Straight Hucklebuck

Yeah that’s a load. Bengals fans have been milking that calf injury until the the 49ers game made it convenient. Oh look he ran for 43 yards, Joe the athlete is back. He’s had round the clock treatment on the calf since July, aggravated it (to a lesser degree) against the Ravens. Because here is the thing, if he went out there and threw for 300-yards and 3 TDs it would have been look at Joe, what a leader, what a warrior. They get by the Seahawks because of their defensive line and the fall back is the calf. That went out the window after the Cardinals game.

Earlier in the year I thought Burrow had become more predictable. It was the same thing we’ve seen, underneath passes, and when he sees 1-1 on the outside he throws deep, the Seattle interception was this. And Boyd has been a steady 7-9 targets in all games this year. The problem of course is Chase on short throws underneath, especially out of the slot. The Seattle game was strange because the calf was healthy and the Bengals went silent in the second half, again multiple chances to score. Seattle has much more speed at corner than the Bills, so no getting around that.

And Nick Wright says Allen is a roller coaster. I’ve thought all-off-season that Burrow got no flack for the 2 Interceptions he threw against Kansas City (the second one was a deep ball that died on its way to Higgins in the AFCCG) and his offense had multiple chances in the 4th to take the lead and he couldn’t get it done.

Allen needs to run more in the red zone. Inside the 10 I like that play call much more than a 2nd-Goal shotgun handoff to Murray or Cook for negative yardage.

Even though all the times he's been injured (maybe outside of leaving the 2019 Patriots game with the concussion) have been when he's throwing the ball. UCL Texans, UCL Jets, shoulder Giants.

I don't know why 100% of the time the Bills don't look at the ball at the 1 yard line as 4-down territory with 3rd and 4th down both QB sneaks to Allen. Worst case the opponent takes over at their 1/2-yard line.

Either way, I do think not having another elite traits WR is holding this team back. I think Round 1 is the way to go.

What crusade is that?

In the end this comes down to drafting. The Bills do a nice job of being active in FA and at the trade deadline. But we can all go through the lists and see how some of their 1st and 2nd Round picks have turned out, and say those are the key decisions holding us back.

Pickens 2 catches for -1 yard. He had 1 catch last week (22 yard TD). Diontae Johnson has been back for 2 games and Pickett has locked onto him. Wonder how long before Pickens voices frustration and could he be someone the Bills could target?

This is kind of what I felt during the offseason. The Bills were over the cap by $24M and had to restructure several deals to get under the cap. At that point they had about $17M in cap space. They could have traded/signed one or two larger names (Hopkins probably the biggest), but instead took their previous routes of keeping the 2020-2022 Bills as intact as they could, and then jamming as many veterans in as they could: Poyer, Shaq Lawson, Jordan Phillips, Damien Harris, Taylor Rapp, David Edwards, Deonte Harty, Trent Sherfield, Connor McGovern, Leonard Floyd. Same as the trade deadline, created $4M in space from Dion Dawkins, worked with a total of $4.9M, and have jammed in Joseph, Douglas and Fournette (P.S.) all for the equivalent capital asset loss of a 4th Rounder. Despite the Playoff losses, the Bills still have some cache in the league. I think Beane has done what he can to put veterans on this team that can play right away. I'm of the opinion that we need another high traits WR in here to ultimately get where we want to go, but Beane is active and he's trying.

Converted several 3rd and longs. A lot of ref involvement in that game.

Because the other people at work don't follow the NFL close enough to have any meaningful conversations. So you have a sport that everyone enjoys, but half of them are fans of teams and don't watch the games or really know anything past a few players on the team.

PFF Overall by Year: 2010: 53.5 2011: 62.3 2012: 71.6 2013: 73.4 2014: 70.9 2015: 90.9 2016: 80.1 2017: 90.0 2018: 72.2 2019: 71.2 2020: 68.7 2021: 63.4 2022: 58.9 So, a standard curve where playing time and effectiveness increased from age-22, peaked at 27, 28, 29, and began to steadily drop, steeper from 32-34 years old.

It would give the Bills two of the biggest wins of the year around the league. Dolphins off 70 points. And Bengals with no Burrow calf excuse off their 49ers win on the road.

On Fournette, I think he could take the rock 2-3 times in this game. That's all Damien Harris was touching the ball anyways.

He's already been ruled out? Didn't Beane say something like he's on a flight to Buffalo, trying to get him passing the physical, and watching practice? He then said the same "ramp up" stuff.

They are easy to dislike that's for sure. With Burrow's arrogance, Mixon and their entire receiving group. They have been tagged by the Browns, Titans and Ravens in the run game, but I would expect less success against them than those teams. I still think they have a large and physical defensive line. Now, a potential factor is how much does Allen run? If the chains are off, he could level this some.

Early in the year they gave up some big games on the ground to the Browns (200) and the Ravens (170), the Titans also put up 170 yards. What kind of a rotation do you think we'll see with Cook, Murray and I expect Fournette to be active as well.

That's what I said. Even before the Monday Night game last year they openly talked about how the Bills were nothing special, that they were going to do whatever they wanted, and so forth. Then they took the MNF incident and the NFL's response and further used that to motivate themselves. They came into Buffalo last year and intimidated the Bills from the first drive onwards. And coming off that 49ers win they're mentally going to be in the same place. I think they are a defensive first team with one great QB to one great WR connection, with a little less of the complimentary pieces as last year. But can this offense move their defense out of the way this time around? That's the difference when the Bills play the Dolphins. You aren't concerned with their physicality.

Down here it's been a lot of the same commentary. Burrow hasn't had a normal Training Camp in his career so the slow start is expected, the line wasn't good in 2021 and they made the Super Bowl, Bengals were 0-2 last year and went on a tear. Earlier in the year Zac Taylor had the same tone at 1-3, there is no problems, we're fine, we'll show everyone. And I'd say that trash talk is returning. So I'd expect Burrow to take his shots, of course Mixon and their receiving group. Their Head Coach was talking after the 49ers game that they were the team to end that 11 game home winning streak. So that arrogance is back. I think they're a defensive first team. Their front 7 is deep with Pratt and Wilson, and that line Hendrickson, Reader, Hill and Hubbard. Heavy players, strong, hard to move. Their entire 2023 draft was defensive depth everywhere. Offensively, I think the loss of Perine hurt them some, as it's really Mixon and nothing else in the run game, Chase Brown hasn't done anything, and they're getting nothing out of the Tight End position right now. There is no Hayden Hurst this year. So despite Burrow and him talking about how much burst he has this year, it's the same nut to crack, it's Burrow to Chase and secondarily Burrow to Higgins. That's their offense. Mixon has been getting it going recently as well, and last year he could have ran for 200 in both games if the Bengals wanted it. The concern, for me, is their physicality and they get in your face with the trash talk. Last year this team looked like it had no confidence to stand up to them.

So, we'll have to survive with Dodson/Williams/Poyer at linebacker.

Yup, either DT or LB

Get Spillane from the Raiders and I think you've done what you can.

Well they'll have to pull levers again because in 2024 I heard they are already over the cap by $24M.