Beck Water

I agree that McKenzie should be focused on improving and stepping up, but if it's a contest and clearly for "fun", I don't think goofing around with fans for an hour or two on his evening off indicates lack of focus or interferes with that. But again, it has to be managed carefully to avoid being a bad look, like excuse making.

I'll put this a step further. You can usually tell something about how teams view guys by looking at their contracts. Crowder signed a 1 yr contract for $2M: $1.12M salary, $795k signing plus workout bonus. McKenzie signed a 2 yr contract with guarantees only this season, $1.35M salary, $700k signing plus workout - it's really a 1 yr contract with the team's option to hang onto him for a second season if they wish. They really signed for about the same $$. That says to me that the team did not view either Crowder or McKenzie as the starter going into camp; the team wanted them to compete and either platoon them, or "best man win".

I agree with you, but I'll wait and see how it comes across. In the past at Mister's Isaiah has kept it pretty real and sometimes hands-on, from salsa-dancing to demonstrating with his hands why catching a hard thrown ball is painful on the thumbs after a while. He may not make it a personal spat. If it is, I do agree with you it's not a good look. If McKenzie comes across as making excuses for what McDermott regards as "a need to be better with fundamentals" on the offense (not calling out McK specifically), he's gonna find himself in the dog house.

I hate to say it and there are reasons behind it, but yeah - especially in the first half, the OL had a huge impact on the game. I'll cross reference this here. There was a declined penalty on the 2ndary, but basically all of our 5 accepted penalties were on the OL, and a couple of additional penalties were declined because the result of the play was bad enough that the loss of down was more significant. That's 5 penalties for 35 yds, and put us consistently in x "and long", mostly in the first half.

Correct. Dawkins was flagged 1x for false start and 3x for offensive holding yesterday (once was 3D and declined). 3 of them were in the 1st half. No penalties in the 4Q. That's 3 of the Bills 5 accepted penalties right there. The other two were on Mitch Morse or Josh Allen (ineligible downfield) and Rodger Saffold (false start). There were a couple of other declined penalties on the OL - offensive holding on Saffold was one. I don't know what 'regressing' means to you, but there's not a mystery as to what was going on. Dawkins is playing on a high ankle sprain, and isn't as mobile as he normally is - against what's quite possibly the best DL in the league, certainly one of the best 3 or 4. He's not doing it because he loves to play on a high ankle sprain, he's doing it because he and the coaches believe he's a better option to protect Josh than Quessenberry, also playing on an injured ankle. I don't think that's regressing, I think that's playing hurt.

Oh, wow, OK. So since the bye week, with this Jets game being an exception, the Bills have had 6 straight games above the league average 120 rush yds per game. Prior to the bye, we were just under the league average with 118 per game; after the bye, average of 148 (including yesterday's below-average rushing). Allen averaged 7.8 rush attempts per game prior to the bye, and 7.4 after the bye, so the improvement is not Josh running more. That usually means improved OL play. I think it's a point that Josh has been taking more sacks (1.7 before the bye, 2.7 afterwards). I'm not sure that's entirely on the OL - someone has stats on the time Josh holds the ball, and I think he's been doubting himself over pulling the trigger trying to avoid interceptions, and maybe not trusting that the ball will go exactly where he wants if he doesn't have time to set and throw, instead of feeling confident he can sling it on the run. Bottom line, with a big exception of last game with Quessenberry in at LT and this game with Dawkins gimping into the locker room pre game and playing on a high ankle, I'm not sure the OL is really playing worse and where they are, I'm not sure it's "regressing" and not playing hurt.

Thank you for the data. To the OP's point - 2 run plays to RBs on 1st down, for 0 and for 1 yd. I think that Dorsey's assessment of their DL was that we weren't going to be able to run the ball very successfully against the Jets DL and LB. Quinnen Williams is a beast, and him having to leave the game ~ halfway through helped us a lot. I think it's notable that 10 of our 24 runs were Josh Allen. Aside from his 16 yd run, Motor had 7 runs averaging 3.2 ypc. Cook was less successful with 1.5 ypc. Again, I can't argue with your point that we need to run the ball more effectively, but I'm also wondering how that is to be done this season.

OK, but when you see something like that, it's good to ask "why"? Let's have a careful look at the chart, which I'm not sure Mr sharpndpensel did. What I see is that all but 2 of Josh's completions were within 5 yds of the LOS, an area where completions over the middle are difficult and dangerous (because of the risk of batted balls). At least one of the longer completions was actually a short completion to Dawson Knox, with good YAC. I think the completion on the L sideline was to Gabe Davis. So I doubt the Bills game plan failed to pick that up, what I think was happening was that Allen was having to live on short dump-offs and had to move out of the pocket before anything deep (L R or C) opened up. The Jets were also pretty determined not to let Allen roll out to the R, which they did last game.

Concur. We under-invested in offense this off-season.

Concur. Big difference in the Bills offensive success without vs with Quinnen Williams in the game. It's getting to that point for me. I don't mind criticism but I like it to be mindful and sensible, which means grounded in observations and facts and not just dumb (he sucks, he drops everything, he drops more than he catches, he's regressing, the OC should be fired etc etc etc)

There's also the question of, if Josh was being pursued does he have time to set and throw? I think one of the problems with his UCL injury is that he needs to pay more mind to good mechanics to throw on target.

So, I haven't seen game film of yesterday and I have a hard time telling what's really going on from TV broadcast. But what I saw for a few games has been, Dorsey's answer to defenses relying on their DL to bring pressure with 4 (or 3) and blanketing the field with 7 (or 8 ) has been to send 3 WR on deep routes and have 2 outlets chip and release for a short passing game. So we either have deep routes that develop late, and we're not getting the protection to wait for them to develop, or we have outlets who chip and release, which makes them not as quick targets as they could be, and sometimes not available with a clear passing lane. Sometimes he sends a receiver or an RB out to the flat. I think Dorsey's idea is that we hit those outlets quickly and accurately, they get 8-10 yds a pop, and it will either get us to the EZ or knock the defenses out of that type of coverage, freeing up the deeper routes. (Daboll had a different approach involving getting Beasley open underneath and scheming guys open deep). This actually worked very well against the Patriots. The problems are, 1) Josh doesn't necessarily make those short "outlet" throws accurately, especially on the move or under pressure. They were his least accurate throws in college and pre draft, and some of the last he improved. 2) Mentally, Josh strongly resists taking the checkdown, and even more resists taking the checkdown promptly, when it is most effective and will get the most yards. 3) when the TE and RB are expected to chip and release, they aren't always available as outlets - if they can't get off the block or are delayed getting off the block. It also becomes predictable. Dorsey needs to mix it up more IMO.

I don't think that's the common use of the word. It usually means returning to a previous, lesser state. So are you thinking the Bills OL returned to how they were playing earlier in the season, or last season, and if so, when? If they are playing poorly, for a variety of reasons including injury and a high level of skill from the opponent, that may not be "regressing". The reason I don't see that as a nitpick, is that it's important to understand why something is happening if you want to change it.

Question: what does "regressing" mean to you? People like to toss that word around a lot (along with "yips"), but it's not always clear what exactly they mean by it. When you have a LT playing on one leg 2 1/2 weeks out from a "high ankle sprain", is that "regressing" or is that "playing injured"?

We both have truths, are mine the same as yours? -Jesus Christ Superstar

The Giants did exactly that earlier this year.

Then fire him <------sarcasm

So what is he doing in the snaps he gets, and with the targets he gets, which you can show to us as evidence he should be getting more?

And yet McKenzie is right behind Diggs for catch % with 69.1%, how can this be when he doesn't catch the ball? Hodgins (when with the Bills) has a lower catch % with 66.7%, how can this be when he catches the ball "unlike McKenzie"? (Hodgins has a better catch % with the Giants, so good for him!) You know Shakir gets ~16 snaps per game on average, right? More vs Detroit, 12 yesterday. He's been targeted 17 times and has 8 receptions. I would have liked to see the Bills keep Hodgins. I think it was bad luck as far as injuries at other positions that led to him being waived.

Yeah, but it was pretty much a lucky bounce that it was a safety and not recovered for a TD

So the Bills have lost 3 games by a total of 8 points. Not at all surprising that a point differential change of 18 points can swing 4 games.

I agree here. This board used to be difficult to navigate after a loss. Now, it's difficult to navigate after a win! Scapegoating players, asking if coaches should be fired, etc etc I think it's one thing to share concerns, another to scapegoat or trash players/coaches etc. - he sucks, who played worse A on offense or B on defense, will the OC be fired. (Not intended to finger point you in particular as doing this) We used to see all that stuff ad infinitum after a loss, now we see it after a win. It's very bizarre.

Well, Hey

I couldn't tell what question was asked there. Anyone?

I don't think so, unless there was a question about White's neurological status. The only thing that sparked the Tua investigation is that there's a specific neurological protocol for identifying concussions and protecting players that have them, with an "independent" consultant, and the Tua question was "was it followed?" I don't think there was a bit of that. The hit on Josh's elbow was a clean hit - he was in the act of throwing the ball and our guys are trained to go after the QB's arm in that situation. It's not like he was down and they were wrenching on his arm or stepping on it or kicking him. Our D was just trying to play free and physical and show they can be a top unit and get pressure without Von. Now Shaq, Shaq had a bone to pick with the Jets, and wracked up a sack, a TFL, and a QB hit. I wish we could get Shaq to have a bone to pick every week. Maybe he'll be fired up against Miami, too, since they traded him off to the Texans only a year into the 3 yr contract they signed with him. When he's fired up, he's a damned good player.