Virgil

Long drives on offense. TDs, not FG’s. Press coverage, no LB’s covering Gronk of WR’s, hit Brady.....a lot!

The pre-planned, elaborate ones are a bit dumb. However, players used to get flagged for emotional, in the moment, celebrations before which was worse

Finally, after three long weeks, a review I can look forward to writing. I saw the team that squeaked out some quality wins in the first 7 weeks and gave me some optimism for competitive football in the final 5 games. After our little skid, I admit I was getting worried. Definitely learned some things this weeks and had others solidified. Here we go. 1 - Front 4 - When they showed the starting lineup graphic of our front 4 today, I got a little annoyed. With Hughes, Kyle, Shaq, and Washington, it makes no sense how our rush defense has been so terrible. Kyle didn't forget how to play overnight. Hughes is a stud. Shaq is a first rounder. Even with Washington being eh, that doesn't excuse the past few weeks. And if you are a Dareus supporter, you can't deny his snap count when he was here. With that being said, these guys finally showed up tonight, especially Hughes and Kyle. Those two were in the backfield constantly, moving the pocket, and making first contact with Hunt. Yes, we sent extra pressure (THANK YOU!!!), but these guys were the start. It was great to see come together and I hope to see more of the same next week against Brady. It may not have shown up in the sack numbers, but the front 4 was fantastic today against the run and pass. 2 - Defense Gave Up? - I was on the bandwagon about these guys giving up in previous weeks. I can only imagine what it's like to get no offensive support, be on the field all day, and have the offense give up scores as well, while trying to maintain a level of high intensity. This week though....this week our swarming defense was back. These guys were flying to the ball and in position to make plays. We almost had a few INT's due to strong positioning and solid hits. The middle of the field is still our weakness with a soft zone, but another overall positive sign of life after three poor showings. Fun Fact - Chiefs were 2-12 on 3rd down. That's pretty incredible. 3 - Special Teams - Outside of one missed Field Goal (with terrible camera coverage btw), the special teams was fantastic as a unit. Kickoff coverage was great. Punts were long and held Hill to minimal and negative gains, and Hauschka could've hit from 65 on one of his kicks. This unit has the absolute unsung hero of the game. 4 - There were times when I wanted to hurt you, and there were times when I know that I did. There were times when I thought I would kill you, but can you blame me I was only a kid. 5 - Penalties - With the Patriots coming up, I'm concerned about how many 3rd and longs where we jumped offsides on defense. We can't give up free yardage in those situations and we basically gave the Chiefs a first down after a 2nd and 25. The penalties weren't as bad as previous weeks, but still not inspiring. However, I would be remiss if I didn't address the horrible Personal Foul call on the last drive where the defender didn't even make contact with Hunt, yet the refs tacked on 15 yards. That was the pinnacle. of Bills misery and was sure to lead to a loss, but..... 6 - Biggest Difference This Year - How many games have we led all game, only to lose it on the final drive in previous years? This year, not so much. The BBFS was screaming loud in my head on that last drive until White came up big with that INT. I can't begin to say how big a change this is from previous teams and how inspired it makes me about the mentality change within this team. We did it against the Falcons and we did it hear, against two premier quarterbacks. This is the start of something good. 7 - McDermott - I'm happy to see that he got this team to play today. You can call out the Chiefs for being in a rut, but Arrowhead is not an easy place to play and we are in a rut of our own. McDermott got these guys to show up after a QB debacle, 3 game losing streak, and on the road. Kudos to him and I'm happy to see him wake these guys up. His decision to take a timeout with 9 seconds left at the half, when we was just going to kick a field goal was a head scratcher to me and could have ended up with going against us in the most Billsy way, but it all worked out. 8 - Tyrod - This was a definition Tyrod game where he showed you why you both need him and why we can get better at the position. Tyrod keeps plays alive in the pocket as good as anyone in the NFL. Most QB's took more sacks in this game and TT has evolved enough to keep his eyes downfield. And yes, he had some good downfield throws. On the flip side, his TD pass to Zay was open for a solid 3 seconds before he threw it, which makes me wonder when he saw it. He almost got picked off after floating one to Clay downfield by Peters. And, the play that everyone keeps talking about, the wide open O'Leary that forced him to the ground to catch it. If Tyrod hits him standing at all, he gets at least another 10 yards, we are in field goal range, and the final drives aren't as dramatic. Did he make the TD and pass to O'Leary? Yes. Could those plays have backfired or affected the game in a negative way? Also yes. Again, Tyrod is who he is. I like the guy, but we can improve at the position. But as we saw last week, we can also do a lot worse. But he's not he only issue with our offense.... 9 - Dennison - I'll give the man credit for expanding the route tree with our WR's today. Guys were running deeper routes and spreading the field. However, we are in way too many 3rd and long situations because he tried to get cute. How many trick plays, delayed screens got blown up today? On our last offensive drive, no attempt to get yards, only run out the clock. Dennison is as much to blame for this offense as TT missing reads downfield. It's not one or the other. He needs to get us in 2nd/3rd and short situations and not kill drives before they begin. As of now, I'd be okay with him not returning next year. 10 - Defensive Backs - These guys were studs today and you didn't really hear any Chiefs WR's names called out today. Kelce had a few busted plays where we were blitzing and left a floating LB on him, but that's not on the DB's. Gaines was a stud out there and blew up Kelce on a screen play. White sealed the game and also had some good swats. These guys needed a good game after the past few weeks and got one. I hope to see this carried into next week. Bonus - Between the post games last week and post games this week, I've learned one thing. This team belongs to Kyle and TT. No matter their play on the field, the players rally around them and I really wonder what the trading of Dareus (Who Kyle was a mentor too) and benching of TT did behind the scenes. Either way, it seems to be behind them now. I'll be honest, I'm not ready for next week. I wish we had the Colts or Dolphins next week to fine tune some things. The Pats are one of the hottest teams in the league and we know our history. With that, today's game was inspiring. The Pats usually summarize our season and talent level when they come to town, so let's see what happens. No matter what, 6-5 feels pretty good right now. Go Bills

Solid thread. Keep em comin

Great camera work on the miss

I was wrong for thinking it cold get worse than last season

The wheels on the bus go round and round....

Its up. I just took a depressed nap after.

No matter how you look at it, these players didn’t magically get better when they left us not become terrible coming to us. We havr much bigger issues

Also, we've dumped our zone scheme on the outside in favor of man coverage Something Darby was good at. It makes less and less sense as time goes on

Justice League was great. I hate the critics process and RT. Superman was an absolute bad ass

Writing this recap isn't always easy, especially when the team has drained all hope from you before Thanksgiving and you realize it's not going to get better before it gets worse. If I were going to skip a week, this would be it. But here we go... 1 - Quarterback - The only thing we learned today was that Peterman isn't the immediate savior, but instead the 5th round pick rookie who was asked to start in the middle of the season on the west coast in an offense that hasn't done anything for weeks. He was historically bad in a game that was broadcast across most of the country for some reason as the 4pm game. This didn't prove anything about Tyrod and mainly created more questions about our new head coach's handling of things than anything else. There is no defending how bad Peterman looked, except to say that no one can be that bad all the time. He made it this far in his career for a reason. Regardless, I think the hopes of him saving this season ended quickly. 2 - Opposing WR coverage - I understand the concept of moving your primary receiver around to create coverage mismatches. But, the defense can adjust too. You can have your primary defensive back shadow their WR. So please tell me why we had linebackers on Allen for most of his catches. It was absurd and the most head scratching thing I saw all day. These are the things that make me question the intelligence and quality of our coaches. 3 - Blitzes - McDermott finally sent pressure today and in abundance. Problem is, he did it against Rivers who kept finding the guy left the most open in coverage gaps (See point #2). I"m happy to see McDermott finally make some adjustments here and hope to see more in the future. 4 - When I was born, they looked at me and said what a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy. And when you were born, they looked at you and said, what a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl. 5 - Defensive - During our first few weeks in defensive fantasy land, it was eye opening how fast our guys flew to the ball. We created turnovers because guys were all over the ball and in position to recover tips and deflections. That seems like ages ago now. Our players are late in coverage, give huge cushions over the middle, and just seem to be outran on every play. Even at the end of plays, they are slow to the ball. I don't know if this is them giving up after being down 10+ in the first half in 3 straight games, but something is very different. You can see it in their playing speed and the way they give up an extra few yards as the finish, or don't finish, their tackles. 6 - Shady - I can't remember a game with such solid running production and stats in a losing effort. I feel bad for the guy to play on this team and see what Philly is doing right now. It's a waste of talent and the man deserves better. I'm happy to have his voice on our team and I'm impressed with how he's handled all of this. He showed burst and agility today. Would have been an asset in the playoffs. 7 - Tate - Is he being told to bring the ball out of the endzone on kickoffs or is he just desperate to make something happen? I think he only made it past the 25 on one occasion, while stopped short of the 17 every other time. Why was he allowed to do this without eventually getting benched? 8 - McDermott - I think the guy is stubborn in his scheme, playcalling, and personnel decisions. But I also believe coaches need time to figure their team out. However, it really looks like he's losing this team only 11 weeks into the season. Between the inconsistent play, frustration with player moves, and just overall results, I worry how this is all going to pan out. I don't want to go through another rebuild only to have it fail, then do it all over again. If he does get fired, I really hope the Pegula's bring in a NFL Vet who knows the process and can help pick out a coach, because this would be two major misses that they felt great about in the interviews. 9 - 3 Straight Blowouts - Even in our 3-13 season, I can't remember a stretch of three games where we got beat this badly. Let alone, beaten by 2 teams with losing records. This might be an all-time low for me as a fan and I can see it in the anger, disappointment, and lashing out from a lot of posters on here. It just plain sucks. We are playing so bad right now that I would only favor us to beat the Browns right now, but don't know if I'd be surprised if we lost. We are playing that badly. Ask yourself this: What are we good at right now? Can we stop the run or pass? Can we pass or run well? There really isn't anything we can hang our hat on right now and other teams just seem to have us figured out. It's going to get worse before it gets better. If we didn't win another game, I wouldn't be shocked. I'm not saying we won't, just that it isn't unrealistic. 10 - Now what? - Unlike previous seasons, we don't have a lot of guys waiting in the wings. There isn't anyone I want to see get more reps. If it's not too late, I want to see us make the cuts to get a comp pick and trade whoever can retrieve value. Our roster is a joke, but it's the roster that McDermott and the coaches wanted. That's what makes this worse. They overhauled the team and brought in their guys, and their guys are terrible. Yes, they could only bring in so much, but it makes me wonder how much of this current roster will be here even next year. At this point, all I can do is trust the process and enjoy the Bills with absolutely no expectations. It's hard without something to look forward to, a player to watch grow, or be on upset alert, which is why this might be the hardest season to close out in as long as I can remember. Sorry for the doom and gloom, but it's where I'm at. In the words of the great Buffy, "Give me something to sing about." Go Bills!

Honestly, maybe. What do we do well right now? The Browns might be the only team I would expect to beat, but wouldn't be surprised if we lost to them. Everyone other team could beat us and it wouldn't be an upset

Who cares?

Shhhhhh

It’s funny, I put off buying a Tyrod jersey for that very reason. I guess that didn’t work out

There are two sides of Flutie. The positive side was that he played one of the original versions of “street ball” and just found ways to win. He was exciting and unorthodox. He was short, but could run. Sound familiar? The negative was that he was never supposed to be “the guy”. We traded high for Rob Johnson who showed flashes, but had overall more stinkers. But because both were capable, there were A LOT of rumors about Flutie trying to turn the locker room against Rob. Flutie was likable via the media, but many thought it was an act. As for the MCM, Flutie was the starter pretty much all season and the reason we made the playoffs. We benched a few starters in Week 17 to give them a “bye” week and rest. Rob Johnson played out of his mind that game. I mean, he looked like a hall of famer to be honest. From that, Wade made the choice to start him from that one game. The rest is history.

Ha! That’s funny. I did the same thing. I remember thinking: “Accuracy issues? The guy is throwing is perfectly through those circles!”

No one got screwed. Winners find a way to win. They controlled their fate. They got paid millions and got to play in the NFL. None of them (TT TBD) went on to win anything anywhere else. We have to stop making excuses. Other teams do more with less sometimes. Man up

Like my post game recap, I needed some time today to think about Tyrod getting benched and the overall state of the team. I wanted to post earlier, but this board went nuts; rightfully so. In my closet is at least 8 Bills jerseys of guys who were supposed to be lifers. Jerseys I paid full price for at first, or got autographed. As time went on, I got cheaper jerseys, didn’t care about getting them autographed. And now, I’ll get the $20 knock off ones. I play Madden Ultimate Team, which is like a fantasy draft of football players on a video game. You play with the best versions of people and hall of famers. Needless to say, not many Bills players get competitive cards to use. So when they do get them, I jump all over them and use them year round. This year, I had Dareus, Sammy, and Tyrod. When JP was drafted as our future, I’ll never forget a D&C article about him embracing the community and the cover photo was him leaning against a railing with the city behind him. He was our first major QB drafted since the Kelly years and therefor thought he was the answer. Likeable guy, but you know the rest. So, what’s the relevance of these? I think I’m just tired of getting attached and remebering faces of guys we had hope for. There were flashes this season of TT finally getting it, the defense stepping up, and the franchise turning it around. Today felt like the closing chapter of the previous two weeks in futility. It’s not about Tyrod, it’s about just another change or spark that turned out to be a disappointment. Maybe Peterman pans out or maybe we draft a QB and we start all over again. Maybe McDermott is our legacy coach or maybe we are searching again in two years. I just see all the gloating of the TT haters or the anger from the Church of Tyrod and I’m more bothered that people always forget we are on the same side. I’m annoyed at yet another flame fizzling out. I’m just plain tired... But I hope to see Peterman have a good game. I hope to see signs of life from the offense. I hope that the defense gets more rest between series and fix the technique and the process is steady and true. I’m ready to buy a jersey and I’m ready to be relevant again. Go Bills

I agree OP. We may be in a playoff spot right now, but the wheels are falling off. I issue this challenge to anyone with hope: Name the identity of this team or something we do really well. We can’t stop the run or pass. We can’t pass nor run the ball. Unless theres some magic spark that wakes these guys up, it’s over

A tally count of every time you click on a fake link and end up looking at Peter Pan. Let people see how gullible you really are

The question of what's more important, talent or scheme, is something I've debated a lot during our playoff drought. The teams that have both are your repeat contenders. But sometimes having one instead of the other, is enough to get you by. I look at what the Rams are doing right now and I think they are good example of how scheme can hold you back. Goff looked like a bust more often than not since drafted but now looks like a bonafide number one pick. Yes, they added receivers, whom he hardly used at the beginning of the season, but now they are all clicking. Do I think that Goff is a top 15 QB? No. But do I think they've got some momentum and their HC has created a system that brings out their strengths? Yes. Even Gurley is finally looking like the halfback they drafted with limitless potential. And then there is the obvious call out, Woods and Watkins. Just look at what Woods did today with his 170+ receiving yards against the Texans. He never came close to that here. I think the Rams are probably 35% Talent, 65% Scheme right now, which is enough to get them into the playoffs. The problem with being scheme based is that, once figured out, can quickly break everything apart. With most of our losing seasons after strong starts, it appears the Bills got the advantage while opponents didn't have much film on their new scheme. But, once the halfway mark hits, we get figured out and we don't have the talent to overcome it. I truly believe that in the Fitz and Edwards strong start years. This year is harder because our offense has more talent this year than those, which is where I believe we have a weak scheme and a QB who just reads the field differently that a strong QB. I like TT, but the college open throws and lack of trust in his receivers to throw it up or on the breaks is hurting us too much. There's no excuse for this offense to only score 3 points with our weapons against the Saints, especially with little pass rush. Our defensive scheme is similar to our offense, but more frustrating because it seems to be obvious to everyone but McDermott what to do. Our guys can't get pressure with 4, and barely with 5. But McDermott refuses to change it up and sticks to his scheme, waiting for his players to figure it out. The problem is, we are losing games and getting blown off the field defensively for 3 out of 4 straight weeks. Our scheme doesn't fit our players and the talent isn't their minus 3 or 4 guys. As much as I hate to use them as a reference, but the Pats had poor talent in many of their dynasty years, but had a scheme that maximized the little talent they had. On the year they had the most talent, they almost went 19-0. The Chiefs are another great example of mixing scheme and talent. I don't know what the answer is for the Bills. We've seen what the same defensive players did under Schwartz vs Rex. We've seen what this rushing attack did under Lynn. So is it really all about coaching? Is the talent level really the most important factor? For us this season, I think we were 80% scheme and 20% talent, and the scheme's been figured out. So now, our talent is getting exposed. I just hope "The Process" can adjust to the players we have and find a way to keep opposing teams guessing. Because not every FA or rookie is going to be a hit and we can't just roll over because the talent is adjusting to the scheme. The coach needs to adapt too. Coughlin is the best example I can think of with this in recent years. Either way, here's hoping things work out in another year of a wasted 5-2 start.

Oline was fine today. Definitely not why we lost today

I’ll do my best to be less lazy and stupid