msw2112

This is not original either. Michigan has been playing this song between the 3rd and 4th quarters since 2016 and it's a big deal there. https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2021/10/how-mr-brightside-by-the-killers-became-a-michigan-stadium-tradition.html As a Michigan alum, I'm fine with my favorite pro team using the same song, but just need to clarify that this is NOT original to the Bills. Also, I have not read all of the posts in this thread, so maybe I'm not the first person to point this out, but at least I have a link to provide further background....

I agree with this. I'm cautiously optimistic, but they've only played 3 games and none of the 3 opponents have turned out to be world beaters. I remember a couple of years ago when they crushed the Super Bowl Champion Rams on opening week and had some dominant performances after that and were on top of the league, but hit some stumbling blocks as the season went on. I'm thrilled with what I've seen so far and not looking to piss in anyone's cornflakes, but just trying to be realistic. I do think that an offense that is so varied will be easier to sustain than Diggs inside, Diggs outside, Diggs left, Diggs right, etc. Plus, they have several quality defensive players coming back from injury.

I have not read all the posts to this thread. Personally, I don't prefer to watch alone. I enjoy the company of others, and for football games in general, I don't mind a bunch of people around. In fact, I really enjoy it. That said for MY TEAMS (the Bills, and my alma mater Michigan Wolverines), I only prefer to be around CERTAIN people. Those people have to meet the following criteria: Focus on the game, or leave the room. No idle chit chat about topics unrelated to the game. Understand the basics of football. Don't get up to refill your drink, walking right in front of the TV, on 4th and 1. put your f'ing phone down! We're here to watch the Bills play, not to see what's up on your social media account. Know me and that I am going to be loud and making commentary on every play. (The right tackle flinched! Did you see that? How could they not call that?) Don't tell me to calm down, take it easy, it's not a big deal, or it's only football....I've been looking forward to this all week (or longer) and I'm emotionally invested in it. I will calm down and get back to reality at some point after the game. Football certainly is not life, and there are other things more important than football, but for those 3 hours, let me live in that world. There is one caveat. If your house is on fire....This actually happened to me. I was watching a game that I had recorded and did not know the outcome. When this happens, I typically shut off my phone, so there are no interruptions or spoilers. One time a few years ago, my phone rang a couple of times and I did not pick up. A few minutes later, I looked out the window to see fire engines pulling up to my neighbors' house. The older lady next door had a fire and was calling for help! I felt lower than low! Now, I will see who is calling, pick up the phone, and lead with "I'm watching the game on delay...if you know what happens, please don't say anything...how can I help?"

Since moving away from Buffalo 30+ years ago, I only make it back for a game once every couple of years (and mix in a few road games too). I was at the opener this year.... This Carolina comeback game happens to be one of the ones I was at. I remember the last-second victory, but I had forgotten how lucky EJ and the Bills were to be bailed out by a ticky tack pass interference penalty. That looks like the call that Mahomes gets weekly (and Brady used to get). One of the other games I made it to during the drought era was one where JP Losman led a comeback for a last-second victory over Jacksonville (in 2006).

All AFC East teams Pittsburgh Dallas Kansas City Philadelphia Cincinnati All of these with the caveat that I will root for those teams if them winning will be advantageous to the Bills in the standings. These are all teams that either have overbearing, obnoxious fanbases, or teams that are currently thorns in the Bills' side, and in some cases, both. I was going to specify which teams fit each category, but I don't think that's necessary with this audience. Some teams may come and go based on their current staff and players. For example, I rooted against the Bears when Jay Cutler was their QB and against the Cardinals when Kliff Kingsbury was their head coach. I just couldn't stand those guys and did not want to see them win.

Kicking is all mental. I don't think that extra pressure, the threat of losing his job, and "trying harder" is going to help Bass or any kicker. Making him "a little less comfortable" is not likely to help a guy who is already suffering on the mental side of the game. If anything, it's just more bad stuff to get in his head. I understand why the Bills are doing it, however, as they need a fallback option if Bass simply can't get it together, or maybe Bass does have some kind of injury and they need to have someone available in the event Bass can't go. Based on statistics, it doesn't sound like either of these guys are any good, and certainly not as good as Bass (even "bad" Bass).

I would like to take NO credit for Benford. The day we drafted him, I said who in the hell is this kid from Villanova and why are we drafting him? Who drafts NFL players from Villanova?

I had the exact same thought when I saw his name. Other thoughts: Benford is a beast Tre White is definitely not fully back from injury, and unfortunately, may never get back to his peak form Sauce Gardner has a cool nickname

I agree that the Dolphins were terrible. In particular, Tua, pre-injury. He was high and wide on lots of passes, including the 2nd interception, which sailed way over the receiver's head. And while Ingram's pick-6 was fun as a Bills fan, what an absolutely horrible pass for a NFL QB to throw! Those picks, along with the one in the early going that bounced off the receiver's shoulder pad really made it easy for the Bills. All this said, the Bills capitalized on all of the opportunities presented and also helped create their own luck. Some of the reason Tua's throws were off was that he was feeling the heat from the Bills pass rush and hurrying his throws, leading to a lack of accuracy. And Cook was terrific. And Josh made several key throws on 3rd downs to keep drives alive. And credit the Bills coaching staff for doing this without: Diggs, Davis, Morse, Hyde, Poyer, Milano, T. Johnson, and Bernard.

For what it's worth, I've watched the clip several times and it sure looks to me like Miller pushed the tackle back into Murray, which is what caused Murray to go down. After he hits the ground, Miller taps him to finish out the play. It was an excellent rep by Miller at a critical point in the game. Miller deserves the sack.

I think it's just semantics, but I agree with half of this. Sunday was mildly encouraging. I thought that Miller DID prove that a) he's better than last year; and b) he is at a level where he can be on the field and make a contribution to the pass rush. I agree that he did not prove that he's worth $20M per season or that he's going to play at his former Hall of Fame level, but he did prove something.

Von played pretty well on Sunday and made a couple of key plays. While he's not the Von Miller in the prime of his career and never will be again, he was most definitely much better than anything we saw from him last year. As most suspected, he needed more time to come back from the injury. He's on the team this year and he took a pay cut, so even though his compensation (still) outweighs his production and likely will for the remainder of the season, that's in the past and nothing can be done about it. I'd rather focus on the positives from Sunday and see what he can do for the rest of the season. Unlike last season, where he added nothing and shouldn't have been on the field, he's now adding value to the team.

I agree with this. I was at the game and the phantom roughing the passer call was right in front of us. It was obvious that the defender did not contact Murray and in fact, made every effort to avoid hitting the QB, and successfully avoided contact. That was a huge call that massively shifted the momentum in the game. I agree that there we some other calls that favored the Bills, but none that had such a major impact on the game. A borderline penalty on 1st or 2nd down just doesn't have the same impact as one on 3rd or 4th down after the defense has made a drive-ending stop, but the offense is given a free first down (which then lead to a TD). I agree that the the roughing the passer against Arizona that was NOT called was not roughing the passer and should not have been called EXCEPT THAT because they called the first one against the Bills, in order to call the game fairly and consistently, it should have been called. Further, the roughing the passer against Arizona that they DID call was not roughing the passer and should not have been called. Finally, based on where I was sitting, I did not have a clear view of the final play, but we've all seen plays less close than that one called as DPI and the Bills were very fortunate that the flag did not come out (whether or not it was DPI). Based on what I was able to see from replays, it was not DPI, but close enough that an official in real time might have decided to throw the flag. There was one other pass defended against McBride where the defender made a clean play (no contact with the WR), but never turned his heard around. I thought that could have been called DPI and was not, so that one favored the Bills too. I always struggle with those calls where the player doesn't turn their head around or make any type of play on the ball (basically, they are right on top of the receiver, get in between the receiver and the ball, don't make any significant contact with the receiver, it hits them in the back and goes incomplete), is that pass interference? I feel like it's subjective and is called both ways.

You are correct. It's only a 10-team league, so decent talent at the back end of the roster. I drafted Pitts on Tuesday night and saw that he tweaked his hammy on Wednesday. I'll have to monitor and possibly pick up a TE for Sunday if Pitts can't go.

My draft was a bunch of guys from across the country, so we did it online. Based on my work schedule, I requested a 6 PM start time. The guys went with 5:30 with very little notice. I got home around 5:40, and knowing I'd be a bit late, I had asked that they pause the draft when my 1st round pick came up. Apparently they were not very tech savvy and couldn't figure out how to stop the draft. By the time I got logged in, the 2nd round was over and my first two picks were made by auto draft. I was pretty pissed off, to say the least, but I don't think their failure was intentional. Auto-draft gave me two WR's - St. Brown and Nacua - not terrible - but probably not who I would have picked in those spots. I recovered and ESPN graded my draft a "B". I usually try to get at least one Bills player, but most of the guys in the league have ties to Buffalo and they grabbed everyone. I would have liked to have Shakir, in particular, and Samuel in the late rounds. I love Allen, but someone always overdrafts him, so I know he wouldn't be available. Ray Davis is still available as a free agent, but I went with Blake Corum in the last round instead, as I think he'll get some opportunity with the Rams and seize the job before it's all said and done.

I have not played chess in years. Maybe I should take it up again.

You are correct, Win-Loss is a team stat. That was exactly my point. I don't care what the offensive statistics are, as long as the team is winning. All the parts of a team interconnect. If Brady's offense gets the ball into FG range and Bass makes the kick, then offense and special teams compliment each other. If the Bills' offense goes on a time consuming drive, the defense is rested and fresh and may be more effective when they come on the field. Even if the offense doesn't score, if they get the ball from inside the 10 out to midfield before punting, they've "flipped the field" making it easier for the defense. If the offense gets a big lead and the other team is forced to pass the ball, the defense can take more chances rushing the passer, as there's little threat of the run. Conversely, if the offense turns the ball over, or sputters and punts from their own end zone, they make it more difficult for the defense and special teams. Finally, there's the mental aspect of the game. If the offense is effective and pushing the other team around and/or putting a lot of points on the board, it creates positive energy on the sidelines which helps the defense and special teams. If you've ever played football (or really any team sport), you'll know what I'm talking about. I fully agree with you that 10 games is a small sample size. Other teams will watch film and adjust to what Brady is trying to do. Time will tell if he can continue to be successful. As I said above, I like the philosophy of spreading the ball and using a lot of pre-snap motion, as it keeps the defense guessing, giving an advantage to the offense. The Dorsey approach of making one WR (Diggs) the focal point of the offense had grown stale and was not working effectively by the end of Dorsey's tenure.

You're not wrong, but Brady went 6-1 with the same QB and players that Dorsey went 5-5 with, against a tougher schedule. Maybe it was just because it was new and there wasn't much film on the Brady offense with the Bills, or maybe Brady did a great job. Maybe Dorsey was just terrible and thus NOT like every other OC in the league. We'll find out over 17 games this season.

The only statistic I care about is the Win-Loss record. If I'm correct, they were 5-5 with Dorsey and 6-1 with Brady, and the schedule was arguably more difficult with Brady (and the season was on the line). The running game looked the best it has looked in many years (again, I don't know what the stats say, but I don't really care). I'm on board with the OP in being curious about how it's all going to play out. I'm optimistic that it will play out well, as I believe the offense is more diverse and thus much less predictable for opposing defenses. Although they may not have a WR as good as Diggs, assuming everyone is healthy, there are lot of options among the run game, the RB passing game, Kincaid and Knox at TE, Shakir, Samuel, Coleman, and the other guys (Hollins, MVS, etc.) There is also more pre-snap motion, which further disguises the plays before the ball is snapped. I believe that the Dorsey offense was far too focused on Diggs and became stale and predictable.

Last season, Diggs started off the season in Buffalo hot, with more than 100 receiving yards in five of his first six games. But he didn’t go over 100 yards—and he notched only two scores—for the rest of the season. If it didn’t look like Diggs was having fun that’s because, well, he wasn’t. “Last year, I was in the worst mental space I’ve been in since I’ve been in the league,” Diggs says. “If I'm not in a good space, obviously that's not the best for me. So that's when things had to start shaking out.” “The games looked a lot different,” he says. “You can blame me. I don’t mind blaming me. I got big-ass shoulders. But pay attention, pay real close attention. Watch the game. Of course there’s plenty of plays I want back. But there’s a lot of plays that didn’t go my way. I need a lot of things to go right to get the ball…. You can't roll out of bed and get 800 yards in the first eight games. Your best receiver’s doing that. You tell me about the last 10. What changed? Were there changes going on? I just pay attention to what really happened and not what people try to act like happened. Like, for the last 10 games, I forgot how to ***** play football?”

I think all can agree that if Allen goes down early in the season with a season-ending injury, then the season is effectively over. Even if we had a guy like Tannehill, who has started and won a lot of games in the NFL, he's not good enough to overcome the loss of Allen and win a Super Bowl against the league's best. Could Tannehill get the team to a wild-card berth? Sure. Is he going to beat the top teams in the later rounds of the playoffs? No. That said, if the Bills are 6-2 and Allen goes down for a month, Trubisky could potentially go 2-3 or 1-4 over 5 weeks. If he went 1-4, the Bills would then be 7-6 (my math isn't the best, but I think I've got this) with Allen returning for the remaining 4 games and the playoffs. The Bills would still have a good chance for success. And who knows, maybe Brady gets the running game humming. And Von Miller returns to half of his old self. Smoot and Solomon put some pressure on the QB. The new safeties are more athletic than Poyer and Hyde and do well in McDermott's system. Dorian Williams figures it out and plays well (or Andreessen plays like he did in the Pittsburgh preseason game). It's a lot, but if all of these things happen - a great running game and a solid defense - why couldn't a backup QB, even Trubisky, go 3-2 or 4-1 over a stretch of the season, winning games 14-10 or 17-16? The punter would be busy, but the Bills have had huge margins of victory with Allen under center. With Trubisky or another backup, that's not going to happen, but it's possible to win games other ways. We do, of course, have a "defensive-minded" head coach.

While I'm not a fan of private equity, I think this is right. All of Davis' net worth is tied up in the franchise, so without that, he has little cash flow. To clarify, I'm sure his cash flow is better than ours (TBD members), but as far as the world of NFL billionaire owners, his cash flow is low.

I deal with a lot of suppliers in my business. There seems to be a common thread with those suppliers whose quality and service have dropped off, and who would rather fight (and possibly litigate) over an issue than attempt to come to a mutually beneficial resolution. What's that common thread? They've all been purchased in whole or in part by private equity.

To add - over exposure. Do we really need Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, New Year's, and now Black Friday? And frankly, I LOVE NFL football, but was opposed to the move to 17 games and will be opposed to the eventual move to 18. There's already plenty to eat at the buffet. All that last trip up there will do is make you sick. At some point there will be diminishing returns with the over-exposure of the game and it will start to turn some fans off. Monday night used to be "special." Now, it's just another game. Or, now, multiple games. While I'm a die-hard and love NFL football, I truly feel a sense of relief when the season ends. It's difficult to explain, but maybe others here can relate.

Not to get too deep into semantics, but I did qualify it by saying "fairly" young. In other words, he's not a rookie in his early 20's, but he's also not the late 30's veteran backup that some teams go with. He's still under 30. No doubt he's cheap. I'm sure he is being paid whatever minimum he qualifies for. As to being a gamer, when I have seen him play, he's played hard and with a lot of enthusiasm. He's played injured when a lot of guys would have bowed out. He's not a passive type of player. That's what most people consider a "gamer." So I'm not sure what parts of "fairly young, cheap, and a gamer" you don't get. If you want to simply say the guy's stats are not very good, I'm on board with that assessment. I also agree with your assessment that he's a middling low level QB. That's why he's on a Practice Squad and not starting and/or even on an active NFL roster (absent Trubisky not being available due to injury). I'm not excited by the Bills signing him, but I see some logic in it and my thoughts were in line with what I perceived to be the logic behind the signing.