MPT

He gets a ton of pressures. If he weren't held on every play, he'd have elite edge rusher numbers.

He was getting wide open. It's easier to come back for a ball than trying to go deeper. Allen would have hit him right in the chest most of the time. The ball came out of his hand wrong and Clay didn't make the play. They both took responsibility for that play after the game, which they should. Clay is definitely more at fault for not catching a catchable ball, but it wasn't the pass Allen wanted either.

Personal foul on Phillips, pass interference on Milano, several holding calls. It's more about the missed calls against Miami. If you're going to call soft penalties you need to throw the flag for mugging Zay, holding Hughes, and roughing Allen.

The idea of "earning calls" infuriates me. Every player on the field has earned the right to a fair game. Otherwise it's not a sport anymore. It's just theater.

If they used their eyes to make calls, they wouldn't make as many mistakes. The problem is that they look at a situation and try to use context clues to make a call. Receiver flops, must be pass interference. Defensive end throws his hands in the air, must be holding. Quarterback stays on the ground after getting hit, must be roughing the passer. When they're being subjective like that, their opinion of the team or player comes into play. Oh Brady got hit hard? Personal foul. Oh Allen got clotheslined? Not enough evidence. They should only be making calls if they actually see it happen. I would be totally fine with more missed calls if we got rid of all the ones that are subjective.

No they're not. They're saying what every reasonable person is saying. It should have been caught, but it could have also been a better pass.

It hit him in the hands because he dove for it. Still should have been caught, but a "good pass" wouldn't have fluttered down the field (like a couple did today) and would have gotten to a wide open receiver without him diving. Good lord, if people don't say Allen is a 100% perfect Hall of Fame worthy golden child, y'all get so pissy.

Not voting for either. It was a bad pass, but it still should have been caught. Allen was under much more duress than Clay on that throw. Edit: "bad pass", location-wise. It was amazing he got it there at all.

Yeah sorry to burst your bubble but I don't read all your posts. Like I said, all you told me was that Crossman was not responsible for that play. Perhaps he should have drilled that lesson home before it happened on the field. Perhaps he did and McKenzie still mucked it up. But I'm not arrogant enough to pretend to know what he's been coaching in practice. That's why I said "if" to begin with. You seem pretty confident in his coaching ability on this particular play, though. You must because very informed. Glad we have you here to let us know when a particular play is or isn't the coach's fault, despite having no evidence for it either way.

All you told me was that the special teams coach is not responsible for his players' communication and positioning on the field. Or maybe that was just pointless snark, in which case I don't know what you're arguing.

And yet they screwed it up. So either Crossman needs to get it in their heads better, or the players need to be replaced. But as I said, this point is dependent on factors we don't know. So, if you want to argue that Crossman is doing his job well, please address the other concerns I made in my post that can be backed up by results on the field.

Except he didn't get a penalty for waving to the crowd, so who cares? Players do that all the time on defense to make it loud. My point is that most of the penalties today (and all year, every year) can't be fixed by coaching because they are entirely on the officiating crew. Hughes gets a personal foul for congratulating his teammate, Gronk gets nothing for assaulting White with his weaponized elbow. How does coaching have ***** all to do with things like that? Edit: And yes, I used two extreme examples to illustrate the point, but there are a dozen less extreme examples of the same bias in every single game.

Of course a coach has to tell his returner how to clear out blockers, and tell those blockers how to avoid the returner. Maybe he did, and maybe that one was on McKenzie and whoever ran into him. That's why I said "if". It's the second part of my post that is the damning part of his performance and ultimately why he should be replaced.

Which ones do you consider inexcusable? The pass interference that wasn't? The unsportsmanlike conduct that wasn't? The illegal contact that wasn't? The holding that wasn't? The coaches and players are not responsible for bad officiating.

McKenzie didn't really muff it. His own guy ran into him. If their communication is lacking, that's on Crossman. This year has been filled with undisciplined penalties, guys out of position, lack of production on returns, and big gains given up in coverage.

Can't we just agree that he shows a ton of heart and flashes of potential but still has a lot to work on? He's not a savior yet, and he's not a bust yet. You don't have to choose one of those and then act like a child trying to support it. You can praise good plays and criticize bad ones. That's called objective reasoning.

That would be justified. If your boss were giving perks to your co-workers and writing you up for unsubstantiated infractions, then called you a B word when you spoke up about it, what do you think should happen to him/her?

Not when that person abuses the power of their job. That's grounds for termination.

Soooo... Does Hughes have a charity we can donate to in order to offset the fine / suspension he's going to get?

I would completely support the Bills taking 50 penalties in one of these remaining games to make a point. I am so sick of the referees screwing us over game after game, year after year. The league needs to be put on notice that we won't put up with it anymore.

You're forgetting his TD drop last year that hit him in the middle of the chest. There is no ball placement where Clay won't find a way to drop it.

Except he was still in a position to catch it and didn't. That's Clay's modus operandi, especially in the endzone.

Again we get hosed on a non-call when they called Milano for that soft PI.

Perhaps he was terrible in the first half and has gotten much better? That's allowed, you know. Even the best quarterbacks can be criticized for having bad halves.

Not on the quarterback. That is a penalty 100% of the time for anyone not playing the Bills.