declining the option and making him play out his last season while hoping the light goes on. If it does, then we keep him with a new contract or tag. If not, then we move on.

After June 1st any released player’s unaccounted for signing bonus gets accounted for in the following year. I looked at OverTheCap and Spotrac and there’s conflicting info. Details will come through in time.

They aren’t clearing any. They still have to pay him for the season since that’s guaranteed. Looks like he’s going to cost us close to $4.5M this season and another $1M next. For four or five games of below average play. That sucks. It’s not a killer for the team by any stretch, but I’ve complained before about Beane overpaying him with that deal. And now it’s a lot worse. Edit: There is a possible exception. That’s if he negotiated his release and gave up some of that remaining guaranteed salary. It’s not likely, but it’s possible.

That’s no excuse. There were definitely replacements brought in - and at high cost of contracts and draft capital. Per Spotrac we have about 1/4 of our cap tied up in the DL alone. Plus a 2019 top 10 pick and this year’s second rounder. They just aren’t performing (with some notable exceptions like Tre). Oh and let’s remember that KC was missing 3 starting OL after Schwartz went down early. Not to mention Watson was out. But the defense is not alone. The offense isn’t performing against good defenses either.

Correlation does not Equal causality. Put the 0/1 tech who’s the best at eating space but can’t penetrate on our DL and the whole defense still sucks. It’s be different if most of the damage to our defense was inside runs, but I don’t see too many A gap runs. Teams are attacking our outside gaps and edges. I’d be nice if there was an easy fix, but it’s not as simple as getting Star back - or finding a good 0/1 tech player. I haven’t rewatched the game but I saw Oliver penetrate the line a lot, but wasn’t run at and wound up chasing the ball carrier to no avail. I suspect he will grade well for it. If so it would be a big turnaround as he hasn’t done much in any other game. Addison was the only other DL that I saw do anything. I’ll know more when the All 22 is up to watch.

Do you know how fumbling away the ball impacts a team’s chances of winning a game?

He’s gonna have to hold onto the ball if he wants designed runs. Just sayin.

Allen needs to take care of the ball if he wants to be allowed to help the team by running it. I think the coaching staff will ease him back into running the ball. He’ll have to earn it by protecting it and himself in limited opportunities. If he does, then he’ll get more designed runs.

Murphy is the 9th highest paid player on the team. We’d have saved $8M by cutting him and probably would’ve spent at least that on a comparable replacement. Addison is getting $10.15M per season by comparison. Honestly I’m wondering how much of our issues are scheme and how much is personnel. For what we are collectively paying this defense we are getting crap in return. $51.2M tied up in the DL this season per Spotrac.

Ok, I get pumping the brakes on the doom and gloom, but let’s not overstate things either. We’ve made the playoffs 2 of the last 3 seasons BUT WE HAVE NOT HAD A REAL CHANCE AT MAKING A SUPER BOWL YET. We lost both playoff games we’ve been in. We got taken to the woodshed in the first one, then lost in OT to a team that KC crushed in the following round. We weren’t close. Now that doesn’t mean that McD and Beane haven’t improved this team vastly. They have. But this team isn’t an elite one yet. The 4-0 record we had as of a couple weeks ago set some lofty expectations because it looked like we might have arrived. Obviously we haven’t yet. What’s really concerning is why. The defense looks bad - and that’s enormously problematic. We have spent large on it and defense is supposed to be McD’s forte. Failure on that front deserves some major explanation by both him and Beane. On offense the WR corps has been great, pass blocking has been great and Allen has been up and down. But the run blocking and the run game in general has been really bad. If we are topping out at being a “bottom rung playoff team” would anyone be happy with that? It’s fair to ask why so many facets of the team are breaking down. It’s also fair to ask what the plan will be once Allen is off his rookie contract and we have $30M or so less to spend.

KC’s defensive penalties really kept us in this one. If the DBs (Breeland in particular) hadn’t committed so many PI, def holding and hands to the face penalties, then things would have been a lot worse.

I’d be hard pressed to name a single Bills DL player that has consistently performed well - or even decently - this season. McD would’ve been justified in benching any of them. KC was missing three OL starters in this game after Schwartz was injured early on. It was an awful performance against 60% backups.

Anyone else find it particularly odd that a team allegedly would be trying to trade the third overall pick less than a year and a half into his career? For a second round pick? That move is known as a “Rosen” I believe. Something is up. Either this dude is coasting and partying now that he got paid or he hates the crap show that is the coaching staff and general atmosphere of the Jest so much that he’s trying to get out and into a better situation.

Agreed. People know his name and that he was a great player. Plus most are down on everyone on the Bills defense right now. Kerrigan is a role player now. He’s not even starting for Washington.

What’s so concerning to me is that this is the third season of this defense. They should be tight and humming along. Getting beat happens, the other team is getting paid too and we all know that defense is pretty much illegal in the NFL today anyway. But missing assignments and other mental errors - I’m looking particularly hard at our LBs here - is a real problem. The other thing that might be at play here is our offense’s production. Teams didn’t have to open up their offenses against us the last couple seasons. They expected a lower scoring game and could be more conservative. I’ve seen this happen with other teams too. Always beware of a great looking defense if your offense is poor. So I think that part of our problem this season is that our defense wasn’t quite as good as we thought it was. But I don’t think they’re as bad as they looked against the Titans either. There’s definitely work to be done and we are going to have to do it with less money soon. I think we’d all be shocked if Allen either didn’t have his 5th year option picked up or got an extension this offseason. That means one more season of an inexpensive QB and then $30M or so less cap space to work with. Beane has his work cut out for him.

Too many way overpaid average former Panthers. And you can add Star to that list.

Titans are a very well coached team that was well rested. Both teams were missing important players, but the Bills were in a particular bad spot in that regard. The Titans make you stack up the box to play the run and play man on the edges. That’s tough to do with your top 2 corners out. Missing Milano didn’t help the run defense either. Hopefully we get another shot at the Titans in the post season with our secondary healthy.

I thought Epenesa looked like he lost a lot of weight!

Yeah. This guy looks to be a second round bust. The Ravens moved on from him quickly. I guess the Titans aren’t too worried about him taking their playbook to the Jags.

Wow. You don’t see many trades within a division. I wonder if they got a premium.

Let’s not forget that he’s an excellent coach who is very detail oriented and holds his players accountable just like Belichick*. You’d have never known that the Titans has a big layoff before this game. They were ready from play one to the end. * Accountability meaning doing everything you can to win, not worrying about pesky NFL rules that stand in the way.

Allen can be a devastating runner so I’d agree with the OP that the offense needs to call more designed runs and RPOs for Allen but I think I understand why we aren’t. I don’t think you can play scared of things like running your QB so I’m not opposed to doing so, especially with a huge one like Allen. We’ve certainly done it in the past so I don’t think Daboll and McD are opposed either. The injury risk can be mitigated somewhat by limiting the frequency of designed runs in games that are not close and drilling into Allen the importance of almost always sliding to avoid hits - even if it means 4th and 2 instead of 1st and 10. I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s his fumbles when he runs. Coaches know that the turnover differential is a huge differentiating factor in wins and losses. Fumbling also seems to hurt Allen’s focus and confidence and I think the coaches are trying to keep him sharp and confident. I can see the staff coming back to more designed runs in the future, but I think I see their reasons to minimize his running now.