Old Coot

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

Well said, my man. I think you are onto something. I always look forward to your Rockpile reviews. They are well thought out and nicely written. They single-handedly substantially improve the quality of submissions to this forum (and I include my own submissions here). The Bills are like the seasons of the year. In spring we have the new expectations for a successful year. By summer the season is well underway and may be bright and sunny or grey and rainy. Fall is crunch time. That earthy fall smell in the air reminds one of the gridiron (at least for those of us who played on grass fields). Then the winter of our discontent sets in -- another year without a Lombardi. But then we know that a harsh winter (even a harsh Buffalo winter) will be followed by another spring of great expectations. Sometimes you just gotta do the Walk of Life:

Well said, my man. I think you are onto something. I always look forward to your Rockpile reviews. They are well thought out and nicely written. They single-handedly substantially improve the quality of submissions to this forum (and I include my own submissions here). The Bills are like the seasons of the year. In spring we have the new expectations for a successful year. By summer the season is well underway and may be bright and sunny or grey and rainy. Fall is crunch time. That earthy fall smell in the air reminds one of the gridiron (at least for those of us who played on grass fields). Then the winter of our discontent sets in -- another year without a Lombardi. But then we know that a harsh winter (even a harsh Buffalo winter) will be followed by another spring of great expectations.

Lack of passion for the Bills could be the product of at least two things: 1. Age: many of us become less judgmental as we become senior citizens. 2. With the extensice injuries to the D I saw the Bills as :Dead Man Walking" The deeper you go into the playoffs the better the opponent gets both in terms of talent and coaching. It was only a matter of time before some astute OC tore our paper-thin D to shreds. Our only hope was that our O could run up the score but that, too, becomes harder as the opponents get better. This Bills' season was ruined by the injuries on D. Wither goest this team? I don't know but I do know it will look very different next year, especially the D. Josh humongous contract kicks in so we may be limited in what we can do in free agency.

Thanks. My knowledge of Rugby League football is a bit dated. My relies are die-hard Rabbitohs fans.

Is that the Balmain Tigers?