TigerJ

I'm feeling hopeful. There are no moral victories in the NFL, but. . . The defense of the Bills is very comparable to that of the Patriots. The Bills were a few mistakes/bad calls away from winning. Buffalo's offense still needs to get better. I think they will continue to improve through the course of the season, but there are still upgrades that need to be made. I think the odds of making the playoffs are still good. I might even be more optimistic after the Patriots game than before because I'm even more convinced that the Bills are for real this year. While Frank Gore appears to be ageless, I think the Bills need to add a big, strong, young running back next season. The odds have to be increasing of injury to Gore with every season. The Bills also need to try and add an athletic big receiver. The offensive line is good right now, but it still has room for another long term addition. Nsekhe is solid but he's on a two year deal and I have a hard time thinking the Bills will extend him. Yes, Allen is still making mistakes, but I believe he will improve.

Yes, the refs showed their usual incompetence, but I'm pretty encouraged by most of what the Bills did in the game, particularly the defense. The biggest mistake by the refs was on the last "interception" thrown by Allen. As the officiating expert for CBS explained, it should have been ruled incomplete because the ball touched a Bills player who was out of bounds before the New England player secured it. Even though the ball and the New England player appeared to be in bounds, touching any player whose feet are out of bounds means the ball should be ruled out of bounds. Bills lose possession and New England gets good field position based on the bad call.

It would be hard to believe that he does not end up in concussion protocol, but his behavior, jogging to the locker room makes me suspect it will be a quick recovery.

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He still has to overcome the negative reputation his substandard college preparation gave him coming into the league. It'll happen eventually.

Well, they traded McCarron well before they ever signed Barkley, but I sure wouldn't want to get rid of Barkley and get McCarron back. I went back and looked at Barkley's career stats. His completion percentage is pedestrian and a fraction under 60%. The big negative is his TD interception ratio - 10 TDs against 18 interceptions. There are different things that can cause that high number of interceptions, some of which can be countered by coaching and maturation. Some can be due to receiver error (tips and route running). Some, of course are due to inaccuracy and attitude in the QB himself and aren't likely to change. Historically I doubt there is any way to categorize Barkley's interceptions without a whole lot more homework than I'm willing to do. At this point in his career, he looks like he's pretty accurate and mature about making his reads and balancing risk/reward. That's alll I can ask.

Ironically, Nigel Bradham was intercepting Aaron Rodgers in their game with the Eagles to preserve the win for Philadelphia just about the time the OP would have been creating this thread. That said, the past is past. It's time to move forward.

I agree, but having a great defensive end on the outside is something the blocking scheme has to account for, and that can only make it easier for the interior pass rush to be effective.

I agree that Brady will be cognizant of getting rid of the ball quickly. That New England has a great offensive line coach is also well known. However, regarding Marshal Newhouse, if you give a great sculptor a huge pile of turd with which to make a statue, the resulting figurine is still going to stink. Newhouse just doesn't have quick enough feet to keep Hughes from beating him off the snap. Cunningham has been with the the team for like 6 weeks and Benenoch for only a couple. Scarnecchia is good, but solid line play takes technique that is learned over months, if not years. He can teach it in weeks, but he can't make Cunningham and Benenoch learn it faster than they are capable of learning. As far as double teaming Hughes is concerned, that's the reason Buffalo drafted Ed Oliver. Brady will still be productive, but having a makeshift line will make things less comfortable for him.

Agreed. Nothing at all against Pinto Ron, but I never would have even heard of him had in not been for fan message boards. I still have never seen him or the Pinto, and I have no inclination to drink out of a bowling ball. I still love the Bills and I have been a fan now for half a century.

The Patriots recently lost their starting left tackle, Isaiah Wynn to injury for the year. He's been replaced by Marshal Newhouse, who was not good enough to stick with the Bills, who didn't have a very good offensive line at the time. Well Newhouse was limited in practice on Wednesday due to illness, and was out on Thursday. That means Jerry could find himself lined up on a player who is not very good to begin with, and under the weather to boot. If Newhouse can't go, the Patriots could move Thuney, their starting left guard, out to left tackle or start either of a couple guys who haven't been with the team long at all: Korey Cunningham or Caleb Benenoch. Neither of them is very well regarded. I can see why Tom Brady is lobbying the league to allow more offensive holding. I hope someone for the Bills counter-lobbies the officials to call it when they see it.

I would probably take Barkley over the Giants' second ranked backup,Eli Manning.

As per Chris Brown's practice report on One Bills Live, Feliciano was at practice today, though he wore a non-contact red jersey. Singletary was also at practice. I don't know how much they actually did.

For two decades, Belichick has made a living on capitalizing on opposition mistakes. He tries to make things difficult for you, pushing you out of your comfort zone. Then when you do make a mistake, he pounces. Ultimately, the secret of success versus Belichick is having a well rounded team, minimizing weaknesses in any one area. If you have a comfort level with lots of different things, its harder for Belichick to make you uncomfortable. You'll be less prone to making the mistakes he's hoping for. Building a well rounded team is what Beane and McDermott have worked toward since their arrival in Buffalo. They are still in process as Josh Allen is still young and developing. There are areas of the team also that have room for talent upgrades. If Beane and McDermott are doing this the right way, the teams should be better still next year, but both offense and defense (and hopefully special teams too) should be less inclined to make mistakes this season than last.

After giving it some thought, I decided it's more as if he were passing a kidney stone for Bill to speak publicly.

He always give the impression at pressers that somebody is behind him with a gun sticking in his back, making him talk. You're right, Hebert, in that he is far more specific in his Bills commentary than he's been historically. I think it's genuine, but I'm sure he absolutely believes his Patriots are going to win.

Against the Steelers, New England had 103 yards rushing versus 341 via Brady's passing. Against Miami, New England had 124 yards rushing versus 264 passing, and against the Jets, New England 68 yards rushing versus 320 yards passing (14 of those from Jarrett Stidham. Against the Jets in particular, Burkhead was their only effective runner. 13 of their yards came from WRs (Dorsett and Gordon). I think it is true that New England is trying to shift toward being a power running team, but Brady can still do damage when it's on him.

Saturday I have to be in Pittsburgh for my nephew's wedding, but we'll start heading back to NYS on Sunday and should be back in the dark pink (or whatever that color is) by game time.

My reaction to that conclusion is that we're still talking about a QB who went to college in Wyoming and had far less college preparation for the NFL than almost any other QB in his draft class. He has made significant strides from the start of his rookie campaign, and every reason to think he will continue on a steep learning curve for a while. None of that guarantees that he will ultimately be a "Franchise Quarterback," but we have seen nothing to indicate he can't be one and continue to learn in areas where his game had been weaker.

I tend not to make snap judgments. During the pre-draft process I thought Allen's skill set was intriguing, but that he was likely a project. When the Bills drafted him, I felt things were going to be interesting, but I did not pretend to know whether or not Josh Allen would be a successful starting QB.

There are degrees of severity, and not all rib injuries involve broken bones. Many consist of cartilage damage. I have had several of the latter, but no broken bones. Most recently was a couple weeks ago. Yes, it hurt to cough or breathe or sneeze or blow my nose. It really hurt to inhale through my nose as I sprayed with flonase. This was the mildest one I've had, and now I can barely feel it. I've also had one, from a softball game that hurt for a month or so. It is impossible to know the severity of what Edelman had. Whatever it was, hopefully, Taron Johnson or Micah Hyde can remind him how it feels.

Always.

I think there are nine more games on the schedule that range from "should win" games for Buffalo to "realistically can win" games. I don't think Buffalo wins all of those, but there is certainly enough there to make the playoffs a realistic goal.

Buffalo might get a sack or two on Sunday, but it's not going to be any kind of sack fest. Brady gets rid of the ball too quickly for that. What Oliver can help with is dirtying up the pocket some so Brady is less comfortable. Hopefully that will make him rush more balls and lead to more incompletions. Continue tipping passes, and maybe one or two of those can turn into interceptions.

I think the book on Allen is take away the running game and contain him in the pocket. Make him be a pocket passer. Not everybody is able to do that, but the Patriots will. Stephon Gilmore will probably draw responsibility for John Brown, so it will not be easy to involve him in the passing game. I think Buffalo will probably spend most of the game with one running back to give Josh and extra option at receiver (either three receivers or two tight ends) most of the game versus using Patrick DiMarco. Or we could see Pat DiMarco line up wide again. Daboll will put his creativity on full display.