Florida Bills Fanatic

If you want to get upset about BS officiating, focus on the second half kickoff. When the player fields the ball in the end zone, it has to be downed to kill the play. In this instance, the player flips a live ball forward toward the Referee making it an illegal forward pass in the end zone. The whistle was not blown because the Referee knew it was still a live ball. As the player began to flip the ball toward the Referee, the Ref raised his hand to indicate to the player not to throw him the ball. The referee let the ball fall to the ground and roll. An illegal forward pass among other various offensive penalties committed in the end zone results in a safety. The Bills should have been awarded 2 points and received a free kick. Instead, Houston was awarded the ball at their 25 yard line because some officials thought that the kick returner intended to kill the play even though he didn't do it according to the rules. It is not the role of the officials to determine the intentions of the player. In this case, all they needed to determine was whether he downed the ball or he didn't. Review of the video clearly shows that he didn't. The correct interpretation of the play would have changed the entire second half. Forget the penalties on Hughes and Cody Ford. The real travesty was the blown call on this kickoff. McD should have gone off the rails when the officials made this interpretation but he didn't.

You could very well be right and I agree with you. We'll know for sure if they sign one of the experienced guys that are likely to become free agents.

Typically teams overreach to draft wide receivers. This year will not be an exception, so a couple of the best guys will be gone pretty early. The good news is that there are several guys that will probably develop into really good players and should be available on day two. I expect Beane to go after one really good veteran to play on the outside opposite John Brown and draft a guy to develop. One guy that comes to mind is Breshad Perriman. He really played well after Evans and Godwin were injured. Tampa won't be able to afford to sign him. There are others that will be released in Jacksonville, Rams, and Cincinnati (Green). Even Amari Cooper could hit the open market if their contract talks continue to go nowhere. I believe Beane will be looking to draft one of the guys that has some length and speed to go deep. I don't think another Smurf is in the cards.

We'll know for sure when the last injury report comes out. Even if they play, they will be limited. If that is the case, I'll be glad to see them out there at less than 100%.

Amen

There will be some better options available in the off season with decent experience; Chase Daniels, Case Keenum, Flacco, and some identified in other posts. We need to remember that we base our opinions on a very limited exposure to Barkley. The coaching staff has seen him all preseason and everyday in practice. I trust that they know what needs to be done. If they need to upgrade, they'll make a move to create a competition in training camp.

I don't think he will get the job either, but current QB coach ( Ken Dorsey) is the likely replacement. Probably why they hired him to begin with. He is the key guy in the development of Allen and is thought to be talented enough to be a future HC in the league. Although it wouldn't be good to lose Daboll, IMHO it won't be a total disaster. At times, I haven't been a big fan of his play calling but I have observed the continuous improvement of Allen.

This is not an unlikely scenario.

I was going to say the same thing but I was not going to be quite as polished as you. You're obviously a gentleman and a scholar. Thanks for the post, go Bills!

I may be in the minority on this but I think we should sit all of the key starters on offense and defense. Something like a concussion could keep them out of the first playoff game. I like what the Ravens are doing with their important players and McD should be doing the same thing. You can't sit every starter but even we all know the key players that have no viable replacement on the team. Entering the playoffs with a healthy team is more important than a meaningless win. Getting Ty back is a pretty big deal.

To be more specific, no one is afraid of the Bills' wide receivers. They see a lot of single coverage with single safety over the top. They don't get open on time consistently. This forces Allen to hold the ball which makes the o-line's job that much harder. That needs to be fixed this off season. A one armed Watt is better than any of the other guys that Houston put out there in his absence. He will be a test for Cody Ford. I expect the Bills to run some trap plays right at him to slow down his up field rush. Until we see him on the field, we don't really know how game ready he will actually be.

You've accurately described the Beane playbook. There will be some decent FA's available that we don't know about right now. Coaching changes, cap clearing, and skill fit issues will make players available that can help the team. We just need to watch what Beane does in free agency and look at the remaining needs to get a good idea of his targets in the draft. The "chase a WR with the first round pick crowd" may need to keep a box of Kleenex handy for all of their crying. I expect him to get another good FA WR and draft a good prospect on day two because it is a very deep draft and rookie WR's usually take a year to be big contributors. I say this because of the way Beane approached the TE need this year. Kroft was the solid veteran to fill the hole and Knox and Sweeney are the value picks from a fairly deep draft class. With all of that said, can't we just wait until the off-season so that we can enjoy our second trip to the playoffs in three years?

I agree. He's pretty good on the inside trap plays because he hits the hole without hesitation. When he is forced to turn his shoulders, he lacks the speed to get to the outside.

I agree with you. Bills were in a single high safety look with Hyde playing center field. In that alignment, his job was to keep everything in front of him. That obviously didn't happen as Hurst got behind everyone.

I agree that he disappoints more often than not. He compiles a lot of stats in garbage time when throwing against prevent defenses. As some posts have already pointed out, for a guy that seems to be held in relatively high regard, he does not have a track record of winning big games. A good front office would have brought in someone to compete with Rivers to either improve him or replace him. They haven't done that at least up to this point. I expect that to change in order to shake things up and create some fan interest as they move into their new stadium. Only the owner and Rivers have remained the same over the last several unsuccessful seasons. I expect that to change in 2020.

I agree with you. Adding more real play makers to the wide receiver group will facilitate his further development as well.

That's basically what the Bills have when they are in their base defense with Zo at strong side LB. The teams that have contained Jackson have kept outside containment, collapsed the pocket up the middle, played a match up zone with a spy positioned in the low center zone. The Ravens use a double team block at the point of attack on almost every running play. It's important for the d-line to play low with leverage so as not to be pushed out of their gap by the double team and split the double team, if possible. This forces the runner to go to either side of the double team where the pursuit can make the stop. Ingram isn't as effective when he is forced to make a move at the line of scrimmage. Bills probably hope to force Jackson to throw to beat them, especially if the weather isn't great.

What a total douche move on Freddie's part. You can fix a lot of things but stupidity isn't one of them. This will ensure that his team will receive maximum crap from the crowd in Pittsburgh. It was already going to be a tough environment. He just guaranteed that it will be as bad as it can be.

I don't really care about Cleveland. The only preparation that they will be doing for week 18 is to clean out their lockers and get their end of season physicals.

At the time, the Bills had nothing at TE. Croft was the best available FA and was being sought by multiple teams. Beane did what was necessary to fill the hole. Later, the draft of Knox and Sweeney has made him expendable to save money.

I agree with you. I also think that there is tremendous variation between officiating crews. Some call certain types of fouls very tightly and some let the guys play. This creates uncertainty among the players and often causes a rash of penalties. I also believe that there is significant variation in talent between officiating crews. If you watch a lot of games, you begin to associate certain crews with their approach and performance in officiating a game. Some officials are just plain terrible and I don't think that it always has anything to do with who the teams or players are. As to questions about the fix ever being in, I don't have any knowledge or data to support my beliefs. I don't think it is impossible that some level of fixing games could exist. With so much sports gambling going on, the temptation for players and officials must be significant.

I agree with you. There will be some really good receivers available in rounds two and three. I believe defensive end will be Bills top priority in the first round. There will also be some good FA receivers available which could help shape the draft priorities.

I'm guessing that it may be part of the settlement of the grievance/ lawsuit that was filed. The fact that the NFL is not openly discussing what prompted this, leads me to believe this.

An old phrase that drew on the analogy of kicking the tires when shopping for a car to check out the tires. Over the years it evolved to apply more broadly to checking out the quality or value of almost anything. I don't see Davis as an improvement over any backs on the Bills. I wouldn't be surprised to see Miami claim him. They are in serious need of some depth to get through the last six games. Detroit could also be a possible destination.

I know that fans get upset when guys get paid a lot of money and they don't deliver stats that fans expect. In Star's case, the Bills paid what the market was driving. They paid what they needed to pay to sign him. He hasn't been perfect but he hasn't been bad either. The inconvenient truth for all of the critics is that there isn't a better option currently available to do what Star does. He faces double teams on a high percentage of interior running plays which is what the Bills need him to take on. If he was not being effective at the point of attack, opponents would be handling him with a single man up block. He sees a lot of single blocks on running plays away from him, which is what we should expect. He isn't going to chase many running backs down from the backside. I do like the fact that Star is available for a high percentage of games in his career and he isn't out getting into trouble or being a distraction for the team. I would like him to be a more visibly disruptive force but I don't see that changing. As I watch the run defense, I am more concerned with Murphy and Hughes being out of position because their first moves are intended to attack the QB on most plays. In addition, the Bills seem to play a lot of nickel and big nickel. Opponents have run at that extra DB with a fair amount of success. Lastly, tackling has not been consistent. Even if Star steps it up, other things need to happen as well.