CincyBillsFan

I see it completely differently: * IMO the Bills had a very good off season. * I believe they significantly upgraded their O line with the addition of 3 new guards. * They added size and diversity to their RB room with the addition of 2 solid NFL RB's. * They improved their WR room through addition of 2 new vets and letting McKenzie go. * They had what looks to be a good draft with their top 3 picks all potentially starting in week one. * They will miss Edmonds but they added vet help on the D Line and in the D backfield. * They surprisingly kept Poyner & Phillips on the D. * McD calling the defensive plays is going to be a big improvement over Frazier. * Dorsey should improve going from his "rookie" season to his 2nd season as OC.

You need to be a bit more specific here. Against the Dolphins, IN THE PLAYOFFS, the Bills offense gained 423 yards and scored 34 points. Hardly "falling off a cliff". Sure they turned the ball over but that is not the same thing. There was nothing wrong with Allen's ball placement. In fact slightly under-throwing deep shots is by design to avoid missing a big gain on an overthrow. The reality, backed up by the stats and observations, is that Bills receivers didn't make a lot of great catches (by NFL standards) and dropped way more then their fair share of Allen's throws.

I would also argue that the defense giving up a 6 minute 75 yard TD drive at the end of the 1st half cutting the Bills lead from 14 - 3 to 14 - 10 was just as bad. Stop the Jets for a 3 and out and give Allen and the Bills the ball again and the half likely ends 17 or even 21 to 3. And don't forget that the Jets do have a very good defense and they were at home - two things that will frustrate an offense. What was the Bills defenses excuse playing a bad Jet's offense quarterbacked by Zack Wilson?

So you're going with Allen intentionally threw that INT or that Allen just sucks? Or if late in the 3rd quarter after going up 27 - 10 AT HOME the Bills didn't allow Cook to run off tackle for an 82 yard TD!

I would put it on a defense that allowed a game winning 90 yard FG drive without the Jets having to throw a pass. A defense in which after Allen's 35 yard run to put the Bills up 14 - 3 late in the 2nd quarter allowed the Jets to use up the rest of the half on their way to a TD cutting the lead to 14 - 10. And all this with the horrible Zak Wilson at QB. Sure it wasn't a good game by Allen but in the end he made a throw that almost no one else in the NFL could make and that if completed would have at minimum put the game in OT. That was a unique situation. The Vikes completely sold out to blowup a QB sneak. Best case scenario is Allen handles the snap and is stuffed for a safety. Vikes get the ball back and score to win the game. Like a lot of QB's make that and even worse throws when they don't see the defender.

The QB play was okay because the SF roster was a true SB roster. Or else we have to believe that Purdy was the next coming of Joe Montana.

This is not emphasized enough. The Bills were at the one inch line with an undersized center going against a Vikings front line that was overloaded to stop a QB sneak. Absolutely Allen should have been in the shotgun with the option to pick a hole to run into. Again, like "13 seconds" a big strategic failure by the Bills coaching brain trust at a critical moment in an important game. A Bills win that day and they are home through the playoffs with a much needed one week break.

Their defense is good but not great. Their O line is a shambles and now will have an immobile 40 year old behind it. Two years ago Jacksonville with a rookie QB not playing well beat the Bills. It's the NFL it happens. Rogers probably makes the Jets better. My guess is that 7 - 10 goes up to 9 - 8 at best. For the Jets to get to the 11 or 12 wins likely needed to win the division they have to add 4 or 5 wins. And I don't see the Jets sweeping the Bills do you?

Last season SF had a SB worthy roster without decent QBing. That is what a SB level teams talent looks like. As you point out the Jets DO NOT look like that. Oh and in the Cleveland game all the Browns RB had to do was fall down at the 2 yard line and Cleveland wins the game taking a knee.

So this "expert" supports his absurd AFC top 5 ranking this season by pointing out how wrong he was last season?

A perfect example was the first Jets game where Allen didn't play well. But the 35 yard TD run and the 70 yard dime that hit Davis in the chest down the sideline were both amazing plays. The sheer versatility of a guy who could do BOTH in a single game that he's otherwise playing poorly in is off the chart.

Was this before or after Allen turned up at the Kentucky Derby in a creamsicle themed suit?

I agreed that he listed that as an area for improvement. But it's also true that no matter how much Allen improves here it won't overcome poor play by the guys catching the well placed balls. For the record I thought that before the injury his ball placement was very good.

I may not be a football guru but doesn't generating more YAC also rely on the receiver breaking tackles, making guys miss tackles and outrunning tacklers? Allen said he was working on ball placement and from what I can recall that aspect of his game looked fine to me.

In March, April and the first half of May? You have to be looking for issues to get the wrong impression from Allen making an appearance at a few events this time of the year. Hell, he just was at the Hyde charity softball game hugging some kids whose parents were away on military deployment. Is that giving the wrong impression? And last I looked Allen has been at the Bill's OTA's right? Sorry but I don't get and I don't like this sniping at Allen on a Bills message board. There isn't a compelling football reason for it at this point. Get back to me when Allen has a Russel Wilson Denver Broncos like season.

Offensive line continuing to deteriorate becoming one of the worst lines in the NFL? Maybe. Lack of any play makers beyond Diggs? Maybe. Lack of a credible slot receiver that resulted in the Bills bringing back Beasley? Maybe. Defensive coordinators realizing that the Bills were deficient in multiple offensive areas and exploiting those deficiencies? Maybe. And in spite of all the crap the Bills put up with - like blizzards & Hamlin's near death experience as well as multiple bad weather games and Allen's injury, Allen's stats for the last 8 games of the regular season were: Record = 7 - 1 Passing yards = 1880; passing TD's = 16; INT's = 6 Rushing yards = 370; rushing TD's = 3; Lost fumbles = 3. Total yards = 2250; total TD's = 19; Total TO's = 9 Prorated out to a full 17 game schedule: Total yards = 4794; Total TD's = 40; Total TO's = 19 So yes, Allen wasn't at his best in the 2nd half of the season but the injury & bad weather alone would explain most of it. As an aside Danial Jones just landed a big new contract with the following stats: Total yards = 3913; Total TD's = 22; Total TO's 7 Cheery picking games are we? How was Allen in the two NE games and the Saturday night Miami game that won the Bills the division?

And Allen's "down year" saw him put up the following numbers (regular season + postseason): Team record: 14 - 4 Total Yards: 5671 Total TD's: 46 Total TO's: 18

So your nit picks of Allen and the Bills are okay but these are not legit points to make in response - "the eruption of Beane knows what he's doing, what are your credentials, the team was 13-3 last year rain down"?

There was no courage in making the ridiculous charge that "Allen has lost his edge", whatever the hell "edge" is. It's just another in a long line of cheap passive aggressive shots that the Bills QB takes on 2BD.

Or more likely none of this has anything to do with a players off season work outs or in season performance.

Criticizing Allen for things beyond his control is wrong. Criticizing Allen for things that are contributing only a small amount to their playoff defeats while ignoring much bigger problems like: horrible O line play, weak defensive performances and the lack of offensive play makers, is wrong. Sure, Allen can get better. But IMO the degree to which Allen's improvements gets us closer to a SB win is very small compared to other things that this team can do to get better. If over the next 3 years Allen basically replicates his last 3 seasons and the Bills significantly improve the O line and add another play maker Buffalo will win a SB. If Allen improves but the Bills don't improve their O line or add another true play maker they will continue to exit the playoffs before the Super Bowl. The problem is not REMOTELY related to Allen. Allen is the reason the Bills are in the mix for a SB win every season.

In this scenario you would be remiss not to mention how much the Chiefs improved their O line since the debacle against Tampa Bay.

Funny how praising Allen on a Bills message board gets posts like this in reply. Seems odd to me. And for the record if you're going to count Allen's one lost fumble how about counting his one rushing TD? That gives him 4 TD's and 4 TO's. And what about Allen's 2021 playoff run? And in Hurts one playoff game during the 2021 season he had 1 TD and 2 INT's.

I would accept this as true if Allen kicked off and played defense in those last 13 seconds in KC.

I'm not saying that Boyd & Higgins make Burrow great he already is. Nor am I saying that the lack of a Boyd & Higgins on the Bills keep Allen from being great as he already is. So to be clear, BOTH Burrow and Allen are great QB's and are among the top 3 QB's in the NFL with the other being Mahomes. The actual rank ordering of the three makes for a great debate. But the differences between the 3 are very small and when the differences between QB's are small the #2 & #3 WR's can make all the difference in the world. Mixon was a much more dangerous RB then Moter and this was reflected by the fact that teams game planned to shut Mixon down. Did they do the same for Singleterry? The fact that Singleterry had a higher YPC then Mixon was mostly due to defenses fear of Allen running. ANY competent RB would have benefited from sharing the backfield with Allen. Mixon elevated the Bengal's offense while Singleterry took advantage of Allen's presence on the O. And where did you get the idea that we can't get the ball to our TE or RB? They did get the ball to all of them. Burrow struggled when Chase was out against Cleveland. The Browns were beating the Bengals 25 - 0 going into the 4th quarter.