HappyDays

So the example you choose to die on a hill is a 2nd and 24? You realize if he takes the 7 yard in cut there it is now 3rd and 15 at best, AKA 3rd and long? And then on the next play he would have to stand a few seconds in the pocket to deliver a long strike? Seems clear to me that you got stuck in the weeds trying to criticize a play that you have no business criticizing and now you're trying to BS your way out of it. If you want to make a point that Allen and the offense need to take easier throws sometimes, have at it. But you chose a bizarre example to make your point on.

I didn't see the problem as Allen not taking what the Steelers defense gave him. He took several quick open throws. The issue to me was that he looked like he was terrified to take a single hit, presumably because the coaches drilled that into his head. I know Allen has a tendency to get a little wild at a hint of pressure but some of his reps on Saturday were way beyond what he looks like in real games. I choose to believe that it is because his priority #1 was to avoid taking hits in a meaningless preseason game. In general the further away I get from the game the better I feel about the offense. Brown and Dawkins were not as bad as I thought on my first watch, Morris was hopeless trying to play Knox's role as the blocking TE, Allen as I mentioned above was more concerned with avoiding contact than playing the position. I expect the offense to still be a top 3 scoring offense as it has been every year since 2020. Hopefully it will be less boom or bust than it was last year. Adding Kincaid and Harty and bumping Cook up to the #1 RB is hopefully a sign that the team wants the offense to be more efficient/on schedule. The defense on the other hand I am genuinely concerned about. Poyer and Hyde may have lost a step, I am not fully confident Tre White is his old self again and I'm even less confident in whoever will be playing across from him, MLB currently may not have even a replacement level player to perform the job, the pass rush looked as ineffective as it did to close out 2022. I worry that until Von Miller is fully recovered we will have zero true game changing difference makers on that side of the ball. Even the Chiefs who have had mediocre defensive talent throughout the Mahomes era at least had Chris Jones giving OCs nightmares and capable of taking over games. Who is that guy on our defense that opponents have to game plan around? When is the last time a Super Bowl participant didn't have a single guy like that on defense? It's a troubling thought.

Yeah taking the 7 yard in route on 2nd and 24 will work every time because the defense gives it up for free. You really blew my mind with that one. By your logic Allen should literally never stand in the pocket and take deep shots. Every long developing play has the potential to become a sack. That is why 2nd and 24 is not easy to get out of... I think our offense should feature more quick game than it did last year, and I believe it will, but miss me with the "1 out of 10 times this perfectly executed deep route and throw will be a strip sack." What kind of point do you think you're making here?

I think week 1 is the best possible timing for this matchup. People point to Brady and Stafford as examples of top QBs that went to new teams and immediately found success, but it took both of them at least half a season to fully find their footing. I expect Rodgers to have a similarly rocky start. Cook is coming off shoulder surgery, Hall is coming off an ACL tear. The OL is a giant question mark, as far as I know they still aren't 100% sure who their five starters will be. There's a lot the Jets still have to figure out and I don't expect all those questions to be answered in three weeks. Say what you want about the Bills, at least all of our core starters are the same players they were last year. Obviously the glaring exception is MLB which is a legitimate concern right now. Other than that I think our team's continuity compared to the Jets gives us a strong advantage in week 1.

Yeah I watched all of his snaps at LT against the Colts and Steelers and didn't see him get beat a single time. He doesn't typically drive his man back in run blocking, but as a pass blocker especially he looks very sturdy. He has prototypical length for a LT and good athleticism, I don't know why he didn't get drafted but that's the kind of UDFA profile that sometimes turns into a winning lottery ticket. We still need to see him against starting edge rushers to see what we have here. Unfortunately we likely won't get that opportunity unless Dawkins gets injured, or maybe we'll get lucky and Chicago will play their defensive starters for a series this weekend so we can get a better look at him.

Nevermind, time to scale back the Torrence hype. PFF gave him a 40.0 out of 100 pass blocking grade. Worse than every Bills offensive lineman other than Ike Boettger. This matches up with what we all saw, right?

So instead of disputing the points I made that directly countered your bizarre interpretation of that play, you decided to climb up on your soapbox and cry "woe is me." My ignore list has grown very quickly over the past 12 months and my enjoyment of the forum has grown with it.

Oh boy... This is all wrong. He went through his progressions right to left and ripped it to Davis as soon as he came to him and saw that the safety on that side of the field was facing the other way and Davis had gotten past his man. If he had thrown that route with the "anticipation" you propose, he would have had to float it in there instead of firing a bullet and the safety would have easily broken up the play or possibly intercepted it. I don't know when it became dogma that seeing a route develop before throwing the ball is a bad thing, but in reality a QB would ideally always want to see a route develop before throwing it so he has more information about what kind throw he should be making. There is a time for anticipation throws, but deep corner routes with a safety roaming that side of the field is not one of them. This is literally basic Madden type stuff. I'm genuinely shocked that you would post an opinion like this so confidently. What is going on these past few pages? Josh double clutches? He doesn't see the field? His OL is secretly top tier? Of course he makes mistakes but some of you are really grasping for straws here and for the life of me I can't understand why. EDIT: Here's the play in question:

That's a ridiculous thing to say. We had a top passing blocking OL for a half season in 2020. Every other period of the Josh Allen era it has been below average. You think all the analytics sites, grading sites, etc. that rate our OL poorly are making it up?

I don't know about Kincaid specifically, but if our 12 personnel offense works as well as I hope this year, because of the two DKs I will be calling that personnel package the Donkey Kong offense.

Just saw this clip from the endzone angle which shows exactly why Josh tried to run away: TJ Watt beats Brown on the spin move and appears to be coming right at Josh with a full head of steam. It's at that moment that Josh decided to escape. What Josh didn't expect, and what he will learn, is that Torrence is already WAY ahead of most rookie offensive linemen and made a great cerebral play coming off his double block and helping Brown trap Watt. This is honestly super impressive from Torrence from a physical and a mental standpoint. Last year the likes of Bates and Saffold wouldn't have made this play. If Allen can trust his IOL to make plays like this on the regular he will stand in the pocket and deliver.

Yeah that play is awful lol. A textbook case of looking at the rush instead of looking at the routes. If I'm going to try and excuse it, I would guess that before the game it was drilled into Josh's head "don't get hit don't get hit don't get hit" a million times so when he sees a flash of TJ Watt making a spin move he instinctually went into escape mode. Josh is not afraid of contact. I know he has the cajones to stand in the pocket. He just has to trust his OL will hold up and not be thinking about escape as soon as the ball is snapped.

Dorian looks great flying into the picture and making the tackle, but if you watch him on reps where he isn't involved in the tackle he is frequently getting driven back 5+ yards by a blocker. It's hard to function as a MLB if you can't ever take on and shed blocks. I am sure that's why they're only giving him run at WLB right now. Maybe after a full offseason of NFL conditioning and strength training he will be ready for MLB next year. This year I'd be surprised. But hey I understand why fans are grasping at straws right now. My mind is doing the same thing. We don't have even a replacement level player for a full time position in our defense... It's a terrifying thought. I supported and still support our decision to let Edmunds walk for that contract, the problem is the moves they made to replace him have been a complete bust. They might have to make a desperate trade just to get a capable player in the room but I can't think of any realistic trade candidates.

Brown needs to hold up better than this against the likes of Markus Golden: He was immediately knocked off balance and never recovered. The best thing he did on that play was take the holding penalty to ensure Allen wasn't walloped in a meaningless preseason game. Agreed that Allen left the pocket too early on the other pressure. In preseason I'm fine with it as long as it is for caution and not a genuine mistake. There were times last year that Allen clearly did not trust his OL and made mistakes leaving the pocket early because of it. In general I was a little dismayed by the starting offense running the "bombs away" offense that most fans agree we need to see less of coming out of last year. Especially in a meaningless preseason game against a ferocious pass rush, I don't understand the reasoning behind that plan. I would have much rather used that game to focus on running and getting the ball out of Allen's hands quickly. I'm not going to read too much into preseason play calling, I just hope last night is not a sign of things to come. Kincaid should be a high volume passing target right away. That will keep the offense more on schedule and less boom or bust.

He is practically a lock now, right? He is the first in at LT after Dawkins and has played well. Plus he has no competition. Shell retired, Doyle is likely done for the year, Quessenberry has been awful.

Good night for Van Denmark. He played LT the entire 2nd half. I specifically watched him on every snap and I didn't see him lose a single rep. That's two weeks in a row that he looked solid at LT, albeit against 2nd and 3rd stringers. Bad night for Elam. Somehow he has regressed even further. Last night was the worst performance I've seen from him. Way too grabby and looked lost in coverage a couple times. Maybe the all-22 will show some favorable reps but what I saw on broadcast footage was bad. The whole 2022 draft class is trending towards throwaway status. Hopefully Cook can salvage it a bit. Luckily the 2023 draft class is looking like a possible home run.

Van Denmark was excellent last night from what I saw, playing exclusively LT. I specifically watched him on all of his snaps and I didn't see him lose a single rep, and I'm pretty sure he played the entire 2nd half so he put a lot of reps on tape. I would need to see him perform well against starting caliber talent before I fully buy in but I am certainly encouraged by what I've seen from him in each preseason game at LT. What makes you think him being on the roster is a bad thing?

Hard to see the whole field on broadcast footage but I thought I saw him work open a few more times when Josh was out there but the reads were to Diggs and Davis. He was also going to be open for a TD on the red zone play where Barkley threw an interception, he had beat his man 1v1 and was headed towards the pylon looking back for the ball. Barkley never looked at him. As impressive as he looked in his limited opportunities it still feels like the Bills are hiding him a bit. I expect his role to be fully unleashed in games that matter. An elite pass catching TE is a cheat code and very hard to find. I'm glad Beane didn't overthink the pick and simply took the best talent remaining on the board.

Play Dawkins and Brown for at least one series to make a point. The other locked in starters I would not put out there.

I mean this is just awful from Spencer Brown. Gets knocked off balance, hops back awkwardly, then grabs his guy as a last resort to stop Allen from getting walloped. He's supposedly had a pretty good camp but if this is what it's going to look like in real games we are in deep trouble. And that's Markus Golden doing that to him, not a top tier edge rusher.

Van Denmark sealed off his man, creating the hole on that TD run. Very impressed by what I've seen from him the past two weeks. Presumably he will get the start next week with Dawkins likely sitting. I'll be keeping a close eye on him.

Okay, this is the first time this offseason that we have seen signs of life from Shorter. It might be enough to force Beane's hand and keep his 5th round pick.

I have yet to see Van Denmark lose a rep. I wanted to see if his performance at LT last week was for real. So far he is acing the test.

If anything we would trade him for a late round pick, not cut him. I just don't know what it is that he does particularly well. At least Isabella has some juice and some special teams contributions.