HappyDays

It's the players they're throwing to. Kelce and Chase are both YAC specialists. The Chiefs have made it a point especially in recent weeks to get McKinnon involved as a pass catcher. The only player we have that has shown flashes of that ability is Cook.

The simplest answer is the correct one - we have no pass catchers that are YAC specialists. If you have Deebo Samuel, Tyreek Hill, etc., you design plays to get your YAC specialist the ball in space and let them run. We don't bother with those types of plays because we don't have the right personnel. Our explosive plays are Allen throwing the ball 15+ yards past the LOS or taking off himself. As for screens, defenses always have their eyes in the backfield and on Allen in particular when they play us and they're spreading the defense out. That makes it a lot more difficult to fool the defense long enough for the screen to be successful. If we ever get lucky and call a screen into a man blitz it would be a huge play but that's not how defenses are playing us. Maybe Cook can be the YAC guy for us. We haven't made it a point to get him involved as a pass catcher yet. If we unleash that part of our offense in the playoffs it will be a huge advantage as something defenses aren't prepared for.

Well that's what we were told, but now it sounds like the team noticed something and sent Tua to be checked on, not that he voluntarily admitted concussion symptoms. The Dolphins are developing a nasty reputation as a team that hides things and changes their story around when it comes to concussions.

This isn't exactly the story we got before, is it?

I don't care about power rankings but the Chiefs defense makes it impossible to say they're the best team in the league. They are one of 5 teams or so that can beat any other team on their best day, but if you call them #1 you are basically saying defense doesn't matter at all.

Dude. You JUST said you're not allowed to talk about the weather.

They should spend the rest of the broadcast time breaking down next week's MNF matchup. Give the viewers something worthwhile.

You said the Erie County government condemned its citizens to die. That wasn't a criticism?

This isn't really true. Emergency services did rescue a number of people that were stranded. They did deliver life saving medicine and food to some households. They just couldn't possibly help everyone and they had to set realistic expectations with the community. The travel ban was put in place because if it wasn't there would have been mass chaos. As it is even with the travel ban enough idiots decided to go out on their own, got their cars stuck and clogged up the roads for emergency services and plows. Imagine if no ban had been placed to begin with. And yeah the Bills players got special treatment because they are special people. I don't care about optics. That's the reality of it. Exactly zero people didn't get help they needed because the Bills got an escort home. I for one choose to be happy that these players are home with their families after everything they do for the community and local economy. Others choose to be upset because that's the social media world we live in. All over social media I see people criticizing the local government's response to the blizzard. The truth that no one wants to accept is that there is no perfect response to something like this, even if they had unlimited resources which they don't. It was the same after Hurricane Katrina. I'm sure in both cases mistakes were made but you're talking about a generational weather event. Everyone thinks they could do so much better. Buffalo Niagara is a metro population of 1.1 million people. That is an incomprehensible number of people to manage. Personally I think everyone is doing the best they can.

The reason I don't care about total yards is that we now have a multifaceted offense. I expect as long as Allen is here we're going to distribute the ball to everybody and that distribution is going to be game plan specific. I'm a big believer in holistic offensive production which means having different skill sets that you can utilize to be successful in different situations. So for example in the last 3 games the Bills have scored 29.0 PPG. In the first 12 games we scored 27.75 PPG. So slightly better scoring production in the last 3 games. The reason I bring this up is that in the last 3 games Diggs has had a mere 41.0 YPG, whereas in the first 12 games he had 100.2 YPG. Diggs is without question the most talented offensive weapon we have other than Allen but we've been scoring a little bit more while targeting him much less. All I need for Cook to be successful as a 2nd round pick is to meaningfully contribute to a highly productive offense during a Super Bowl run. Against Chicago the game script necessitated him getting 100 yards on the ground and a TD. Against other teams our downfield passing offense might be working with high efficiency so Cook won't be as involved. I'm not going to set specific total metrics that I need to see from Cook or any other player on this offense not named Josh Allen in order to prove that that player has worth. Diggs over the last 3 games despite having just 41 YPG still has been a meaningful contributor to the offense since he draws coverage away from others on the field and takes advantage of his limited targets. With Cook on the field defenses have one more element to worry about and he is taking advantage of the plays that are given to him as shown by his 5.8 yards per carry and 9.2 yards per reception. In short - I'm less concerned with the total offensive production of any single skill position player than I am with the total offensive production created by the whole machine. The efficiency of each player when their number is called is what matters.

Hmm? He was excellent against Chicago.

I don't know how well this will go over, but in a certain sense the local professional athletes are "essential workers." They're a huge boon to the culture and economy of the area. I'm not oblivious to the fact that professional athletes are afforded privileges the rest of us aren't. They got to go home and be with their families. Anyone upset about that is the worst kind of person. So the Bills players should have to suffer because other members of the community suffered? I've been trapped in my house and separated from half of my family since Friday. Should I also shut off my power and heat in solidarity with those unlucky households in Buffalo that have been without it?

On offense the Bengals are one dimensional. They're only averaging 3.9 yards per rush, 28th lowest in the league. Our defense thrives against one dimensional offenses. Their OL is still very vulnerable so that bodes well for us being able to get pressure with four which is what our scheme is based around. You can't play man against this group of receivers but we almost always play zone anyways. Burrow is smart and accurate so he will find windows in zone and make plays, we aren't going to shut them out. Just have to pressure him enough to affect him and keep them in 3rd and long situations while bracketing Chase. The goal on defense IMO is hold them under 24 points. On defense they have a very solid front four but Hubbard is unlikely to play and Hendrickson is playing with a broken wrist. Logan Wilson isn't a playmaker but he does a good job covering the middle. Their safeties are both very good. The weakness there is their outside CBs and luckily we are an offense that thrives throwing the ball to our WRs on the boundary so that's a great matchup. DJ Reader is arguably the best run stopper in the league so this is not a game where we will be able to lean on the run game as much. Since this is practically a playoff game Allen will not be shy about running the ball and that is a matchup problem for any defense we play. So for us the matchup advantages are outside WRs and Allen running as necessary. On special teams not too much to say but the Bengals kicker has really been struggling lately. In a likely close game that gives us another decided advantage.

Maybe there could be something to this?

Wow 3 in one season. Very scary.

Turns out they did offer it to the DC and he didn't take it. Which is even funnier somehow.

So instead of giving their DC Ejiro Evero an opportunity after an incredible year for his unit, they give it to this random guy that has been in the building for a couple months.

I can't imagine a worse job for a potential head coach. Stuck with little draft capital, the worst contract in the league, and no QB. And you have Mahomes and Herbert on the schedule twice a year each.

Okay I promise this is my last one.

Only 5 RBs managed that feat last year so that is not a realistic standard. I thought you didn't like offenses that over-utilized RBs as pass catchers. We would have to completely overhaul our offensive philosophy for him to get that much production. We drafted him to give us an explosive skill set that was missing from our RB room, not to become our primary offensive weapon. It was a low 2nd round pick that Beane only used after trading back several times presumably because he only had players with 3rd round grades left on the board. A RB taken in the 1st round needs to do what you're saying. Low 2nd round you are looking for meaningful contributors.

He doesn't break tackles the way we usually think of it but he does have quite a bit of yards after contact. He runs through a lot of arms before they have a chance to get a good hold on him. If he isn't given space to work with he won't churn out yards with power, but give him a lane with some space and he shoots through it fast enough that his power doesn't matter. Considering the number of light boxes we face, his is the more important skill set in this offense anyways IMO.

He has a long wind up release which leaves his ribs exposed to contact longer than the average QB. We saw the result of this firsthand. Most QBs in the situation he was in when Oliver and Milano got to him will have already gotten the ball out of their hands and their bodies back in position to absorb the hit better.

If he spends his rookie contract racking up explosive plays and TDs that's good enough for me to warrant the 2nd rounder. Allen hasn't had a teammate capable of creating explosive plays on his own since John Brown fell off a cliff.

He should have last year with his performance against the Raiders in Week 18. It was like Allen in the divisional round, near perfect QB play that was wasted by a poor defensive effort and overtime. That's the biggest difference between Herbert and Tua. Tua has wilted down the stretch over the last four games. In crunch time he comes up short. Herbert thrives in those situations. It's impossible to win a Super Bowl with a QB that can't handle a little bit of pressure.

Since Singletary isn't on this list, I believe this statistic is a product of Cook avoiding initial contact with his speed. His speed plus light boxes leads to very favorable rushing situations.