Old Coot

Trade Josh for a bag of donuts. Not the jelly kind -- he's not Mahomes

Paint It, Black:

Love Hurts:

I don't know. Football is a quintessential team sport, unlike baseball or basketball. The QBs success is heavily dependent on his OL and skill players and the D, scheme, coaching and execution by other players. This is why Dan Marino, one of the purest passing QBs I ever saw. He had Mark Clayton and Mark Duper, two first class WRs to throw to. He reached the Super Bowl in his second year only to lose to the 49ers. He never returned to the Super Bowl. Think about that: Dan Marino has zero Super Bowl rings. And Marino is only one example. Some others: Jim Kelly, Warren Moon, Dan Fouts, Daryl Lamonica.

That's a good point. Kelce is a beast to cover. He has that technique where he uses the covering player's technique against him: He takes a step or two in the direction of the D's technique getting the D to turn his hips and then does a quick 180 degree turn to get open. He's very quick for a man of his size. Against the 9ers he reminded me of Beasley running his whip route.

On at least one of the plays during 13 seconds tehre was a lack of execution. The Bills' DB on the side where Kelce made his catch (Darby, I think) admitted in an interview that he failed to communicate with the LB on his side and that enabled Kelce to get open. What passes for bad coaching / playcalling on this forum sometimes is faulty execution. This year we were ruined by injuries. Even if we beat KC at home, the ravens would have chewed us up.

I agree with this. Mahomes is a better QB than Josh. Both can scramble and buy time. Both have cannons for arms. But Mahomes is a more accurate passer even when he throws off balance. He also seems to have a better view of the field. If there's an open man Mahomes will find him. Josh occasionally fails to see open receivers. Some of this may be due to the fact that Mahomes had the benefit of top coaches at Texas Tech and KC while Josh's coaching at Wyoming was not at that level. I write this as a Josh homer. I like him and am glad he's out QB. Thoughts?

The Bills' OL was crap during Shaw's tenure. Over 3 seasons (1970-72) he was sacked 110 times! The Electric Company did not turn on the Juice until 1973.

Or French? If it were French the unis would be blue white & red.

Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on the use of condensed formations which it attributed to Mike Shanahan when he coached the Broncos. His son Kyle Shanahan uses them extensively with the 49ers. I have noticed that the Bills occasionally used condensed formations last year. A condensed formation is the opposite of a spread formation. Instead of spreading the O across the field, the WRs are in close to the line and even the OL line splits may be reduced. The condensed formations are said to have two advantages: 1. The open up the middle for passing. How so? The D needs to be concerned about all the open space toward the sidelines which the WRs and RBs have to operate and that opens up the middle to in breaking routes. 2. A spread formation likely signls pass but the condensed formation could be run or pass. I noticed that the Bills last year seemed to have more success running up the middle from a condensed formation. What are your thoughts?

Carl Weathers died at age 76. Though he was famous for his character in the Rocky series, Apollo Creed, he played in the NFL around 1970. He was an undrafted LB and played for the Oakland Raiders.

I agree. When he started out his deep throws were also flat. Then he seemed to have worked to get some height on his throws. Perhaps he has regressed. Time to work with the QB whisperer

I mostly agree with your post. That said, however, safety (especially in McD's defenses) is a more cerebral position so it's best not to start rookies there unless then have exceptional football IQ.

We did not connect on may of the deep shots we took this year. Josh seemed to overthrow his receivers plus occasional drops. It's execution, man. These guys are elete pro athletes. They should be better than this. Josh needs to practice dropping deep balls into trash cans with a guy waving his hands in Josh's face.

who can forget Don Beebe chasing down Leon Lett to turn a Dallas TD into a touchback! One of the finest plays in Bills' history: Beebe reflects on that play:

I did not intend to say that you were paranoid. My message was intended as a joke. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Those with paranoia should move to NYC so their fears will be justified.

A couple of video studies by the tHinking Football guys. The firts shows why Kelce always seems to be open. The second shows how the Chiefs' 1-4 receiver split can beat the split field coverage D in the video I posted to start this thread.

This utube video does a good job of showing how D's are making life difficult for opposing passing O's. It's a bit technical but I think the average fam can follow it. Toward the end of it counter strageies by O's are discussed. Enjoy:

In my day this is wahat passed for a power ballad:

Tear down the goalposts! Oh wait, you can't do that anymore.

The difficulty with basing the WR # 1 on performance is that if you don't have a WR # 2 you don't have a # 1 Wr. Why? The #1 gets double covered. How many of you remember the Bills' drought years; I'm thinking of Eric Moulds. A great receiver but he was usually x2 covered.

Booth Lustig was the Bills' kicker in 1966 and missed a game winning field goal, resulting in a tie. Later a car load of Bills fans saw Lustig walking along the sidewalk. They exited the car and beat him up for missing the kick. That's long before there was a Bills' mafia. None of this is to condone threats against players for poor play or mistakes. I consider the crowd's treatment of Scott Norwood at City Hall following "Wide Right" to be a high point of fans' sportmanship.

It's only a matter of time before there's a sports scandal involving players bribed to throw a game.

This stat is a bit misleading for the older QBs who played part of their careers before the Superbowl era. Bart Starr actually won 5 NFL championships: Three before the Superbowl era. Unitas won three NFL championships: two before the Superbowl era