Beck Water

The Steelers D is truly looking more curtain than steel so far. I don't think you should overlook that he's calling an offensive performance that featured 3 turnovers by the RBs, 2 turnovers by the QB, and 5 sacks "impressive". The Bills D would be happy if they come in and do that here. Did McD say anything about what happened with either Dorian? (not that I'd expect him to, but a Girl can Hope

Fair point on that last. On the earliest, choosing good coordinators and letting them cook is part of the skill of being a good head coach. And I believe Vrabel left his chosen OCs to do their thing, meaning Tim Smith was responsible for the dismal 2023 ground and pound strategy. And in truth, losing Tannehill for 5 games of the 2022 season and 9 games of 2023 rather forced his hand. Maybe you think he should have forced an air attack with Will Levis as QB for 9 games, but maybe that would have been foolish.

Well, there's two things. First, Warner QB'd 3 Superbowls for 2 different teams, by virtue of his mind, not his superior athletic skills. So naturally that's the position he feels most comfortable critiquing. It also factors in that his Rams coaches believed in hard coaching. The harder you coach someone, the more you value them and believe they can thrive. Second, as alluded to above, the offensive system Warner QB'd was built on knowing exactly the best place to go with the ball pre-snap and immediately post snap. Very cerebral. He's not "second guessing", he's making the read as he would have made it, based on reading the defense before and after the snap from film, and based on the offenses he captained where there was a best decision on every play and that was the right decision. The only QB he's sort of backed away from doing that with a bit is Josh. He seems to acknowledge that Josh's skill set is so different, that the same analysis doesn't always apply. On the other hand, there are times when he does point out that Josh has options he's not taking and the offense would function more smoothly if he did (as when the Bills were struggling in the RZ a couple years back) and I think that's totes fair.

Vrabel may be a meathead, but he's a damned good coach. That said, the BBFS is strong with some of the posts here.

It's not just field position. If the Bills got a 3rd down stop on the drive ended by the Bishop interception, they likely would have come away with 3 points from a FG. The turnover didn't give the Bills great field position, but it robbed the Saints of points where a 3rd down conversion wouldn't have. I don't think you're going to get anywhere with that BillsFan130 guy though. Just admit that the Bills D sucks, turnovers don't matter, and EPA is stupid.

I think this might be a bit revisionist. Belichick famously had his finger in all 3 aspects of the game and limited the authority of his assistants. Please - be consistent. If you want to give Reid credit for acting as the OC of the Chiefs, that's fair. But then you have to give McDaniels some blame when he's HC but acting as the OC of the Broncos and really mixing it in with running their offense; you have to give McDaniels full blame when he's OC of the Rams under Steve Spagnuolo who left the offense strictly to him; you have to give McDaniels some blame when he's HC but acting as the OC of the Raiders. It's not just "he isn't a good HC", it's that he's not consistent as a good OC. OOOOHhhhhh below average WR, don't tell Stefon Diggs. NE has moved the ball pretty well the last 3 weeks. The Steelers game 2 weeks ago was a loss, in which Maye was sacked 5 times, threw a pick, and lost a fumble to go along with 3 fumbles lost by RBs. If they do the same at Buffalo, our defense will be delighted.

Dude. This is a little much. You're just outright ignoring what actually happened in favor of padding your points. The Bills did not take the 2nd half kickoff. The Saints did. You don't remember that? Why? Because the Bills D forced a 3 and out and they punted. That's why. Factually, the Bills allowed 5 of 13 1st down conversions by the Saints. That's 38%, and while it's not fantastic, it's not craptastic either.

I'd just like to point out that if we actually had a defense that couldn't get off the field, the Saints wouldn't have punted in the 1Q, punted in the 2nd Q, been intercepted, and been held to a field goal in the 2Q, and punted again to lead off the 3Q (all while our offense was trying to decode this modern advance called "zone coverage"), ending the game with two TOD. Bills allowed conversion of 5 out of 13 (38%) 3rd D and 0 out of 2 4 D. I'm not saying that the defense is perfect or even good. But the above "can't get off the field" is a simplistic exaggeration. I too hope we see a more focused, on point team this Sunday. I know these guys are professionals, but when you're playing a team that just got its ass handed to them the previous week with a 44-13 loss, part of the player's brains have to be going "yeah, yeah" during game plan install during the week. On the other hand, when you're playing a team that was just on the winning side of a 42-13 drubbing, it's easier to give it your full and serious attention and the danger is that (like the fans here) part of your brain says "doomed!". Hopefully the team is 1000x more resilient than the fans are. Dude, I explicitly posted about why I knew that fun fact. It's in the last para of my post. 716 caught it, so I know I didn't send it in invisible electrons.

I don't know why Brady wouldn't run the ball and make NE prove they can stop it. Like I said elsewhere, Carolina rang up 129 yds rushing, from 3 backs, without any long runs. They just got piled into a hole in the first half by special teams miscues and had to get away from it. The Dolphins are like 31st for attempts and 27th for yards, pretty bad run game. The Steelers are 23 for attempts, 31st for yards, bad run game. The Raiders are middle of the pack, 15th for yards - I don't know, maybe NE stifled them or maybe they weren't trying to run much - racked up 362 yds passing in a close loss.

Uh, huh. And who was the QB and the HC during those wins? It's kind of funny you mention McDaniels as "tied for Andy Reid as the most prolific OC in the game" when in fact, Andy Reid was never an OC in the NFL! He was tight ends coach/QB coach in GB when he was hired as HC in Philly. Yet Reid is credited as the offensive mind that crafted and refined the Philly offense, and the KC offense, as HC. Many would say the same about Belichick, who was famous as a micro-manager of his assistants. I don't know, so I don't mind giving McDaniels some credit for the Patriots offense, which was strong when he left for Denver/Stl and strong when he came back. But it's only fair to point out his mixed record as an offensive architect and QB developer with other teams. That play was funny AF and poignant, too. It clearly took a lot out of Eason to do it, but it's a shame it's not a movie or still running somewhere. Maybe not enough football fans who want to attend plays?

No, he wasn't. Grogan was with NE for 15 years - 1975 to 1990, started his first 6 years then remained as a backup. Eason started in NE from 1984 to 1986 Fun backstory: I don't know this kind of stuff generally, but I had the chance to see a one-man play called "Runt of the Litter" by former NFL safety Bo Eason, Tony's younger brother, which was loosely based on his experiences growing up then going to college and making it to the pro's, as the less innately gifted, harder working "runt". So I got interested and researched them a bit.

It's been my feeling that the Bills D last year was somewhere between its points ranking (11th and its yards ranking (17th). Mid-tier, not as good as 2023 when they were 4th/9th. This is consistent with EPA per play and DVOA that you reference. I've heard others speak well of DVOA. But not bottom of the league or bottom-third overall.

And that's not even counting the guys on IR

Because......? I thought Ed said last year he didn't bring any of his horses to WNY. Said it just didn't work out that he had enough time for them during the season. But he could have changed his mind this year of course.

I actually don't think Chris Simms hates the Bills at all. I think he's a not-so-closeted Josh Allen fanboy, to the point where he has a case of BBFS because he thinks the Bills aren't "doing right" to put the right pieces around his Boy Blue. But as far as his predictions go, he's paid to generate controversy, so he's gotta do something.

Fair 'nuff Don't get me wrong, I think the Bills defense has its issues right now. But I think Babich is a fine young DC. I think he's getting a weird case of the finger-pointies from fans right now. Now, if we're still getting time outs due to 10 men on field or penalties for 12 men on field in 2 games, I'll get back to you. To me, the fundamental problem with the Bills D is that it's built to work like a net, where every player on the D knows his role, knows how his assignment changes with post-snap changes on O and the actual route choices receivers make, and executes. Part of the net moves, and the rest of the net adjusts to follow it. It's the reason the Bills D can perform well and rank highly without 3-4 stars, with just decent guys. It's the reason it can absorb the loss of a starter or 2 and still function well if the backup also knows his job and does it. But right now, we've got too many newbies. We've got Dorian Williams, we've got Cam Lewis, we've got Rapp and Bishop, we've got changes on the DL. Part of the net moves, and the rest of the net does not adjust or adjusts the wrong way and the result is guys out of position. They're not missing tackles because they don't know how to tackle for the most part, they're missing tackles because they're out of position and 0.5 sec slow. Either it will improve as starters return and as young starters get more game time, or it won't. Can't tell you which right now. I assume you mean Josh McDaniels, not Mike McDaniel, and no, actually, I don't concede that at all. And if "many people" don't disagree, I guess that doesn't concern me much unless those "many people" have actually followed McDaniels chequered career outside NE Bart Scott didn't come up with his MadBacker quip in a vacuum or on his own. He came up with his quip because it was known.

Tony Eason maybe?

I think I'm about to where I'll give up, but riddle me this: where did the Bills rank for # of defensive plays? TOP? Yes, it would certainly be concerning if Maye and the Pats shredded the Bills on 3rd downs and moved the ball with relative ease

It's been said enough that I think it probably was true. Kraft thought they had a roster that was better than 8-8 or they wouldn't have fired Carroll. 5-11 1st year, lost first 2 games, seat hot. Brady did exactly what he was asked to do in that Charlie Weis offense: make the right pre- and post-snap read and make the right decision on where to go with the ball.

It's a tough game for tough people. Players get hurt. Travis Henry's been hurt some seasons. Saquon Barkley got hurt. Not sure what's your point?

If KJ Hamler could separate against starting NFL defenses, he'd still be here. He had 6 years with 3 teams to show what he could do.

Sure, it doesn't tell the whole story. Especially I've pointed out many times that if a team differs a lot in their defensive rank by points against compared to yards against, it warrants a further look. In this case, it points out that the Bills were opportunistic about punching the ball out or intercepting it. But those are defensive skills too, can you acknowledge that? To be that good at punching out the ball or intercepting it, means it's a skill they practice and study for. It also points out that the Bills defensive philosophy, when they have a comfortable lead which they did in something like 6 or 7 games, sometimes isn't too worried about giving up yards. Your points about 3rd down D and 1st downs given up are valid, but so are points where the D ranked in QB knockdowns and pressure percentage (10th and 13th I believe), in hurries (7th); also, in Tackles for Loss (7th). I specifically look at the first 3, because that's one of the factors that drives interceptions. Overall the view I'm trying to convey is 1) turnovers don't happen in a vacuum, they represent team effort represented by some metrics 2) I don't think it tells the whole story to focus on two metrics and say "see, the defense was really a bottom feeder". "One Mo Lewis hit away from the unemployment line" - Bart Scott I actually think if McDaniels had stayed in NE instead of taking the HC gig in Las Vegas, there was a decent chance Mac Jones developed into a decent QB. I think he had flaws, but I also think McDaniel would have refined the offense towards what he did well.

Well, Bradford clearly wasn't his "type". But he was allowed to pick his QB in Denver (where as HC he was for sure running the offense) when he traded Cutler for Orton. He was allowed to pick his QB in Las Vegas, releasing Carr and signing Jimmy Garappolo to the Big Bucks. Offensive success did not follow.

https://www.buffalobills.com/video/khalil-shakir-whatever-it-takes-to-win-buffalo-bills Start of the interview. Shakir is notably unenthused when asked about how Stefon Diggs will be received and answers "no idea". He swallows and looks to the side as though seeking counsel from a Bills PR handler (??) then offers "he was here before, and I learned so much from him about the game, but as for the fans, no idea." Notably more enthused when talking about our offense and how the "everybody eats" mentality only works if "every single individual" is really bought in to that.

I admit the +2 job McDaniels did with Mac Jones. My opinion of him as OC is strongly influenced by his time in St Louis, where I had a ring-side seat to his destruction of Sam Bradford (who resurrected himself x3 with Shottenheimer and Shurmur, proving he could actually play QB) From what I hear, McDaniels also was hugely involved with the offensive design and playcalling in Las Vegas and the results were....not good.