GunnerBill

It isn't interesting to me it is gutting. I still think they can make the playoffs but you need elite players to win Superbowls. And for the third year in a row (White in 21, Von in 22, Milano in 23) the Bills have lost an elite player to a season ending injury. What makes it worse is just as Tre was finding his best form (Washington and Miami it was the old Tre) we lost him for the year too. It sucks.

By the end of the game - yep it was. I have kept saying it - the D that was on the field by the end of that game (when 14 of the 25 points came) was a bottom dweller type defense talent wise. That is NOT the D they will have to play with the rest of the way. They have some guys, especially up front and Benford, to return. But if that D at the end yesterday was what they had to go with the rest of the way the season would basically be dead already. And I will give you Elam at this stage looks like a huge bust. That is on the GM. Again, I have never even got close to arguing Beane is blameless. Just that down as many guys as the Bills were yesterday is an injury issue not a drafting one.

There is simply no way to backfill for losing your best players. No GM in the entire NFL has a replacement for Matt Milano sitting on the bench. Oh and Jones is having surgery. That is confirmed. He is done for the year. And I never changed my view on bottom dwellers. That was always specific to the defense that finished the game yesterday. I was very clear about that. They won't have to put up with that D. They have some guys to come back. But they have lost two first team all pros and another key defensive starter for the year. Show me another unit (offense or defense) in the entire league that has already lost that level of player for the season. Every team has injuries. Not every team has this. And when teams do they generally struggle to make the playoffs. I will say something you will probably agree with now.... I think the Bills are shooting for a wildcard at this point. These are back breaking injuries on D.

Season ending.

Do we have 22 healthy players to start Sunday?

The high IQ doesn't extend to spelling I see.

Agree on the latter. And I do totally see your point on the former, just not sure I'd have gone the same way.

I think they probably thought that way too. I dunno. I still just think this defense is not at its best as a blitz heavy D. They were running blitzes early v the Dolphins too and they played much better once they just settled in and played their standard gap disciplined defense and mixed up their zone looks. I do get that the situation was different with the absences yesterday. But it would take a lot for me to think this defense is best served by blitzing a ton. It was a vey good throw. Still hated the call.

Yep. Hated that call.

Definitely was not every third down. But they blitzed too much for my tastes yesterday (although I am the ultimate anti-blitzer so doesn't take many to be too much for my tastes). Don't know if that was McDermott just feeling he couldn't sit back in coverage down 2 corners and Milano by play 11. They got burned on a couple for definite.

The defense was more than shorthanded. It was all but obliterated by the time the Jags scored those two late TDs. As for the playcalling on offense I'd like to say I disagree but I can't. The last three weeks they have played against teams running a lot of zone and the dink and dunk has worked. They were still using that plan yesterday when it was clear, even early, that the Jags were running a ton of man concepts.

I agree with every point here and it pretty much all aligns with what I saw in the stadium (with the exception actually of the Dodson grade, I thought he was better than Williams but struggled in space as well). On #15 Johnson is one of the most innovative and creative RUN game coordinators you have ever seen. And he is that. His passing game is very simple and quite vanilla. He is a bit Greg Roman like in that regard but I think he understands who his players are in the pass game better than Roman and leans into what they do. Their passing game callsheet has got fewer pass concepts than most teams in the league based on what he calls. But he is a genius in the run game.

They get a pass yesterday because by the 2nd series they were down: Their best defensive player Both starting corners Their best EDGE player (at least until Von proves himself healthy) And their 1T By the end of the game (when the Jags scored two touchdowns) they had a practice squad defensive tackle on their 1st team DL as an edge.

The Bills ended up on Sunday with a PS defensive tackle playing defensive end on the first unit (he is at best their 7th choice at the position). The other defensive end out there is probably their 4th best guy when everyone is healthy. So whether you think Rousseau was average or whatever last year (he was better than that) the drop off from him to what was out there yesterday is still significant. They were down both starting corners. And then while I agree with you re. Daquan Jones's career and the lack of demand for his services (I have said that myself recently in response to people who were desperate to extend him) there is absolutely zero doubt that he has been a really important and consistent player in this defense since he signed. And then they also lost their best defensive player a first team all pro last year who was trending that way again. That explains what happened yesterday (plus Taron missing some plays though he returned to the game). It is really simple. They ran out of players. If the Bills had to play that defense without all those guys the rest of the year it would be a bottom feeder defense. And that wouldn't be a GM problem. It would be an injury problem. Luckily, they don't. They have lost 3 important players for the year. Two of the 3 former first team all pros on this unit and Jones. That hurts. But Floyd isn't serious by the looks of it and they will get Rousseau, Von, Kingsley and Shaq all back healthy. Add that to AJE who has really come on since the middle of last season they should still have some horses to rush the passer. They will get Benford back and that helps at corner. They will miss Jones but they at least have some vet depth there (even if neither Settle nor Ford really float my boat much). Milano is the biggest miss. He is our best defensive player. It is like taking Chris Jones off the Chiefs (they are immediately noticeably worse) or Nick Bosa off the 49ers (when he missed most of 2020 they went from 6th in sacks in 2019 to 27th in sacks). You can't replace those elite players. Nobody in the NFL can. That is why when you lose them it sucks so hard. In short I expect the Bills defense to still be top half of the league. But without the 3 guys it has lost for the year it won't be top 5 IMO. However, if they had to end up with the guys who were on the field at the end of the game yesterday playing all year across the board.... then they would be towards the bottom of the league defensively. And one final point... injuries were a problem on defense at the end of last season too. I have said it they were without Von at the end of the year, had Tre not back to his best and then Oliver and Poyer held together by sticky tape and Jones missed the playoff loss too. The pattern here is simple.... when you take or severely handicap 5 or 6 starter off a defense and they are among the best players on that defense the defensive performance declines. That is the NFL. EDIT: please do not do your usual and stretch this to "the GM is blameless." Because I haven't said that. I have talked to you before about the fact that there are legit questions in my mind as to some of the team building decisions. And I have even agreed with you on some of them (e.g. going with two old safeties off injuries and the middle linebacker position as it looked before the season). But putting the collapse of the defense at the end of the game yesterday down as a "GM issue" is ridiculous. It was an injury issue.

Most of Vickers's snaps came at edge from what I saw. Was a result of Von being on a strict pitch count, Jonathan getting hurt and Floyd being nicked up too.

My sleep is always all over the place for 72 hours.

It always takes me 3 days to get right. Can only speak for myself but that is what it takes.

Okay, fair, regular season.

The Bills haven't lost by more than 1 score in almost 2 years.

Thank you. Makes sense to me.

Agree. Although I don't think a factor in the Milano injury. I think that was just one of those unfortunate things that can happen. The turf was more of a factor in that than the exhaustion / jetlag IMO.

It was right infront of me. Diggs had his man beat. He had to come back to the ball. It was underthrown there is no doubt about it. I need to watch back to see just how much pressure Josh was under when he let it go... it might explain it. But it wasn't an elite throw that Diggs should have come down with. It was an underthrown ball that was a 60-40 DB pick.

I mean lots of teams are trying. There are Shanahan disciples all over the place - Houston, Miami, Green Bay, the Rams etc.. but none of them have the same collection of talent - perfectly cultivated for the scheme - nor do they have Kyle Shanahan. He is the best play designer of his generation and possibly one of the best ever.

He would frustrate the hell out of Kyle Shanahan. The 49ers offense is a paint by numbers offense. If you don't paint by the right number Shanahan hates it. He doesn't want ad libers. He wants people who run his plays. Because he is the best play designer in football and he is an arrogant so and so. It is why his best success has been with system QBs.... Schuab in Houston, Ryan in Atlanta, Jimmy and Brock in San Fran. But if Josh could learn to just run Kyle's plays it would be deadly.

Pour it in the turf at Shite Hart Lane?