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McDermott was let go after Reid was fired in Philly, which is typical when a new coach comes in. He remained Carolina's DC from the time he got the job in 2011 until the Bills offered him the HC job here. Nice try, tho.

I despise both teams but I'm so used to the Pats beating up on the Bills that it's kinda second nature at this point. I would definitely prefer it if they made it a contest and didn't get their dupas handed to them, but, we'll see what happens. Lately though, I just hate Miami more. Nobody in Florida seems to give a crap about any of the teams that play in that state. That stadium was as exciting as a wet fart when the Bills played there a few weeks ago. Ryan Tannehill looks like a human muppet. Frank Gore is 640000 years old. Kiko Alonso looks like a damn caveman. Bah. I hate their dumb orange and aqua faces. May they all get the runs for Christmas. On the flipside, Tannehill plays like he's a fourth-string JV clipboard holder when in Buffalo, so... hope that trend continues.

They might get a call or two about him but I don't think any team out there will put him in serious contention for a head coaching gig. And if a team does come calling, I'd pull the ol' blockaroo on them and not allow him to interview if I was McDermott. I know he wants to see his guys do well and move up the ladder but they need to have some consistency at this stage of the process. You can't let your first-year OC walk out the door after he's worked with your rookie QB all season.

Yeah, I definitely would've liked to see Woods stick around. I do believe the Bills offered him a deal but he wanted to test free agency and was fortunate enough to be wanted by his hometown team. Also can't blame him for wanting to go to a team that throws the ball more. Bills have ranked last in passing attempts every year since 2015 I think. Most receivers don't want any part of a run-first team.

The league is all about trends and ebbs and flows. Ten years ago the Wildcat was the major trend every team tried to adopt after Miami slapped New England with it. Eventually defenses caught up and the Wildcat went away. Six years ago it was all about athletic QB's and designed QB runs, (Colin Kaepernick shredding Green Bay for 181 yards on the ground in the 2012 playoffs). Defenses adjusted and now you don't see it as often as you used to. Nowadays offenses are taking elements of the college spread game and mixing it with pro offenses in order to bring their young QBs up to speed a little faster. This caused a huge upward swing in offensive production and scoring but as the season went on, defenses caught up, as they do every year. RPOs are still trending but teams have also found ways to stop those. There are only so many plays you can run. The chess match stuff between coaches comes down to formations and situational football. Being aware of what your opponent is doing when you give them a certain look so you can hopefully circle back to that same look later in the game and make them expect the same type of play from earlier only to spin around and execute something totally different. Take McKenzie and the jet sweep motion Daboll often puts him in. Against the Jags they showed that motion four or five times to get the Jags thinking that he was in motion just so Allen could see whether or not the defense was in man or zone. Then, they get inside the red zone and run that motion again except this time it's a quick handoff to him and he walks into the end zone. Worked again a couple weeks later against the Jets. No matter how many rules the league creates to favor the offense, defenses will always catch up. And then offenses will adjust and come out with a different attack and that'll work for a bit but then defenses catch on and stop it. Back and forth it goes as it has for decades. Lot of low scores yesterday as well... 14-13, 17-16, 16-13, 23-0, 24-17, 20-12, 17-0, 17-10, etc.

It's draft capital. McCarron didn't exactly light it up in preseason so it's not like they suffered a major loss in moving him. They gained an extra pick and replaced him with a player on about the same skill level with a cheaper contract. And a 5th rounder could be Kyle Williams... or Matt Milano... or Isiah McKenzie... you never know where you're going to find talent.

Honestly, the plays Tre has had made on him aren't really much fault of his own. He's been in position and most times QBs will throw elsewhere when seeing how well Tre has his man covered. But against the Jets and yesterday against the Lions, the throws were just unbelievable. Almost every CB is gonna get beat when the throw is in a position where only the receiver has a shot at it. Tre has been solid all season, despite a couple of big plays made on him the last couple weeks, it still isn't that bad compared to what he's done over the entire year.

I think they planned on it... what they didn't plan on was Oakland calling and offering a 5th round pick. McCarron is just another guy, not that difficult to replace, so they traded him and took the extra pick which they can use in the draft on a player or as part of a deal to move around the board. And now they have their replacement for him plus the extra pick. Win win.

Even if they finished 5-11 and had the 6th or 7th overall pick, do you really think Beane is gonna stand pat right there? No way. Too many needs right now. I'm pretty sure he'll wanna trade down to collect some more picks, especially if they're targeting a specific offensive player because right now, of the top 15 players, like... 12 of them are on defense. Not that I'd mind them adding a defensive player, but I think it just makes more sense for them to try to add more picks and find the best value they can when they pick.

The light is on, it just flickers sometimes. Guy still leads the team in receptions. Consistency is his main issue right now. I said this in another thread but I think he's fighting himself most of all. He might be in his own head, thinking too much and just not allowing himself to play fast.

I definitely think they should make a nice offer to keep Barkley here as the #2. Definitely has the traits that "the process" looks for.

I feel like Zay fights himself a lot. Might be thinking too much and not allowing himself to just zone in and play fast. Has the ability just hasn't figured out how to reach it on a consistent basis. And any Bills receiver is just gonna have to work to get used to "area code" throws from Allen. Meaning, the ball placement isn't always gonna be on the money but it will be in the vicinity (the area code) and will need to be adjusted to in order to catch. Even so, I saw a handful of decently placed throws from Josh today that guys just dropped. My Christmas wish might be to see coaching upgrades in the receiver, OL and special teams areas of the team.

I swore earlier in the week I had read that Ivory was probable but maybe he had a setback. Should be ready next week.

Told my brother today that I hope Allen to Foster is the next Kelly to Reed for the next decade. Foster has been a huge surprise. Every now and then a team scores on an undrafted or late-round gem who just took a little longer to develop than most guys. I hope that's Foster. He and Allen certainly seem to have a great chemistry. And was it just me or did today's TD catch look similar to the bomb vs. Jacksonville? Looked like the same route and Foster caught it almost the exact same way. Allen also had his pick of open guys on that play. Zay flew up the seam and his defender fell down so Zay was ridiculously open. Allen had already zeroed in on Foster though and laid out a perfect ball. Gah. I cannot wait to watch this team with some more playmakers and better OL play. With the equivalent of a JV squad around him, Allen still has the ability to get it done. He's been surrounded by average to below average players from Wyoming til now and he has at least one or two plays a game that make you sit up and say, "Whoa, how the hell...?" Immense talent. Just keep refining it, surround him with some legit playmakers and watch this kid set the league on fire.

Lot of debate over this lately. For one, I don't expect the Bills to have a "true #1" receiver anytime soon. Like a lot of other teams, they'll roll with a collection of receivers, tight ends and backs that Daboll can get creative with in the passing game. But for the sake of argument, the true #1 receiver is the type of player that's open when he's covered and a guy you throw it to in those situations because he's supposed to be trusted to go up and make the play. He's what Doug Whaley thought Sammy Watkins would be.

I admit, on draft night my initial reaction was, "Oh no, they took the wrong Josh!" But I have since seen the error of my ways and am all in on this kid. Had they taken Rosen, I guarantee the dude woulda been sidelined with a season ending injury by week four given this OL. Rosen doesn't have the mobility Allen has in the slightest. It's scary how fast the dude is, he can get that 6'5", 240 lb. frame truckin' when he wants to. Yeah, Allen's numbers don't look super but he hasn't gotten a lot of help. I saw at least five dropped balls today. Was the ball placement perfect? No, but these were passes that hit these guys in the hands and they dropped it. I'd love to know Allen's adjusted completion rate where they take away drops and throwaways. Allen just has that stuff that tells you, "He's gonna make a play." Love watching this team grow right now but McBeane has a lot of work to do in the off-season to help the kid out.

I want Miami to get kicked in the nads.

People honestly think a person who's spent 20+ years working toward a head coaching position would take a step back after obtaining said position? Wowzers. Some people just aren't smrt. I mean, s-m-a-r-t!

I hear you. The mistake Atlanta made was continuing to throw the ball late in the game. Incompletions stopped the clock and left too much time for Brady. There's definitely a balance. When you're up by a few points late in the game, yeah, at that point you probably play to protect the lead or play to at least get a field goal to add to your lead a little bit. Coaches like Schottenheimer and others would go into preservation mode midway through the 3rd quarter if they had a lead. Or you have Jauron's style of "keep the score low and close and hope we can sneak out with a win in the end."

He's the man behind the term "Martyball" which is what people around the league called his style of playing. Once his teams had a lead, he would try to protect the lead instead of trying to add to it. He'd play everything extremely hesitant and conservatively, not unlike Dickie Jauron. Guy had numerous chances and did, at times, try to break away from his typical style but by that time the league had kinda passed him by.

Ah, good call. I wasn't sure of the implications exactly as it was four years ago, I just know it was a major bum-out to lose to Oakland after that huge win over Green Bay.

I know Eli's best days are long gone at this point but Barkley is easily the ROTY and has been almost the entire offense for the Giants this season. Kid is electrifying. Still, I can see the questioning of going with an RB at #2 overall but he's the kind of player you take at #2, he's a game changer.

I got to go to that game on a last minute type of thing. A buddy of mine's family are all season ticket holders and as I'm sure other people here have experienced, once in a while they have to miss the game so they'll give away the ticket. It was about 11:30 AM and my buddy called me and said he had two tickets to the game. I said, "Aw man, I'd love to but I just don't have the extra money right now, thank you for offering, though." He said, "No, man, you don't have to pay for these, I'm giving them to you." I was like, "Whoa! Really?" Super kind gesture. Even found a friend to take along so the second ticket didn't go to waste. Also, it's kind of awkward going to a game alone. I did that for the 2015 home opener against Indy. Had the aisle to my left and an empty seat to my right, haha. But yeah this was a fun game. I remember thinking, "Eh, I think they'll get beat but I bet this defense gives them a run for their money." I think Rogers got picked off once or twice. But, had Jordy Nelson not dropped a deep pass, Bills probably lose haha. Totally busted coverage, Nelson was wide open with a clear path to the end zone. Rogers put it right in his hands and it just slipped off his fingers and hit the turf. That game made me believe that 2014 team was going to break the playoff drought. I remember seeing the post-game locker room stuff and Kyle was super fired up, talked about how he had been on a bunch of past teams and felt like this group "had it." Unfortunately, the following week they went out to Oakland and laid an egg and were eliminated from the playoffs.

Whatever they do for the WR group, I'm not expecting a "true #1" to suddenly appear on the roster for next season. Rather, I think they will have "pass catchers by committee" much like New England has always done. Aside from Moss, they've never really had a real number one wideout. They've always used a variety of receivers, tight ends and running backs. Given that Daboll sharpened his skills in NE for many years, I expect the same type of setup in Buffalo. He's going to want a group of guys each with different skill sets so they can create match-up problems.

Good insight. Yeah, I'm not saying ALL the writers/broadcasters/bloggers, etc. stay stuck on their initial assessments. And it is nice to see people coming off of previous opinions based on what a player shows them on the field. But there are definitely those types that wanna be right so badly that even when faced with concrete evidence negating their point, they still dig their heels in and try to push their view. What Barnwell wrote kinda struck me like that. To not acknowledge that he's been the entire offense for three straight games is either lazy, ignorant or both. And I also think the expectations placed on young players are unrealistic at times. If a player is drafted who was seen as a "game changer" for instance, comes in and struggles in his first few games, you'll see the bust label being thrown around like crazy. There's just such a huge lack of patience to allow young players to grow and gain experience. I'm glad the Bills decided to dedicate a whole season to allowing young core players to get experience. Hopefully it pays off in the future and we can have that sustained success McBeane is after.