Ayjent

One of the great things about Madden when he was at his prime was that he would let the stadium atmosphere and sounds be while he would just be quiet. Romo does a lot of the great things Madden would do and really the good ones all do, focusing way more on good plays. Romo breaks down the strategy so the average fan can understand, especially before the play starts. That's what's really good about watching him. Madden would be quiet before the snap sometimes and that just you let you absorb the situation. Collinsworth is just annoying a lot of times. He focuses on mistakes too much. But his biggest thing that makes him a hard listen when its more than just casual viewing of a game and its your team - he seems to focus on the built up reputation of players and coaches rather than what is going on in the game that contradicts that narrative. To be fair he isn't awful all game, but when pivotal plays happen he usually has a take that is like "What?!! STFU Collinsworth!" Al Michaels has a good voice and is a decent play by play guy - past his prime, though.

I’m talking about college not pro. I never thought this would work out, he’s an egomaniac that doesn’t fit the successful type for the pro game. He’s better in college where he’s the biggest man all the time while great talent comes and goes under his watch. Much easier and better fit for him, but make no mistake he’s great at that college gig where you can stack the deck with recruited talent and surround yourself with decent to good coaches to utilize that talent. We'll revisit in a year or two and see what he’s up to - maybe he’ll hang it up after the Jags but I doubt it. I don’t think he lasts more than this year in the NFL.

How many times was he in the BCS championship, Conference Title Game and Top 10 in his entire career? He's a successful college program coach - and he could be successful wherever he goes - he's a great recruiter. He may not win another but he could certainly be in the conversation every year.

You would like to think it would impact his chances, and maybe it will with some programs, but Urban Meyer wins national championships and honestly that means some decent program desperate to regain glory will take him. It's really that simple. This stuff will blow over after a little time, and he will be a hot commodity before you know it. Whether he has the "heart" to get back into it is a different story.

That line sounds about right. The Bills haven't played but one really good offensive game. The Defense has been really good, but the Offenses they faced are not anywhere near the Chiefs. The Bills will have to be able to maintain drives and come away with TDs, executing better than they have outside of the WFT game. A good barometer game for both teams.

That's an amazing and awful clip at the same time!😆

The D Line didn't look as good as the last 2 games and it was a bit of a let down, but I also think that they were being mindful of Heinicke getting outside of the pocket, which he still did, but when they kept him hemmed in he wasn't very effective. I mean he wasn't really very effective either way, but I do think that they respected his ability to move, maybe even too much. I think they wanted more pressure still, but I don't think that they were crashing the pocket like they were against the Dolphins and Steelers. The problem with Josh the first 2 games was that he was looking to make a play downfield too much and pressing instead of taking advantage of the plays that were there. Whatever footwork was or was not problematic didn't matter as much as that. Watching those first 2 games and where the passes were going, you could just tell that if they changed the focus to hitting passes quicker and not as far upfield that the passing game would resemble last year. That's exactly what happened. I don't have the Athletic subscription and didn't read the whole article last week, but if he is focusing on footwork and not the part about where Josh was going with the ball, then he is missing the bigger picture. The gameplan and playcalls against Pittsburgh weren't a shining moment for Daboll either, and I think last week, it was still a bit of pushing it downfield without really setting it up with effective high percentage passing.

That 4th down play in my view wasn't a great call no matter how you slice it. A fairly horizontal attack where a lot could go wrong and not a lot can go right. A tipped or bobbled pass has pick 6 potential, you give a defense that is definitely geared toward protecting the chains and tight on the LOS a lot of opportunity to attack the ball. I get the concept and why it should work, but it's got risks and its not taking advantage of the situation. 4th down plays are always a chess match, but attacking with quick hitting intermediate routes they couldn't cover all day was probably a much better strategy. But better to figure that out when it doesn't really matter in a game pretty clearly decided by that time. I also read an ESPN excerpt that questioned the Bills' pass rush and inability to get to Heiniecke. I really don't think that was the gameplan at all. Sure they wanted to create pressure and get sacks, but the edge rushers seemed to be focused on containing him in the pocket more than coming in hard on the edges and leaving running lanes for him to scramble. They weren't exactly successful in containing him from getting out on the edge and making plays with his feet, but they did their job for the most part and I think they were perfectly fine with the way they played him. He made throws he shouldn't have turning it over because he was being contained in the pocket. I would have liked to see more push on the interior, but as you pointed out Shaw, they didn't generate much offense outside of garbage time and a nice screen play. Bottom line is that it worked and the staff knew it would. Not to take anything away from the Bills defense, but I don't think Washington is very talented on the offensive side of the ball, The Bills asked them to beat them playing pretty vanilla Defense and they couldn't muster much. Gibson is a nice back, but not necessarily a feature back, McLauren is a decent receiver, and Logan Thomas has really improved as a TE - but these guys are at best role players on a more talented team. Washington's Defense has taken a huge step backwards and their line didn't create much pressure or problems for the Bills. Maybe they just found their stride last year and had momentum, but what I see is that they aren't a very good Football Team and that they are unlikely to be anywhere near .500, unless they sweep their division and get lucky.

The Bills did what a good team does. They exerted their dominance at will, even with a couple of things going against them in succession leading to the game tightening up. I also saw what the Offense was leaving on the field the first two games in the passing game being taken advantage of finally and it made all the difference in how well Josh looked. He took what was there (the jabs) rather than the big play (the uppercut). I wasn't particularly worried about the passing game, because it looked very correctable. However, I was concerned that maybe Sanders being part of the team had changed the dynamic in the passing game and was looking for Gabe Davis to be more involved and hope that he is more involved moving forward. He is more physical and bigger bodied than most of the other receivers and is someone that we will need in the playoffs as defenses get "sticky" (i.e., get away with more illegal contact and holding). I would like to see more emphasis on using the RBs and it does seem like they are working in Moss more and more especially in the red zone. I do think an effective screen game is still missing from this offense and think that it could make them even more potent. Daboll hasn't really utilized it much in his time as the OC for the Bills. The McKenzie motion wrinkle has also been noticeably absent. But I think the Offense still is moving towards its best games and they haven't reached anywhere near their potential yet.

Trevon Grimes WR Florida

Kyle Pitts would be an ideal addition to this offense but his hype is unreal. I watched him over the yrs at UF and he is special, but he is a one dimensional TE - he is basically a WR with unreal size. I’m also not sure how well this offense utilizes the TE position although you probably would modify with a talent like that. Against a physical secondary he would shake free and give Josh a huge target, but there is no way the Bills trade up to get him bc the Panthers already traded for a bust QB (Trubisky has at least had success) and Beane was asleep at the wheel on that one. JK. if the Bills were looking for another WR from UF - Grimes is the guy that will likely see more success than he had in college in the pros. He has a big frame and goes after the ball well on 50/50s. Probably a late round pick. Good speed and athleticism for being 6’4” and in the right situation like Buffalo could really develop.

And we still didn’t miss Poz and his pretty hair. Good riddance.

Not trying to recreate the Ravens but you’ve got to get pressure to beat Mahomes - otherwise this team is going to be a bridesmaid every year. The Raiders and Chargers got to him and took the wind out of their offense too. Honestly they could use another LB and CB and could draft an edge rusher or space eater on the line. Speed wasn’t the problem at WR either. It was lack of a physical receiver to beat “tight” coverage when refs swallow whistles and lack of a real threat at TE as a pass catcher. Also, if the WRs were better blockers the run game would open up more too. That’s why I wanted Michael Pittman Jr last year. Gabe Davis was a great pick too, but Pittman is way more physical and a great blocker. There are plenty of places to improve despite a great year last season. They will have options at 30 to fill one of the needs and usually a player that makes total sense is there for a steal late first round. What position and who is the question. I think they have plenty of speed at WR already. They need to get tougher and more physical on both sides of the ball honestly.

The Bills need D so that they don't feel compelled to play on their heels vs top offenses. That starts on the line and thats what they need in the worst way. I like WR or TE picked somewhere but it'd have to be a real steal at 30. I know Chase is being projected way higher, but teams may get cold feet after him coming off an injury - thats the kind of steal you take a chance on, but highly unlikely.

Agreed. I think they can but there is a lot of truth to run blocking being a matter of focus and consistency in scheme and the backs having familiarity with where the holes are most likely to develop. Moss and Singletary are similar backs and I think running Antonio Williams could give them a change of pace power back. I was holding my breath with Yeldon's ball security issues at the end of the game.

The Bills have been adaptive in playing many styles as you pointed out. You can guess they'll be pass heavy but the type of passing game they use is always presenting a different wrinkle. The times when they've struggled this year is when they try to go deep too much. And that has been rare. They can run between the tackles better than outside. Their screen game isn't great but Singletary is their best receiving back and it may be the way to beat chiefs. Davis is their best blocking receiver but it's not that units strength. I think thats why it isn't that effective and why they can't run outside with much consistency. Their best runs seem to be between the tackles where they don't necessarily get verticle push but open the hole side to side and the LBs and secondary either get blocked on the line or miss their gap.

Hopefully the staff stays intact as teams impatiently fill vacancies. One of the benefits of winning is that it keeps your coordinators off the market. You've got to think Bienemy gets a look as does Daboll - whoever gets knocked out gets first look. The vacancies are filling up - Eagles and Texans are still open. You'd think Eagles is less attractive given cap hell they are in with Wentz K. Texans have their own warts and pending chaos if Watson isn't given some voice in the process. I dont know that I'd want either if I'm Bienemy or Daboll.

That was an incredible coaching job and performance by the Defense. You got the impression the Bills were okay giving up yards to the backs but not Lamar and if they could get them off schedule it would be much easier to stop the Ravens by hemming Lamar in the pocket. Easier said than done but the Bills were built to stop that with great cover LBs. Greg Roman went away from what was working once the Bills had moderate success stopping their run game. I was a little baffled but happy about it. On the other side, the Bills' best offensive drive was the 1st drive of the 3rd quarter, which had them mixing run and pass. I get that they didn't feel that the running game was going to be there given the Titans performance against the Ravens, but the Bills pass game provides more room to run and they were asking the Bills to at times. Had they ran a bit more I think they could've handled the Ravens easier and put more points up. However, hard to fault a playoff win like that. I got the sense they could run if they just tried by the 2nd quarter when the Bills had them playing pass and it was clear that the wind was wreaking havoc on the ball. This is the weakness that the Bills have yet to demonstrate they have the ability to do consistently - the run game. I think that they can run and could do so if they wanted with success. You could see the linemen getting jacked up after Singletary's runs. Thats a good thing.

Or because I thought it was interesting and worth talking about, and I am not a big fan of Barnwell and haven’t been for a long time. I take issue with his overreliance on letting the stats drive narratives rather than having the game explained from the important stats that effect the outcome and effectiveness. I understand how deceiving stats can be when not properly put into context, especially in sports. I fully understand that the Bills could lose to any team in the playoffs - these are all good teams and the Bills are not full of playoff experience. Presumptive assholery is the problem with society.

First off, I think Barnwell is a dry writer and has some serious misconceptions of sports (like his whole theory that momentum doesn't actually exist in sports). I still read it because it is better than a lot of what ESPN puts out. The article requires ESPN+ (which I wouldn't pay for by itself but as a bundle with Hulu and Disney+ why not) https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/30661462/nfl-playoff-bracket-predictions-bill-barnwell-picks-every-winner-including-super-bowl-score . Barnwell has the Saints beating the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and it goes like this for the Bills: They beat the Colts and lose to the Steelers. "The Steelers' offense isn't great, but it's not as bad as it looked against the Bills in December, when it went 1-for-10 on third downs." and "It wouldn't shock me if we saw the Steelers' defense and Allen combine for something similar to the first matchup, when the Bills scored 19 points on offense (cornerback Taron Johnson had a pick-six to get the Bills to 26)." Steelers lose to Chiefs in AFC Championship, and Saints beat Bucs in NFC Championship. What interests me is how a one dimensional offense with an inability to stretch the field in its one dimension and a defense that got physically dominated in the second half somehow makes Pittsburgh a team that presents too many problems for the Bills. The Bills scored 19 points on Offense in the first matchup because it didn't need to score more and dominated the clock to put the Steelers in a sleeper hold in the fourth quarter. It was a dominating victory even though the Bills struggled early in the game on Offense to get things going. The Bills defense simply matches up well against teams that can't run or pass deep - it plays right into their strengths. And I'm not hating on Barnwell because its just a silly prediction piece, but how he relies on things like DVOA of defenses better than the Bills that the Steelers were more successful against rather than actual matchup strengths and weaknesses has always been a thing that irks me about his analysis. He doesn't understand the context of the stats he cites and relies too heavily on them. You can use stats to backup what you know you saw when you watched the game but when you use stats to perpetuate a narrative that doesn't reflect reality then you are just clueless and blind in what you are trying to prove.

I didn’t like him but he did a decent job. I wasn’t sad to see him opt out, either. What I saw was that the Bills organization must’ve been truly undesirable if that was the type of contract they had to give a coach. The FO was a mess with Russ and Doug Whaley just running it into the ground to get a talented, but flawed roster that was saturated with bad contracts. The team couldn’t draft offensive players worth a crap outside of Robert Woods, and that was just a numbers game having spent massive amounts of draft capital on the WR position with very little ROI. When you think that TJ Graham and Goodwin are good 3rd round picks without anyone to throw the ball or to protect the QB you have no idea what the hell you are doing. I suppose it all played out the way it had to get to where we are now, but I could understand why the guy took the money and ran. He couldn’t have succeeded with his meh chops as a coach and would’ve ended up being fired or not renewed when everything played out. It was all leading to a house cleaning at some point.

Hell yeah. Thats why the real story is more about the Bills being good than Steelers being bad. The Steelers are good, especially on D. The Bills dominated that D when they finally settled into the game and took control. The last drive was like a sleeper hold and they didn't hulk hogan out of it. The Bills showed how good they can be and as fans we all hope they've learned how to take control and keep it when given the opportunity. Learning to win is what makes teams dangerous. Having both sides making plays consecutively game after game is what we watched good teams do to the Bills for years. Feels good to be on the other end of it as fans.

The Giants beat up Reed to slow down the Bills offense despite Thurman being amazing. They didn't really ever counter what the Giants were giving up deep to do that. Defensively, they couldn't adjust to take away the run to make Hostettler beat them. They were a strict 3-4 and that inflexibility was exposed with quick hitting run plays inside the tackles. Its amazing how different running games are today. I tend to think this style could be effective given how they front 7 of defenses of today rely on gap assignments to counter zone blocking schemes = big gains choosing and winning the right gap. Thurman and Anderson were at high speeds by the time they crossed the line of scrimmage. Thurman is really underrated in NFL history - what an all around back who made that Offense really dangerous - slippery runner too. Pretty cool difference in style than any other back - Marshall Faulk is probably the closest.

Great players elevate the play of teammates and when you have multiple great players you see the difference. Too many times organizations reward the wrong types of players with big contracts. Diggs is worth it and Josh Allen is a perfect fit bc all he ever does is try his best and try to improve. Diggs is helping him in the most important part - confidence.

I love the loser analysis of Broncos, Patriots and they don't go into a single reason why it is a negative for the Patriots other than having their bye week shifted. Umm...when you don't have your two best players available and you get a bye because of it being COVID-related...I think that is a win. A HUGE WIN. But that would have taken a few minutes of thought and doesn't support the argument. I just don't know how you get to a conclusion that the team is a winner that gets jerked around with waiting to see which way things go in terms of preparing for two different games and not knowing when they'll play. All while waiting to see if they have to play the team that is dealing with an outbreak (which could have multiple positive tests on the scheduled gameday). Nothing stressful about what the Bills are going through, right?! These games are only against undefeated teams that were in the AFC Championship game last year. The Chiefs get out of a huge game being on a short week. The Bills still have a short week and have to deal with the uncertainty of possibly getting positive tests after playing these turds that can't seem to respect the protocol. But they play the Jets so its a win. SMH