GunnerBill

just watching the pick six again..... 3rd down, obvious passing situation NASCAR package on the field: Von, Ed, AJE, Groot and it was AJE from that interior position that flushed Tua out and forced the throw away. We have seen a ton of that NASCAR style look through two games compared to how much Frazier and even McDermott went to it. I do wonder if part of it is we don't have a natural backup 3T to Ed. Carter is there on the depth chart but he isn't really a penetrator he is more a 1T/3T tweener. So in previous years where they maybe felt Ed and Phillips was enough interior pass rush on 3rd and long they'd rather bump AJ inside. I like it though. They are our four best pass rushers. On critical obvious passing downs why not use all four of them?

Bishop made a great play in the endzone in man coverage. I know that was because the starters were out by that point but I wonder if the way you get his feet wet is as a man coverage matchup option in redzone defense for the next few weeks before chucking him in as a full time starter? Shouldn't underestimate the impact on a rookie DB of missing almost all of camp. The biggest question for me is Edwards or Hamlin for now alongside Rapp? Their intention was clearly for that to be Edwards then Hamlin took his chance. By midseason Bishop will be starting, but I think they'd be right to take their time.

I've just watched his post game presser and given the shock over Tua maybe I should cut him some slack but at one point he said "I think about what if we'd won this game by 30, what would that mean?" WTF is this dude taking?

I'm not sold on that yet. I'm still where I was when this thread was started. Come back to me after this season when he is a year away from possibly walking for nothing and I'll have the conversation. He would need by then not to be clearly our second best offensive weapon behind Allen though for me to do it.

There is a point in that thread that has Bills relevance.... once Tua is on IR they may very well try and sign Mike White off our Practice Squad.

Certainly could. Doesn't have to be, but could be. But you'd want to go and look at what you are doing and evaluate it.

I'm certainly not at "throw the bag at him" not at all. Takes a lot for me to get there with any running back. But he is unquestionably the most talented back that has played for the Bills in this regime. And at the moment he is our most proven offensive weapon not name Josh Allen.

No I think that is fair.

Exclude Tom Brady QB'd teams only three teams have really been able to lay up with the Chiefs in the playoffs. The Bills, the Bengals and the 49ers. Those three are 1-6 in seven games against them and you can argue that other than the AFC Championship game against the Bills each of the remaining six could but for a play or two have gone the other way. The Chiefs could be 1-6 in those games with zero Superbowl wins instead they are 6-1 with three Lombardis. I am not saying that as an excuse for the Bills. It isn't the "well nobody else has beaten them so why should we" approach but it is just to demonstrate how tight it has been in those contests. Give the Chiefs credit. They always seem to make the critical play and for whatever reason those other teams haven't.

Oh he'd be unemployed for less than a month. If the Bills wanted to fire him after this season every team with an opening would want to speak to him. He'd have his pick. I suspect, whenever it happens, if it happens that he and the Bills part company because of a lack of a ring at some point then he'd try and take a year out. Whatever people think of him he has poured himself into this job.

I think Spector is a versatile and serviceable backup. I'm not sure you really want him starting for a prolonged period, but if Bernard is out I don't know what the alternative is? If he has to start 2 or 3 games we will be fine I think. If he has to play 5 or 6 or 7 then it gets to the stage where all the clever scheming in the world can't hide the weaknesses. Some of his issues last night though were just in running the defense and getting guys lined up (which tbh Bernard struggled with week 1 as well). You'd hope given 10 now until Jacksonville they have time to get him up to speed with the calls and invested in the gameplan and hopefully mitigate some of that. And I'm higher on Spector than Hamlin. If they can get Edwards or Bishop ready in the next 10 days I'm not sure Hamlin will get a 3rd start, but let's see.

Yea some of it is just pure bad luck. The ACLs, neck and achillies injury are not the sort of things your conditioning staff can solve, sadly. The muscle injuries you would definitely want to look at what you are doing in that department. I don't buy that Bernard's size has anything to with it though.

Josh was excellent (save for the silly fumble) on Sunday but without needing to make a ton of hero plays. He was fine last night but (and this is rare) was probably not a top 3 reason we won a game. There are undoubtedly much bigger tests to come... we might need Superman Josh when we play the better teams on our schedule - Houston, Detroit, San Francisco, Baltimore, Kansas City - but for now the "ohh the Bills are too Josh Allen centric" isn't a fair criticism of the 2024 team. I'm not saying we won't get there. We might as the schedule stiffens. But for now Josh is the best player on a team but the team around him has done its bit. The protection has been good for the most part, the run game has been solid, the defense has generated pressure and taken the ball away.... the special teams unit is the one concern.

I think he is an example of why despite the league's undoubted pivot to offense not every good offensive mind and playcaller is suited to being a Head Coach. I say it all the time but when hiring a Head Coach for an NFL franchise the absolute #1 criteria for the job has to be their leadership ability. That sustains in the medium and longer term better than being a great Xs and Os guy. I respect the hell out of what McDaniel has done with Tua and that Miami offense. But I'm not sure I want him leading my franchise.

*Regular season. But even so that is a staggering statistic.

The back 7 is a worry. It's a bit like McDermott and Babich are playing a video game and someone keeps cranking the difficulty setting up 1. Given the experience and knowledge of this defense lost with Hyde and Poyer (as well as White) in the offseason to then lose, Milano, Taron and Bernard which is your entire starting second level by week 2 and still be able to field a competitive unit... really impressive and it shows what a good job they generally do with player development.

Yea that was an excellent hustle play in a game that was basically over and he was still playing hard.

Really? I think he was the worst player, at any position, the Bills fielded in pre-season.... beyond the total scrubs who played 10 snaps in the 4th quarter...

I think he is stress eating....

That may as be but Shanahan or Reid ain't walking through the door. I think through two weeks the offense has been creative, mutli-faceted and cleverly designed. I'm still wanting to see a bit better pass to run balance on 1st down. Think it was 7 runs 5 passes while the game was "live" tonight and the offense hasn't really been fully tested yet but man give me this over the vanilla ***** Dorsey was running last year. Like a 1990s rookie Peyton Manning redux offense.

I will have to watch the a22 of tonight but I didn't think that at all of Sunday. I thought he was creative and there were receivers open. All day. Maybe the Cardinals just suck, that's possible. But the Bills schemed up very nicely against them.

Yea definitely think game plan can factor in. But also camp is very different to a real game. He might have just needed his legs underneath him.

He was explosive off the snap tonight to my eye. Sunday was a lot of just pushing guys backwards which... I mean sure, has a value, but its a bit capped. Tonight he was beating people and looked explosive. In fairness Austin Jackson stinks, but even so.

His pass rush was better tonight than Sunday IMO.

Ingram Cook Oliver Benford