Giuseppe Tognarelli

I don't know. If you put Mahomes behind the worst line in football, with no skill position talent to speak of, would he really be successful?

Is that really true at this point? Hasn't the issue blown over to a large extent? I don't think it would cause major issues at this point.

It's amazing how ferociously Murph and Tasker defend Daboll when the offense is putting up these point totals.

I've been giving this some thought. If you were starting from scratch with a football team, where would you begin as GM? Would you go for a quarterback first? Build the lines and go from there? Load up on skill position players and hope for the best? My initial thought is that I'd prioritize positions in this order: OL K/P QB DL CB WR TE RB LB S I think a team with a dominant offensive line and kicking game can get a lot done in terms of ball control and dictating the pace of games, so that's why I would make sure I have those in place before I insert a young quarterback. I could be widely panned as wrong in my thinking, but I'm curious as to what philosophies we have on the board in terms of positional importance. Ultimately, it's about Ws.

It'll still pretty much be a night game because they'll be under the lights within an hour of kickoff

Football is about minimizing Josh Allen? ?

They won't look at it that way, unfortunately. They don't dread that four-game stretch the way we do.

Oh my gosh. People are still saying this? The Browns are not a joke.

I'm so glad that others are calling out McBeane on their non-football priorities. It's a huge problem.

You're not looking deeply enough. The Bills are consistently going for it (and failing) because Hauschka doesn't have the range to make routine NFL kicks. How the administration gave him an extension in spite of this is very concerning; it seems to be an extension given in an effort to spark his confidence or in recognition of his leadership, which are both pathetic reasons to extend. The Bills would have been 12 points better today with a good kicker. They would have won the game with a good kicker. And then there's the eyeball test. He's not making kicks as well as he used to. His leg is weak (you see it on kickoffs, too), and he's kicking nervous. Balls don't have the power and direction they used to. It feels like every FG is an adventure. Everyone says the kicker isn't hugely important, but they usually swing 1-2 games per year. Name one position other than QB that is that crucial to wins and losses. I wish I had been wrong in the offseason when I complained about this issue and pretty much begged for a change. I thought it would cost the Bills games, and sure enough it is.

We would have put up 28 today with a good kicker...

The fact that you're getting "laughing" reactions to this is mind-boggling. With a good kicker, we're 12 points better today. We abstained from field goals twice and turned it over on downs each time because Hauschka doesn't have the range anymore. Hauschka is a major, major weakness on this football team.

Exactly. That appears to be why he was extended. Unacceptable. Completely unacceptable.

It's reasonable to pencil in losses in games in which we will be underdogs, yes. By the same token, we should pencil in wins the next two games and against the Jets. That puts us at 9-7.

Here's how I see it... We need to win the next two. We should win the next two. We'll be 8-3, and then we will be underdogs in the next four. By the same token that we should win the next two, we should lose those four. We might end up 8-7 and hoping to beat the Jets to go 9-7 and squeak into the playoffs. Disappointing. Issues: Hauschka Run defense Allen playing too "in control"/soft and not hitting the deep ball. Where's the passion on the sidelines we used to see? It's like he's trying to stay "within himself" and be too careful.

Let's not forget that we turned it over on downs twice in field goal range because we know our kicker isn't good anymore.

Yessir. I'm sick and tired of people defending him. The extension reeked of McDermott valuing things other than on-field performance. It was like he was given an extension to show faith in him when they knew he was struggling, as if the vote of confidence would help.

Will people finally start believing me that kicker is an issue now, or will I continue to get "Meh, ""Skeptical," and "Confused" reactions? This should be known as The Hauschka Game. I told everyone that he would haunt the Bills this season, and I was right. Now, maybe the spotlight will finally shine on this weakness.

McDermott has now walked away from two field goal attempts that should be in a good kicker's range. That extension for Hauschka continues to be a big question mark. A good kicker would have the Bills leading this game. I said before the season that the Bills were not paying enough attention to this issue and it would haunt them, and it is proving to be true.

Simply foolish. Guarantee you Bruschi isn't actually watching.

It is indeed. It is indeed.

Gold ?

I think this thread is a good reminder to some posters not to be so snippy and rude to fellow posters and to instead keep things respectful when they disagree. That would be the foremost takeaway for me. A few other observations... Positive hot takes do seem to be more welcome than negative ones. For example, a thread "The Bills are going to win the Super Bowl!" is probably more likely to survive than its counterpart "The Bills have no chance of making the playoffs!" I believe that negative threads CAN survive if presented with well-thought-out opinions, but I also think there is something to the complaint about negativity being frowned upon. I think the "policing" of negative threads could stand to be dialed back just a degree or two. There are definitely a lot of posters who react negatively to anything suggesting the Bills' outlook may not be as rosy as they'd like. It's annoying, but it is what it is. Psychology is a field of study. Sports psychology is a subfield. It's something I studied in school, and it fascinates me. I look at a lot of things, like player and coach comments/press conferences, to try to glean insights. I've noticed that I've been rebuked whenever I've made comments from this framework. It's always confused me. The mental game is a big part of the game.

The players seem to be using 6-2 as a crutch for not worrying about specific aspects of performance. I've seen several players say similar things. Maybe it's not true inside the building, but the public comments are concerning at this point. The same thing happened when the Jauron team started well, so that's one reason why it concerns me. At that time, it was "We're 5-0." It quickly became "We're 5-3." As we all know, soon there weren't any crutches left. Hopefully we don't see the same thing here.

wut