GunnerBill

I think some truth to that the last two years. They also became more susceptible to getting nicked up. I was always vocally in favour of staggering your move on points from Hyde and Poyer. I still think taking the hit of moving on from both at the same time a) has impacted this season at safety and b) left us too slow and unathletic there last year too.

That is because they have tried to lean into the offense. Other than the Dline the rest of this defense is: two 3rd at linebacker; a 3rd and a 6th at corner; a 4th at nickel; a 2nd round bust reclamation and a 6th at safety. Okay there are two 1sts and a 2nd on the Dline. But otherwise there isn't a ton of draft investment in that group. Conversley the O room now has: a 1st at QB; a 1st and the first pick of the 2nd at wide receiver; a 5th at slot; a 1st at tight end and a 2nd at running back; two 2nds, two 3rds and a 5th on the oline. There was a point when Josh was the only high pick on the O. They have flipped that.

Agree he DEFINITELY asked upstairs. Upstairs might have been saying, not sure, it's close and in the end it had to be some gut. But he was definitely speaking on the headset before he threw it.

And because they are protecting this secondary. The safeties especially, but last night also Elam. 3 years ago in that game they go cover 3 and put Poyer up in the box, let Hyde play deep middle. They don't trust either of these guys deep so they are reluctant to do it against explosive offenses.

So hang on Josh needs a super defense, a strong oline and top flight weapons to win in the playoffs? I don't believe that but if it is true Josh isn't the QB we all think he is. The defense being a bit less talented than in previous years is just a symptom of them starting to change theit resource allocation towards offense the past two years.

I think Hollins has played well. But the points about his limitations as a player are not disproven. He is who he is. Kudos to him for making an impact. I think the one thing I probably didn't appreciate enough about him is that he is a pretty precise route runner. He is just slower than steak pie.

He is truly underappreciated by most Bills fans.

I thought Brown was done for the year?

In order of priority for me: 1. Benford 2. Rousseau 3. Bernard 4. Shakir 5. Cook

It's the Fred and CJ debate all over again 😀

I think Ray Davis in the passing game is a nice wrinkle. Teams have largely when he comes in tried to key in on run. It means if he catches a pass and he breaks a tackle or two he can hit a big one. You gotta find the balance where you keep that as an element of surprise but go to it when you need it.

I disagree wholeheartedly with this. Hell, he is playing a Pro Bowl level this year. He has been the second best player on the team after Allen and in the first Miami game he basically went 1v1 with Hill and erased him. I don't disagree with your point with regards to Levi and Dane. But Benford is not in that category. He went late not because he is a substandard athlete but because he played at Vilanova. If you need further proof of the point, RAS scores: Levi Wallace - 2.71 Dane Jackson - 4.45 Christian Benford - 8.14 Kaiir Elam - 8.64 Benford is much closer to Elam as an athletic talent than he is Wallace and Jackson. He should be the Bills' priority extension after this season. He is going to get PAID.

My take on it: 1. The Bills do not trust either of their safeties to play single high against explosive offenses. This has been a common thread all year. They are playing a lot more two deep and a lot less single high than previous years. The last two weeks before this against Tennessee and a Metcalfless Seahawks that has changed a bit and Rapp has played in the box some more but not today, they resolutely stayed in light boxes even when getting gashed in the run game. 2. With Benford out last night and Elam in they felt even more that they needed to protect the secondary and were not willing to play closer to the line of scrimmage. They were saying to Miami "if you want to run it, run it". 3. Part of that is no doubt that in previous meetings the Bills coaches have got the bettet of McDaniel by forcing him to be patient and him losing his patience and trying to force things down the field which has led to mistakes and miscues. Last night, give him credit (I think possibly the injury to Tua means he feels he can't call a ton of deep shots that require holding the ball anyway) but he stayed patient and just kept running and the odd quick pass into the flats and it worked. 4. So largely I think the Bills stayed entirely intentional in their plan I think they would just say there are a handful of plays they wish they'd made. The two most obvious being 3rd and 11 Dolphins side of the field on their first touchdown drive where Tua checked down over the middle to Mostart for a gain of 12. Tackle him short there, drive over. And obvious Tua's conversion on 4th down in the Dolphins final touchdown drive where they did a good job messying his pocket and taking away the quick throw but ultimately had nobody with eyes on the QB when he began to scramble. Stop them there that is 7 that never happens. Literally those two plays are 14 points. The Bills D always wants to capitalise on your mistake to get you off the field. When you get those bits of mistakes, penalty or a tackle for loss and have a chance at a 3rd and long or a 4th down someone has to make a play. 5. The reason I think at the moment the Bills are using such passive plans and, ultimately, failing to make those extra few plays that end scoring drives early comes down to talent. Daquan Jones is done. Gone. Finished. He has been a tough man for offenses to move his first couple of years with the Bills and their run defense as a result has been better than it often was in the Star Lotulelei days. But he looks like Star in his final year with us at the moment, totally ineffectual at the point of attack. Dorian Williams, as has already been touched on, has never seen a misdirection he doesn't want to bite on. The Bills defense is do your one 11th. Williams sometimes does someone else's part well, but rarely his own. And then it comes back to where I started... the two safeties suck and the Bills know they suck. Hamlin knows where he needs to be most of the time but he is so physically limited he is late often. Jusy a borderline NFL level football player. Rapp is a little better. He is the best of a bad bunch at the moment but his positional discipline remains a weakness and they just don't trust either one to be where they should be in single high. Added to that today Elam who they also clearly think has the potential to be a weak link. Overall a combination of intentionally passive plan driven by concerns over some of their talent limitations, combined with an inability for the most part last night to make the critical plays. I expect next week vs the Colts they will play to take Taylor away the way they did Kenneth Walker last week and we will see a bit more single high. The Chiefs game will be interesting? Do they fear the Cheifs reputation and Mahomes? Or do they play the offense they actually are this year and play Hunt? At the moment with this personnel feels to me like the Bills very much think they have to pick their poison.

It was the right decision to kick. And I'd have said that even if he missed, the Dolphins got 5 yards and a time out or OoB and kicked a 61 yarder.

Yep. Doug Pederson is such a fraud.

Two things: 1. It is a bit more than one route but it hasn't been a lot. 2. Some of us told you all before the year he isn't a great downfield receiver

The issue is Jones is done. He has hit the wall. He is getting tossed like a cheap salad. And we know you can use Oliver's speed and aggression against him to get him outta position and ran into the hole.

Greek

He couldn't play dime. The transitions weakness he has playing zone corner is exacerbated inside.

No

I left the game day thread in the first quater. When I stream on gamepass at home normally it can be about 20 seconds behind but it doesn't lead to a lot of play tipping. I am on vacation in Cyprus at the moment and for some reason the stream was more like 45 to 60 seconds behind and I was getting reactions before I'd seen plays. Anyway.... the stream was otherwise pretty good.... but on the winning kick it jerked after Bass hit it.... and I couldn't see but I still had Harlan's commentary thankfully. Great moment for Bass. Life isn't about how many times you get knocked down. It is always about how you get up.

Josh Tyler Davis I thought Dawkins and Brown were good too (but as ever with line play need to see it back)

Yea but if there was anything downfield open sure Josh throws it. Not sure there was.

They ran play action the first two plays of that drive. Nobody got open deep seemingly and Josh checked it down.

Yea was.