Logic

Thanks for the great writeup, as always. Three things stood out to me: 1.) Team defense. Yes, there were some great plays by individual players (Oliver, Ingram, I'm looking at you), but by and large, the defense simply looked good AS A UNIT out there. Pre-play checks were made, communication was good, players were passed off when they were supposed to be, defenders rallied to the football once a receiver caught it, gap integrity was mostly kept. It was a "do your job" night on defense, and everyone pretty much did theirs, and the total result was defensive dominance. 2.) Winning both lines of scrimmage. Our offensive line opened up big lanes in the running game and also kept #17 clean all night long. Our defensive line penetrated into the Dolphins' backfield repeatedly, harassed Tua, and generally looked like they were vastly superior to the Dolphins' o-line -- which they were. Winning the lines of scrimmage is, was, and will always be how you win football games, and the Bills did it on both sides last night. 3.) Khalil Shakir is Hines Ward. That's who I see. A thickly built route technician who just knows how to get open and make big catches, and who can also run after the catch, and who is also a tenacious blocker. He will never be the big highlight reel, cover-of-Madden kind of guy (though, to be fair, he's already had a highlight reel play or two this season). But what he WILL be is a dependable option, a chain mover, and a tone setter. And at the end of the season, you'll look up and see that he quietly accumulated over 1,000 yards and was the Bills' most productive receiver. Added bonus: How 'bout them UB boys, eh? Jamarcus Ingram looks like a FIND at corner, and Cam Lewis has taken a lot of the sting out of losing Taron Johnson. The Bulls-to-Bills pipeline looking strong in 2024!

I saw a Dolphins player doing the "tipped" hand motion immediately after the kick when watching it live. Cannot confirm whether it was or not, but at least one Dolphins player seemed to think it was.

I would like to be the first in this thread to exercise a time-honored message board tradition: PUMP THE BRAKES.

Just to follow up on the "swing pass to the RB to beat the blitz was a basic call" discussion...I thought it was brilliantly designed, with the motions, misdirection, and built in rub/pick action. Anything but basic.

Nobody is as irrationally cocky as Dolphins fans. With Chiefs fans, I get it. Even with Ravens fans, I kind of get it, because they've had very good teams and they have a very good QB. But the DOLPHINS? They haven't been good in FOREVER. Once they got Tyreek and Mike McDaniel, all these boastful, loud, obnoxious Dolphins fans crawled out from under their rocks and started crowing loudly all over social media. As such, there is nothing sweeter than watching them get shut up, over and over and over again for three seasons straight now. Josh Allen owns the Dolphins. McDermott owns the Dolphins. The Dolphins are to the Bills what the Bills used to be to the Patriots. That's the reality. All of that having been said...the schadenfreude I get from spending the day on social media and the opponents' forums after a Bills win -- ESPECIALLY the Dolphins -- is incalculable. Endless fun. I'm usually content after a Bills win. Not over the top thrilled, just content. Like...job well done. But then getting on social media and opposition forums and reading their misery and griping? Giving them receipts for their awful pre-game takes? Now THAT'S fun. That's a hoot. I never get sick of that.

I completely agree that it was a coaching master class. For the Bills defense to do what it did last night, without arguably its three best players in Taron, Milano, and Bernard, was incredible. The Bills played great team defense, were fundamentally sound, committed only one accepted penalty, were generally mistake free, and played smart, efficient, mistake-free football. I thought the defense improved leaps and bounds from game one to game two. I am encouraged about that unit going forward, even with the injuries. Offensively, what has stood out to me is very few clunky or disjointed looking drives. Very few three-and-outs. Generally, they're moving the ball well and efficiently and with diverse looks, and then when they get to the red zone, they're scoring touchdowns at a good rate and not settling for field goals. With the caveat that Brady's offense is new and that eventually opposing defenses are gonna have more tape on it, and he's gonna need to have counter-punches, I still must say: so far, so good. Averaging 32 points a game. Running the ball well, spreading it around in the passing game, and not getting too cute. Well coached game on both sides. Well executed by the players. Very impressive night, in my opinion, from both an Xs and Os and Jimmies and Joes standpoint.

The Bills just held a potent passing offense with two star receivers to 10 points in their house. I think I'm less concerned about our two starting safeties than most others. Neither are stars, and both leave some plays on the field, but overall, as a unit, the defense was humming last night. Long term -- possibly by midseason -- Cole Bishop will be the starting free safety, with Rapp likely remaining the starting strong safety. But honestly, the foursome of Bishop, Rapp, Hamlin, and Edwards, with Lewis as break-glass-in-case-of-emergency depth there, is a better group than I think some give it credit for.

This game was Sean McDermott's wet dream: Excellent TEAM defense, fundamentally sound on both sides of the ball, won in the trenches, only one penalty, under 140 yards passing but the offense still put up 31 points. He's gotta be thrilled. He might even allow himself a single Reese's peanut butter cup. Nah. Who am I kidding? I heard how silly that sounded as soon as I said it. In all seriousness: for this defense to look as great as it did despite missing who they were missing, to win in the trenches on both sides, to play crisp, clean football, and dominate a good team like they just did? Really great showing. Run game, defense, forcing turnovers, no dumb mistakes, kept #17 clean. Sign me up for 15 more just like this.

There's a metric and a chart that regularly tracks how often NFL head coaches go for it on 4th down when they "should" (i.e. when the analytics say that it's statistically logical to do so), and McDermott consistently ranks at or near the very top. For any of the game day decision making things that people can knock McDermott for, this -- in my opinion -- is not one of them. He's become a very good (and usually aggressive) 4th down decision maker, and I expect that to continue this year. In fact, I expect him to be even MORE aggressive on 4th down due to Bass's struggles from 50+ yards out.

I thoughts Sean McDermott's explanation of it was well stated. It was clear he had a really tough time with the decision. He even said if it was 4th and 2 they would've gone for it, but 4th and 3 was a bridge too far. He rightly pointed out that even if they Bills had gone for it and converted, it wouldn't have necessarily put the game away, as the Cardinals still had all three timeouts. All in all, I was okay with the decision, because putting the opposing offense in a situation where they need a TD instead of a FG adds a SIGNIFICANT amount of stress and difficulty. Also, without that extra three points, that game was likely headed to overtime yesterday, as the Cards were already in field goal position at the end of the game. I don't fault anyone who would've preferred to go for it, but I thought it was the right call in the moment.

Thanks for the writeup. Regarding Von and Groot, because I found the back-to-back dichotomy of "we're paying Von too much for too little" and "Needing to pay Groot gives me anxiety" to be a funny one-two punch: First, I thought Von absolutely DID impact the game yesterday. He played -- and impacted the game -- sparingly in the first half, but showed up in a big way in the second half. If he's a rotational pass rusher that gets 1 sack a game, that's a 17 sack season. Now of course I don't think he'll actually have 17 sacks this season, I'm just pointing out that edge rushers generally get stonewalled more often than they win (at least from a sack production standpoint), and that if you can get one sack a game and affect the offense in a big way late in games once or twice per game, you're a valuable piece. Obviously, money-wise, Von is making a ton. In order for it to be sustainable for the Bills to pay Groot -- and I think he's gonna have a monster season and force their hand, and I DO think they'll re-sign him -- they'll need to get out from under the Von contract somehow, at some point. For now, I'm not gonna worry about the financials at all. It's not my job as a fan to spend too much time thinking about it. It's not my money. I'm just glad we have a kid who looks to be making the leap to "elite" status in Groot and a vet that seems to be returning to "game impacting" status in Von. If Javon Soloman and AJ Epenesa can offer anything rotationally, the Bills appear to be in good shape in terms of edge rusher depth chart.

Concerns? Nope. I do think their offense will pose some problems for our young defense. McDaniel vs Babich, until further notice, is a matchup that you'd have to give the nod to McDaniel right now. He's simply more experienced, and Babich is down two key defenders. But even if we lose the game, I'm not concerned. I tend to think the usual recent pattern of "Dolphins storm through September and October looking like gangbusters, then collapse after Thanksgiving" will play out again. I won't be surprised if they beat us in their house this time around, and we return the favor in our house later this season. The only thing that worries me a little is Josh Allen's hand. As long as he's good to go, then it's onwards and upwards.

A team with this many new faces and two new coordinators were ALWAYS going to get off to a bit of a slow start and have some growing pains. A team down Matt Milano and Taron Johnson on defense were ALWAYS going to have some struggles stopping passes to the middle of the field. With that said, after a forgettable first half, both coordinators had an excellent second half. As the Bills' scoring production (and the EPA metrics) show, the Bills were very good on offense. All the more impressive when one considers the completely revamped receiving corps and OL with new starters in two spots. Defensively, the Bills allowed THREE points in the second half. Three. To a team with Kyler Murray, Marvin Harrison Jr, and Trey McBride. When an offense with so many new faces scores 34 in their first outing and a defense down two key starters limits its opponent to 3 second half points...I dunno. I just can't agree with griping about the coordinators AT ALL. I thought both of them had great days, all told.

As a guy who didn't want Coleman (which doesn't mean anything, because I didn't want Allen either), I will say: Impressive day for the rook. If he contributed like this all season long, it would equate to 85 catches for 867 yards. That would be a very good rookie season. The "***** it, Keon is down there somewhere" ball he heaved down field, where Coleman big boy'd the defender and got the Bills into the red zone? Awesome stuff. Josh hasn't had that kind of receiver in...um...ever? Great start. Can't wait to see him grow. I hope he makes me look as wrong and stupid for my draft day take as Josh Allen has made me look for that one.

Others have said it already, but: The Bills went to a dime look late in the game because they didn't trust Dorian Williams in coverage. Typically, Cam Lewis would be that third safety/slot hybrid defender. Because he was forced to play nickel with Taron Johnson out, though, it meant that someone else needed to come in as the sixth defensive back. Elam apparently exclusively plays boundary corner, whereas Ingram plays inside/outside. Essentially, Elam would have been playing a position he hasn't practiced all offseason. If Benford or Douglas were to have missed any snaps, I sense Elam would have replaced them. Instead, it was essentially Cam Lewis as a third safety that needed replacing, and Ingram was the guy.

Five sacks all of last season. Three sacks this year, going into game two. He was a game wrecker. I think he has the potential to become one of the top five edge rushers in the game this year. I know that's saying a lot, and I know people get sick of the "he's so young" argument because of Tremaine Edmunds, but....Groot is 24. His body looks night and day different than it did when he was a rookie. He has grown into his frame, learned the game, and....look out. He could be a VERY good one.

They ought to sign Ryan Tanehill as soon as possible.

.......No?

Soul-crushing pessimism already in midseason form at TBD. Nothing changes...

Cardinals defense was 32nd against the run last year and made no meaningful additions. So for the Bills, my impact player is James Cook. I think it'll be a run game day, not a pass game day. Other than that, I'll say Trey McBride is going to be a big impact player on the day. I don't trust Dorian Williams or either of our safeties to meaningfully limit him in any way.