Richard Noggin

My second job, at a local high-end restaurant, virtually guarantees I'm unable to watch anything on Saturdays from 4 pm to about midnight. The generationally-indelible Bengals-vs-Steelers outcome two years ago? Yep, I was working. Kind of ironic given our access to the Bills and Sabres over the years, that we'd miss such historically significant contests due to the job...but I'm mostly convinced the wildcard game will be Saturday at 4:30. Can I afford to quit? THAT'S the question...

"OCCASIONALLY BLURRING the line between fair and dirty play" (emphasis mine). Those first two words are a rhetorical effing ski jump of understatement, in light of the tapes that emerged and the penalties enacted (as mentioned, as though in passing, in the very next sentence).

Oh, to dream...

Funny. I will say that watching him make fun of Trent Richardson's bad footwork was kind of hilarious. I think we'd just signed Shady and Whaley was showing off a bit, ragging on a guy he refused to even look at in the draft and then later when he got traded to/from Indy. The particulars get hazy. Whaley took about a dozen heavy steps back and forth while pantomiming taking a hand-off.

I had some decent access to Brandon and Marrone and Whaley and Rex and that whole futile era of the team (and the corresponding Sabres personnel); McBeane runs a much tighter, less public operation. Definitely overheard some things from coaches, owners, execs, and players throughout the years. I'm hesitant to tell stories out of school, as it's part of my job to treat such high-profile clientele with discretion...

As a server at one of the above mentioned establishments, I can assure you Buffalo athletes are in there all the time. Not as often as when Russ Brandon ran the teams, but still often enough.

Apologies, I didn't realize he got the Zay Jones seal of approval! Enough said. Carry on. But for real, I know he was HIGHLY productive for a decent stretch. Was he doing so as a featured boundary receiver running the full route tree? Did he benefit from scheme and slot alignments? I'm a bit "bearish" on Rams offensive personnel having similar production in different systems.

This. We simply CANNOT know the answer, but we must consider the question. I thought Allen looked fairly dialed in tonight, and that they should have put the game on his shoulders more in the second half. He obviously responded following that chicken-$#!t red zone sequence that resulted in (an admittedly important) field goal. If you want to run to milk the clock, at least do so out of 11-personnel, right? Give the defense something to think about, and the offense an ability to audible/attack if the D over-commits to the run. That predictable, tight-formation approach has not been effective.

You see him as a "NUMBER ONE" receiver in a different offense? Okay, I'll bite: why? I don't follow the Rams closely, but when I do watch them, it seems like Woods is every bit as integral, if nor more so. Is Kupp injured in recent weeks? Help me see what you see, Inspector...

The drops are clearly a problem for this offense. I thought Allen was fairly locked in early, and Beasley carries some blame in ending two first half drives. That's at least two interceptions we can pin on #10 this season. He's a small guy who probably has relatively small hands for an NFL receiver. That's been an issue. Gotta have those plays. As the broadcast illustrated for us with an info-graphic, Bills starting wide receivers are short. And my observation has been that they, outside of Brown (WHO ALSO HAD ALLIGATOR ARMS ON A BIG PLAY EARLY IN THE GAME), don't make difficult or contested catches with enough frequency. Not every pass will be perfect, no matter who the QB is. But "complete" receivers will more often win (or at least play effective defense) on a big time 50/50 ball where his QB puts it up and gives him an opportunity. Smoke has made a few such catches this season. Little guys like Hill in K.C. can do it. But imagine having a big, long boundary receiver who specializes in high-pointing the ball...it's why some fans are so obsessed with Duke Williams. We lack that facet of our passing attack.

So, if I may paraphrase: I have no evidence or personal experience to back this up, but here's my uninformed opinion anyways... Carry on.

Americans, especially young Americans, don't participate in our democratic processes, but they sure do like their consumer processes...

Like The Office, only slightly less lovable and funny and cathartic (unless of course their very real and paradoxical blend of hubris and existential panic does in fact lead to a third documented case of misconduct). Dunder Mifflin had a lesser known Foxboro branch, apparently.

Little TBD love nugget: the discussion here, as this thread progresses, is solid. Mostly clear-eyed, objective perspectives. Nice to see after a frustrating loss. Maybe the knee-jerks have gone to bed?

It's important to point this out, as long you don't carried away. My buddy beside me at the game was REALLY angry about Knox's drop, and rightly so. I was fired up by Beasley's drop. And didn't McKenzie miss a pass in the end zone that clanged off his arms? I might be mis-remembering that one, but... ...the point is Allen got his stuff together after a very shaky start, and his receivers and linemen let him down. The protection issues are likely partly on Allen to better diagnose or react to, but free rushers and dropped passes were huge issues today. The QB played fairly well down the stretch.

And of course we don't get to know the play's prescribed route concepts/progressions. If you'd love to see Allen look for Beasley first on that play, that might not be up to the QB. (But on that given, isolated example of said play, retrospect might reveal a better design or execution.) I'm probably not pointing out anything you don't already know. But so many football fans gripe about so many things that don't make sense from our very limited perspectives. Sitting in the stadium today, I heard a lot of blaming and griping based mostly on overall results, which is a VERY flawed way to evaluate plays and players. Some isolated aspects of plays can be easily assessed with the old fashioned eye test and common sense. But for a sport as complex and often esoteric as modern football, there's too much we don't know. Seems like people don't want to admit that basic fact.

There are CHILDREN reading this board. Probably. But as for your analysis, I'm not so sure safeties and smallish linebackers don't sometimes get swallowed up by more imposing blockers. I think the small package isn't always as effective as you're making it out to be. Aye-oh.

I'm pretty sure the poster meant L-Gee there, rather than L-Tee, and just messed up. Like if you isolate many of Steve Tasker's rapid/rambling statements on OBL, you'll note a variety of juxtaposed or conflated or just mistaken stats/details...but at the same time you probably understand what he intended to say. You're a really sharp poster, so I'll bet you can see that upon further review. He (the poster you're quoting) did it with the right side, too.

I've seen a handful of these comments, that the Bills are somehow better disciplined than the Cowboys. Some quick and possibly reliable (?) internet research reveals this claim to be only partially true. https://www.footballdb.com/stats/penalties.html Buffalo has 85 (9th) recorded penalties for 669 yards (15th), while Dallas has 82 (14th) for 773 (5th). Buffalo is second-worst for false starts AND Offside, behind only Houston and Oakland, respectively. Boneheaded pre-snap stuff. Just brutal. Offensive holding and roughing the passer (to a lesser extent) are statistically issues as well. So Dallas has racked up more yards, and have a ton of penalties categorized as "other" (which I don't see an explanation of). But much cleaner offensive execution. Seems like a push, depending on what those "other" penalties (Dallas is 4th-worst and Buffalo is 4th-best here) are.

Yep, except for the numerous first-hand accounts corroborating and even furthering the complaints in question, from sources across the political spectrum. That is, IF we're talking about the same thing. Anyways, Sullivan's breakfast lie/omission is really the most simple and damning example of his lack of integrity. Funny how that works. Social media is a useful tool for fools to reveal themselves. Sounds familiar...

Potential PROCESS-based defense of McD here: Changing a 15+ year losing culture extends well beyond the building, as they say. Maybe cleaning house also meant, to McD and PSE, marginalizing the relentlessly negative narrators who are partly responsible for "our" collective obsession with past blunders and anticipating future failures? It's easy to stoke BBFS fan frustration to generate clicks/readership, and on one hand fully deserved. However, if a regime is dedicated to on-field success AND overcoming that regional, culturally-conditioned losing attitude/expectation, then maybe journalistic turnover is useful alongside roster changes. Beyond any defense: all that being said, I don't love any organizational meddling in the machinations of who reports the news and how. These billion-dollar organizations are too influential locally and regionally to pretend that they don't carry immense influence over the media; therefore, they should not seek to apply pressure or influence on members of the press. Personally, however: I grew tired of Sullivan's perspective long ago.

We can only wish Allen was or will someday be comparable to Wilson. Wilson is the best.

I'm seeing Star play fairly well lately. I know this flies in the face of a popular narrative. But it's what I'm seeing. Hustle plays along the line of scrimmage, some pocket collapsing against the pass, and holding his gap(s) against the run. He's not a pro bowler, and maybe for his money he should be, but he's been solid of late. Is there analysis suggesting otherwise?

Maybe it's been pointed out already, but "Cover-3 with man coverage on the outside" doesn't fully make sense. Cover-3 resembles man coverage on the boundaries in many ways, but it's different. If you combine the Cover-3 and "man coverage on the outside" what you're really proposing is a Cover-ONE man scheme, which I agree IS a smart defense against the Bills.

I definitely saw at least 2-3 RPOs yesterday, and it surprised me enough that my viewing group discussed it for a bit during the game. Doesn't mean Daboll hasn't called them previously; but something about the design or execution of them yesterday really stood out in real time...