CincyBillsFan

I can't argue with this. Feliciano can't get back soon enough.

If I was a Dolphins fan I would like this move. If Tua hits the ground running like Burrow & Herbert have he has a chance to lead the fish to the playoffs in his rookie season. If he struggles but gets better as the season plays out that's still good for Miami even if they miss the payoffs. As an aside if I'm a NE fan I'm getting nervous that my elite program is about to crash and burn for years. My coach is real old and not getting any younger. Newton is not the answer and I'm not getting a top 10 pick. And if the Jets can close the deal and lock up the #1 pick the AFC East will have Allen, Tua & Lawrence. Can yous say last place finishes for the foreseeable Patriot future.

In a weird way that's why I'm not as down after these last 2 losses as I thought I would be. I understand that coulda, woulda, shoulda is ultimately a losing game. But in previous years you really couldn't say with a straight face that had a couple of things bounced differently the result would have been different. The Bills mostly sucked over the last 2 decades. I takes a good team to be in games where 2 or 3 different bounces of the ball would have made all the difference in the outcome.

They can if they get consistent pressure with just rushing 4 D linemen. Allen took a beating last night. It reminded me of the Bengals games I watch down here where Joe Burrow is treated like a pinata. And to be clear Allen was off at times. But if Allen is a bit off whether due to the weather conditions or he's just not having a good day the Bills have nothing to fall back on. Their best players on offense are the QB and the WR's. Arguably the Bills are bottom 5 at TE & RB. I know Shaw66 likes Moss & Singleterry but I'm not sold. Neither seems to have great speed or power. And while Singleterry can be elusive neither have showed great pass route running or pass catching ability.

But Mahomes also missed some easy passes last night. Twice he badly missed a wide open Kelce that would have gone for huge yardage and maybe even a TD on the 2nd miss. The first one was over Kelsey's head and on the 2nd one Kelsey made a spectacular catch. Mahomes also threw a ball that should have been picked by Norman and his fumble to kick off the 3rd quarter should have been recovered by the Bills. The damn ball sat on the ground for 5 seconds as the Bill's D-linemen danced with the KC blockers.

Fair enough. The Diggs throw though should have been a TD and it would have been on every Allen season highlight film. That ball dropped right into Diggs hands over the DB and he got both knees down at the back of the end zone. That throw and the accurate toss to Brown off the flea flicker were passes that Allen could not make in 2018 and 2019.

First off Allen attempted 3 long passes last night. He was badly off on one but the other two were perfectly placed balls with Diggs dropping one at the back of the end zone and Brown having the ball knocked away by a great defensive play by the KC DB. I'll take accurately throwing 2 out of 3 deep balls all day long. Sure Allen started off badly with back to back poor throws. Then on 3rd & 10 he escaped a fierce pass rush to make a great throw for a first down that brown dropped. Drops happen but to call out Allen's first 2 bad throws and not mention his great 3rd throw is an example of the often biased discussions of his performance on TBD. And to call the missed throw to Singleterry an "easy throw" is just plain wrong IMO. Allen was running for his life. Under that level of pressure there are no easy throws. And as others have mentioned Allen may have been thinking that Singleterry was going to run to the end zone there.

I suspect a good part of this is due to the 10 - 1 record of our opponents the last 2 weeks and to the possibility that the NFL has learned we can't run the football and our TE's represent no viable threat downfield. Especially when Knox is out. Last night BOTH defensive schemes and the weather largely took out the high octane passing attacks of both teams. So that means you better be able to lean on your running game and short passing attack. Last night when you look at the production for our RB/TE's versus the Chiefs a disturbing pattern develops: Chiefs RB production = 35 carries for 204 yards & 1 TD Bills RB production = 15 carries for 42yards Chiefs TE & RB receiving production = 11 catches for 90 yards & 2 TD's Bills TE & RB receiving production = 2 catches for 20 yards Total production for the Chiefs = 46 touches for 294 yards& 3 TD's Total production for the Bills = 17 touches for 62 yards & no TD's You can blame this lack of production on Allen if you want and some will. But I prefer to believe my lying eyes which tell me we don't have the horses at RB or TE to do what KC did last night.

If you are right and Allen is half way between his first 4 games and the last 2 then he is a top 10 QB. If accuracy was such a fixed constant then how could Allen be over 70% through his first 4 games? And he was at or near the top of the NFL in average yards per attempt while doing that. I could buy a hopelessly inaccurate QB getting lucky for a game or two but not 4 in a row. And don't forget that the Bills led the NFL in drops through those 4 games. Last night was a classic weather game that causes a drop in most QB's accuracy. Mahomes was accurate because he is the best QB in the NFL, faced one of the worst defenses in the NFL and his team has the horses to execute a pounding rushing attack and short passing game. This last bit requires a dominating TE and RB. We have neither. If you look at Allen's accuracy it's gotten substantially better his last 17 games versus his first 16 games. Ditto for the number of TD throws and the reduction in his INT's. That's a pretty decent sample size. But the reality is that Allen isn't there yet. We hoped that he could keep up the pace of the first 4 games. Obviously that's not going to happen. But by the end of this year we'll see a QB that has improved greatly from last year. Next year is the year the Bills make their move. The goal for this year is to have the young guys keep improving and to win the division. Anything more is icing on the cake.

To say Allen hasn't played well against good teams is to forget he played very well against LA & LV and pretty darn well against TN. For sure Allen was off last night but I counted at least 4 drops including one that should have been a 45 yard TD pass to Diggs. Allen attempted 3 deep passes yesterday and he was accurate on 2 of them. The first was a great play by the Chiefs DB to deflect away a great deep ball to Brown by Allen. The 2nd was the Diggs drop at the back of the end zone of a perfectly placed Allen throw. Allen did miss his 3rd deep ball by a lot. To claim that the weather didn't impact Mahomes negatively is to not have watched the game last night. Until that 40 yard strike late in the game to a WR most of his completions were to his TE's and RB's. These are position groups that are way below average for the Bills - particularly when Knox is out. Just look at the difference in production between the Bills & Chiefs RB's & TE's: Chiefs RB Rushing yards = 35 carries for 204 yards & 1 TD Bills RB Rushing yards = 15 carries for 42 yards Chiefs RB & TE catches/receiving yards = 11 catches for 90 yards & 2 TD's Bills RB & TE catches/receiving yards = 2 catches for 20 yards That's 46 touches for 294 yards & 3 TD's versus 17 touches for 62 yards and no TD's. And this was on a night where the weather conditions and defensive game plans of BOTH teams schemed to take away the WR pass. The problem seems to be clear to me and Allen is the least of it. And don't forget Mahomes should have lost a fumble and been picked by Norman in the 3rd quarter. How much different the game and our opinion of how players performed in it would be if those two things had went the Bills way. That fumble sat on the ground for a good 5 seconds. Where the hell was the DL?

As others have noted we got smaller and less physical on the D-line compared to last year and it shows on the field. Oliver is the key. We talk about what a disaster missing on Allen would be and IMO we haven't as Allen is a franchise QB. But we used a #7 pick on Allen and we used I believe a #9 pick for Oliver in 2019. A top 10 pick has to produce or it's a real problem. So far Oliver has under performed and that has got to change. One other point, how much of the LB's problems are tied to a D-line that can't occupy the opponents O-line allowing them to release and blast our LB's?

Allen has 16 TD passes and 4 INT's. He also has 3 TD runs and 2 lost fumbles giving him 19 TD's & 6 TO's. Not to bad. Even the last 2 weeks Allen has thrown for 4 TD passes. QB's go through streaks. Allen has faced two likely final 4 teams in the AFC playoffs and thrown 4 TD's & 3 INT's. And one of the INT's came off a bad bounce and the other was a meaningless INT in the last minute tonight. Next week versus the Jets and against Seattle in 3weeks Allen is likley to pad his stats while I'm sure NE will be a bit of a pain.

Allen wasn't terrible. Both drives in the first half to give us 10 points were the result of a couple of great throws and runs. His 4th quarter drive to cut the led to 6 was a thing of beauty. Did Allen play well? No. But not playing well is a lot different then playing terribly. While the defense kept the Mahomes from throwing the ball all over the field they did at the expense of over 250 yards rushing and nearly 40 minutes TOP.

I disagree about Allen. First off he did not look like he did in 2018 against the Titans. I think people who say this don't have a clear memory of how Allen struggled throwing the ball that year. The last two games Allen has looked like he did last season. But that has also been against teams with a combined 10- 1 record. I'm not concerned about Allen if this year he has 5 or 6 games where he plays like he did last year and 10 or 11 games where he plays better then last year. So far he's 4 - 2. I agree we are not an elite team. This year will be a success if: * we can win the AFC East and win a playoff game * continue to see Allen improve * get a read on or see Oliver, Edmunds, Singletery, Ford & Knox improve. Frankly, my biggest concern right now is with Ed Oliver. He was the 9th pick in the draft in 2019 and he has not played well at DT. Missing with Oliver is almost as damaging as missing with Allen and for the record we didn't miss with Allen. He's the guy.

We are one dimensional on offense and the last two weeks two of the best teams in the NFL (combined record of 10 - 1) were able to exploit it. The Bills RB's & TE's are bottom 5 in the NFL. They don't scare anyone. The Titans & Chiefs, with an assist from the weather tonight, took away Allen & the WR's bread & butter. Our RB's and TE's couldn't make up the difference. All it takes is a 25 yard run by a RB to bring a safety back to the LOC. The lack of production by our RB's & TE's when facing the kind of defense the Chiefs and Titans played is a real problem. In contrast we successfully took away Mahomes WR's for most of the night and they responded by running the ball down our throats for 250 yards and a TD and then hitting their TE off play action for 2 more TD's. It's imperative that Knox get healthy and step up and be the play making TE he's shown flashes of being. If he can't Allen and the offense are going to continue to struggle against the better defenses & coaching staffs.

And they need Feliciano back to. There's nothing that will magically make our RB's more dangerous other then get those two big guards back. And even then neither RB appears to be a dominating player. Where we might be able to improve on O is if Knox can finally step it up. Knox is the only TE on this roster with the potential to dominate a game if teams decide to play a shell defensive concept against the Bills. He needs to get healthy and they need to game plan around him.

Four observations: 1) Defenses have figured out that to beat Buffalo's offense you need to take away the aggressive throws downfield to the WR's. The last two weeks they've gotten away with taking away our offensive strength because the Bills RB's and TE's are not dangerous enough to make you pay the price for keeping your safeties way back in coverage. 2) I don't think it's so much that Allen has regressed as the O-line has regressed. They can't run block and Allen took a beating tonight. I think I saw one clean pocket the whole night And the negative yardage on run plays is inexcusable. A turning point in this game was when we came out of the two minute warning in the first half and had a 2nd & 3 at the Chiefs 45 yard line we lost 6 yards on a run! This put us in 3rd & 9 and we have way to many 3rd and longs. 3) The next two weeks will tell us whether the ship will be righted or we're passengers on the Titanic. Win these games and they are very winnable and we go to 6 - 2 and give NE at least 4 loses at the half way point. It would also put us in a commanding lead in the East. 4) We've lost back to back games to two teams that are a combined 10 - 1. Now is not the time to panic. If we lose the next 2 games then we can run down the street screaming the sky is falling.

Both teams had the same defensive game plan and it worked to contain the QB and WR production of their opponents offense. The difference was that KC was able to rely on their TE and RB to take up the slack. It meant the chiefs weren't going to be throwing it all over the field but they still had over 450 yards of offense, nearly 40 minutes of TOP, 250 yards rushing and scored 26 points. It was a Bills death in slow motion. In contrast the Bills are bottom 5 in the NFL at RB and TE. The lack of production at these two position groups is alarming. Against the defense the Chiefs played our RB's & TE's needed to be a lot more productive. The RB's had 15 caries for 42 yards. The TE's caught one pass. We have to fix this.

Mahomes threw a terrible pass and Kelsy made a fantastic catch. The lack of production we get from our TE's is just awful. The weather is effecting the QB's.

Yes and this was by design. Both KC and Buffalo have taken away the deep ass. The difference is that the KC running game and tight ends have made up the difference. 23 points is more then enough to win the game if you can chew up click.

That's not the complete story. Check out TOP and field position. This last drive comes to mind. We have KC backed up at their 6 yard line. If we 3 and out them the O gets the ball near midfield early in the 4th quarter. Instead they drive deep into our territory, run off over 6 minutes and get the FG.

Pressure up the middle is tough for any QB to handle. How many times have the Bills had a decent pocket?

If Allen had made the throw Mahomes just did Aikman would still be talking about what a bad decision and throw.

Bottom line is we're still in this game. The bashing of Allen by the announcers is awful. There have been at least 3 drops. I would really love to steal this game.

This defense is historically bad. What the hell happened to this unit?