Simon

The only complaint I had was that it was really hard to pick up jersey numbers in the trenches during plays. Was that the case in the stadium as well or was it more of an issue with the television screen?

I'll just reiterate the thread title re: no Bills discussion. There's plenty of other places on the board to complain about the Bills and I think folks have had enough of the kvetching and moaning for the last 24 hrs so let's keep any Bills talk out of here.

I remember making a smart assed remark around Week 2(?) congratulating Dorian Williams for finally getting his first NFL PD.

At least two other sources have them at 11 PDs, not 2; I am doubting the accuracy of Erik's claim. They have also faced the 3rd or 4th least amount of passes in the NFL this season.

This. I didn't hate that he did it, but I thought he should have at least waited until after the first down play to get a better idea of where they were at.

Over the course of the season there has only been one week where an opponent was better than .500 on 3rd down (Miami, who oddly enough is #2 in the NFL on 3rd down); overall, opposing offenses are 24/59 on 3rd down for a conversion rate of right around 40%, which places the Bills right in the middle of the pack across the league. The defense hasn't been "good" on 3rd down, but it's nowhere near the tire fire that folks are making it out to be.

Considering that I said nothing remotely resembling that, my second point stands.

NE wasn't going to use any timeouts; they had 3 to work with and absolutely wanted that clock running. If the Bills do get a stop and get the ball back with :50 left (which was entirely possible; NE only had 3 points in the half, and those were off the Coleman fumble, and I don't think we'd lost Milano yet) there is a 0% chance that the Bills take a knee. At that point in the game NE had produced zero points that we hadn't given them and I think were o'fer on 3rd down conversions. I think your frustration is getting on top of you a little bit.

A safety showing false pressure then dropping into a shell, is a shell.

His footwork is better, his routes are absolutely sharper, his timing with Allen is better, etc. Those are things that don't just magically happen. The coaches are clearly seeing it also because Keon's snap counts have been significantly higher than every single offensive skill position player on the entire team this year.

The fact that the safety kept his hips set to attack that route the second Allen racked the shell, and then didn't come off it until very late has me thinking you are correct. There was probably a window if Samuel cuts the route off because the 'backer didn't get a deep enough drop, but Samuel didn't. As it was, it was probably a dangerous throw when all they need was a first down. I did not think they spent much time bring extra bodies into the box; at least one person at the game, who I know has great eyes, confirmed the Pats were running a 2 high shell almost all night long.

He clearly worked hard in the offseason and I'm not going to suddenly assume that's not the case because Coach sat him for a single series midseason.

Thank you. That was what it looked like on TV but you can never be 100% sure with limited broadcast angles and their burgeoning propensity to forego replays and instead opt for the human drama of a view up a coach's or QB's nostrils.

Probably slept in and showed up late for a practice or some other dumb ***** a 22yr old would do.

Now this I totally agree with; I thought their DT's did a great job of taking away those lanes where he likes to bolt for key pickups.

It feels like I've seen a ton of posts saying how badly he played, coming from posters who haven't really commented on anything else. I've been just taking it as a sign of how spoiled we've become.

I thought he was yelling at the guy that hit him, who was chirping at the time. I bet dollars to doughnuts that if you created a chart based on the number of penalties called against the Bills by Hochuli vs the number they draw on average, you would find a very similar result, which is even more damming than W/L, imo.

I had the exact same reaction; just gobsmacked that people could be trying to hang this loss on him. As for the pick, I just though he was a half-second late on the throw; he probably held that one a touch too long before he let it go between the hashes.

He's just coming to the line with a couple options and picking one according to his presnap read. He's typically on the money with it, but last night I have to wonder if the options he had to work with were a poor fit with what the Pats were showing.

Nobody is getting open downfield against those shells, regardless of how fast they are. Trying to squeeze throws into those non-existent windows is just wasting downs and begging for interceptions.

My daughter-in-law was convinced the guy was there with a mistress and just bolted when he realized he was going ot be on camera.

NE was using light boxes most of the night and James Cook touched the ball 6 times in the second half

They got to him with a couple blitzes out of the secondary but the Pats DL only got to Allen 2-3 times in 30+ dropbacks.

Just because he's a big guy that used to play football doesn't make him a meathead. Do you seriously think Bill Belichick would have trusted him in so many different roles on both sides of the ball if he wasn't really, really smart?

The fact that people still call this guy a meathead, not only after watching his well-coached teams, but after watching Belichik trust his smarts enough to use him in about 16 different roles is ........... something.