HappyDays

It wasn't impossible... Dawkins is right there. Singletary also had a chance of getting a piece of him. They had all the blocking assignments ready to give Allen the 2.5 seconds he needed to load up and fire down field to an open receiver with no one in front of him. Allen recognized the all out blitz and the single coverage and had the right read. The IOL blocked their guys long enough despite not having the numbers. Spencer Brown got his guy. Dawson Knox executed his block perfectly. But Dawkins whiffed so the play was killed.

Allen was half a second away from a big completion down field. He just needed Dawkins or Singletary to not whiff on their block. It's possible to beat an all out blitz without throwing a short hot route, if it wasn't then every team would always call an all out blitz on 3rd and long.

He knew... they had all the blocks set up perfectly and he was about to hit Davis downfield on a post route for a big gain. Singletary was slow off the snap and whiffed. Allen needed another quarter of a second to get the pass off.

6th rated player with a B+.

Yeah I've never seen 2 players whiff on the same block before, that's a brutal rep. It seemed like there were a lot of plays where not everyone was quite ready for the snap. Play calls seemed to come in slowly and I think Allen having to set the protections with Morse out threw off a lot of our usual pre-snap timing. The coaches need to do a better job preparing the players when they know a key starter is out. Morse being injured shouldn't lead to this much chaos, especially when they had plenty of practice time to get the offense ready for life without him.

Top 5 grades: 1) DaQuan Jones (A-) 2) Matt Milano (B+) 3) Von Miller (B+) 4) Greg Rousseau (B+) 5) Taron Johnson (B+) Bottom 5 grades: 1) Rodger Saffold (D-) 2) Greg Van Roten (D+) 3) David Quessenberry (D+) 4) Spencer Brown (D+) 5) Ryan Bates (D+)

It's both. Singletary and Moss miss their cutback lanes more than they should. When big holes are there, they aren't athletically gifted enough to maximize the opportunity. Barkley is a big upgrade on either one of them. If opposing defenses had to account for him out of the backfield along with all the other pressure we put on them it creates more opportunities. All of this is just hypothetical though. I don't know if we can afford him and I don't know if the Giants would want to trade someone that seemingly fits into their culture when the season is already underway. This isn't a Sammy Watkins situation.

I would absolutely do this. Trade Moss or even Singletary plus a reasonable draft pick. Daboll and Schoen are building for the future. Barkley isn't part of that future and they need to accumulate draft picks to move on from Daniel Jones. So I think it could make sense for both sides. But if it was going to happen, I think it already would have.

If we're picking between a somewhat out of game shape Rhodes and Ja'Marcus Ingram I'm still taking Rhodes. Ingram is not someone we can count on for a whole game, he was just our emergency option last week. Maybe Jackson is further along than I think and all of this will be moot anyways. Even in that scenario I would still elevate Rhodes for this game just to have the option available.

We worked him out today so presumably they're comfortable with the shape he's in. Pros like him are always ready for that call. I think he'll be ready to go this weekend, I mean he'll have to be. We have no other options on the roster.

It's him or Ingram, right? Unless Jackson has already fully recovered. Between a reserve UDFA that they basically just pulled from a local college and a veteran that's new to the team but has played a lot of games in zone coverage I imagine they'll take the veteran. Frazier is familiar with Rhodes, I think he's more than just a body.

I'm guessing Elam and Rhodes will be the starters this week. Sucks that it's come to this but he knows the scheme well enough and the Ravens don't exactly have an all star receiving corps. Hopefully we get good news on Tre and Dane Jackson after this week and we can get the band back together in time for the Chiefs.

Against Tennessee last year he chose to go for it on 4th and short instead of kicking a game tying FG. I agree with that decision of course. I don't know where you came up with this idea. He tries to make the best decision in the moment, he isn't particularly aggressive or conservative which IMO is the best coaching style. It doesn't mean his decisions will always work out but he very rarely makes totally head scratching decisions.

It's an interesting debate but at the very least you can't say McDermott failed by going for a FG there. It was a valid decision. He isn't inherently overly conservative, he went for it on 4th and goal earlier in the game. He decided at that moment in the game that getting easy points was the right decision. I agree with him, you don't, and that's fine. Just don't act like his decision was objectively wrong or a sign of his coaching acumen.

Admittedly I am more conservative than most on this board when it comes to decisions like that. I've seen a ton of coaches lose games because they were too aggressive early on. In a shootout of course you play aggressive. In a game where points are at a premium you take the easy points. If Bass had simply made that chip shot field goal we probably would have won. It would have put us in position to just need another field goal to assure a win. The truth is decisions like that are always in hindsight. If you make the FG but ultimately lose by 3 points it was the wrong decision. If you go for it and fail to convert and then lose by 2 points that was the wrong decision. Since no one knows how the game is going to end I believe in taking easy points while you can. 4th and inches on the 40, sure, go for it. 4th and 4 with a gimme FG, take the points. Unfortunately the ball was either tipped or came off his foot weird. So in hindsight it was the wrong decision. In the moment I didn't feel that the flow of the game dictated an aggressive decision. It's not like our short yardage offense has been unstoppable and the players on offense were already exhausted and cramping at that point in the game.

Remember when the only thing we had to complain about was 300 passing yard games? Now Allen can throw a 400 yard game and there is still something to complain about. We've come so far.

I can't even imagine what our defense would have looked like on Sunday without Elam. I believe he was matched up against Tyreek Hill for much of the game, and he gave up 2 receptions for a total of 10 yards. That kind of shutdown CB is much harder to find than a solid center. That's why you draft premium positions in the 1st round. That being said if the Bills want to go OL heavy on day 2 and 3 of the draft next year I won't complain. They need to get some more young talent in the pipeline.

He hesitated for half a second in the middle of his mechanics and then kept going without resetting his feet. Like he double clutched the pass. I don't think exhaustion explains the poor mechanics, but the heat combined with his distrust in the pass protection may have affected his concentration in the moment. We've seen him reset his mechanics before. In that moment he didn't.

In retrospect, sure, because we missed the FG. But in the moment it should have extended our lead and I wouldn't have trusted our OL to hold up long enough for a 4th and 4 anyways.

That's fair. I guess my point is that if teams choose to blitz us we lose our ability to create big plays. We'll happily dink and dunk our way down the field but I don't see that as a long term recipe for success. We need to find a way to punish teams for blitzing us other than just dumping it off for a quick 1st down.

The issue is that we aren't a particularly good red zone offense because we can't run block. Being one dimensional in the red zone makes it a lot more difficult to score. So if teams can force us to drive all the way down field playing mistake free football and then score in the red zone that is the recipe for success against us.

To be clear I'm not saying I want the Bills to change their entire offensive philosophy or become a run-first team. I'm saying they need to find ways to create offensive production without Allen doing everything. Either through the run game or through easy YAC. Offenses that run entirely through the QB don't make it through January. And we can't wait until January to figure out that aspect of our offense. It's something we have to intentionally work at over the course of the season. Even accounting for the injuries on Sunday, Miami just laid out the book on how to beat our offense - blitz us, allow Allen to get his easy quick pass or scramble for a few yards, do this all the way to the red zone and force us into a compressed field. Typically to beat the blitz you would either run the ball or get a YAC receiver involved. We don't have the ability to do either right now so Dorsey has to figure something out. Supposedly this is why we brought James Cook in. I don't know if he's the solution but we have to figure it out.

I'd like to add on 7-7 at halftime against the Rams. What we did to them in the 2nd half was a clinic in excellent coaching. Like you point out close games aren't only defined by the final score.