CincyBillsFan

Bingo. Epinesa, Boggie, Groot and Von Miller is an amazing amount of draft/FA capital spent here. And how many sacks have they produced?

How many games has Allen missed over those 5 plus seasons? FOUR. So maybe, just maybe Allen has had more snaps then any other player to.

Sure Allen and Diggs are top 5 but who else on the O is even above average? And yes I have high hopes for Kincaid but he's not there yet. The injury's on D suck but when you put so many eggs in one basket and then drop the basket what do you expect to happen? I think the difference between how I look at this and you do is that my expectation of the offense is a lot lower then yours is. I can't help but notice that again our O line is below average; that we don't have any dangerous weapons beyond Diggs (Kincaid is getting close); the coaching is average at best and the franchise has made a conscious decision to focus more on the D then the O. Like a lot of Bills fans I was fooled by the sheer productivity and brilliance of Allen. He fooled us into thinking we had a great offense instead of a unicorn at QB. And we've been warned by analyst after analyst who said that our inability to run the ball was not sustainable; that our over reliance on Allen was not sustainable; and that we had to improve our O line and get more play makers on the field. We did try to address these short comings in the draft this year and it looks like it will pay off with Kincaid. But it may be a case of to little to late.

I had hope for both these guys but it's clear that they were halfway measures with a bit of wishing & hoping thrown in. And this is a cavalier way to treat the 2nd most important offensive unit after QB. But the Bills brain trust has been trying to build an O line based on hopes & wishes, and failing at it, for years. Over time I do believe that Torrence will be a solid guard. And for sure he's an upgrade over Safold. But then again by most measures Safold was the worst starting guard in the NFL last season. How many 1st round picks or high profile O line signings have the Bills made since 2019? How does this compare with the other offensive minded teams?

I could buy this argument if the Bills had emphasized their offense to the same extent that the other lead contenders have. But the reality is that they have not. I'm not sure why some Bills fans expect the offense to be incredibly productive game after game when besides Allen & Diggs (and maybe soon Kincaid) the unit is made up of average and below average talent? Throw in that the offensive coaching is not exactly world beating and IMO you're blaming an offense that is not built to dominate and win games. That honor goes to the defense which for a number of reasons including bad FA signings, bad draft picks, poor coaching and injuries hasn't come close to living up to what needs to do. It's water under the bridge but in 2019 the Bills needed to go the route that the Bengal's, Eagles, Dolphins, Cowboys, 49's and Chiefs have gone. They didn't and now because Allen is so often brilliant and makes us think that the offense is better then it really is, we put the responsibility and blame on that unit for coming up short. I just don't buy it.

Unfortunately this is looking more and more like it's true.

The D has forced only one TO in the last 4 games and that was the great play by Poyner against NE to punch the ball out. We are reaching the point in the season where they will have to take the chance and unleash Allen. The hurry up and Allen's threat to run have led to highly productive 4th quarters against the Jags, NE, and the Bengal's tonight. It also led to a very productive 1st half and 1st 3rd quarter series against TB. When the O is playing in this way they're a handful for any D. The stubbornness of the Bills brain trust not to make this change full time is maddening.

Instead of trying to squeeze out every last drop of talent from Allen in a misguided effort to improve his game even further a couple of years ago the Bills needed to do what the other real Super Bowl contenders have done: pour money and resources into surrounding Allen with top level offensive talent starting with the O line.

Yes it's a shame and no their approach to offense is not taking advantage of what Allen brings to the table. They didn't try to change Allen that much last season and in spite of the offense feeling choppy at times the team still went 13 - 3, had a top 2 Offense statistically, won the division and a playoff game. This season Dorsey, Bean & McD had a whole off season to work their "magic". They would change Allen into Burrow & Purdy - yea that's the ticket.

It's a byproduct of the drought years. All that wishful thinking and draft plotting every year. Obviously that guy from USC will come in and just tear the league up and Harrison will follow in the footsteps of Jefferson. Like children, fans just can't resist the shiny new toys on the shelf.

I was responding to another poster who suggested we do this. Collinsworth was saying the same thing. Let Allen play in a way that makes him the most dangerous. In the 4th quarter the Bengal's couldn't stop the Bills as they reverted to Allen running and throwing he ball all over the field. For the last 4 seasons this is how Allen has played and he hasn't missed a game. IMO putting a Governor on Allen is about Bean wanting Allan's career to last another 10+ years so he can use him as a glorified ATM machine. This way he can extend Allen and free up money to make more defensive free agent signings. Of course this only works from a CAP perspective if Allen remains elite over an extended period of time. I think that's their theory but they're losing games as they get him back in shape. And whose to say that he's ever going to get back to where he was?

And they need to keep Von Miller on the bench. When he's on the field he's a liability. The Bengal's RT dominated him and he failed to make a play on 2 critical 3rd down plays that had he made the play the Bills get the stop and the outcome of the game might be very different. * The 1st play was the 3rd & 5 that Burrow ran for a 1st down when the Bengals had their backs to their own end zone. Miller tried running around the RT and took himself completely out of the play allowing Burrow an easy run. The Bengals went on to drive to about midfield and flipped the field punting the Bills down to their 9 yard line. * The 2nd play was when he took a hard inside rush on the Bengals last 1st down that sealed the game. If he plays it straight up it would have been a tackle for a 2 yard loss and the Bills may have gotten the ball for one last try.

I actually agree with you from the perceptive that it might be the best move for Allen. The guy has given his all for the Bills and I doubt he's ever going to win let alone be in a Super Bowl with this franchise. At least not with McD & Bean running the show. But if the Pegula's ever did decide to clean house I would want Allen to stay and let the new administration build their team around him.

Diggs is fed up with the coaching of the Bills and the disproportionate resources directed against the D. That seemed pretty apparent with his and Allen's comments over the last few weeks.

What is it with the weird memory lapses about the Hamlin game? Burrow drove the Bengals for an easy TD. Allen drove the Bills to a 1st & goal but they had to settle for a FG when Allen couldn't connect with Beasley. So Allen was throwing to Beasley and Burrow was throwing to his three headed group of all pro WR's. On their 2nd possession the Bengals got a 1st down near midfield and then Hamlin almost died. How anyone can say Burrow outperformed Allen after only a half of the FIRST QUARTER had been played is beyond me.

One game won't decide that question.

If McD waits until after the bye to play Douglass then he needs to go.

Yes it is all about "matchups" and IMO our offense represents a much more dangerous foe then the Sea Hawks O did. In fact if the Bengal's D plays the Bills in the same way they played Seattle I like our chances.

I'm torn a bit on this move: * My head says it was a great deal by Bean and it addressed the Bills #1 need. We may look back at this signing as the one that saved the season. * My heart says "here we go again throwing more resources at the defense rather then the offense". Only time and the season playing out fully will answer whether my head or heart are right here. I hope this was the move that saves the season by restoring enough of the of the D's capabilities to get us over the hump.

We can at least agree that no one has a good experience at the CVG baggage claim. It is flat out the worst baggage claim in the United States.

Other then for business or driving through on my way to Buffalo & Rochester I can't comment on NE Ohio as I've never lived there. But the difference between NE and SW Ohio is like the difference between Western NY and Down State NY. Another interesting thing about SW Ohio is that it's a heavily Catholic area, not Baptist like you would get further south. It's German Catholic as opposed to the Italian/Irish/Polish Catholicism of Western NY but the cultural impact on the city would remind folks of a place further north then south.

Of course it's the "Midwest" and yes it is also the northern most "Southern" city. That is what makes it different and nice. IMO of course. And yes Downtown & OTR are nice but don't forget the Banks (where the baseball & football stadiums are located along the Ohio river) and Mount Adams (which is like Allen street on a big hill).

What? I moved here in the mid 1980's and love it. Raised a kid here and he's a Bills fan like me. Is it different then Buffalo sure and like Buffalo it has it's good & bad points. And like Buffalo the good outweighs the bad by a wide margin. I had to move from Buffalo after UB for a job. I didn't want to leave as I loved Western NY but South West Ohio is a fantastic place and I felt right at home within a few years of moving here.

It would have been 17 - 14 and the subsequent Bengals TD would have made it 24 - 14. Not seeing how that would have made a big difference. After all, when the Bills scored a TD in the 1st half to cut the lead to 14 - 7 it had no effect on the D which promptly allowed the Bengals to use up the rest of the quarter on a long FG drive. And only a great play by Millano kept the Bengals from scoring a TD on that drive. Also, missing Diggs on a long pass when Allen was getting crushed by the Bengal's DT is just one play. What's the excuse for a Bills D that started the game by allowing the Bengals to have TWO long TD drives to set the tone for the whole game. For crying out loud the game was in Buffalo which generally helped stoke a D.

I would agree with you if McD was an offensive minded coach and the Bills had committed a majority of their draft picks and FA signings to the offense. But McD is a defensive coach and the Bills clearly have pushed more resources to the defense over the last few seasons then the offense. So in a game where the O is struggling, which happens even to the best offenses, I expect the Bills defense to carry the load, especially in a home game. The only reason the D didn't give up more then 27 points was that the Bengal's didn't need to press. After racing out to a 14 - 0 lead they were able to control the game. When the Bills O finally got off the floor and had a nice TD drive to cut the lead to 14 - 7 the D promptly gave up a long, time consuming FG drive to again take a 2 score lead. Then after the Bills had cut the Bengals lead to one score in the 3rd quarter the Bills D gave up a long time consuming TD drive that put them back up by 2 TD's late in the 3rd quarter. The offense did not play well and was far from potent. But they had no TO's until a meaningless late game INT. The fact remains that the D was putrid that game and IMO bears the majority of the responsibility for the Bills losing .