TigerJ

Not only that, but with five stages in the protocol, each taking at least a day, you can't get through it by Wednesday if you're concussed on a Sunday afternoon.

Corey Thompson was expected to be out only a few weeks, so he was left on the 53 man roster. He's not only a special teamer, but a good backup for Milano. That's why they want to keep him around.

Stage 4 on Wednesday raises the odds he'll play on Sunday. He really will not have missed any practice time this week, so I don't really see any advantage to sitting him. I think he plays.

We know that the Patriots baited Josh into making all those bad deep passes. The Patriots defensive players said so. He also was unusually antsy in this game. That led to inaccuracy in his short game, and allowed his footwork to regress. I don't think there is any reason to think that's going to be a long term trend for Josh, but he does need to go back to the drawing board anddo what he already knows he should do.

Easley is a Beasley-like slot receiver. He's a little bigger, but his strength is not in his athleticism, but in his precise route running and short area quickness to get open, and his sure handedness. Eventually, it would be good to have him on the roster to back up Beasley, and maybe even replace him when Beasley decides to hang up his cleats.

Looks pretty late to me.

The Bills should give serious thought to re-signing Spain and Jordan Phillips. Gore and Alexander are iffy solely because of age - not their current level of production. TJ Yeldon is also iffy. He's certainly versatile, but is not showing any sign of being a difference maker. It depends on what the Bills do at RB. I don't expect both Gore and Yeldon to be back because I think the Bills will draft another running back next year, someone who can be a difference maker.

The Patriots defensive players after the game stated that their defense intentionally baited Allen into throwing long. That, along with their gamble on the blocked punt play was easily the difference in this one. Josh Allen needs to get smarter about reading defenses, and anticipate the fact that Belichick will usually have his defense disguise what it's going to do with a different pre-snap look. I know Buffalo is also adept at disguising their defense, so they should be able to help Josh with that in their preparation. Their special teams coordinator needs to file away the trickery New England used on that one punt for future reference. They need to know what to do if New England or somebody else does it again in the future, or maybe use it themselves sometime. Other than those two things, just a small handful of plays, Buffalo generally outplayed New England.

Maybe you should count Vrabel out (of a job). LOL

The decision on Murphy and Lotulelei depends a lot on how the draft falls. Harrison Phillips should be back and should continue to grow and develop as a player, but physically he probably won't be 100% at the start o the season. If you cut Lotulelei, you have to spend a fairly high draft pick on a nose tackle type. Shaq Lawson may get ri-signed, but he won't come cheap. Jerry Hughes is starting to get long in the tooth, and while Johnson is showing promise as a late round pick, it may be too early to decide if he can be a starter. Many think DE will be a high draft priority for the Bills, but if they don't get one early enough, it might be safer to plan on keeping Murphy. I don'ty think Buffalo is getting their money's worth out of Lee Smith, and his presence in the starting lineup limits opportunities for Dawson Knox and Tommy Sweeney to show what they've got. As far as Kroft is concerned, I'd like to see what he can do when he's healthy, if he can actually get healthy. If he can't, then I guess he makes the decision for you.

When it comes to challenging penalty calls/non-calls, Al Riveron seems to be more interested in affirming the officials than getting the call right. There have been lots of challenges on penalty calls/non-calls that have seemed obviously wrong to fans and broadcast teams alike that Riveron has not overturned. This was not a unique situation.

No. He's still young and inexperienced, but he does need to learn from experiences like this. The clock is ticking toward the time when people will have to wonder whether he is the answer or not. Still too early to make evaluations on where his ceiling is.

I don't miss Jordan Mills

In retrospect, you're right, obviously, about Burfict. That hit was far more egregious. Whether Jones gets fined is still up in the air. I'm not sure that will happen (and that uncertainty has little to do with the hit itself.

Yeah. Dalton is a decent QB, and he can get hot, doing lots of damage. Eli Manning used to be a good QB, but now he's a backup to a rookie. He was yanked because in the opinion of his coach, who knows him better than anybody, he can't do it anymore. The Bills are probably fortunate that Shumer didn't make the switch at the start of the season.

Lots of pass interference calls have been challenged and reviewed, and even when it seems clear to the outside observer that the refs got it wrong (either calling a penalty that wasn't there or was ticky-tack and probably should not have been called) or failing to call interference when it should have been (both offense and defense) the league office has not overturned the call or non-call. Clearly, the league, or at least the officials, don't like being proved wrong on penalties and the bad call has to be so flagrant as to raise the suggestion of officials throwing the game.

Doesn't change in the slightest the illegality of the hit. If he gives himself up in a slide, it's true that the defense is supposed to try to avoid any contact, and it's also true that a QB loses special protection when he becomes a runner outside the pocket, but the hit was illegal whether he's a QB, or a running back or a big ol' lumbering offensive lineman who picked up a fumble and started running. You might try going to a Pats board if you want to feel like your argument has any merit.

Agreed. You can't say yet that Buffalo has become a better team than the Patriots, but you can no longer say, based on yesterday's game, that New England is clearly better than Buffalo, and the day could be coming when Josh Allen develops, and learns to take what the defense is giving him, that Buffalo will be the better team. I would not all it a moral victory, but a sign of hope for the future.

Completely disagree with this take. Players facing impeding contact with the head do tend to lean their head forward. I think this is instinct to protect their face. If he doesn't angle his head forward, impact from the hit would cause his head to snap back. That could conceivably cause a neck fracture and a spinal cord injury, and that would be even worse. The position of Allen's head did not lower enough to have caused the helmet to helmet contact. At most it only changed slightly the part of Allen's helmet that he contacted. By the way, I didn't know you posted here Mr. Riveron.

I agree with part of what you said and disagree with part. Yes, I think the issue of intent to injure is conjecture. I don't see Jones changing the level of his helmet, but he certainly is leading with his helmet, and his posture indicates he is driving into Allen. On the other side of it, it is as important for the ball carrier, QB or not, to protect the ball while he's being tackled, so you cannot expect him to take a hand off the ball to shield himself from a tackler doing something illegal, especially not at game speed. Allen's forward momentum had pretty much stopped at that point, and he already had a first down.

Moral victory? No. but the talent level on the defense, and yes, potential on offense gives reason to be optimistic about a potential playoff berth this year and maybe the chance to dethrone the Patriots as division champions in the near future.

Both Dawson Knox and Tommy Sweeney are more talented tight ends than Lee Smith. Smith has a reputation as a superlative blocker, but if he committed penalties ever week the way he did today the cost exceeds his value as a blocker/locker room leader, particularly given that Knox and Sweeney as rookies are already good blockers and getting better all the time.

At this point I don't think anyone knows if Josh Allen will successfully make it through the concussion protocol and be able to play next week. Buffalo can use that uncertainty to its advantage. If they can legitimately maintain a public posture of uncertainty, it will make preparation more complicated for the Titans. As it is, the Titans don't have much Barkley tape to look at, particularly with the support cast Buffalo has on offense now. Barkley is limited as a QB, and I think those limitations would be exposed if he were to have to start multiple games, but He might have an impressive performance or two in him this season.

I did not keep track and have not been able to find any specific information, but I think Lee Smith had at least one holding call and three false starts. Buffalo spent a lot of money on this guy and he's alleged to be the best blocking TE in the league, not to mention a great locker room guy, but I'm not sure that any of that is worth enduring that many penalties. Knox has shown the ability to make big plays and both he and Sweeney are good to very good blockers, with upside in that area.

The recipient must be Tom Brady