Straight Hucklebuck

“All it takes is a spark” “Do they go for a FG here to cut it to 15” “I’m not saying it was a bad call, but”

How’s Mahomes’ wife holding up? Still crying about getting no calls?

He’ll duck and cover tomorrow, and make it into an excuse fest just like he did when Lamar choked last year.

He was just begging for the Chiefs to get back into the game. Just fawning over Mahomes.

How’s that poop sandwich taste? What’s up Kingdom? How are you doing Nick Wright? Wonder if Colinsworth is done crying over his boy yet?

We need a play, might have to go back to Sanders.

Well, play a 3rd Safety in the box to cover

Mahomes plays QB at the highest level this league has ever seen. And as much as it’s still Kelce and Hill making up 70% of their offense, that triangle has been hard to stop.

It’s a team game. Mike Schopp and his put it all on Josh, Jeremy White says the same thing, Josh needs to win the game for us is amateur. When I think in reality we all know a bunch of things went wrong last year in both games. Our offensive line stunk up the joint. Our WRs struggled to get separation. Daboll was stymied by Spagnuolo’s 3-Safety looks. We didn’t run the ball effectively or enough and Moss was hurt for Game 2. Josh was pressing. Whether we got gashed in the run game or played soft coverage, the defense couldn’t stop the Chiefs. The got whatever they wanted. I think the truth is they have Michael Jordan. We are trying to beat Michael Jordan and the Bulls. So it’s going to take that kind of locked in effort to beat that team. Diggs has to show up, Beasley has to torch Ward if they put him on him, Moss and Singletary need that 5 yards per clip, Chris Jones needs to keep struggling, Daboll can’t leave our offensive line on an island with 5-wide sets if they are struggling, McDermott needs to get on the radio and back aggressive shots into the end zone. We can’t have goofy backwards pitches that don’t work, flea flickers thrown late, guys playing 15-yards off WRs, missed tackles. It’s going to take Playoff level execution to beat these guys.

Sal was guessing because of the DNP on Wednesday and Thursday. These guys around the team, Sal and Chris Brown, don’t actually know anything about what is going on with injuries, trades, free agent signings, draft picks. They’re like the rest of us, waiting for Shefter to break the story.

100% Scott. I'd love to see Mahomes react to being knocked around. And you're right, our game plan in the AFCCG was S O F T coverage.

I though the Bills were on upset alert against Miami, and then again verses Washington according to Nick Wright. Those games don't pan out, now it's they haven't played anyone.

Generally, two DNPs Wed-Thursday mean out Sunday.

Agree. Great find. I listened to Staley's entire interview and it was awesome. He broke a lot of football down with specifics. This is thing that people who never played on WGR (Howard Simon, Jeremy White, Mike Schopp) don't understand when they say things like, just pass the entire game with no regard for the run. Howard for instance, is talking about how his pant size is way larger than 34 and laughing about it. In their minds the game is simple, pass = aggressive = scoring, running = conservative = bad. And that's it. After the first two weeks, callers who said that it heaps all of the pressure on Allen (and the offensive line to block) when you're calling 4-wide and 5-wide sets all day, were immediately run off the air because "it's not the Bills identity" or "you just paid Allen $200M to be that guy". As long as Daboll is not getting cute with the run game (running of shotgun, running delayed handoffs, trying to sweep with Zach Moss with this crappy OLine), I think it makes sense to mix in straight runs out of Pro Set with Moss and Singletary. They are averaging 4.2 ypc and 5.3 ypc, respectively. So trust that. And Staley is 100% right, it gives your QB a break. Schopp talks about how Allen can be our leading rusher too. And I don't think that's smart. He can scramble, he can make plays with his legs. But it's a lot on Allen to expect 300-yard games passing, him being our leading rusher, and running for touchdowns in the Red Zone. Staley is 100% right to point out the team aspect here. Our line got destroyed last year AND our none of our receivers were a physical mismatch for their corners. We didn't have a DK Metcalf on our team that could muscle their corners. They got hit, held, pushed, grabbed, and it worked, they got no separation. This is where running can help, and Dawson Knox.

I think this is the consensus. In the AFCCG we played soft zone against Kansas City, trying to keep the play in front of the defense, and then missed tackles anyways. Hill and Kelce just ate that cushion immediately and ran past our coverage. Guys running wide open. Without Milano, it will be even more important for the Defensive Line to win one on one matchups quickly and get to Mahomes. If he has a clean pocket, it won't matter what coverage we play on the back end, Mahomes will see it, and deliver. So maybe this shifts the game plan to man coverage on Hill, with a bracket, and Poyer playing closer to the line of scrimmage to shadow Kelce. I know there has been back and forth about who is more important, and I'd say Hill is the player that has the ability to tear a game wide open with 200 yards and multiple TDs. If that guy gets loose, Kansas City is unstoppable offensively.

Gunner, again, this is the test of our Defensive Line. Can the Bills win up front and get pressure? And when the Chiefs decide to run, does Star L make the big difference? And to your point, you'd take 85 yards between Kelce and Hill 10/10 times. Tampa's Defensive Ends were crashing further upfield that just taking a bee-line to the Quarterback?

Thanks for passing this along. Going back to the beginning of Mahomes, their offense has been Kelce-Mahomes-Hill. This year was supposed to be the plug-in of Hardman, and that hasn’t happened much more than historical.

Yeah 700-yards was just a gut number, but it implies that your Tight End is a real factor in the offense. The Bills as a franchise never seem to get anymore than 200-300 yards from their Tight Ends. And if Knox is taking catches away from Beasley, I’m okay with that. He’s bigger and arguably faster.

1. Passing in neutral game script. 2. 4 and 5 wide formations. 3. One factor in this offense that has been missing since 2018, is a consistent deep ball. Diggs hasn’t really provided that thus far, and we haven’t seen it consistently since Robert Foster. I assume Sanders is our deep threat now and if so, do the Bills get any easy 2-play type drives on Sunday? Not a fan of empty sets. Yes, I see two problems with Bills on empty sets. 1. Pittsburgh showed the Bills Offensive Line is not consistently good enough to protect without help, and I don’t think those problems are totally solved. 2. Daboll can get carried away and blinded by 4-5 wide sets if that was the gameplan coming in. He can get pass happy even if the strategy is not working.

If the Bills could get a Tight End that could give you 700-yards consistently, it’d be another level for this offense.

To make Kansas City move off Hill and Kelce would be an incredible accomplishment in this big of a spot compared to the AFCCG. Those two ran wild the entire game. Bills might have to do this with Milano’s injury.

These teams are so weird. So Fields wasn’t ready Week One, but Dalton goes out in Week Two and by Week 5 Fields is the starter permanently. Herbert not good enough to start, Tyrod punctured lung, and now Week 2 he’s good enough for the rest of the year. Allen, our plan is he never starts his rookie year, whoops Peterman is a disaster, Allen get in there Week One. Fate kind of just works out most of the time and these old bandaid Quarterbacks are moved out of the way via injury. Jimmy G is next with Lance taking his job.

On the run game, when the Bills do go to it, I’d like for them to do it under Center. I don’t want to Singletary running out of shotgun, or Moss getting toss sweeps to the outside, or delayed handoffs. Moss is averaging 4.2 yards, Singletary is at 5.3 yards, trust that and just run straight at the Chiefs. The Bills don’t have enough speed to get to the edges or the offensive line to do that.

Another common theme of this thread, and common to the Bills is to play Nickel, getting another Safety/Corner onto the field and thus hoping Star L makes the difference in plugging the run game. Is this the game where we see Rousseau rush from the interior?

He’s gone, went to Green Bay.