HappyDays

I think what's actually happened is too many officiating crews have called soft defensive holding penalties for years now, so now our eyes are attuned to seeing penalties that aren't there. This game is an example of how it should always be called. Just call the egregious ones. It makes the viewing experience so much better.

So sick of Mahomes whining for every single flag. You just clotheslined yourself with that face mask, man. The defender didn't do it on purpose.

You think so? I'm enjoying it a lot. It isn't sloppy. The defenses are just playing out of their minds and the refs aren't calling soft penalties.

He and Anarumo are far and away the best defensive coaches in football IMO. Both are a much bigger reason for those teams' recent playoff successes than a lot of casual fans realize.

Defense has made a big comeback across the league this year. Every week this becomes more clear. It tooks a few years but DCs have figured out the rules of these modern explosive offenses and are using those rules against them.

In addition to all of the critical coaching failures in high leverage moments in close games, I don't think we talk enough about the Bills falling into a rut for several games in a row every single year under McDermott. It's uncanny. Other contenders have bad games, not bad months. Every year one bad loss spirals into several games of ineptitude, and those bad streaks have kept us out of the #1 seed multiple times. We just got through one such streak, and it came during a soft period when we should have been stacking wins to guarantee a playoff spot. At some point isn't the head coach responsible for that repeated failure? Coaching isn't just about scheme or game planning, it's about managing the players. That's not something you can really measure objectively, but clearly McDermott has a hard time keeping the team's emotions and/or focus under control for an entire season. I just don't know how we'll ever win a Super Bowl with a coach that has a habit of poor decisions in critical moments and runs a team susceptible to bad streaks. That is not a recipe for success.

Pickens is the most overrated WR in the league IMO. I think Bills fans specifically overrate him because he had a lot of production against us last year. He has a few incredible contested catches every season but that can't be the only way you make a living as an NFL WR. The consistent separation just isn't there.

In case it's cut off:

Fournette isn't an upgrade over Murrary. I don't care about a single PS signing, ever, and I don't understand why fans assume he will have any impact on our season. Maybe we elevate him a couple times in games with a run-heavy game plan... Outside of that what does he really offer over Murrary? Linval Joseph is a bare minimum 1T signing, which is to say I really like it because we didn't already have the bare minimum on the roster. Douglas I really like, this is the real needle mover for me. CB is the only premium position where we had a gaping hole on the roster and it seemed inconceivable that we could make it through a championship run with Benford + Jackon and only the corpse of Josh Norman behind them. As others have mentioned we are still lacking in the playmaker department. I don't think there were any realistic trades to be made there so I won't fault Beane twice for the same mistake, but unfortunately it does now appear that failing to acquire DeAndre Hopkins in the offseason was indeed a serious mistake. For the meager price of some of the worst players on our team - Phillips, Ford, and Settle to start - plus some clever contract structuring, we could have had arguably the most dangerous offense in football, and one built to win in January. Too late for that now though. So we're resting our hopes of even making it to the playoffs on a solid CB, a bare minimum 1T, and a PS RB.

Tua is not on Burrow's level. Tua is a one read QB, and I credit McDermott for finding a way to take his first read away, but it isn't that simple against Burrow. If we have any chance in this one it will be up to our offense to put up at least 30 points, but I think the Bengals have more answers defensively than we have offensively.

Bengals 29 Bills 17 Wish I felt differently. I just hate this matchup for us. I think Anarumo versus Dorsey is a huge mismatch. Our WRs behind Diggs just had a nice day, but against a superior opponent that has a week to gameplan I doubt those free access plays will be there for the taking. I think Cincy's DL stunts will confuse us as they have before. I don't think we can run the ball up the middle against them. I see basically no advantages anywhere with our offense over their defense. I don't trust our DL to really affect Burrow at all. I haven't seen anything from McDermott's play calling that makes me think we will confuse Burrow or make him hold the ball. The Bengals offense has been clicking and I just don't see us having the answers schematically or from our personnel. But hey last week I predicted the Bucs to beat us so hopefully the reverse jinx works again.

This shows Dane Jackson at about 23% separation prevented, and Rasul Douglas at about 71% separation prevented. Huge upgrade. Benford is actually one of the best in the league at just over 80% separation prevented. He and Douglas make a really nice tandem.

As of yesterday they had physicals scheduled but I'm not sure what happened after that. I'm trying to find out.

Yeah the design of the play and the concept all make sense and show a good understanding of how to beat Tampa's principles. But you are still allowing an opportunity for the defense to execute it right and beat the play call, with no backup plan if that happens. Allen in the past has won plays even when the defense executed their side perfectly, often times for TDs. So for me, with Allen as the QB I always want that backup option built in on 4th down. If the play calls for him to release the ball as soon as he takes the snap, you've essentially left it up to chance and eliminated any second opportunity for him to create something out of nothing. That's a play call you make on 4th down if Tua is your QB. Not Josh Allen. JMO of course.

The coverage adjustment happened after the snap when Allen's arm was already in motion to throw the ball... And film study on Tampa's defense is what led them to run that exact play... Did you actually read the snippet I posted? You're just plain wrong on this one. That's what happens when you start with a narrative and then try to fit the facts around it. Take it up with the former QB that wrote that article if you don't believe me.

I know you're on some kind of weird anti-Josh Allen crusade over the past few weeks, but that play was not arm arrogance and was not Allen's fault at all. It was essentially a designed one read play that Tampa Bay had to execute perfectly to defend, and they did. Jim Kubiak broke it down (article is behind a paywall): https://buffalonews.com/sports/professional/nfl/bills/jim-kubiak-hey-ken-dorsey-more-up-tempo-and-three-and-four-wide-receiver-sets/article_fb83e8f2-7657-11ee-a15b-b789b4ae1667.html So what I didn't like about this play call is you essentially take the ball out of your best player's hands on 4th down. No different than a goalline fade as far as how much of a role Allen has on the play. Why are we removing his playmaking ability from the equation entirely? Dorsey had an excellent game plan and excellent play designs for the most part but he nearly screwed it up with goofy play calls to end our first two drives.

I was just told Suh and Ioannidis will both be made official after their physicals. Not sure yet if it will be active roster or PS for them.

He has been rehabbing from a back injury.

I was told yes it is possible we sign both. Presumably (my guess, not from my source) we would put Elam on IR and then cut one of Settle or Ford if we want to add both. Or maybe Ioannidis starts on the PS.

I have a source. Others on here will vouch for me.

At DT, they are targeting Ndamukong Suh or Matt Ioannidis. Medical work is being done on both.

Medical work is being done on Ndamukong Suh and Matt Ioannidis.

Elam has had a bone bruise since the last week of training camp that hasn't quite healed. Beane's comments today about his nagging ankle injury, that's what he is referring to.