HappyDays

We're lucky Tua is throwing this game

Difference in offensive coaching is clear in this game, unfortunately

I gave Bass a lot of crap during the offseason. He picked a great time to suddenly start kicking perfect drives up the middle.

I don't think that should be PI, as long as it's consistent both ways I'm good with it

Good pass protection there!

Why don't we use Samuel on plays like that? He has been non existent in this offense.

Hahaha Tua worth every penny

DL is responsible for that entire drive. Zero push in the run or pass rush. The Dolphins OL is supposed to be a weakness to. Where's Ed Oliver been through two weeks?

This DL never shows up in big moments. Never has in McDermott's entire tenure

We're getting zero push, even on a mishandled snap they manage to gain a yard because nobody can get in the backfield

They are killing us on the edges right now

For all the crap I've given McDermott I've never had an issue with his 4th down decision making. He has a good feel for when you take the points or go for it. Against this offense after stealing a possession you go for it.

Too easy!!

Brady took the momentum away. Conservative play calling again. Make them pay for the INT

What a play!!

Rasul's tackling skills are very underrated

Here's an interesting nugget: A lot of the offseason discussion around Keon centered on whether he would primarily be an outside or slot WR (paging @GunnerBill). The Bills at least to start off are using him exclusively as an outside WR. He is indeed our starting X. Although I think they will move him around the formation more as the season goes along, to take advantage of his natural YAC skills by scheming him into free releases.

I blame McDermott for that return more than Smiley. It's a game management issue, not a special teams coaching issue. The only thing we can't do there is give up a quick TD. Literally kicking it sideways out of bounds on purpose would have been better. We did the right strategy on the final kickoff - concede some return yards while ensuring they don't score a TD.

You think that was harsh? I complimented them for making no mistakes. If you're going to have a group of role players with no dominant individual player, that's what needs to happen. Everyone needs to play their role and make very few or no mistakes. If you have AJ Brown, Davonta Smith, and Saquon Barkley, you can afford some mistakes. In our offense there is very little margin for error. The skill players to their credit walked that line and passed their first test. Shakir and Coleman even went above and beyond a couple times. If we can do that every week combined with Allen playing as well as he did, I think we can put up 30 on just about anybody.

Kelvin Beachum was TERRIBLE in this game. My god look at those feet. Also I wonder if the RB is supposed to chip to give Beachum an extra tick to get into his stance? Either way Beachum never really gets there so Von is given a free stab while he's still getting his feet under him and that's the end of the rep. I'll acknowledge it is nice to see Von make a play, any play, but this is not really that impressive IMO. He catches an OT before he is in his stance and still doesn't ever look like he is going to break free and collect a sack, until one of Beachum's flailing legs catches Murray's foot and he falls over. From this angle especially you can how close Murray is to escaping to the left and nobody is catching him short of the sticks. Murray needed to recognize what was happening and step up sooner, the lane was there.

Haha skimming through this thread I can't believe how much passionate discussion has come from that one play. In real time and watching it back now it looks like Kyler tripped himself more than anything. We got a little lucky because he has a path out of there to the left if he steps up in the pocket sooner, and if he gets out that is a backbreaking scramble for a 1st down. I'll give some credit to Von for pushing his guy back far enough that Kyler tripped over his leg, but let's be honest that is not a totally clean win that is a solid bull rush with a little bit of luck leading to a sack. Von was what I expected on Sunday. He is now a decent edge rusher who looks better than he did most of last year. He is also not the man that we gave that contract too. Not even close, unfortunately. There is a reason they have Epenesa over him on the depth chart. Even the coaching staff knows he is only good for rotational duties at this point, which is still better than what he was last year at least.

I'll need to see it to believe it. Since Brady took over Shakir has averaged 3.9 targets per game including both playoff games last season. Before checking I would have said 4 targets per game is ideal for his skill set so I'm in lock step with Brady. That would be 68 targets on the year. We know he has elite efficiency with that sort of medium volume. I don't see a skill set that asks for high volume, I see a skill set that can maximize opportunities. The reason Allen had to spread the ball around, and will continue to do so, is because we don't have a focal point target. That includes Shakir. Most offenses around the league, you can point to their #1 guy. In fact most you can point to their #2 as well. Our offense does not appear to have a #1 or #2. It really is going to be about relatively equal distribution. My positive takeaway from Sunday is maybe that can work better than I thought.

Unfortunately though it is not just this year. He struggled quite a bit down the stretch last year too. In fact I made a thread right at the end of the regular season wondering if the Bills should consider benching him for David Edwards. To Torrence's credit he was mostly invisible in the playoffs, in a good way, but now those issues have creeped back up in preseason and against Arizona. It has nothing to do with the players next to him, he just has one fatal flaw that every single DL out there is going to be aware of and they are going to exploit it until he personally makes them stop. That being said I don't support benching him unless it starts to get so bad that it actively puts Josh's health in danger. I still consider this a rebuild season and I would rather give snaps to the young player that we drafted because of his physical gifts, versus playing it safe with a replacement level player. I reserve the right to change this opinion if we get into November and we clearly are a championship contender and Torrence clearly is a weak link. Until then, let him develop and see what happens.

That's a couple steps too far for me. Rice proved you can make him a staple of your offense and he will go off to the tune of 100+ yards. Shakir picked up where he left off last year, as a low volume but extremely high efficiency target. He's a very valuable role player, nothing more nothing less. And that's not a criticism of him at all. Great offenses need great complementary pieces. And that's my takeaway from the entire receiving corps in this game, having also watched the offense back on the all-22. It is all complementary pieces and role players. The best thing you can say about the group in this game is they made no mistakes. There were no egregious missed blocks that I saw, no dropped passes, no miscommunications. And there were a couple outstanding plays mixed in from Coleman and Shakir. I've softened just a bit on my stance from the offseason. If every single role player actually plays their role effectively with no mistakes, maybe that is enough with a unicorn QB distributing the ball. Make no mistake - the 34 points is still a product of Allen more than everything else combined. But I am satisfied that none of his weapons actively inhibited the offense like we've seen way too many times from certain players over the years. I will also give some credit to Brady here. I said after the game that his offensive coaching is serviceable but unspectacular, and I stand by that description, but the one thing he has done since taking over is he has raised the floor of the offense by eliminating the serious mistakes. There were zero plays on Sunday where the ball was put in harm's way, not counting Allen's fumble which was entirely his own fault and had nothing to do with play design. Allen had a big turnover problem under Dorsey. At the time I said that Dorsey in many cases fed Allen's worst instincts and was at least somewhat responsible for the turnover frequency, and I feel vindicated in that belief after seeing Brady take over and immediately remove that boom or bust nature of our offense. I'm very intrigued to see where it goes from here. It feels unfair and wet blanket-y to say "well let's see what happens against better defenses" so for now I'll just enjoy the slight boost in optimism that maybe we really can make this band of 3rd/4th tier players function at an elite level.