Mikie2times

He had 1 solo tackle at halftime. Finished with 4 solo and 7 assists. Looked fast but was pushed around on a few plays I saw. Still, pretty big adjustment to do that in two quarters. Milano was insane. Tre is also back for the most part. He essentially shut Wilson down outside of that crazy end zone catch. Floyd was super impressive. The defensive was actually pretty damn good.

As somebody who has said Josh can’t read defenses, clearly I’m not one to jump to defend what we saw. That said, it was criminal to not use play action. The run game was working enough and Allen is one of the best in football off it.

For me this started when teams stopped giving him the sideline. He will get it once in awhile. But it’s not like it was in 2020-2021. So much of what Allen does was built off improvisation. Likely even better than Mahomes, but teams really focus on taking that away by spying him, slow rushing, boxing him in, playing loose coverage. He’s struggling more in these positions and teams know he will make mistakes if you consistently make him nickle and dime you. He isn’t consistent when just being Johnny QB. He can’t just be Johnny QB. Favre couldn't either. He will have moments. It might even seem like he’s changed, but it will come back again. With this, let’s also not forget that Favre has a ring and is a HOF QB. Allen is still basically our entire team right now. We will live and die with these ups and downs. I suppose we prey he can eventually break these trends. IMO it might require a more cerebral coach. Daboll seemed to understand how to manage this. But perhaps Allen had less freedom then, perhaps he was working more to control it as a “dumb” rookie vs a NFL star.

😂😂 Say we deferred and the Jets scored a TD or a FG, we would know it’s 4 downs anywhere on the field until we get in range. Further, if you get a stop right away you’re in position for the Win. I think deferring is the correct play with the new rules.

In college they always defer because you get the extra down if the other team scores. The only disadvantage is you could be working on a short clock but I have to think NFL coaches will be deferring as we see more of this. The extra down is just too much of an advantage. I don’t know if the Bills were prepared for that situation TBH. I guess we will see as more teams weigh in.

I don’t care how it looks, just win the damn game and sort it out later

Kick the ball

Most TD’s and most Turnovers. If that doesn’t capture Josh I don’t know what does

Allen’s looks a lot like people said when he came out of Wyoming. He just spent all his energy working on it in his early years. This is the totally free version. Highs and lows at the extremes.

Josh is Favre on steroids

Awesome game plan and execution so far. LOVE seeing Hardy challenge the edges. Those looks contribute to first downs and extending drives. Cook providing balance. Josh taking what the defense gives him. Defense aggressive. I think it would have been this way with Rogers in the game. We are playing fast. I’m very happy with this start.

I think the journey to the top of the mountain was pretty exciting especially after so much misery. But now, we are sort of stuck near the peak knowing that in the scheme of things the games now really aren't what has prevented us from reaching the top.

Cleveland owns him. He is 1-4 and about to be 1-5 vs the Browns.

They deserve the 2020 Bills treatment. I'm from the burbs outside Detroit. During our drought, the Lions were about the only team I could say had it worse. Outside maybe Cleveland moving.

Campbell has built one of the better coaching staffs in the NFL. He's super aggressive and very creative in how he is aggressive. Lions will be a force this year. It seemed pretty obvious after last year and how they finished.

QB: Josh was at an MVP level, arguable should have won at least one up until last year. I can't just give the nod to more experience as with that experience teams have started taking away things he excels at. I need to see a stronger counter punch to upgrade here RB: I think we are better here. Cook has more upside than motor. Harris has more upside than Moss. WR: The WR room is worse than all of the years. Having the high end versions of Beasley and Josh Brown is better than any #3 or later WR we have and by a considerable margin. Davis and Knox have things to prove if they want to best the best years they had in 2021. Kincaid does not offset this but helps. OL: Morse is not as good and Dawkins is not as good. Those are the two best we had then and still the two best we have now. Torrence and McGovern should upgrade the guards to be among the best we had during this stretch. RT has been a liability nearly the whole time and still is. I say it's a break even. DL: Rousseau could take a step, Floyd will give us double digit sacks. Perhaps the start of 2022 takes this, but if Von comes back healthy, this should be the best line we have had. LB: Obviously a huge regression here against any of the seasons. No way around it. CB: This unit was just better during the pre Tre injury and Levi Wallace days. I do think it can end up being better this year but we will need Tre to return to full form. Having the one shutdown corner allows us to do a lot more. S: I have to give youth the nod here. So better in years past but like the Rupp signing and we certainly have more depth than we ever had. 2021 was a Super Bowl team. I think we can compete against that roster this season but we will need to have some things go our way for that to happen. Questions marks as far as ceiling are all over the place with this team.

I forever love this Gif

This thread has made it's way to the forum either 3 or 4 separate times (not your fault OP). It's as if each person who discovers we have a lot of starters drafted by Beane feels like this is some how the kryptonite to the bad draft argument so they reincarnate these finding as new news. Beane drafted Allen and he is responsible for drafting a lot of our starters. That doesn't mean he's good at drafting, but I would also stop short of saying he's bad at drafting. People want extremes. He is either great or he sucks. At this point, weighing all of it, he has been above average. Allen carries that much weight. Above average teams don't usually win the super bowls either he certainly needs to get some more wins.

Russ was never good enough to justify the Denver trade. In a balanced situation he most certainly regresses last year but nothing to extent we saw. Now his legacy of ever being a solid QB is in jeopardy and I expect he will have an above average season. As most have pointed out unless you saw those Broncos games, it was hard to comprehend just how bad Hackett was. Players don't typically take linear paths. It's more jagged unless this is the end but I think it's a bit soon to call it that. In his prime and what we likely see a bit this year he was mobile, outstanding deep ball, and very good accuracy. Not the best guy reading the field or getting the ball out but elite in the other areas. Tyrod was sort of a poor mans version. Wilson was much better than Tyrod stretching the field but similar skills.

He was the man in the day.

I understand the point you're trying to make here, but with this view, most analysis that exists would become irrelevant. So to me it's just sort of an odd point to make. I mean take any stat that exists and I can apply this lens to it. EX: Josh's TD's are up. Well, that's not Josh and his TD's per say, it could be better WR's, better blocking, better play calling.....Lets not really talk about Josh's TD's being up because we are just creating casual narratives. If you go back to the first page I had a fairly lengthy post on teams, namely our divisional rivals not blitzing Josh anymore or better stated, our offense. Specifically in the 2nd half of last year. Now is it because the line? Poor WR's? Coaching? Josh? It could obviously be any of those things or all of those things, but whatever it is seemed to work rather well and it stands to reason we will keep seeing it until we show we can handle it.

Thanks. I posted the data below in the offseason and I remembered how slanted the Jets played us from that. Which we have to expect again. I have been extremely critical of our inability to take underneath offense. Which triggers a ton of conversations as to why, all of which I don't care to rehash. Having said this what an opportunity to show a evolution in the offense. Some power run. Methodical. Move the chains. That is the style the Jets will give us. Will we take it?

In two games last year, the Jets allowed a combined 352 yards passing. They Blitzed Josh just 9 times in two games. Individually, each match up ranked in the top 4 least blitzed games Allen saw last year. Allen tried to throw into this look the first game. His air yards per attempt ranking 4th highest for the year in that match up. It wasn't a good result and played right into what the Jets wanted. In the 2nd game, Josh reined it in more averaging 8.2 air yards per attempt which ended up being a full 4 yards less than the first game. In both games the results of those completed passes were in the bottom 5 games as far as length of completion. First game going for 6.4 yards per completion and the second going for a season low 4.6 yards per completion. The Jets, as much as anybody, do not think Josh is willing to take underneath throws. They won't blitz, they will flood the zone, they will beg Josh to beat them downfield. They play the same style of defense the Steelers used against us in the 2021 opener and that teams started playing more in the 2nd half of last year as Josh saw the Blitz nearly stop completely. When Blitzed 6 times or less last year, Josh passed for 147, 172, 197, 205, 223, and 254. All 6 games happened week 9 or later. Teams do not think Allen is able to take what the defense gives him. They want him to drive the length of the field in boring fashion. On our side we really need to show the NFL early that we will feast underneath if you give it to us. IF we can do that it will open it up deep later on. A pretty game for Josh is a whole lot of check downs. Underneath throws. About 200 or so yards and a solid completion %. Keep the chains moving. Do not let the first game excitement get to you.

I don’t think this post will age well. Both will surprise people this year

I think some people feel Josh could be the only reason we have a chance and also the reason it doesn’t happen. Similar to how some people feel that way about McDermott or Beane. They feel barriers between why we can be excellent but not good enough and they look at these topics as reasons why. When they express as much, they usually get reminded why they should be more grateful or more thankful. Why they can’t be fans or why they’re nattering nabobs of negativism. In the end if this was about success and winning the 90’s would have been enough for most. It’s clearly not. It’s about a Super Bowl. The longer we remain excellent without accomplishing more, the more traction these topics get. Which seems fair, I think.