Beck Water

I mean, anyone can say anything. But you need to justify what you say, to have any meaningful discussion. So what's your justification? Example: At the point where McDermott stole Mac Jones lunch money on Dec 26, 2021 in Foxboro, he was 8-2 in the preceding 10 games, with one loss in OT vs the Cowboys. No one was calling him a bad QB. There was a lot of press of him as a ROY frontrunner and the next thing. Normally sensible podcasters like Brett Kollman were cutting videos titled "Mac Jones Terrifies Me". Before a season of Matt Patricia as OC ruined him and Frank Reich and Sean Mcdermott ruthlessly dissected his weaknesses, he was actually regarded as good, and promising. So exactly why is Maye going to torch this defense?

Phillips is, unfortunately, made of glass these days.

I didn't see it either. Longest run was 22 yds. Yardage split between 3 backs. They were running with some success from the starting drive, where they went right down the field for a TD. I think they got away from the run more than they should have, but that's where watching the game would be needed. NE broke a ST TD, got great field position off a missed FG and a 30 yd return. NE went into the half with a 28-6 lead.

I think this is a fair analysis. I see the offensive effort as more nuanced - I think there are defensive coverages we've perforated like swiss cheese, and defensive coverages we've struggled against. I think we've given our best effort at times. I also respect Vrabel as a coach, and I believe McDermott won't spare any effort to ensure the team is ready to play.

I think our MO has been being driven by what teams show us. If NE plays man and we can beat their coverage, we'll throw. We seem to be struggling against zone, whether by play design or receiver ability to read and react, unclear.

That would be why CAR ran for 129 yds (4.6 ypc) against them? They shut down the Raiders, Dolphins, and Steelers I'll give them that, but the Dolphins and Steelers haven't had much luck running on anyone. The Raiders hadn't had much luck until they played Da Bears and would have won handily if Geno Smith wasn't throwing it to the wrong uniform.

He's a 2nd year QB whose record was 3-9 last year. Historically, McDermott has taken hot young QB, shaken them upside down, and stolen their lunch money all while smiling and talking them up "show me a QB who's been playing better" before the game. Now. McD may not be able to do that this season, because the cast of players are different and there are indications of some confusion on our defense that needs to get ironed out fast. But the presumption of coaching superiority being granted to Vrabel and McDaniel is mind-boggling to me. We struggled with Tennessee under Vrabel because they had this wrecking ball named Derrick Henry. McDermott's record vs Tenn under Vrabel is 3-2, with one of the losses being a blowout (the Tuesday game after the Tennessee Covid kerfluffle) and one of them being a close loss arguably decided by some execution issues (although one could blame McDermott for going for a win rather than a FG and overtime I guess). I would expect a Vrabel coached team to be tough, disciplined, and have no quit in them. McDaniel knows him some offense and given a cast who can execute what he designs, he's good. I expect a tough game. But reading some posters in this thread, they seem to believe that Vrabel and McDaniel are due for Coaching Canonization in a blaze of golden light, while McDermott and Babich are something you clean off your shoe soles after walking down a messy sidewalk. That's not what the record says.

Maybe. Where did this notion that Josh McDaniels is an unrelenting offensive genius come from? As HC the offensive genius has a win record of 0.337 As OC of the St Louis Rams, 2-14 (1-9 with a QB that had gone 7-9 the previous year as a rookie). Bradford looked like he simply couldn't play. Next year under Schottenheimer, could play again. Huh. As OC of NE with a QB not named Brady, 17-19. He had Mac Jones looking good, I will grant that. Meanwhile Bobby Babich coached the #11 defense in the NFL last year. I'm not trying to say that the Bills are going to blow out the Pats. They have their problems this year. But to my eyes, the problems are more related to the Jimmies and the Joes than the Xs and the Os or the brain power advantage. For years, the Bills had the advantage of a safety duo that was mentally elite. They read and reacted impeccably. We don't have that now; we don't even have the mental level that we had last year with Hamlin and Rapp. Maybe Bishop and Rapp will level up, maybe they won't. I'm just trying to understand where this Bills fan perception of inexorable mental advantage is coming from.

Would you care to provide specifics as to "all the things we struggle with"? Would you care to provide specifics as to in what way "we are going to be severely outcoached"? Win % as HC McDermott 0.667 (includes a year with Tyrod Taylor as QB and two years where Josh Allen was developing/figuring it out) Vrabel 0.544 (Tannehill QB, Henry RB) So that "severely out coached does need a little bit of explanation or granularity as a blanket claim "Willing to do" not equal to "able to do"

For Toast Sake, you guys. Is this a Bills fan board, or a Pats fan board? And I'm not talking about the visiting Pats fans. The BBFS is strong here.

Everyone knows I'm a big numbers and stats guy. But here's the thing about the beginning of the season: how meaningful is it to talk about "season average points/yards" at a point in the year where the game with us is 1/4 of the stats for the season?

The attempts per game Cook is getting (18-ish) are on par with other top running backs in the league (Henry, Barkley, Williams, Jonathan, Gibbs)

Let me get this straight. You want Beane to trade a second round draft pick for a CB to....sit on the bench?

I don't think Big Ed goes. I thought he still looked gimpy in the film clip that's circulating. I think Milano is more likely especially if Williams is injured. Milano looked as though he were moving and raising both arms easily. Not wearing a LB brace that was visible, just some kind of band on his arm.

Could just be me, but the place where I truly think the Bills need help is at safety.

Now that is an interesting question. Diggs has been "meh" until last week. 57, 32, 23 ypg. Against Carolina, went off for 6 receptions and 101 yds. It wasn't just one fluky mistake, either, had 3 receptions of 33,22,30 yds along with some short throws.

Looks a little gimpy and ginger about it to me. Huh. Well, time will tell.

So "ceiling" means the best you're capable of. Is that how you're using the word? Factually, Vrabel coached Titans had 11 wins in 2020 and 12 wins in 2021. So there isn't a "maybe" about it. Any coach is going to struggle if his guys get injured. Vrabel's main problem in Tenn was the team hitching their wagon to Tannehill at QB.

Hokay, all you "let's see Shaq replace Williams" peeps take note....

I caught that one. The best IMO still when that Miami LB was trash talking Josh and he stopped and leaned back to read his nameplate, like "who are you again?" Josh would never throw a ball at a ref's head. I'm sure that was an accident.

It sounded like he already had turf burn on his butt, and he ripped off the healing skin with a new burn They normally tell the player. Josh has specifically asked them NOT to tell him.

Not original to me

Y'know, the crowd noise has been there for all years but 2020. It's never been a factor before. Just a reminder that the Bills had the #4 D in the league in 2023 with Bernard at MLB (and Babich involved in the defensive design though not officially DC) and the #11 D last year with Babich as officially DC. In that time, the Bills have changed quite a bit of their defensive personnel. In 2023, the Bills had a core DL of Rousseau-Oliver-Phillips/Settle - Floyd (gap solid, good edge defenders) and an unexciting but assignment sound DB of Douglas-Benford-T Johnson - Poyer and Hyde. The LB corps was sketch with Bernard and Dodson, but they compensated by bringing Poyer into the box on passing downs playing a form of dime. In 2024, the Bills had a core DL of Epenesa-Oliver-DQ Jones - Rousseau (Epenesa not as good against the run) and a transitional DB of Douglas-Benford-T Johnson - Hamlin- and Rapp. Mentally, those safeties are a big step down from Dr Poyer and Mr Hyde. And, Douglas was losing a step. They were not playing Johnson all the time, and playing more base D and (I think) more Dime. The LB corps of Williams and Bernard was also a step back. Now we've got Bosa, who has one wondering, was he ever expected to set the edge against the run? Oliver has been out for 3 games so a rotating cast of who? at DT. Again Williams, who I don't think is playing as well as last year and last year he struggled to be in the right spot. Bishop is being given every possible chance to earn the starting safety spot, but it's clearly a learning curve for him. Communicating the play call only goes so far if the Jimmies and Joes have trouble reading what the offense is doing and translating that into their proper response with that play call, or if they're busy thinking about it instead of playing fast with instinct.. The play calls are seldom "you - do this!" they're always a flowchart of where the player is supposed to be and what his responsibilities are depending upon what the offense actually does/how the receivers actually run their routes etc. This is a transitional year for our defense, and several of the players we were counting on to anchor the transition are in the body-and-fender shop. Several of the players we were counting on to improve the D, aren't out there. @Simon I think it was, pointed it out: the defense can compensate for 1 or 2 missing starters or guys who aren't quite as assignment sound as you'd like. But once it mounts up to a point, it's Bad News. This is just my impression and I could be wrong, but I think Hamlin was more of a factor last year to the DB being assignment sound. Physically, he's a limited player and him playing deep cost us yards, Mentally, he knew the system completely, knew where he was supposed to be and I think, kept Rapp in system. Now we have Rapp trying to keep Bishop in the right place, which has elements (in my opinion) of the blind leading the blind. Weren't you the one who argued that the loss of 1 or 2 starters can be compensated, but when it mounts up at every level of the defense, it's a problem? The problem with integrating younger and newer players into the system where you may be right about whistling, is that it's an unknown whether their knowledge of the system and ability to read and react correctly will sharpen up with game time and repetition, or whether they're just not going to get it.

No chance on Hairston. At best they would open up his practice window. As a rookie who missed training camp he is going to need practice reps. We won't know anything about Ed and Cookie until after practice tomorrow and even then the answer is likely to be "we'll see how the week develops"

I know they get a bad rap as being "Bills shills", but I thought it was interesting to listen to One Bills Live with Dan Orlovsky. In fact I often like OBL when they have guest commentators like Orlovsky or Cosell who know a thing: https://www.buffalobills.com/video/dan-orlovsky-new-england-is-an-interesting-matchup They start out talking about the NO game and how NO started out playing man, which the Bills were having good success against. Then they switched to two-high zone. Orlovsky comments that the plays kept getting called "with that anticipation" (ie anticipation of man coverage) and there wasn't a "ton of opportunity" to throw the ball past 8 yards. But he also comments that the receivers were "spacing poor" and "there was a lot of guys not having definitive understanding of what their routes should look like given what that zone was" (yikes) Maybe it's not the flare and creativity that are lacking, but fundamentals of being able to read specifics of the zone coverage being utilized and reacting with the correct route option.