Virgil

Peterman. Just so we can all play a drinking game and get hammered by the coin toss when he throws 5 pick 6's

These are the posts that I dread writing. The ones where the game was a snoozefest from the opening kickoff and it makes you want to look at the season as a whole, not just for the game. But, I shall do my best to find 9 things to talk. The struggle is real. 1 - Ivory - Let's start this off with a positive and talk the running game. I said a few weeks ago that I think this offense is better suited to have Ivory be the lead back and today made me feel more of the same. The rushing attack was strong enough where, if it were a close game, could have been a difference maker in helping put it away. But alas, in typical Bills fashion under McDermott, we were out of the game by halftime and the rushing attack was only used to ensure the Colts didn't all out blitz the entire game. I'm not advocating that we need to trade McCoy, but I don't think we'd be as bad off as previous years if we did with Ivory leading the way. 2 - Offensive Line - As everyone tried to pinpoint the reasons for our debacle of an offense, I think this was another week where the offensive line did good enough. There were some whiffed blocks, one by Dawkins that comes to mind, but overall they gave enough time to make throws and opened up good rushing lanes. For something I thought would be a huge liability heading intot the season, I personally cannot single out the offensive line as reason for our offensive woes. 3 - Anderson - Anderson played about as well as you'd expect for a guy who's been on the team for 10 days. For those hoping for an Osweiler type performance, we aren't that team. If it weren't for some stupid plays by Clay and Benjamin, this game might have been closer and allowed us to keep a balanced attack. But, we are who we thought we were and he had to force some throws that ended in interceptions. The first one was a good play by the defense. The rest, well the turnovers at that point didn't matter as you knew we weren't coming back. However, one thing I will say, our WR's looked a little bit more like WR's in this game, including Benjamin. Is that a compliment to them stepping up or the throws our previous QB's were missing? 4 - I know it hurts. That's life. If nothing else, It's life. It's real, and sometimes it *****in' hurts, but it's sort of all we have. 5 - Defensive Lines - Like against Rodgers and the Packers, the defensive line was neutralized by a QB who knows how to read a blitz and get the ball out quickly. After a few series of that, the blitz was almost useless and McDermott stopped sending them. This isn't to say that our defense was shredded by Luck, as he only threw for around 150 yards and his starting field position was pretty great all game. But our defensive line was not it's recent normal self and basically a non-factor. 6 - Linebackers - This week was a step back for our young LB's as Edmunds was out of position quite a few times and Milano got eaten up on rushing plays. Mack had a field day swinging out of the backfield or bouncing rushes to the outside. It was almost comical how bad our rush defense was abused. By a certain point, you wondered if they futility of our offense finally got to them. 7 - Daboll - I'm going to say this very carefully as I still believe Daboll is a terrible coordinator, but I think he had a better plan today. You take away the Clay fumble, Benjamin penalty, and some drops, the offense actually moved until the fire left the team. You can call out more where the talent failed in this game than the playcalling. With that being said, an offense that can't score touchdowns, even in garbage time is an overall junk and a good offensive coordinator gets more with less. But it's hard to put a lot on a coordinator who had a QB who didn't play for almost 2 years and just saw the playbook until 10 days ago. 8 - McDermott - I've seen a lot of good threads today about our overall performance and I figured I'd talk about them here. Why do we have so much dead cap space and the amount of blow-out losses we have stand out. Truth is, good or bad, this is his plan. This is what got him hired. He wanted his guys and created the dead space. If in two years, we are winning, competitive team playing for the division crown consistently, then all is good. The defense seems to have found it's way overall. But what signs are there to believe that our offense will follow suit? That's what keeps me up at night. We have no reason to believe that he can hire a quality offensive coordinator, scout a QB, or manage both of them in a game. While I hate to see us change up regimes, and I'm not saying we will, but next season will be starting with almost 90 mil spent on FA's and solid draft positioning. If we aren't solidly competitive, at least 8-8 with close games, I wonder how long this lasts. 9 - Trade Deadline - I know we don't have a lot of cap space this year, but I will go on record saying that if there is any chance that Cooper or Carr is available, I think you absolutely need to pull that trigger. I would be willing to give up a 1st round pick as well. Carr has proven to be a more than capable starting QB. Allen needs at least a year of watching. If Allen takes the job, then you'll still get value for Carr or Allen in trade. We can't keep living in this Anderson/Peterman world. Both or either of those guys makes our team immediately better. Carr played with a broken back last year and that team is more checkout than any other team in the NFL. I figured Gruden would destroy that team. I'm just surprised at how bad it was. 10 - Next week against the Pats - Please let's just smack Marsha around a little bit. After the typical "are the Pats done" conversation to start the season, they are back to 5-2 and handling business. I expect a bunch of quick passes that slows down our defense, no support on offense, and then our typical 20+ point loss. I'm sorry for the lack of depth this week, but that's just the state of the team. I could pick out certain players and certain plays, but this was just one of our lackluster efforts that makes you wonder if this team can ever string it all together. Either way, I'll see you all next week. Go Bills!

Troll

If you are sold on either Allen or Carr, there’s no reason not to make this happen. You’ll get better value back from one of them in two years

Between 180-220

If this is real, then I'll make this simple. You give them whatever the ***** they want! You don't hesitate. I don't know how you work it in capwise, but you make it happen. Carr was on the verge of being a top 5 QB IMO before be BROKE HIS BACK. He was rushed back and now plays for a team that is completely checked out. Oh, as for Allen, big deal. If he pans out, trade the worst of the two in a few years. You can solve your QB, maybe even your WR problem immediately. You do this and we are 3-3, and can make the playoffs this year. Do it. Allen doesn't make a dime and if he pans out, you are in a Brees situation with San Diego. You can't have enough starting quality QB's on your roster, especially when you are the Bills

I admit that he was a top choice for me as OC. The offense in San Diego was strong with him as HC, but I guess it always will be with a pro bowl QB.

This is my argument for coordinators. Scheme some easy throws, build confidence, everything gets better

Couldn’t agree more. Who had the pick six in this game? Not the Bills? Who blocked the punt? Not the Bills. They are crap. Should’ve had 10 sacks and pitched the shutout

I don’t....I mean, he’s a guy after all. He does have dreamy eyes though. No, no...this is wrong. Do you think he likes me too? I can’t. I just.....

As I think about where we are this season, I think about what we could have done differently in the offseason. There weren’t really a plethora of offensive lineman or WR’s we missed on. We could have drafted differently, but I’m not writing off our rookies. To me, with our current situation, I wish we would have signed Teddy Bridgewater. He only threw for 3k yards, but I think he would do well in our current scheme with this defense. I think he wins this game today. Also, he took a one year deal for 5 mil, which was a steal. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but I think Allen gets his time on the bench to learn and we are somewhat serviceable on the field.

I can see you in the corner of the room. It’s weird. Please stop

Everyone wants a Hopkins

I think McCloud probably earned it in practice. They gave him a second chance today and that was all she wrote for him. The formations? I addressed that with the Ref’s

It’s hard for me to dump on Special Teams coaches when the talent simply fails. It wasn’t like there were bad calls.

If ever there were a Bills game..... 1 - Peterman - With a great fake out move to the inside, Zay breaks deep and catches a perfectly thrown pass from Peterman for the go ahead touchdown. And in that moment you may have thought "Is this real life?" Yes, yes it was. Because just like real life, it was followed up by two terrible interceptions that sealed the game for the Houston Texans. I'm not going to dump on the kid as I'm sure it's coming at him from all angles. But Peterman needs to be a free agent come Monday. He's just not long for the NFL. You could see it in his face after the first interception and it would all almost be funny if it weren't so damn sad. 2 - Allen - How fitting is it that Allen gets knocked out of the game after one of his better scripted throws of the season. Why do I say scripted? Because I'm starting to realize more and more that if Allen doesn't deliver the ball quickly, it turns into street ball out there where he looks to run too often. His stat line isn't the end-all, be-all, but how many times is the kid going to be sub-100 yards? He's gotten the quick, short passes down, but has a really hard time letting plays develop and I'm wondering more with each passing game if he's going to turn the corner. I'm not making decisions on him for the season, but I'm seeing maybe one or two plays that give me a glimpse of hope marred by countless other plays that take it away 3 - Refs - The PI call was real. However, I can't remember a game under McDermott where we got hammered with ticky tack calls all game. I was really worried that Tre would get rattled and loosen his coverage after the first quarter. But the amount of calls, and more importantly the non-calls on the Bills were ridiculous. I don't know if these guys aren't getting enough love at home, but this isn't the place to get attention. 4 - You're no daisy! You're no daisy at all. Poor soul, you were just too high strung. 5 - Zay - If there were one big positive takeaway on offense from this game, it might be the performance of Zay Jones. That's right, the kid finally showed up. He had a great move on the TD catch. He should've had close to first down on the first drive, if not for a missed penalty. He had a great catch at the end of the game for a first down. Overall, I think it's time to scheme for him a bit and see what we can get. 6 - Defensive Line - Where do I start here? All of them played amazing ball. Kyle was quick to Watson. Hughes was all over the place. Yarbrough was a tackling machine. Phillips got his first NFL turnover. Watson was under pressure all game. Frazier did a good job of sending an extra guy here and there, but they were a menace all game. The batted ball turned INT was also a thing of beauty. 7 - Offensive Line - This is now two games in a row where these guys have more than held their own. We had rushing lanes, time to throw for the most part. I'm very happy to see this unit come along and it definitely is not the cause for our offensive struggles 8 - Milano - I've called him out a few times so far this season and thought about leaving him out, but I don't know how. He's just a monster to the ball . He's absolutely everywhere on the field and is in contention for our Defensive player of the year vs Hughes and White. It's amazing to see him come along and I can't wait to see his progression continue. 9 - Tre - Yes, Hopkins Mossed him for a TD but I don't know a DB that would have stopped that. For all the penalties called on him in the beginning and clear frustration in his face, he held Hopkins to one catch in the entire second half. Tre shadowed him all over the field and took him out of the game. Amazing play by him. Just amazing. 10 - Coaching - Outside of the timeout used on 4th and short at the end of the game, I thought all the coaches did a great job. I can' t find an area of play calling to blame for this loss. We absolutely could have won this game and probably should have. QB play killed us here, plain and simple. This was a rough environment and these guys came to play. We should probably be 3-3 right now, and that says a lot. Tough loss that has the Bills written all over it. There were a ton of positives to come from this game, but still a lot of questions at quarterback. I wish I could say that I see hope at the position and I recognize that we are only 6 games in, but it's tough right now. Other than that, solid play by the rest of the team. Go Bills!

Any semblance of an offense The whole team not coming out flat

Woody Johnson

They don’t. They are on small, low paying deals. They are fill in and transition. Kyle is for culture and Lorax isn’t getting paid much. In two years when the rebuild is done, neither will be here

You have to think long term. Is Shady part of our the full rebuild? I doubt it. If you can get multiple mid level picks, you have to take it

I try to pick quotes or lyrics that, to me, remind of the atmosphere of the game. We are at an interesting stage of the rebuild and people are starting to pass judgement on who should stay or go. So, I picked a scene that I know pisses people off, but recognizeable enough for most. It’s a scene of a strongly opinionated person going against the grain. Made sense to me

By that logic, wouldn’t it suggest that either Allen or Daboll is a total failure then? I just believe that a good coach generates a scheme to compensate for talent. Look at San Fran’s offense right now.

Sorry to disappoint. That was Bill’s thing. I did Dave, BNL, Norah Jones, and this year I went quotes. Just trying to find new ways to make it different A part of me wants to add the quotes, but it’s fun to watch people react to it as if it were my words

Copy, google, paste

I like Shady, but if you can get at least a 3rd rounder, take it. He's not going to be part of the new offense when it comes together in two years. Let the man have some success.