Beck Water

Oh, man! Sucks for the 9ers

To your point, at 6:09 in the video Josh finished the throw hopping on one leg, so you could tell he didn't get the platform he wanted. There was something odd to me about how Samuel ran his route - could you watch it and tell me what he's doing? It's like he slowed to watch a couple times, did he have several windows?

Excellent stuff!

FWIW here's a Bangedup Bills blog post describing, based on the new info and on photo of Bernard in the locker room after the game with no sling, where he believes the tear must be and comparing the timelines of several players when they returned from a partial pectoral tear. https://bangedupbills.com/2024/09/13/investigating-terrel-bernards-pectoral-injury/

Thanks! I will note that Simon expressed that he sees strong blocking out of Keon and believes he has the confidence of the coaches, so maybe Keon is there to block. I think one concern may be limiting what Josh has to do with his left hand somewhat - if he's handing the ball off, there's less chance of Stuff Happening?

Yeah, that's been the reaction of various pundits and even some doctors who have commented, but I actually follow her for stuff about back injury and I would say she has a higher level of expertise and her explanation makes sense to me. Apparently it's a definitive indicator for a concussion (since the neurons don't get stretched without one) but doesn't indicate it's necessarily more severe.

He definitely does

I'm not sure where the right place to put this is, but I found this Youtube piece by a board certified neurosurgeon interesting, and your post seemed like a good place to put it. As to your point, the first question is going to be does Tua heal and recover completely from this concussion? As we know from Mr Bath Mat, Kevin Kolb, there can be permanent effects. Long term decisions have to wait on this first step, recovery. As to your points, they're valid, but I think if Tua recovers and clears protocol, it's really going to be up to Tua. If Tua is kept from playing and suffers financial loss, I would think the doctor would face potential repercussions from preventing his play. Pretty sure the players all sign liability waivers, so being sued might not be a concern. My hope for Tua is that his family and friends and his physicians help him evaluate and make the best decision for him (which I think would be step away). On to the Lady Spine Doc: She explains what causes the "fencing posture" - about 1:25 in. It's all about stretching the neurons in your lateral vestibular nucleus (she goes too fast by the diagram, freeze the video at that point). She says having this spontaneous neuron signaling that causes involuntary contraction doesn't necessarily indicate how serious the concussion is, which I found interesting - evidently it's all about what part of the brain gets hit and whether or not the neurons leading to the lateral vestibular nucleus get stretched Minor point that she (and a number of other commentators on the web) mistakenly say his previous concussions with involuntary contraction were last season, when in fact they were in 2022. Anyway, I thought it was interesting for the info on what causes the fencing posture, why it doesn't necessarily mean that the concussion was more serious, and unlike a number of pundits she's not all "this doesn't mean he can't return to play", though of course she points out the concussions are very concerning for long term brain injury.

I think AJ's wife secretly has Beane's number blocked and silenced.

It's Josh Hines-Allen

So the Dolphins just passed all over the Jags. 23 of 37 for 338 yds. 400 yds offense. On the other side of the ball, the Jags were able to run on the Phins, but their passing game wasn't much. 12 completions for 162 yds. Whether that's on the Dolphins defending the pass well, or whether that's on the Jags not having too much of a passing game, can't tell you at this point. Guess we'll learn more on Sunday. In their H2H meetings so far, Doug Pederson has not been one of the offensive coaches whose number is written on McDermott's office wall.

Even on the first Ingram interception, it was Benford who had the receiver covered with a blanket and forced the deflection that got picked.

I wish you would (write about McDaniel).

I don't think Brady de-prioritized Diggs per se. Diggs was still averaging 8 targets per game. But he was being used more on short passes, from the backfield and behind the LOS where he had to earn yards by YAC. What I think Brady did, was take a deep look at the Cold Hard Football Facts. And that led him to conclude that Diggs simply wasn't winning on those deeper routes, leading to Josh either trying to force him the ball or throwing incompletions. So he tried to put Diggs into a position to be more successful with shorter routes. The other thing I think Brady did, is say (and I think he was correct) "we can not win without a run game because of how teams have adjusted their defensive coverage to us. So by God, we will have a run gane and if it works, we'll keep using it until they prove they can stop it". That wasn't de-prioritizing Diggs per se, but it was effectively de-prioritizing the passing game. And the results spoke for themselves. Edit to add: Diggs first game with the Texans, he had 6 receptions on 6 targets - for 33 yards. Nico Collins had 6 receptions on 8 targets - for 117 yds. This was "business as usual" for Collins who averaged 8 targets and 92 YPG in the 14 games where he wasn't injured or inactive last season. And, the Texans offense had 40 rush attempts to 32 pass attempts. Bobby Slowik, of course, became Texans OC after 4 yrs w/ the 49ers, one of the NFL teams that runs more than 50% of the time. Gonna be interesting to watch from a distance, very interesting. I think Diggs fully intends to be a fantastic teammate and on his very best behavior - but is that gonna last if he's being utilized in a way that keeps him under 50 YPG?

Well, there are a couple of things. First, Diggs wasn't getting 10 receptions per game before Brady became OC. He was averaging 10 targets per game and 87 YPG, though. After Brady took over, he dropped to 8 targets per game - but more than that changed. He was being used on shorter routes and from the slot, averaging 45 YPG. So only 2 fewer targets, but yards almost cut in half. Diggs did not like that, one bit. The fact that the team was now winning, did not make it better in his mind. It wasn't just that drop in the Chiefs game, he fumbled on the very first play of the game and a turnover was only saved by Kincaid alertly batting the ball out of bounds at the cost of a 10 yd penalty. Big momentum killer, and it didn't help when Josh did his "good teammate" thing of targeting Diggs deep on the very next play only to net another incompletion.

| "I don't understand the world today, I don't understand what (he) needed | (We) gave (Diggs) everything, (he) threw it all away on nothin' " | -apologies to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers The biggest puzzle to me of the whole Diggs kerfluffle was listening to a panel discussion including Joe Buscaglia of The Athletic where Joe opined that Diggs was "a much misunderstood dude" and "tremendously self-aware" and deliberate about what he was doing, while he was doing it. Because I don't see how that can possibly be consistent with some of his behavior here. I think of Diggs as the sort of person who starts feeling this almost-unbearable internal discomfort after he's been in a situation for a while if it isn't going entirely as he wants. And he isn't self-aware enough to look in a mirror and say "what is my part in this? what am I doing or have I done that is contributing to this situation and how can I change to change the situation?". Which, to be honest, most of us don't. But if it's not you, or you don't see what part of it is you, then it must be the other guy, or the situation you're in, or both. I also think Diggs trends towards being a narcissist, which goes along with only being concerned with other people for what you get from them. But narcissists can come across as charming and self-aware when you talk to them in situations they control I think Diggs laid it out in the GQ article linked above - he wants to be a HOF WR. He wants targets, he wants yards, and he wants Championships. I think Diggs lost at least some faith in McDermott as the Coach to get him that championship after the 13 seconds game. I think he lost faith in Allen as the QB to take him where he wanted to go partway through the 2022 season. And once that happened, then his internal discomfort is going to build and build and he's going to want out and feel entirely justified.

I went back and looked again, and it's a lower probability than I thought at first. So I can't blame Josh for passing that one I don't agree that it's a "never" though - but I'd agree it's far from a gimme

I don't mind Josh going to the open guy. What I mind is when Josh passes up several open guys to take a very much lower probability throw that's a "kill shot" if he makes it, and kills the drive if he doesn't.

OK, I respect your opinion and what you see on the field. That's pretty cool if so.

This is why I don't have a lot of respect for this Thigh Doctor guy. Where others are saying "OK, we need to wait for tests to know the severity" he's "all in" running with the worst case in both the surgery needed/no surgery needed case. Injuries are always "no bueno", but I feel like he's doomsaying for the clicks. So now we know it's a strain and won't need surgery, which still has a lot of variance to it depending on how severe the tear is, and if they haven't just slapped him on IR already they probably think it's closer to 4 weeks (or less) It depends on what you ask of your backers, right? They are choosing players who seem to fit their defensive scheme. I think every team would like a fast, athletic LB who is taller and heavier than average and has an A+ head for the game, but those guys usually get drafted earlier than the 3rd to 5th round.

If you'll excuse my saying, I think that is pure revisionist history. I'd be glad to see your receipts on this topic. But I don't see how anyone could deny the quality and importance of Diggs contributions in 2020 thru mid 2022

His angle-finder is solving for solutions his legs can no longer execute To be fair, though, I think I read that Cook's speed was >20 mph on that run - even a young Poyer woulda had trouble with that Is this verified?

I didn't see a problem with the hold

There's something about this chart overall that doesn't pass the sniff test. What does "average separation" mean here? Are they talking about all of the receivers separation on every play, or only the receiver who is targetted? Take a gander at this clip from last night's game (Brian Baldinger, who everyone should check out every week if they don't) The first play in the clip is the 3rd and 12 33-yd play to Ty Johnson. From the pocket, Allen has Hollins (mis-ID'd as Coleman by Baldy) so wide open Hollins, short of the sticks, could probably pause for "a spot of tea" and still get the first down. He's got Kincaid super-open on a scramble drill. Neither of those are good enough, Allen wants to toast Jalen Ramsey like Ty Johnson is a fire and Ramsey's on a stick like a weiner. But the point is, there is separation all over the place, Allen just chooses the higher degree of difficulty throw. And this isn't by any means a unique play.

I hope they IR him. I'm sure Bernard doesn't want to go on IR and will argue against it, but the Bills went down that road with Milano a couple years ago where they let him miss 2 games with a strain/partial tear and he couldn't lift his freakin' arm to tackle - it literally hurt the team for him to be out there plus, it cost him more time. Put the man on IR and let him heal. Fortunately, the Bills don't have to make a decision until when? a week from Monday? This is where I am. I think the Bills stay with Spector, AND they sign someone off the street, probably to the practice squad. Ouch. Actually Edmunds did have a shoulder injury - torn rotator cuff? He played worse than usual while recovering.