WideNine

Parcells back in his day was very superstitious and a firm believer in the tempo and how a game flowed or felt. I definitely am a believer that there are times that teams should switch to their 2-minute drill to shake themselves out of a funk and try to get your offense into some kind of rhythm. That, and defenses have less time to consider substitutions and often are forced to burn a timeout.

Never forget Fitz totally rocking the bearded 70's retro look. Hilarious, and my son in college has it as an avatar and uses words like "glorious" to describe the beard.

When he does they will get to Allen a few times, but he is going to hit some home runs deep over the top on them if they go man on the outside. Dabes will roll the tape on past Greggo defenses and Allen will be as ready as can be expected. I get a bit nervous for the kid, but have to remember he is a big boy and that last year it was a jail break for over half the snaps he took. I don't see Allen "pooping the bed" because Greggo schemes some guys free to try to take a shot at him. That and the fact that Allen really could take off on them if they go man and he gets past that initial wave of blitzers (and the guy Greggo thinks can spy Allen and bring him down) - we are talking a good 30-40 yard chunk for Allen if he sees daylight.

Like a lot of things in life you have to practice something to get better at it. Pretty much has been bombs-away up to this point for Allen and now in his second year with Daboll he is taking the right steps. I get the sense that Allen has taken the short-yardage move the sticks challenge seriously and is working on things like his drop, foot placement and how he opens his hips, and the throwing motion that works best for him to more consistently take the heat off of certain shorter throws and improve the timing and accuracy. Not that Allen has been terrible on all throws beneath the sticks. I think his timing on short option routes that need to get to a certain spot in a hurry were not that shabby and are improving as he and Beasley are developing the right rapport. He certainly has had a few passes get away from him on screens, wheel routes, and such. Those routes work best if you lead the receiver so they do not have to adjust on the run - Allen is the competitive type and by all accounts "coachable". Coaches enjoy working with players that are driven to improve on weak areas of their game.

Probably thinking of Allen shanking golf balls at charity events and talking children out of their Dolphin jerseys. Allen has a refreshing wide-eyed youthful and genuine approach to engagement with fans off the field. It will not last forever, professional sports is a business and like any other it can become a bit of a grind on players, but there is no reason not to enjoy it and share in his enthusiasm while it lasts.

Not to get political, but I think that whole kneeling thing probably started out as a contained gesture in Kaepernick's mind to show some solidarity to a cause he believed in and grew hair and teeth via news and social media. It became a symbol and a contest of wills between the NFL as a business and an individual player (employee). It is unfortunate, but the NFL is a business and as a business controversy invites scrutiny, scrutiny means oversight and agencies looking into your operations. Right or wrong, most companies will opt to remove employees who are controversial and taking that contained fallout over keeping them around and inviting the head ache and potential financial consequences of unplanned operational scrutiny. Purely on football skills alone, I think Kaepernick can still play - certainly at the level of a capable NFL backup and on skills alone it is a no-brainer, you take the guy who has the experience, the one who can take the wheel for a while till your starter can go again. But it isn't going to happen if the owners have locked arms in solidarity around not letting it happen - they would cut a deal through arbitration first to keep a player out of the league. I also doubt NFL owners and their legal teams would ever agree to any deal with the NFLPA that would paint them into a corner where they had no discretionary means of removing a player.

For some reason tonight's preseason lineup reminded me of those pain scales at the doctor's office.

I honestly was trying to understand what made the Panthers so relevant, and being a fan of said team? It would help my argument if I did not feel like McBeane pays homage to that org. That being said, they have had some success against NE where others have not so perhaps there is a blue print that McDermott and Beane feel they can follow that will finally give us the edge we need to get over those AFC East #### blockers. It was petty commentary, and probably just butt sore that more Bills fans turned out than wanna-be Panther fans.

I am tired of listening to this clown, please let me crush this guy.

This guy is a hoot - I wonder if he gets discounts as a social media "influencer".... Nathan Peterman was among the best men I've ever covered. (nice guy by most accounts)I think he'll land on his feet. (it is his arm that teams are concerned with) I hope he does because Bills' fans have endured more turnovers than any fans should have to. (fixed - Bills fans are all about sharing their Peterman experience with fans from other teams) Even if his play many times warranted the heaviest of criticism. (Thad channeling Dickens? "It was the best of times; It was the worst of times")

Truth. Hated those unis - looked like something that would be spawned if a Titan player knocked up our flag.

More geared to those who were saying it was definitely a late pass - it could have just been a poorly designed play, poorly executed play by the receivers, or a good read by the safety. Folks see what they want to see, but I do agree with you that I do not think that Allen had a lot of time to change that play or throw it anywhere else. Also, if thrown a quasi-second earlier perhaps it would of doinked off the back of Zay's helmet and imagine how folks would howl about Allen's timing if that happened

Only a guess and certainly could be wrong, but the play action was likely in place to freeze a linebacker in coverage. As to the safety deep, usually in those red zone situations you have a receiver coming across that can rub him or draw him away. For us arm-chair QBs there is a lot that could have gone wrong with that play's execution that has nothing to do with Allen; Perhaps Zay was supposed to hesitate somewhere along his route to give time for someone else to clear the safety, perhaps the safety just did a great job reading Allen's eyes, or perhaps it was just a poorly designed play that left Zay out to dry. Coming to any conclusion without really knowing how the play was designed and intended to be executed is just poor conjecture.

Seemed to me to be a seam pass that could only be placed where it was. Zay was going to take a hit and alligator-armed it. IMO, I don't really blame a receiver for taking the safer route during preseason and prepping for a hit vs laying out for a pass so the affair was a bit of a noth'n burger. Now if he does not have the stones during an actual game and drops a sure TD because he does not want to pay a price for the score, or just shows the drive-killing inconsistencies and fighting the ball that have plagued his game to date, that is another story we will all gleefully beat to death.

That is exactly the twists and stunts that tore our protections up last year, where the DE from the wide 9 comes across and blind sides the guard. It is in vogue, and in terms of being disruptive it is pretty effective, but IMO pretty dangerous. It does not exactly fall under crack back, peel back, or cut block, but having one player setup your o-lineman by initiating contact just for another player to blind side him at full speed is too close to that line I would draw for player safety and why o-linemen get hurt so often. The Jets pulled a nasty move like this last year with a very deliberate blind side helmet to helmet hit on Teller that pissed me off.

Good point and I stand corrected.. I misspoke when I said it did NO good, but my thoughts in regards to football helmet technology to date were circling around the fact that concussions can be triggered by both impact and torsion/inertial events. There is a lot that has been done and more that could be done to reduce the damage of impacts events and spread the energy, but torsion/inertia (the injuries to the brain involved in sudden changes in direction) are not fully addressed by impact reduction and simply may not be possible to fully mitigate in impact sports. One can imagine the problem as running down the football field holding a glass jar filled with water and an egg and trying not to break the egg when getting hit from odd angles or stopped cold from a sprint. Certainly covering the jar with impact spreading material would help absorb the impact, but torsion and inertia events can still cause the egg to slap against one side or another of the inside of the jar and likely damaging it. Much like the brains response to sudden stops or changes in direction as it is also suspended in cerebral fluid and surrounded by the hard skull. It will be interesting to see where they take impact reduction technology as in this demo. Any improvements in protection via energy absorption is a good thing, and we can always hope that medical science catches up in regards to treating concussions effectively so that they heal properly and do not recur so easily.

Still kind of cracks me up to see that Gazoo helmet. Applaud the attempt, but probably did little to actually prevent a concussion. Reducing the occurrence of concussions is the best we can probably hope for in contact sports (helmet to helmet hit fines go a long way) and hoping that medical science catches up on why one concussion so easily leads to another even when given time to recover from symptoms.

If Long's hand is healed then we have a good backup to Morse (a better option than Bodine), but I would not be surprised if Beane grabs a center in the draft next year. The frequency of Morse's concussions are the most concerning thing - not just for his career as a Bill, but for his own long term health after he hangs up his cleats. Playing on the line is like being in a car wreck over and over - there is little in the way of preventing helmet to helmet collisions, they happen on every play and once you become concussion-prone the odds are not good. Fingers crossed, but I would rather see a player retire than ruin his life after the game.

Probably. If Allen ends up with a 2 TD 300 yard passing game and chips in 30 yards on the ground himself, you just know those guys that are going to post it should have been 350 and 3 TDs if Allen had just led this or that guy better, or it was not a great offensive effort but a collapse of the opposing team's defense. It is a glass half-empty mantra that is very easy to slant one's take on a performance to maintain - just look at the doom and gloom coming out of the D&C news room, or their overt and obvious attempt at trying to stir up a non-existent QB controversy now that we have a capable backup in Barkley. It is the news business after all. It is still a bit deliberate and mechanical at this point, but I can see Allen going through his shallow to deeper progression reads. He is trying to break the habitual hero-ball things he has leaned on and had success with in the past and incorporate the better habits that the coaches are teaching him that are necessary for sustainable success at an NFL level. Call it hope if you will, but I am fine with watching this kid grow, and I am pretty certain we have not seen the ceiling yet on where he can take his game. Some will hate to hear this, but I think he has another 2 or 3 seasons before we will see it. Not saying he will suck during that time, realistically we should expect to see ups and downs where the old habits surface and he tries to leap over linebackers and chuck it 70 yards till he gains more experience under center and matures. Will that be enough to be that franchise QB that Bills faithful have been waiting for - no one here or at OBD knows...but seeing where players are able to take their game is part of enjoying the game.

That would work too and easier to get to reporters in the middle of the audience - room still should not sound like a can. Prob the only way you could go as I honestly could not imagine passing a mic between Bills beat reporters without some kind of scrum happening.

Love that kid's attitude, and once he gets into a defender's body it is over. The only thing I think he needed to work on was his footwork a bit and in pass pro improving on both recognizing and correctly picking up the right guy on stunts. I would be surprised if he does not stick and with the ways injuries happen across the line and gets some starts this season. We will see - I am rooting for him too.

Which end?

I am a bit hard on Bodine, and admittedly I am a bit biased towards some of the center prospects coming out of the draft next year. Bodine looks to have every opportunity to convince the coaches and Beane that he is good enough to make the Bills pass on them next year.

Having done some sound work in a past life - it is a lot trickier that some think to hang mics over a crowd of moving mumbling people in squeaky chairs, cancel out the noise, yet still pick up the voices well. The Bills organization certainly have the coin to do a better job, but you have to start from the ground up. Designing a press conference room with noise canceling acoustic material, fixed position seating and podium location, and then you can start to work on the audio system and equipment. I try not to be too hard on folks, but I have heard plenty of echo and background noise in their current setup. Also best if you have a protocol where all the press sits and only one at a time ask questions when pointed to and they stand when delivering their question - as that would put them closer to the multi-directional mics you hang from above the seating area and allow you to turn up the VOX noise dampening yet pick up speaker in the audience. OR Yeah, you could just use one wireless mic that you get an assistant to hand to one reporter at a time (and wrestle away from them when they are done) - that may actually be the easy button. Till the batteries die during a global video conference with a huge audience and you are the part-time sound guy who was called and pressed into servicing a system you know nothing about and cannot find any spare batteries or mics.... and you have completely pitted out your shirt and you fake getting a phone call so you can exit the auditorium and the oppressive stares of over a 1000 people hating on you.... Theoretically.... that could happen to someone.

Yep - versatility and more depth at a position that has gone from strong to thin in regards to some of the talent. I am sure they are liking the tackle - guard - center ability. You already have Ford who could move to RT in a pinch and Teller who can fill at either Guard spot, but if both Morse and Bodine go down the situation would likely create a lot of scrambling and shuffling of line combinations; Not that I am convinced Bodine has done enough to show that he is a long term solution at center, or will make anyone forget that Morse is on the sideline. I have been skeptical of some of the personnel moves Beane's staff has made, BUT I will tip my hat to a team that seems to tirelessly work to improve the roster. They are an active bunch, and seem to have a good bead on players around the league that may be on the bubble for depth reasons that are worth giving a shot as a Bill. This is a common sense depth move - it will be interesting to see where Bates gets his practice snaps.