Beck Water

I wouldn't argue against the Dunne article being an impetus for McDermott to self-examine and change. I also think the way the team rallied behind him may have had a strong emotional impact on him. I think there are some other things though. I believe McD spent Josh Allen's first 5 years butting heads with his offensive coordinators to develop a solid run game not named Josh Allen. As a defensive-minded coach, he knows very well that it's much harder to defend a "multiple" offense that can run when they need to, that being able to control clock is a needed complimentary trait, and that if you're concerned with the long-term health of your QB it's not smart to use him as your best RB. I think Daboll (and his disciple Dorsey) heard "blah blah Ginger, blah blah blah Ginger" whenever McDermott would try to make that point, to where McDermott resorted to calling them out in pressers (not his nature). I also think that Leslie Frazier had a different defensive mindset than McDermott in some big moments. (Others may disagree, and that's fine) I think Babich is more aggressive and stays more aggressive when he has a lead, and McDermott is good with that. So I think McDermott, all around, is looser this year because he has a coaching staff that is more comfortable for him to work with and he has a run game that looks pretty solid independent of his QB. He has less internal frustrations he's presenting a "stone face" about. It's also easier to be "looser", more relaxed and happier, with a 10-2 team that just won the division in week 12, than it is to 6-6 at the bye week with several of your best players on IR. A good dose of that "Vitamin W" cures many ills!

Following up my own post to add the dots view of that TD play: That is such a "That F'in' Guy!" play. Josh throws to Cooper. Bad throw, Cooper is busy securing it, meanwhile 3 'niners defenders rally to him to ensure no YAC and no chance that he muscles in for a TD. Sound defense, well-coached defense. Only to find that the ball is now flying towards the goal line in the hands of Josh Allen.

LOL like in previous years, when they could, the Chiefs haven't ladled out the 41-10 or 31-17 or 26-6 beat-downs, those insecure MoFo's. And their fans enjoyed it. Everyone in the league knows McD isn't a "run up the score" guy. Allen and 3/5 of the starting OL sat down for almost the entire 4Q.

On that last, we agree completely. I just SMH. Announcer after LJax runs for a TD: "No other QB in the league can do that". Josh Allen: "Here, Hold My Beer" (proceeds to make 6 guys on the Chiefs miss tackles). I think because he's so big, he looks slower and less shifty, so it doesn't look like as impressive. But the 6 Chiefs chasing him down the field would attest that he's faster and shiftier than he looks. Brady is definitely a "we'll run it until you prove you can stop us" kind of guy. He said after last year's Dallas game that he had a bunch of pass plays drawn up for the game, but when the run was so successful he decided to just keep running.

Maybe I'm an outlier, but it didn't bother me that Hamlin didn't win comeback player of the year. I think that should be based on the quality of the comeback, not its sheer unlikelihood and incredible nature

Thanks! That really makes me laugh. I saw their post game presser, Amari started nodding when Josh said he threw a bad ball so he followed it in case it popped up. Said "so that's why you were over there!". Said the QB normally isn't over there on a DART concept so he figured Josh wanted the ball and they made eye contact so he threw it to him. I'll watch the whole game with pleasure, while polishing up the parrot's rendition of the Shout song in case we meet the Steelers in the playoffs. The latter is critical, Parrot Lady is a Steelers fan. Mom is fine, just bloody (adjective of quality) from a fall. No broken bones, just bruised and a few scrapes. It's nice that she's in assisted living now, much less of a load on me. Thanks for asking guys!

That's true, but he's normally a sure tackler and positions himself well against the run (IMO). The problem with the Ravens game is that we were starting Baylon Spector and Dorian Williams at LB and Cam Lewis at nickle. This. Yeah, yeah, I get you. His snap count was exactly 37, I gave the exact number in the post to which you're responding. And folks know what I meant.

I was surprised. I thought they'd be subbing him out. It may have had to do with SF getting away from the run due to being behind, and not having that many offensive plays. Our defense was only on the field 48 plays, of which Milano played 37 and we were in nickel for 11. A more typical game is 62 defensive plays, so (let's say) they had Milano on a 40 play pitch count, they may just not have reached it.

I think part of it was the plays being called. Didn't the Cincy players comment that the Bills were trying to run routes that require the receivers to plant and change direction suddenly, but you can't do that in snow? Part of it may be Joe Brady making it a regular part of the schedule to have a player-led, players-only meeting where they discuss what plays they like and don't like from the week's install, then he pays attention. Part of it may be the players. Diggs played at Maryland and in a dome before Buffalo. Davis played in Florida. McKenzie played in Georgia. They may not have understood what works in the snow. Shakir played college ball at Boise, Cooper played in Cleveland last year, Josh Wyo of course, Hollins started with Philly. So they may have a better appreciation of what they can, and can't, do on a snowy field. But that would mean nothing if they were playing for a guy who was "you're the player, I'm the coach, I'll tell YOU what to do." Not sure why you're ducking - it's true. I think after McCaffrey left the game and B'lo had a 21-3 lead, they figured they'd leave him in to help knock off the rust faster.

We'll never know, now, but the Bills D had a rough start against McCaffrey. I think if he'd have stayed in the game, they might well have rotated Milano out for Williams.

DLs were getting pushed around on both sides. Look at the highlight of that TD pass to Hollins, Josh had time in the pocket to smoke a cigar before throwing that thing.

I wanna show you all guys something. Here is Josh's passer rating by field position chart from 2023. We see he's way above average with the deep ball on the R side, average on the L. Here is Paddy Mahomes passer rating by field position chart, again from 2023 with MVS on his team. Average on the R side, well below league average on the L. Just maybe, defenses cover teams with elite QB differently, in a manner which makes those Go routes (already low percentage throws) more difficult to complete? Just maybe, defenses aren't scared of Derek Carr's arm, but they are trying to shut down Kamera? Josh's first couple seasons, teams weren't so much afraid of his arm - with reason. He was rocking a completion % less than 60% and throwing for <200 ypg. By mid-season 2020, that changed.

Haven't had a chance to complete watching the middle of the game. A few early thoughts: 1) This was a "that F***IN' Guy" game for SF 49ers DC Nick Sorenson trying to deal with Josh Allen in the snow. The TD he scored on the lateral from Cooper was complete Street Ball, two vet players just sharing a brain for a moment. Then that TD to Mack Hollins where all 5 receivers were perfectly covered, yet the Bills still scored. Kind of makes a DC want to smash up a tablet. 2) McCaffrey started out the game going through the Bills defense like a hot knife through butter as our DL couldn't hold their footing against the 9ers run blocking. Give the Bills credit, that wasn't every play, they did shut some down, but the 9ers had 7 ypc in the 1st half. McCaffrey had 7.6 ypc. You hate to see a player get injured, but McCaffrey's injury did look like a bit of a break for the Bills. 3) Did anyone else think that the throw to Shakir on 2nd and 9 was 100% DPI? Looked to me as though Green were draped all over Shakir well before the ball got there. I thought the "Illegal Contact" on 3rd and 9 was somewhat of a make-up call. 4) "Hustle" award to Casey Toohill for tackling Jordan Mason downfield on his 27 yd run. Am I the only one who had to look up 99? 5) Cole Bishop needs to learn subtlety. Shame to have that TD on the punt return called back by holding. 6) McDermott doing snow angels next to Josh Allen is an instant classic

This. Amari one handed a pass that was thrown off-target to his side and secured it. Then was enough "on page" with his new QB to flip it to him, while being tackled. High level play by Cooper.

I'm gonna guess that they played dime later in the game the 49ers were down by 3 scores and their run game without McCaffrey wasn't explosive enough to close the gap 119 rush yards for the 49ers in the 1st half 34 rush yards for the 49ers in the 2nd half

Try he played every snap where they had 2 LB on the field. 37 snaps. The other 11 defensive snaps were taken by Cam Lewis Bernard played all 48 snaps No other LB took snaps on defense Milano credited with 5 snaps.

Seems like a good place to put this. Snap counts tonight in the snow vs. SF Matt Milano 38 - 77% Dorian Williams 0 - 0% (played heavily on ST) Any other linebacker not named Bernard - 0% Cam Lewis 11 - 23% So much for easing Milano in So much for playing 4-3 base Milano stats 5 tackles (3 solo, 2 assists) Bernard had 9 tackles (3 solo, 6 assists) Johnson and Rapp had 6 Hamlin and Douglas also 5

It's not just that, but the guy you'd be taking off is the nickel, Taron Johnson, who is one of the best in the league and one of the best on the team.

That last sentence is true of course, but what it has to do with you and what you’re posting is unclear. You’re hear whining about the Bills moving games for snow whenever, when we all know that’s not true - then playing semantic games with “the governor didn’t say football couldn’t be played” when most folks with two or more functioning neurons can tell that if the Gov’t declares a travel ban, that includes all the people who need to travel to make a football game take place - officials, players, coaches, support staff, security, broadcasters, and Oh Yeah Fans.

Thanks. I missed seeing most of the game live (Mom in ER) but I caught the beginning and the 4Q, and the Parrot Lady has my back

Oh, I’d like that too.

Wait, what happened to Allen’s L hand?

If you're looking at ROI, it's inarguable. The Bills under McDermott and Beane have invested the most cap dollars for the most meagre return at DL. If you're looking at fundamental talent level, we do have talent on the DL in Ed, Daquan, and Carter was looking good before the injury. I grant that Jones and Oliver have not played nearly as well as they did last season. It's possible that age has caught up with the 33 yr old Jones, or, that he never healed adequately from the torn pec that caused him to miss 10 games last season. He was originally reported "out for the season", and 10 weeks is a short time; high-grade tearreported to take 3-4 months. Ed Oliver missed two games with a hammy, and I thought he was playing pretty well before that. Jordan Phillips is kind of a special case for "guy we picked up off the street weeks ago", though, and to a lesser extent so is Q since they both spent time in the system. My argument for safety would be that Rapp is a known danger to his teammates and a mediocre starter in the past. Hamlin is not a danger to his teammates but is a mediocre starter. At least the guys on the team at DT have talent and played at a high level last season. Either age, or not recovered from the pec. It's not unheard of for guys to rush back to the detriment of their long-term level of play

At a guess, they didn't feel they needed to back fill another position, so they decided to do Mike a "friendly" and get him a game check. Vet minimum with 3 accrued seasons (not sure, but think that's where White is) is $61,000 per game. Practice squad is between $16.8 and $21.3. So it's basically giving the guy a $40,000 bonus.

All true but there are also scheme factors to beating man coverage such as designing rub routes and picks clever enough to pass un-called, and setting up so that in the coverage rules being used, they can exploit the weak link in coverage.