BigDingus

The Bills defense usually keeps it close for a half before they get tired from being on the field for 80% of the game while the offense does nothing. So it's likely we will be close at half.

Considering we actually have a decent fullback on the roster that has played the position on field this year, it makes even less sense they picked Tolbert. DiMarco must be ticked.

If he does play until he's 45, it's the Bills worst nightmare. Hopefully he'll hang it up earlier. Thinking of him being out there for 4-5 more years gives me a headache. The other telltale indicator in baseball is people's body's exploding in size and them getting huge heads (literally). Brady is neither blowing up or getting a deformed head. He also doesn't have the same arm strength or zip on the ball as he used to, although a couple times a game he throws a dart that looks reminiscent of old. The offense is tailored towards his strengths. I remember last year they put up a chart for his passes on the season, and nearly all of them were short routes to the outside or 15 yards over the middle to Gronk. The amount of passes beyond that are extremely slim. He throws a lot slants, underneath passes, curls, and sideline routes. He carves you up in tiny but quick chunks more often than anything.

Every QB has to learn that the hard way. Both Tyrod & EJ took nasty hits that took them out of games their first season due to not sliding. 1 half of 1 game from a rookie QB is not the end-all-be-all for a QB's resume. Nobody "forgot" that game, but they understand the likelihood of that EVER happening again is slim to none.

Also, to those saying Marino was a "better QB," I don't necessarily buy it. He has the better numbers certainly, but there's more to the story. Jim played 11 years in the NFL. That's it. Marino played 17 years, start to finish, in the NFL. Even if Jim hadn't gone to the USFL, Marino would play 3 years longer than him, retiring in 1999 as opposed to 1996. Kelly had only 3 seasons where he started all 16 games. Marino had 11 seasons where he started all 16, starting 240 overall compared to Jim's 160. The other huge difference is obvious; one played in Buffalo where weather is not conducive to great QB play compared to Miami where it's as close to an outdoor dome as possible outside of LA or San Diego. Also, Jim called the majority of the offense from the field which takes someone extremely smart to do. He understood the game and could read a defense better than almost anyone. You can't give him enough credit for what he was able to do play by play and how focused & intelligent you have to be to do so. Concussions cut Jim's career short and took him out of many games. Although he wasn't the best runner, he still tried, and rushed for 1,050 yards in his career compared to Marino's 301 yards, and he did it in 6 less seasons. They were just different types of QBs, but both great in different ways. That 301 rushing total in 17 years just shows how much of a true pocket passer Marino was. People called Bledsoe a statue, but Bledsoe had 385 rushing yards in 3 less seasons lol. Marino was a REAL statue. Overall, I just think they're 2 different animals all together. Marino should get all the credit in the world, but people shouldn't forget that he got the offense he wanted. He's as much to blame for their lack of a SB caliber team as anyone else.

Like many have said, we had more talent but also that Marino didn't believe in running the ball. The wasn't the coach, but he damn sure got what he wanted from the offense. Kelly called our plays, and he appreciated Thurman & the run game. Even though Kelly liked slinging the ball, he liked winning more. Dan wanted to throw all the time, and the offense suffered for it when they came up against teams that could deal with it.

It's not pessimism. What's Tom Brady's record against the Bills again? Explain how fans "conceding" anything to the Patriots means something. Do the Patriots play the fans on the field?

It's really weird this is allowed to go on by the stadium (often on stadium grounds). Does the Bills organization not mind the attention? I mean, I often find it funny but then again I'm not the one doing these things so....

Unfortunately, whether or not YOU concede anything doesn't matter. It's the guys on the field. And against the Patriots, they concede every time. We were on our way to doing that the first time before an INT in a first & goal situation.

Looks like they came out ahead. And I've said everything that I can say about Jones. Every "what about" argument people have brought up ends up falling flat and easily dismissed by facts & statistics. Jones has been awfully bad, not "needs a couple more years" bad. Like I posted above, when comparing his play to other receivers, they all started off superior to him, all caught far more passes, all made better use of their limited play time, and all had a higher hill to climb. The ONE thing he should be able to do is catch the ball, everything else is something you can learn. He hasn't been able to. It's fair to call him a bust so far.

You may not have noticed, but Tyrod stopped looking down field & the line stopped blocking for McCoy. In fact, I'm pretty sure the line decided they hated McCoy and wanted him to die considering how they let half the defense into the backfield the second the ball was snapped. Oh, and then there were the stupid penalties. Those affect things too ya know. Tyrod has never been good at 3rd & long.

I believed you until you said "Might lose, might win." HA! Caught you! LIAR! We're playing the Patriots! You fool, I can see through your lies like spam in a zip-locked bag! (Kudos if you know where that quote is from) The Bills don't "win" against the Patriots, did you think we were just going to overlook such a massive slip-up? No no no...too smart for you sir.

That's doable! Ravens losing to Colts will be a hard sell, but I can see it. Chargers losing to the Jets I can definitely see. The Jets play harder than their record shows. They nearly beat the Saints today but had some bad luck down the stretch. Either way they'll play hard. I believe!

Bingo. We've had their WR's. It's the #1 overall pick QB that makes the difference. And for the record: 1. COOPER KUPP (WHO?!) - 58 receptions for 804 yards & 4 TDs 2. Woods - 53 receptions for 748 yards & 5 TDs 3. Gurley - 54 receptions for 602 yards & 4 TDs 4. Watkins - 36 receptions for 563 yards & 7 TDs Yeah, the 3rd round rookie is leading the team in receptions & yards. Watkins has 7 TDs, so that's nice and all. But considering he cost two 1st round picks, had only a year left, and about to demand a lot of money, not worth that production (and that's with a great passing QB). Even their RB has more yards & receptions than Watkins. Here's a look at his stats today in a 42-7 win over Seattle: 2 receptions on 5 targets for 14 yards and 0 TDs. WOW! Woods is having his best year, but was a free agent. And even though this is his best year ever, it's still worse than all of Jordan Matthew's seasons before he came to Buffalo. And regarding that QB they have? Thrown for 3953 yards (282 per game), 24 TDs & 7 Ints along with only 24 sacks. Compare that to Tyrod - thrown for 2,314 (178 per game) yards, 13 TDs & 4 Ints along with 36 sacks. Yeah...I'm gonna go out on a limb & say a QB made the biggest difference.

I just want us to skip to the last week of the season. I have 0 confidence in beating NE, and I'm an optimist when it comes to most things. I hope it comes down to whether we beat the Dolphins or not & that's it. If it depends on the NE game, I'm going to be very sad.

The way our guys tackle they'll all just throw an arm at his shoulder or try to go for the ball. He'll get at least 60 yards after the catch by the end of the game simply because of broken tackles. Oh, I forgot. The "tackle" where a tiny DB launches themselves at him and ricochet off him into the dirt. We've seen that dozens of times lol

They developed in a completely different manner. They developed by starting on the bench, then getting more reps, then getting more targets (or in Hogan's case a better QB), or were just better in the first place, etc. Tate was 21 of 38 (55%) for 227 yards in 11 games his rookie season. Comparatively, Jones is 25 of 68 (36%) for 291 yards in 12 games... So Jones has 30 more targets and only 4 more catches than Tate had. Tate also had smaller numbers because he wasn't the #2 starting WR. Again, big difference. Doug Baldwin was 51 of 86 (59%) for 788 yards in his rookie season. That's good for 3.2 receptions on 5.3 targets for 49 yards per game...Compare that to Jones who averages 1.5 receptions on 5.6 targets for 24 yards per game. That's MORE receptions on LESS targets for DOUBLE the yardage...both as rookies, only Baldwin was signed as an UNDRAFTED Free Agent compared to a high 2nd round pick! Speaking of Undrafted Free Agents, Chris Hogan was also an UDFA...compared to a 2nd round pick who was made an instant starter....Want to know his rookie year stats while we're at it? 10 receptions on 17 targets (58%)... The dude didn't play! He was backup to the backups and a bench warmer, yet still caught almost 60% of the passes thrown his way because again, you don't forget how to catch just because you're a rookie. Want to see his follow up year where he actually got SOME time on the field? 41 of 61 (67%). He still caught the ball at a high rate. The funny thing is it's still not like Chris Hogan developed into some super star or anything...His best season was with Tom Brady throwing to him, and he totaled 680 yards on 38 of 57 (66%) receptions. Besides that, all his seasons are 400-something total yards. Is that what we're looking for with Zay Jones? Maybe he'll blossom into a 400 yards-a-year receiving "threat" like Hogan? Everyone you mentioned had superior rookie years to Jones with less opportunities and more in their way holding them back statistically. No, you don't need 3 years. Those guys didn't.

Speaking of attendance, what the heck was going on today? The stadium looked pathetic on TV, and actually pretty sad. We were playing the Dolphins, a divisional rival, at home for the first time and with a playoff spot on the line. They just beat the Patriots, and were also fighting for contention. We haven't made the post-season in 18 years, and this was the LAST home game of the season! Why did so few people care? We're still 8 days away from Christmas, it wasn't snowing, and tickets were dirt cheap. I really don't understand it.

Yep. People act like rookie WR's don't come in and consistently contribute all the time. They do. And even if their overall numbers aren't lights out, they also are a byproduct of how many attempts they get, how much play time they get, how big of a focal point of the offensive gameplan they are, etc. If they have 280 yards and 30 receptions, it's usually because they're 3rd or 4th string who only play limited snaps and don't get a lot of targets. Not instant day-1 starters who get 60-70 targets and only come away with 1/3 of them. Big difference.

Absolutely agree that it's mainly on him. Tyrod has not been a good passer this year, nor has he shown an ability to "throw receivers open" or hit timing routes. He also plays it safe and won't throw to guys who aren't wide open most of the time. However, he's given Jones numerous chances and hit him in stride, in the hands, or at least in very close vicinity where most NFL receivers would catch the ball, but nope. Zay simply doesn't come down with the catch.

They don't need 3... Not in today's NFL where the game & rules are setup around making the passing game easier and more dominant. DBs don't have half the tools available to them they did in the past, as now they'd get flagged constantly. QB's are protected more than ever before. Schemes and formations have changed more towards a pro-spread system. QB's take most of their snaps out of shotgun now. Seriously, WR's have it far easier now than even 10-15 years ago. They can come out & make an impact right away. And you may have to learn to deal with the speed of the NFL, the timing, the routes, etc. but the one thing you don't have to relearn is how to catch a ball. And Zay Jones has been awful at that. And yes, the announcers said he had one of the worst reception rates in the league along with highest drop rate. That's not ok for even a rookie, and especially not a highly touted 2nd round pick. He should get 1 more year, but 3 is too much. If you can't figure out how to catch a ball in 32 games, you're not going to. Moulds wasn't dropping balls. Moulds wasn't targeted as many times a Zay. Moulds wasn't an instant starter. Moulds didn't play in an era where the passing game thrives like it does today.

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=21798997 I just find this line funny (and definitely not true) - "There's times when I kinda forget about it, and they reminded me." Riiiiiiggghhht lol. I love Shady as much as anyone else, but having listened to him talk the past few seasons, if there's one thing he pays attention to it's his stats! Hell, he even pays attention to every other RB's individual stats day-to-day. He's even thrown out other RB's numbers in post game press conferences when those same RB's were playing at the same time as he was! I get it, he was trying to be a little humble, but still it's amusing to think he ever wasn't paying attention to the exact amount of yards needed to get there. Anyway, very happy for him and glad he's part of the Bills. Been the best thing about this team since he's been here. When he went down today I don't think I took a single breath until he moved. Even though his YPC has gone down, it's easy to see that's more a product of a regression in O-line play than his own abilities. He's just a quick and agile as he's ever been when he finds a hole. Congrats Shady, thanks for all your hard work!

Is it ever?

Not being able to stop a nosebleed almost cost us the game. If not for Cutler gifting us some turnovers, the defense was giving up plays all 2nd half. If it was 3rd & 20, you just knew they'd make it. 4th & 14? Easy stop for anyone but the Bills. It was maddening out there.

I can see why that was called. It looks worse in hindsight, but when your team execution is horrendous, it's hard to blame the coach. The second they snapped the ball, 2 men were 3 yards into the backfield right in front of McCoy...our O-line was trash in the run game all day, so McDermott probably wanted to call a designed play & give them time to talk it over to ensure there weren't any stupid mistakes. But nope, still were stupid mistakes. I mean 4th & goal at the 1 yard line, and Groy gets added as a 6th linemen only to get a false start? Then Mills gets a personal foul called on him on top of it? Seriously, the discipline of this line is atrocious. You have yard to go to get a TD and put away the game, instead you get 2 offensive penalties that stack & get the kicking team sent out on the field And that doesn't even include the blown up run plays that got us to 4th down in the first place. Looking back earlier, we had Ducasse get beat by a freaking corner leading to a sack! He just tapped the guy, then got burnt, getting Tyrod blown up... Thankfully they were MOSTLY good on pass protection other than a few stupid sacks like that. Tyrod usually had a lot of time to throw, he just started playing it safe again once the 2nd half came around. 100% right. Don't see anything wrong with the call.