CincyBillsFan

He's also lucky he hasn't been picked at least 2 more times. As for who throws a better long ball the sample size isn't big enough yet. In his 18 starts Allen has hit several long throws. How many has Rudolph hit in his 4 starts? let's wait until each QB has at least 32 starts to determine who throws the best deep ball. BTW the more I look at the deep ball Allen threw to Foster the more I see it as an excellent deep shot. Most deep passes are balls that the WR TRACKS and catches. Foster made NO play on the ball and just kept running his deep pattern like a HS kid would. In the NFL I've seen that pass completed a lot as the WR adjusts to the ball. And I just saw Rudolph over throw by 5 yards a WIDE OPEN WR on a deep pass. Oh he just overthrew another deep shot. BTW, these deep passes are not easy to hit.

He is? Tonight early in the 4th quarter he's 18/32 which is a 56% completion average. And that includes a Steelers game plan that features screens & short passes.

Brown is putting up #1 numbers because he's being targeted like a #1 guy becasue he's the best the Bill's have at WR. What Brown hasn't done is to take a game over. This means making the type of catches you saw by shuster; or taking a quick slant breaking a tackle and going 80 yards for a TD or catching 7 passes for over 200 yards like Kupp did yesterday. These are the things a true #1 WR does on a regular basis.

And you need a RB that can catch the ball out of the backfield and a RB that is a threat to break off 20+ yard runs if you rely on the nickle to much.

No, not even close IMO.

I am. The Dolphins have dropped at least 2 INT's tonight. And when was the last time a WR made a catch like that for Allen? The closest I can think of was the one by Knox along the sideline against NE. But even that wasn't as nice as the one we just saw. And do we have a running back even half as good as Connor? I think it's fair to say that Pitt's top 2 WR's are better then our top 2 guys; that Pitt's top RB is better then our top RB and Pitt's top TE is better then our top TE.

An NFL defensive coordinator should lose their job over that call. Period end of story. My guess is that he was following orders. This was part of the tank job and that should concern the NFL a whole bunch. It's fine if you want to blow up your team by trading everyone away but to screw things up DURING a game calls the integrity of the league into question. And did you notice how none of the tools in the halftime show called attention to just how bad that call was.

MUCH WORSE Happy! Haskins can't even figure out how to set the offense. He's played in the equivalent of half a football game and has 4 INT's. If a Haskin's QBed Redskins team beats the Bills the defense has serious problems.

The scary thing if you're Roger Goodall and the NFL is that it's entirely possible that this was a deliberate BAD defensive call designed to allow the TD. Booger is absolutely right - YOU NEVER run that defense in that situation. My goodness a high school coach might lose their job over that defensive call.

Yep the never ending changing of the goal posts with Allen. On the fumbles: * The first was when a DE fly's by our tackle as if he wasn't there and swats the ball out of Allen's hand. Allen makes a great play to recover it. * The designed sweep was playing Allen as a RB which he isn't. When we surprised teams with that play early in the season he rumbled for 10 yards or a TD and never really got hit. On that play it was obvious the Eagles expected it and their whole D was flying to the ball. There were all sorts of body's in there and the Allen fumble shouldn't be that surprising under the circumstances. * The last one was when he got WHACKED from behind trying to throw deep down by 18 in the 4th quarter. * People seem to forget that Wendtz also fumbled after being sacked but was fortunate that the ball bounced right back up to him.

Watch Hill from KC and how he adjusts to balls like that. My guess is he makes a big 50 yard catch on that play. Foster looked like a practice squad player running a deep pattern by the book.

Actually the Pats do in Edellmen. And last year they had Gronk + Edellmen. Isn't it funny that now that the Pats are down to only one big time play maker on offense other then Brady their offensive production has been pedestrian this year? Last night we watched a guy who was teaching HS a couple of weeks ago put up all pro passing numbers playing with KC's stable of explosive play makers. If anything I think we're underestimating how important these guys are for a QB & Offense.

And early on in your list you misleadingly left out the Eagles spirit crushing, 84 yard, eight and a half minute drive for a TD that sealed the win for them. Context is EVERYTHING.

Correct. I sat out in the rain at one in Cincinnati!

I was being nice but I suspect you're closer to the truth here. The way the Eagles player came off Beasley to let him roam FREE at the goal line in fear that Allen was about to take off was all you needed to see as to how teams are playing us. This is why I have so much trouble trying to rank Allen versus the other young QB's. While the Bills front office has made great progress in the absolute in upgrading the O-line & skill players the starting point was bottom 3 in the league at every position group. So "making progress" is relative and still leaves the bills no better then bottom half of the NFL here.

I don't think we have a running game that Daboll can rely on. And before folks rip me and point out we've been running the ball well I believe it's because NO ONE fears the running game beyond Allen getting lose for a 25 yard run. So yea we can get some garbage rushing yards in the middle of the field but when it gets to 3rd and short or down near the goal line they fear Allen, NOT Gore or Singleterry or Yeldon. When teams approach the Bills they know that the WORST CASE scenario is that if there's a huge hole for Gore it's a 10 - 15 yard gain and they live to fight another down. Singleterry hasn't showed that he can break off a run for 50 yards and Yeldon wouldn't even make most teams backfields. I watch other NFL games and see RB's ripping through holes for 30 yard or more gains. Our opponents focus on harassing Allen with blitzes and trying to take Beasley & Brown away. They don't worry about our: * Running game * TE's * Screen Passes

I sure hope not. Next year the #1 draft pick should be a WR as that position is loaded. In the off season the Bills have the funds to spend heavily on an offensive Tackle & DE. We should be able to get a decent RB & LB without breaking the bank. I think we can expect further development of Knox & Singleterry into much better offensive weapons. The KEY will be that Ford develops into a starting caliber guard. Given where we drafted him and the skill players we passed on to get him this is a huge thing that must go right for the franchise.

Man I hope not. But I'm thinking that they don't want him lit up knowing that they're far from having a decent offensive unit. Allen's been thrown into the fire with the expectation that he'll grow into a better QB as a result. I think the brain trust has determined that he has the mental & physical toughness to survive the ordeal. But what they don't want to happen is what might be happening to Darnold. That is to take a lot of hits/sacks and throwing multiple INT's every game. Darnold has thrown 7 INT's the last two games. That could shake anyone's confidence. So they play if safe this year knowing that in some games that will mean a loss. But by doing this they develop Allen and they might sneak into the playoffs as a wild card. Next year after a big off season and draft the Bills enter 2020 with a much more robust Offense.

The reason we don't have an effective screen game lies with the O-line and RB's. They clearly can't execute it very well and Daboll knows this. On the rare times they try to run it Allen has to throw the ball at the RB's feet because half the D is around the screen guy.

This is a complete misrepresentation of what actually happened yesterday and that's why it's hard to take the Allen critics seriously. I agree that the biggest let down by Allen & the offense was the failure to score after the fumble recovery. They own that. But when we went 3 & out and punted the eagles to their 16 yard line at the start of the 4th quarter it was on the defense NOT the offense to put us into position to win this game. At that point the Eagles were going into the wind and had the D forced a 3 & out we likely have the ball inside the 50 yard line with 13 minutes left. Can you say comeback? We'll never know though becasue our D allowed the Eagles to go on an 84 yard, 8:30 drive INTO the wind for the game clinching TD. So if you're going to engage in "coulda, woulda, shoulda" then at least be accurate about what was happening.

Take a look at the difference in skill players, particularly at TE & RB, is all you need to do here. The Niners running game is POTENT ours is less so.

That's NOT what I'm saying. What I'm intrigued about is why didn't we get garbage yards/TD. My belief is it indicates that we have a long way to go in providing this offense with explosive play makers. The garbage time comment was also aimed at all those who think that hitting 300 yards passing is a huge deal. It's probably the most overrated stat in football because it's so often attained as a result of garbage time production. Andy Dalton has multiple 300+ yard games and even has a 400 yard game this year! And the Bengals are 0 - 8. And I don't think Allen played badly yesterday. I think he was average which is why I graded him as a C+. Over the last few years the Bills did to the offense what Miami has done to their team. It's been a 100% tank job. And while doing this we've inserted a raw, project QB! The next step is to build an O-line and insert explosive skill players into the offense. That job has just begun and is far from complete. In the meantime they've determined that Allen can learn & grow in a trial by fire situation and that he has the mental & physical toughness to survive such a process. If all goes according to plan the next few seasons will see this all come together. What you see as excuses is simply trying to factor in some context when looking at Allen's performances.

Exactly right. For the 2nd week in a row our defense allowed a team to go on multiple long TD drives that chewed up a lot of time. It's probably fair to say that the Bills Offense was robbed of at least 5 possessions over these last two games by the inability of the D to get 3 & outs. This was especially crucial in a ind game where it's critical that you 3 & out a team when they start a drive inside their 25 yard line going into the wind. In fact that's the prescription for winning Rich Stadium wind games. Several times our D allowed the Eagles to get a couple of 1st downs eliminating the field position advantage we should have had with them going into the wind. And this is why IMO giving Allen a "D" grade as QB is ridiculous. Given how poorly the defense played had Allen really earned a D we would have lost yesterday's game 38 - 6 and NEVER would have been in it early in the 4th quarter.

I give Allen a C+. No one is throwing for 300 yards in the kind of wind that we had at New Era field yesterday. What was odd about yesterday's game was that Allen didn't pile up a bunch of meaningless yards in garbage time having two possessions with the eagles up by 18. It was 0/3 then 0/4. If Allen gets garbage yards then he breaks 200 and probably has a 3rd TD throw. Half the QB's that hit 300 or more yesterday did it in garbage time against prevent defenses. So why didn't the Bills get those cheap stats? Or better yet why did Allen play better through the 1st 3 quarters when the game was still a contest? It doesn't make sense unless you realize that we don't have the skill player talent to do pile up "prevent" yards. The guys that thrive in garbage time catching the football are TE's & RB's. I rest my case. When you take a hard look at this Bill's offense try telling me that they have the talent to put up big numbers and come back from being down by 2 scores or more. They don't. Watch other games and you'll see guys running wide open & getting decent separation. YAC after every catch is a given. You see explosive RB's and TE's that make play after play in the passing & running game. I get that Singleterry & Knox might be big time players in the future but right now they're raw rookies making an occasional play. Do you think opposing defenses worry about what a draw play might do to them? People claim Allen isn't getting rid of the ball soon enough. That's part of it but how many times is he almost immediately flushed out of the pocket as the opponents D-line simulates a jail break? And like EVERY QB Allen misses the open receiver. But I'm watching other games and they're talking about a QB having to choose between multiple open receivers. How often do we have that luxury. Allen is making decent progress. He has much to work on but should be hitting his stride next season when the Bills add some additional skill player firepower and one OT to stabilize the pass protection. This was not going to be the year we had a potent offense. Yet here we are on the cusp of being 6 - 2 halfway through the season. I'm okay with that.

This is exactly right. We all need to take a chill pill and realize that with a win next week the Bills will be at 6 - 2 at the half way point of the season. That was the best case record I had them at in August.