IgotBILLStopay

That was a more accurately thrown beer can than all the pass attempts at Orchard Park over the past 20 years. Bill Belichik, who is always looking to upstate New York for football talent, has a BOLO out for the thrower and plans to sign him and develop him to be Brady's replacement. Edit: BOLO = Be On the Look Out for (police slang) https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BOLO

Actually I felt I was underreacting earlier to how pathetic the Bills' remaining foes are. The Jets' follies yesterday just made that clear to me:)

I have always been a glass half full guy when it comes to Bills' playoff aspirations. Throughout the playoff drought, I would identify one game in the season, when I definitively said goodbye to any playoff aspirations. The only two instances where I had hopes going into the last game were the year we lost to the Steelers and, of course, last year. For this season, it was the Patriots game last week. I felt getting to 2-7 pretty much sealed our chances. But I am having second thoughts now. This appears to be a strange season for the Bills. While our SOS was high, all but one of those "tough" games are behind us. We face the Fins twice, the Jets again, the reeling Lions and Jags, and the Patriots. 8 wins looks very realistic folks without the Pats game. If I give us a 20% chance to win against the PATS (they likely would have clinched the division and wild card home court by week 16 and likely will not get a first round bye this year - so they may rest their starters), I could see us going 9-7 with 7 wins against AFC foes and the tie-breaker over the Titans. Obviously a lot of Ifs, but the steady defense and the weak schedule does appear to give us an outside chance. Just saying. When all is said and done, I still think that stupid Houston game debacle is going to come and bite us in the foot .. but, maybe, just maybe, I jumped the gun a bit too soon in writing off P chances this season. Flame away peeps.

why not trade for Fitz and Desean as a package? - Offer Lawson + 2nd

When the Bills defense is running drills, he is the first guy you see because he is so big. He was giving 100% even in those pre-game drills. All in all, a great pick up for the Bills. Thanks for posting OP. Played really well against Houston.

they were having success blitzing Luck in the first quarter. Wonder why they apparently went away from it. I think the first TD drive by the colts followed by the Clay turnover completely unnerved the Bills.

Ha! I do blow my own horn sometimes - sry. But more importantly, while Parker is cheaper, I doubt the Fins will ever trade him to us. Thomas, on the other hand ......

OP - at least say something like "an unintentional consequence of McD sticking with Peterman has been that Allen has looked like the better option and that can do wonders for his confidence". Making this seem intentional and strategic on McD's part is so far outside the realm of possibility.

Will be a buy one get one free upgrade - QB and WR! edit: Sry TuelTime - didnt realize that you had posted the same thing. My bad.

The replacement QB relative win loss record is a function of the opposition as well as over the year improvements in D and ST even if offense is the same. As OP points out we have not had stellar (or even mediocre) QB play and yet we are 2-4. Our D has improve tremendously the past 4.5 games. I am more optimistic than most even about this season since the Bills schedule does get easier. Additionally our D has started playing lights out. FWIW, I even thought Allen was turning a corner with his two strikes to KB (one called back). The offense is what it is - the system can’t overcome lack of talent - but hoping that the non Peterman offense can play mistake free ball. More than the Offense, my concern is with ST. In that light, players specifically working on that is a good sign. To sum up, I am hopeful we can get a few wins thanks to our defense so long as we clean up ST and play mistake free conservative offense. It won’t look pretty but can be effective considering the remaining opposition.

What would be our additional cap hit for this year if we traded for him (give up a 6th rounder, say)?

On a majority of the plays throughout his Bills career, Hughes has been beating the Offensive Lineman on the outside. The only way to avoid a Hughes sack is with the lineman pushing wide with the QB stepping into the pocket and having the interior OL be stout. I obviously want Hughes to keep doing what he does. But I did wonder last Sunday if Hughes can surprise the lineman and keep him honest by making an inside move once in a while.

@26cornerblitz Thanks Man! You the best. Amazing how much more there is to see when things are broken down (As opposed to watching the game from the stands).

I would say something classy and inspirational but that just wouldnt be the Bills style now - Bring on Shane Falco!!

17-13 Bills

We were lucky in one game when Flacco was pulled with an insurmountable lead butother than that has been damn impressive. Reminded me of 90s good or Schwartz good.

But no Tre' White then, no?

The I am not calling it the greatest show on turf. With the way our defense played, the offense did not have to do much. Clearly we could have won if they had done more. Where I am coming from are - a. my expectations on offense were so low, they exceeded it. so I am not discouraged. clean up some bonehead penalties - and we can hang in there. b. we could have won with that offensive output but for the special teams miscues. FWIW, compared to Texans, the Bills looked like having the better offense out there and that is saying something.

My first and last Bills B&M game of the season. Please note this is just a raw first account not clouded by replays or reading any writeups - so there may be errors to the naked eye. We reached NRG Stadium bright and early and had seats on the Visitors sideline side (obviously). They let people in 1.5 hrs before kickoff - so was there at 10:30 am CT - one of the first in. Made my way down to the 4th row on the first level (our seats were on level 5). NRG staff very accommodating and let us go where we wanted. When we arrived - we saw Hauschka and Ferguson running some kicking drills. Ferguson had some family members at the game - so he sidled past the sideline (ha!) over to the first row divider to allow family and friends to take some pics. By the way, while the stadium was full, there were a decent amount of Bills fans sprinkled in (with #17, #12 and #34 being the most common jerseys - did spot quite a few Sammy #14 jerseys too). Soon the other Bills players joined them and were seen limbering up. The guys who immediately catch your eye are Allen (he is a big dude), Tremaine, KB and Phillips (#97). After some joint stretching and warm ups, all the Bills players went to their position groups and did some light drills on one half of the field. It all appeared organized. You had Peterman and Allen throwing in the middle overseen by their position coach, the WR group was near the sideline, OL and DL were near the endzone and the CBs were at the opposite sideline. After skills specific drills, the Bills players also did some light game situations where the offense went against the defense (Tre' and McCoy appeared to be the big talkers here). There was one play in particular where Allen flicked his wrist and Ray-Ray caught it 30 yards away going against Tre - of course this looked like flag football but still another Bills fan and I couldnt help drooling over the arm talent. The key point is that all the Bils activities were focused and organized unlike the Texans who just had some kicking drills going on. Even several Texans fans appeared impressed with the Bills pre-game routine. Felt good about McD. Onto the Game Let me just say that watching this Bills Defense gave me goosebumps. I am telling you these guys are ELITE!!! Was reminded of the 90s at Orchard Park where the crowd would go Brrruuuuucceeeee. That is how good the DL looked all game. They made Deshaun Watson look pedestrian. Of course Deshaun also played into this by trying to do too much. I remember the 3rd and 2 play where he had a first down for the taking but Dehaun was moving side to side. He finally scrambled and made the first down but you could hear the collective groans of the crowd. Houston's OL looked a lot worse than ours believe me! Hughes was flying in on every play, Kyle was stout, Lorenzo was all over the place, even Trent and Lawson got in on a sack each. It was a Bills sackapalooza and I loved every minute of it. The other great thing I noticed is that not only is the defense good, they know it and ooze confidence. You guys could probably not see this during the TV timeouts - but there was thsi TV timeout where Hughes was just dancing to the stadium music. Then he stopped and was air guitarring. Also, once in a while McD will call to Hyde from the sideline to relay some instructions - but, for the most part, he would let the defense play without much interference. In contrast, there were always instructions from the Houston sideline. BTW, Tre is a genuine stud. He covered De'Andre Hopkins brilliantly one on one and trust me, De'Andre was getting separation when anyone other than White was on him. If Deshaun had a bit more time or anyone other than Tre covered him, Hopkins would have had a 150 yard game. Hopkins may be better than Antonio Brown or Julio Jones or OBJ people. I also noticed how smart Tre was. Again maybe you guys did not get to see it, but he lobbied the refs quite successfully. I saw the refs pick up a couple of flags after he appeared to tell them that Hopkins was just whining. And last but not the least, the defense did beautifully to hold the Texans to a FG on a 1st and Goal from the one yard line! What more can you ask of them. They did not show the replay of the pass interference penalty that led to the first and goal on the giant scoreboard, but to my naked eye, it appeared to be a phantom call. The only small blemish from the defense was that last drive when Fuller and De'Andre reeled in passes and then we had two infractions including the pass interference before the 1st and goal. Even then they held them to three! If you cant win a game where the Defense allows 3 points, SMH man! OK, on Offense the news was not all bad. I thought the penalties killed us - so many illegal formations, false starts etc. And it is not that the crowd was that loud despite being a dome stadium. Ralph would get way louder. First the positives. Shady was not bad at all. Last year, there will be several three and outs where Shady would lose a yard or two on a couple of downs, but he would still get his yardage from a couple of long runs. Here he was consistently getting positive yardage. I think his longest run may have only been 14 yards. The Ivory hair yank by Jadevean Clowney looked real scary in real time. Apparently it is legal. Go figure. Overall, our O-Line was better than the Texans'. Also, this may be controversial - but I was getting quite irritated by JJ Watt's shenanigans. On every play he would be busy exhorting the crowd to make noise rather than paying attention to what his teammates were saying. Even his sack did not appear that impressive - he just fell forward and tripped up Allen. One more step back from Allen and Watt could not have gotten to him. I thought our OL handled him decently. About Allen, he does miss badly on some throws - there was one where Zay Jones was wide open - but Allen's pass was so wide, it did not even give Zay a chance to drop it. He also has a tendency to throw low - the only saving grace (particularly relevant for us) is that he did not appear in danger of ever throwing a pick. There was so much zing to the passes that even targeted receivers had trouble holding on - so CBs really would not have much of a chance. Also, it appeared the Texans only had a couple of sacks - it could have been more but Allen does a great job of eluding the rushers. It appeared that the Bills best Offense always came when Allen was scrambling. Also, the entire team seems to gravitate towards Allen - even when he was injured and sitting on the sideline, the Bills Offensive and Defensive players were constantly checking on him. Peterman, on the other had, my oh my. It started out well. That TD pass to Zay was thrown into a very tight window and thrown perfectly. But after that, every pass he threw - it appeared to be a pick waiting to happen. He does tend to telegraph his passes - I still dont know why coaches dont teach him the art of the pump fake. That would at least keep defenses honest. With a 1:37 left and you have the ball in a tied game, you are playing for two results in regulation. And yet, the genius of Peterman helped manufacture a third result. Once and for all, this version of Peterman is definitely NOT IT. Overall, I felt the offense did well enough to win the game and would have won it even with Peterman in there except for the the third leg of the stool -- Special Teams. Man that muffed punt return was a killer. First it was horribly short punt - the punter would have been released instantly for punts like that - so Ray Ray was scrambling to get to the ball despite calling fair catch - but sometime you got to let it go if you cant catch it and the rookie messed up. And to add salt to the wounds, the live ball was pushed more than 20 yards towards the Bills endzone before the Texans recovered it. Bojorquez was getting good hang time on his punts and I thought the wrost was behind him - and then came the blocked punt. I dont know how we can retain Danny Crossman after these miscues. Our punting game at least is passable despiet the blocked punt, but our return game is non-existent. Unlike the offense and defense, there does not appear to be a disciplined approach to it. Anyway, felt very deflated at the end since this game was very winnable. One line summary: excited about the Defense, not badly discouraged by the Offense and revolted by Special teams.

Umm Two O-linemen to replace Wood / Incognito, a top WR and maybe more impactful D-Linemen than Star and Murphy.

How will a 3rd get the deal done for Bell? Steelers are pretty much assured of a third round comp pick if they let him walk this offseason, no?

There are games when he shows his first round potential and there are games where he lays an egg. The overall trend this season is positive though. Strangely enough, our best defensive game was the one he missed (v. Vikings). But that may not not mean anything.

20-16 Bills!!

You guys know the real reason for the signing is to confuse opposing OCs about which Phillips is manning the middle, right?:)

While you make a good point, I think the actual plays will depend on what Allen's strengths and the long term Oline / WR characteristics are going to be. From the preseason at least, it appeared that Peterman is much better at those timing throws than Josh. But those 3 step drops did not really work when defenders come unblocked and you dont have the receiving personnel for that. It is quite likely that Allen's strengths are to fall back and use the rocket arm when he gets the time and scramble and use his feet when he doesnt have the time. Why make the thoroughbred into a mule?