Sammy Watkins' Rib

Can't you say the same exact thing about every single QB that has ever played the game though? Even the statues like Bledsoe and Marino would have higher ypc on scrambles then they would on designed runs which for them would pretty much be sneaks. I don't know what the right mix of designed run vs. scramble is. But I do tend to agree the designed runs seem a bit too many. Especially in the Steelers game.

Right now my level of concern remains low. It might jump to a 5 on a scale of 1-10 if we don't see at least one signature Allen game in the next two outings. Something like 350+ total yards 4 total TD's no turnovers and 65%+ completion. But then again we might continue to make the running game a priority which would mean low yardage and TD totals for Allen. So in that case I just want to see the Bills win the next two and move the chains consistently which would mean Allen has to snap out of this sub 60% completion streak he has going.

Great point about the throw-aways. They always seem frustrating in the moment but in reality they are likely the best play for him to make over the options of forcing a bad throw or taking a sack.

Well so far so good I guess. Or, rather be 2-0 and somewhere in the middle of the pack in point differential or 1-1 and leading the lead in point differential? I rather the Bills were 2-0 of course with like a +4 differential. One positive thing to take away is that the defense so far looks pretty good and is a noticeable improvement from last year and has really allowed for the bills to have such a strong differential. Give the offense some time to get it together.

He did line up in the backfield at least once against the Steelers. He came out to Allen's left side and ran a short route. Ball went over the middle to Beasley.

The Dolphins are a good team. They were 10-6 last year. Yeah we have smoked there defense in like the last 4 match ups and blown them out in 3 out of the 4. But they are an improving team that was already good enough to be 10-6 last year. I still think Tua is highly suspect but their offensive personnel around him is really good with a lot of speed. Speed is something I'm not sure our defense handles well. All this is to mean I don't care how we win. Just win. Then I will feel pretty good about being 3-1 heading into the two game Deja vu nightmare of Cheifs and Titans primetime games. A 2-2 record heading into those two game leaves very little margin for error. The thing I hate most about this Dolphins match up is just the history of the series. I feel they are due for a good game against the Bills.

I'd also like to know. I can change my geo location to Buffalo from California and get my google searches to search for Buffalo pizza places but the Fox live stream still gives me the local fox station. This is with using google chrome browser. Any suggestions would be great since the game is less than 48 hrs away now.

May thoughts exactly. 1. don’t expect a change at this point three full years into his career 2. it won’t be a major problem. In other words will lead to very few losses.

Yep. And I am seeing 9 different games instead of 10. And of the 11 fumbles off the top of my head at least one last year was 100% on Zack Moss but credited to Allen simply because Allen was the one who last controlled the ball. No doubt Allen fumbles far more than average for a QB but it is getting blown out of proportion if we think it is a serious issue to be concerned with. As others have noted already far more concerning may be his lack of touch on deep balls.

Seeing the same result for 3+ years and expecting something different is on you is how the old saying goes. I 100% don't expect the fumbling issue to ever go away with Allen. Does that make me afraid or think less of Allen as our franchise QB? Not in the least. I'd say the comp would be Brett Favre where you knew every now and then he was just going to absolutely crush you with a boneheaded INT. I'll be concerned if Allen's positives no longer greatly out weigh his bad side. Sunday was not a good game for him. And it wasn't because of the turnovers. Hell, Brady threw 3 INT's in one half of last year's NFCCG. A good QB should easily be able to over come one turnover. The fact that Allen and the offense really couldn't make any big plays on Sunday was what was most concerning to me. Unless last year was a total fluke we shouldn't have to worry about a lack of big plays and production over the long haul from Allen.

Exactly. And in the playoffs it was the only one out of the three games that Allen didn't have a fumble that he had his worst overall performance. I rather Allen not fumble as well but it's not as bad as throwing and INT. A fumble you have a 50/50 chance of recovering. An INT is 100% a turnover. He's cut way back on the INT's in general. So if we are talking essentially one turnover a game from the QB, as long as that QB is also making plays, Bills will be fine. Could it cost the Bills a playoff game? Sure it could. But it didn't last year. And I would feel very confident in saying rarely will it be the reason for a postseason loss.

Miami has some legitimate speed on their team both at the WR position and in the backfield. Something the Steelers didn't have. Luckily, Tua is a far inferior QB to Big Ben so that should help even things out. Offensively I'm not sure what to expect. Just hope we can get more easy completions. Allen forced the ball into far too many tight spots with 2-3 defenders last week. Let's use the RB screen game and outlet passes more this week.

Is this a trick question or a stupid question?

thanks I will get to it eventually.

Also, I believe the lone TD was out of a 4wr set?? Just guessing because Davis was on the field. If so we would need to break down the productivity of each formational set. We’re the bills more or less productive out of 11 vs 01 vs 10 etc.

Edit: meant to quote Badolbillz here. way to early to say. Did we run 4 and 5 receiver sets yesterday at significantly higher rate then we did last year? Are those numbers out yet? I still recall a lot of 11 personnel yesterday. We at least need the actual personnel play counts to make a decision. And even then it’s one game against what is typically a great defense likely again this year. Allen also threw into tripple coverage in the intermediate to deep range too often yesterday it seemed.

Exactly. Even when he is overhyped to start a game, that is just it, to start a game. It's not the entire game. So as long as Allen doesn't turn the ball over on every opening possession the Bills and Allen will be fine.

I've been thinking we will see a 6,000 yard passer for a while now. And that was before the switch to 17 games. Dak is on a heck of a run going back to last year. My favorite to reach 6000 yards would have been Allen because I think Daboll is going to call a ton of passing plays this year. But after watch Dallas start the season where they left off last year, the favorite probably has to be Dak. 375ypg for 16 games is 6,000 yards. Even though we have a 17 game season now I would think a good amount of starting QB's will really only play 16 games due to sitting out a game at the end of the season. Dak's last four full games starting has him on pace for like 7,300 yards over a 16 game span. Even a drastic drop could have him right around 6,000 yards. I'd like to see the Bills and Allen stay in contention for the top passing offense in the league but at the same time being far more efficient. Where as Dak may have to average 52 attempts a game maybe Allen can average only 42.

Josh Allen is one of the best, if not the best QB in the league on 3rd and 10+ situations. The numbers have shown this for two straight years now too.

Exactly. It's crazy what the NFL has become. The opening night game a perfect example. A 44 year old QB throws the ball 50 times ( 3 of them throw away's at the end but still) and a QB coming off not playing for almost a year and dealing with a upper throwing motion muscle issue, the team throws caution to the wind and let's him attempt 58 passes. Allen in his career has yet to throw 50 or more times in a game. His career high in attempts for a game is 49 and he's only had two games for his career with 45+ attempts. I'm a strong believer that that is about to change drastically. Until the Thursday night Cowboys/Bucs game I thought Allen should be the easy favorite to lead the league in attempts and passing yards this year as it looks like we are doubling down on our passing offense. But now I am not so sure. Was really shocked that the Cowboys allowed Dak to throw it as many times as he did. Maybe it was match up driven but that would ignore the fact that the Cowboys passing game pretty much picked up from where it left off last year.

I agree it was bad. I thought Allen was by far the best player on the team that night. And that says a lot because he was only okay IMO. The entire team, offense and defense was out of sink. It felt like one of those rare games where you sometimes hear of coaches saying alright we aren't even going to watch the film on this game it was so bad and so out of character for the team. I chalk a lot of that up to the change of circumstances, the ridiculously bad and unfortunate play by Roberts who really shouldn't even ever be playing the WR position that really set the tone for the night. The Bills were out of sorts. Even leading up to that game there was a strong feeling of the "TItans vs. the world" because of how they were being blasted and blamed for their covid outbreak. Was not shocked in the least that they came out with a strong focus and played exceptionally well on both sides. The other games, the KC games the Chargers games, they didn't really have any unusual circumstances or excuses they shouldn't have already been familiar with. We just have to disagree on the Jets game. It wasn't a perfect game by any means. That is why it was a glass half full / half empty game. But a bad game by the offense? That would be incorrect. Bills surely tripped over themselves on offense preventing TD's both literally and figuratively. But still, 126 yards rushing, 5.0 ypc, no punts, 300 plus yards passing 90 QB rating. Jets, Patriots and Steelers games. They were not perfect or good offenses games all around. But I would not define either as bad overall either. KC games and Chargers games. Those three games felt like overall bad games by the offense.

Each game has to be looked at individually. And even then each game can often be seen as a game inside a game. The Steelers game is a perfect example. The Bills offense was bad in the first half. Maybe even really bad. But in the second half they scored 17 points. They set the tone coming out of the half with the proper adjustments and scored TD's on their first two possessions of the second half. Then late in the game they get the ball back with over 7 minutes left in the game up 11 and never let the Steelers posses the ball again. Just running on them at will and eating up the clock. They didn't score on every possession in the second half but the eye test showed a nearly perfect performance in the second half given the strength of opponent, tightness of the game coming out of the half and the adjustments that were made. Then you have the the first Patriots game. If I am not mistaken, that game saw 20+ mph winds like the Ravens game. You wouldn't expect an offense to perform it's best in such conditions. Just like both the Ravens and Bills offenses were far below their averages in similar conditions in the divisional round playoff game. I'm not sure why you think holding the Patriots to 21 was good though. The Patriots were held to far less than that a number of times. In fact, they were held to 20 or less in half their games last year. The Jets game is another glass half full / half empty game for the offense. But looking at the game I think I can find more positives from the offense then I can negatives. They didn't punt all game. They were well balanced with over 300 yards passing and 126 yards rushing at over 5 ypc when you subtract Allen's two kneel downs. Sucks they didn't score a single TD but it was some pretty bad luck to not get at least one on the day when one is taken off the board by a pre snap penalty and the other by a turf monster that got Kroft. Also, of Bass's 8 FG attempts only one was over 50 yards in length and four out of the eight were 40 yards on less, meaning that the Bills were sustaining drives well into Jets territory most of the time. When I look back at last season, none of the 3 games I mentioned above strike me as games where I have any kind of concern about the offensive performance with regards to predicting future success or lack of. Off the top of my head the three easily most concerning games offensively last year were both KC games and the Chargers game. The Titans game less so then these three because of many different factors from the schedule change, John Brown injury, fluke ball bouncing off of Roberts helmet for the INT play, and general uncharacteristic penalties and drops by a variety of players.

Never done an auction draft but would like to do one sometime. I guess the strategy with auctions would be to nominate players you don't actually want on your team but that you think will receive multiple bids. That way other league owners end up spending their cap space on players you never even intended on drafting which frees up more cap space for you to bid on the players you do want.

Had my draft last night. My brother took Allen one pick before me at #26 overall in a 12 team league. I wasn't planning on taking Allen this year. Last year I did but was able to get him later. This year my strategy was to wait as long as possible and still get one of the top tier fantasy QB's. Was hoping for Wilson or Murray. Ended up with Lamar Jackson. The other guy i was high on was Stafford and actually ended up getting him in the 10th round as my back up. If defenses have indeed figured out Jackson then I feel pretty good having Stafford. Ended up going Travis Kelce at #3 overall. With McCaffery and Cook off the board I didn't want to agonize over which RB to take at #3. Ended up with Najee Harris and CEH as my top two backs. The only other back on my roster is Singletary so I am a little light at that position.

Yeah I thought that was weird too.