Virgil

They ran quite a few play action calls and the defense was right in Tyrods face. I like that they tried, but its not always that simple

Talk about an amazing win for McDermott and the Bills. This game had everything a Bills fan is used to, except for maybe a different ending than we are used to. If this regime is going to change the culture of the Bills, this might be the game that started it all. Brace yourselves, because as a game that had a lot of ups and downs, these thought are going to be all over the place. 1 - Tyrod - I usually stay away from TT at the beginning of these as I know it get the most attention and the fans who don't like him, will only focus on attacking the positives. Today might have been one of Tyrod's most complete games as an NFL quarterback to me. Not because of his yardage or the win, but because he made some great throws, made some terrible throws, but in the end, found a way to get the job done. I was surprised to see him roll out to his left on so many plays, forcing himself to throw across his body. The terrible miss to Jones was under those circumstances. I was incredibly worried after the first drive that this game was going to mirror Carolina in regards to offensive performance, but Tyrod really got it going on some drives, making solid throws all over the field. I like even more the plays he didn't make. There were a few play-actions passes where he wanted to go deep, but couldn't get the ball out. I was happy for the lack of throw, possible INT, and just making it to the next play. He also kept the final drive alive with some great runs. ​Best Play - ​His TD pass to Clay was beautiful. A lot of people want to harp on TT for bailing on plays too early. He kept his eyes down the field the entire play, forced the defense to respect his running ability, and found Clay wide open because of it. That is exactly how a running QB needs to use his feet, eyes, and arm. 2 - Refs - I hate talking about the Refs two weeks in a row. I'm still salty about the offensive PI call last week and the one against the 49ers on Thursday night. I feel like these guys have meetings and talk about what plays they are going to enforce, 50/50 or not. As for this game, I almost lost it a few times on the Broncos TD drive. The defensive PI call, late hit, roughing the qb calls were all questionable at best. Never mind the excessive holding calls against the Broncos that never seemed to get called. Hughes and Kyle got mugged constantly and no calls were made. As for the unsportsmanlike conduct call, I'm torn. If your kids are watching that game, that's the definition of how you don't treat someone on the field. As an adult, it was funny to me and TT laughed too. What I love about it though? That it didn't happen against the Bills as it almost always seems to. 3 - Tre White - Talk about a tale of two halves. I felt terrible for this kid as the Broncos absolutely picked on him the entire first half. He was in great position for many plays, but the Sanders and Thomas made great catches. But man did he come out a possessed man in the second half. He was just batting down balls, laying hits, and doing it all. It was only a matter of time until he came down with an INT and it felt great when he did. Hats off to this kid for pushing through and contributing to a solid win. 4 - It's been one week since you looked at me Cocked your head to the side and said, "I'm angry." Five days since you laughed at me saying, "Get back together come back and see me." 5 - Dennison - Talk about Jekyll and Hyde playcalling. We had three drives where we started in field goal range and got negative yards on 1st down all three times. The opening drive was a disaster and some of the run calls were uninspired. Now, with that being said, great job calling misdirection plays and routes down the field where Tyrod could get deep with limited pass protection. We had a good number of drives that resembled and NFL offense and I felt confident in our ability to score for the first time this season. If this offense showed up last week, we are 3-0 right now. I'm hoping that this is Dennison and the players figuring things out and each week we will see this progression. 6 - Overall Defense - I'm still a little frustrated with our soft zone in the middle of the field as well as not sending extra guys to create more pressure. There's quite a few plays where I feel like one more blitzer would have gotten the job done. Besides that, and you take Jamaal Charles deciding to show up on a few plays, our defense was fantastic in our bend, but don't break, approach. 16 points given up against a team 2-0 with those weapons is impressive. The Broncos were lucky to score the 3 points they did in the second half as the adjustments made were inspiring. I'm loving what I'm seeing so far and a lot more players made names for themselves. Humber impressed me on a few plays, Kyle played fantastic again, and the backfield is really making receivers pay with some punishing hits. 7 - Tolbert - I'm still not liking this acquisition. His fair catch call on the kickoff made absolutely no sense. He's too slow to be making cuts and I think he's confused as to the type of running back we need him to be. Just put your head down, run straight, and knock someone over. Anything else is outside your skillset. I really wish we had a genuine #2 runningback with Tolbert as just the short yardage bruiser. 8 - McDermott - Great win for the coach and 2-1 after 3 games is about what you would hope for with this schedule. He had another head scratching time out to me when he waited 15 seconds to call it. Other than that, I like his energy on the sideline, clapping and all. I love the lack of penalties. Most importantly, I love taking a knee with 2 minutes left and up by 10. So far, it's hard to not think we have the right coach. ​9 - Defensive Adjustments to Offensive Audibles - I could throw this in with the defense, but I feel it needs to be separate. One of the most infuriating things about our defense was our inability to adjust when the opposing offense made changes at the line. Communication between players was confusing, players were out of position, and we would waste timeouts or give up big plays. So far this year, we are making quick reads, quick communication, and ready with seconds to go before the snap. I can't stress how important I think this is. Our cohesiveness as a defense unit is evident and only going to get better. 10 - Hauschka - This guy made me a little nervous to start the season, but man was he money today. He was booming them today and they were all no doubters. I rarely give much thought to kickers, but he was a difference maker today and deserves the nod. 2-1 and off to Atlanta for what is going to be an interesting test for our defense. I think most NFL teams would be favored to lose next week, but any given sunday..... GO BILLS!

Man, refs screwed over two teams with that BS call within a week. Seriously, they need to get that **** under control. The game shouldnt come down to that

Why did Hoyer take so long to make that throw?

It must be hard for so many of you to be Bills fans with Tyrol as your quarterback and not see a new thread created about him every 5 min

Search function? Literally two poyer threads back to back. You know better sir

What am I missing here?

Thank you. I'm eagerly awaiting the all-22 review. I just can't crush TT from the tv review. If I'm wrong and there were guys flying around open downfield, I'll own it. I just didn't see it.

I called out the end result of only giving up 9 points and the D overall being good. But again like I said, you see everyone making plays but him. For his salary, unless he is the ultimate martyr and freeing up everyone else, I'm just not seeing it. His contract, his profile, all of it brings more attention to him and he's not paying off IMO.

Guess there's no reason to watch the rest of the season. Thanks!

1 - Dareus had an ankle injury, which is why he was out for a bit 2 - It's hard to have play action when the defense has absolutely no respect for your rushing attack

Blocked. Thank you

This was the kind of game that I needed to take a few hours and cool down about before really looking at the stats, replays, and notes. I'm glad to see the new members and quick reactions with plethora of anti-Tyrod threads. I'm going to do this one a little different this week and end each point with an end result thought. If you are looking for a bashing thread about TT or anyone else, please look elsewhere. That's not what this is about. 1 - McDermott - I am overall very happy with McDermott through two games. The discipline of this team so far in regards to penalties, getting plays in, and just overall fight has been a big turnaround from Rex. However, he made some head scratching clock decisions today that I don't quite understand. At the end of the first half, he let an unnecessary 17 seconds come off the clock before taking a time out before the Panthers punted the ball back to us. He used the second one after 3rd down and we ended up not making any attempt to move the ball once we received it. I don't understand the point of using the Time Outs unless he was hoping for the Panthers to make a mistake. At the end of the game, I think everyone can pick a moment where they think we should have used a time out. However, Zay makes that catch, we need that last timeout at the 4 yard line to get another play in. End Result - You could take a lot of different sides on his calls, but I don't see where the outcome of the game was decided because of it. 2 - Poyer - Does anyone disagree with him being our MVP through 2 games on defense? I didn't know who this guy was and he just continues to be everywhere. His hit on Benjamin was clean, perfectly timed, and prevented a touchdown. He had a chance on two int's, but neither were easy plays. This guy is the best pickup we had and I'm just loving watching him play out there. 3 - Fullbacks - I'm still trying to understand why we signed both Tolbert and DiMarco. I watch when these guys are on the field every play and I don't see anything that stands out, especially for the money we pay them. DiMarco, at most, picks up a blocker downfield, but nothing Felton or anyone else couldn't do. I was expecting to see more Pistol looks or sweep tosses where these guys get out in front, but nothing so far. Tolbert as our 2nd RB is a concern for me because of games like this. He's a good compliment to Shady. But when Shady is ineffective, he's not going to change the game for us either. When I look at his salary vs Jonathan Williams, I'm just not seeing it still. 4 - Her life in a nutshell No way would she want it to change me It's not that easy 'cause My time is often decided for me For me 5 - Dareus - The Panthers lost their starting Center before the game and you'd think our top 3 paid DT would tee off on these guys. Of the 6 sacks, none of them was from pressure up the middle. I understand that DT's eat up blocks for other players to get going, but you see Kyle all over the field making plays, yet nothing from Dareus. Unless he is the ultimate martyr, I'm just not seeing it from him. Yes, he hurt his ankle, but he was right back out there later on. We should be hearing his name on some lever and we aren't. I'm hating his contract right now as I feel like we can get more for less. Worst case, same for less. 6 - Penalties - I'm can't stress enough how much of a turnaround we've made in this area and how refreshing it is. The only real penalty that hurt us was on that shouldn't be called. I know I can be a homer, but that wasn't even close to a 50/50 call and way too important to the game to throw that flag. That easily killed the momentum of the drive. Take that out of the equation, and strong overall showing. 7 - Offensive Scheme - We didn't get a first down until 4 minutes into the 2nd quarter. We didn't get our first non-broken play first down until a few minutes after that. We didn't get into field goal range until the one we made. And we never made it into the red zone. For a team that is rushing first, we were absolutely shut down. On the passing plays, our first reads were 3 yard routes or routes short of the first down mark. The entire first half didn't look like execution issues to me, but just poor playcalls. I was mentally yelling for them to call some misdirection plays, which they did in the second half and started moving the ball. I don't know why it took a whole half to get to that point. End Result - Outside of a few drops and overmatched blocking schemes, it looks like the team executed the plays being called which makes me seriously question the playcalls. 8 - Defensive Scheme - We gave up a total of 9 points to a team who was playing in their home opener. There were moments where it looked like the game was going to get out of hand, but we were never down more than 6 points. Yes, Cam broke at least 3 tackles for a loss. Yes, we had soft zone in the middle of the field again. Yes, we didn't create any turnovers. My biggest complaint was on their last field goal drive. On the previous two drives, we were sending pressure and getting to Cam each time, but on that drive, we just rushed 4 and they moved right down the field. What happened? We fortunately had 1 of our 2 goal line stands on that drive. End Result - 9 points given up and could have won it at the end. All you can ask for? 9 - Missed Opportunities - In one score games, sometimes it only takes one play to come away with a win. There were multiple plays where we got our hands on the ball but couldn't come down with it. No matter your body position, if you have both hands on the ball, as and NFL player, you need to make that catch. I'm not just coming down on Zay because it was more than once on the defense too. Shaq had a chance to bat down a ball on a 3rd down pass from Cam, but instead was focused on landing his post-throw hit. End Result - We are in position to make these plays and something we will get better at with time. I'm excited to see where this defense will go and Zay evolve as a receiver 10 - Tyrod - I'm almost tempted to leave this out of the review because some people can't help their crusade against him. However, he is the qb and the field general on offense. I'm going to start this with a question: Besides the last throw to Zay, how many bad throws did you see TT make today? For me, I can't remember a single play I wish he could have back. That's throughout the entire game people. He made the throws that the plays called for and hit guys over the middle again, outside, and scrambled when needed. He's not an elite QB and no one said he was. But he did what was asked. I'm curious to see the All-22 review later this week, because I think people will be surprised at what he was given. As for the last play of the game, I haven't seen anyone call out that this was an anticipatory throw. He put it up before the break outside and put it within a yard of the receiver. You want to tell me that half the QB's in the league know exactly where a rookie WR is going to position his body for a catch and then make that throw 100% of the time? Could it have been better? Sure. Was Zay able to get both hands on the ball? Yes. Would that have won the game? Maybe, as it was on the 4 yard line. End result - If you want to put the whole game on one play, I think you lose credibility as a poster. If you can't look at everything up until that point as well, and put some ownership on the play he did make and what Zay did and didn't do, also on you. TT can be better. TT may not get us to the promise land. But in a game where we had absolutely ZERO running game and plays where Mills got destroyed in pass protection, and where a bad call prevents us with 1st and 10 from the 22 with 2 TO's, I think TT did okay. Not great, okay. Those who think Peterman would have won the game, please give me the powerball numbers too. Overall End Result - We beat the spread, showed great defense, and have concerns on offense. A lot of good teams are 1-1 right now. I think we have a good test next week at home against Denver and I expect a similar game to today. Please keep reacting about our second game of the season like it's the end of days. It makes it easier to tell who I should ignore. Lastly, no new posts during games. Let's try that again next week. 18 and 1, here we come. Go Bills

So much bull **** on that last drive, I don't know how to not break things

Ducasse is inactive for game 2. I will be annoyed if we give up a comp pick for a guy who's not even dressing

3rd quarter, 3rd super bowl loss. I was 13 and couldn't understand why they couldn't just win one!

For the sake of fun, what would the cap hit be to unload a Dareus for a Luck?

No problem. And remember, he's doing one this year for a game I'm going to. I'm looking forward to it

5 pages in and still on topic. I'm honestly impressed

It was high and behind him a bit. Not an easy catch at all, but clay could have done more with it and it shouldn't have been an INT

I think they did what they needed to for them to win. They took what the Jets gave them. There was no reason to go deep or anything else. We moved the ball at will for the most part. McDermott said as much in the post game But yes, if this is the overall plan, we will be in trouble against other teams.

I thought the same thing, as absurd as that is. I just can't see any team intentionally doing that. But how do you punt in that situation?

Happy Bills opening day everyone! No matter what your expectations are for this upcoming season, it's great to have Bills football back because at the end of the day, isn't that why we are all here? Great weather for those who attended. I watched from the family house and got to listen WGR on the drive home. Seems like the consensus thought is that it wasn't a pretty game, we could have scored more, but it's nice to start the season with a new regime with a win and get some experience under our belts. With that being said... 1 - Rushing Attack - It was great to see the rushing attack pick up where it left off last year, even though the zone run scheme is slightly different. A lot more under center snaps and less sweep runs with cuts to the inside. It seemed must more straight forward which didn't work all the time, but still overall effective. I was very surprised to see us rush to the right side so often, when our strength is typically to our left. Maybe the swapping out of Glenn and Dawkins had something to do with it. And Incognito didn't have his best game with a few penalties. Overall, you have to like the end result and Tolbert looked fantastic as a charging bull. Would like to see more from Demarco with the money we paid for him as I didn't see him make any huge blocks, but I wasn't watching him as much as I could have. 2 - Defensive Line - I don't like talking about the defensive line too much because we never know as fans what their assignments are. I doubt they were afraid of McCown scrambling and the run game for the Jets wasn't that great, so I'm assuming they were trying to get after the quarterback. With that in mind, I was a little disappointed by our front 4. While they were good against the run, they really didn't generate much pressure. Even when we sent a few more, we didn't exactly scare McCown. Our defense was overall very good, but I worry about what our lack of pressure will do against a real offense in coming weeks. 3 - Poyer - Can we just appreciate how fast and aggressive this guy played? He was all over the field. I was really worried about the Safety position going into the season but this kid was fantastic. He was blitzing, he was tracking guys down out of the backfield, fighting for interceptions, basically just being a beast. I look forward to see more from this kid. 4 - Another night at the Palace 'cause there is nothing else to do. The same people, the same drinks and the same music, the same quicksand I think this harbour town is waist deep and sinking fast 5 - Overall Defense - It's so hard to say much about the defense considering our opponent. However, if you look at the fundamentals, there's a lot to be hopeful for. First off, these guys looked like they knew what they were doing on every play. No confusion, no pointing at each other, only one blown coverage. For the first game of the season with so many new starters, it was very inspiring. My only real concern was the amount of plays we allowed over the middle. Maybe that was the zone we were willing to give up, who knows, but it's my one criticism. We get a better pass rush going and I like where this defense is going. 6 - Tyrod Unleashed? - Was that what this game was because it seemed like typical TT, except he found Clay and the middle of the field a lot more. While those are big jumps forward from last year, I'm getting concerned with the lack of assertiveness on offense. I think he bailed on a few plays too early and doesn't trust the first read. This comment is about preseason and I know that means very little: When Peterman started his game, he was dropping back 2-3 steps and just firing. He trusted the play and it went fairly well. I would like to see some more plays like that from TT. Just keeping the defense on their heals and get the ball out quickly. I feel like he sometimes waits for the play to develop a little too long and the defense reacts and covers his first read. I'm not in his head and I don't know the play calls, but I just don't feel that level of authority with him that you see with other QB's. With that being said, Clay makes one more catch and he has a great stat line, with a healthy combination of passing and rushing. He made some good throw-aways on broken plays and you never felt like he was going to lose the game. My worry for TT is that we will see this from him all season and it won't be enough for him to allow the team to pass on drafting a QB or giving Peterman a shot. Fair or not, he's playing for his career in Buffalo and everyone knows that. This is coming from someone who usually prays at the COT. 7 - McCoy - Let's bring that appreciation back for a guy named Shady. Does this guy just love the game or what? The way he fights, takes every carry, and what he makes out of nothing sometimes is just impressive. I hope he can give us a complete season because I think he's going to have a special year. But please Shady, protect the ball when you are cowboying it out there. You scared the crap out of me with that one play where you were holding it out in the open with one hand. I love you, but tuck it in. 8 - McDermott - Anyone have a head scratching moment this game? Maybe a moment where you wished they'd challenge, didn't a play in on time, call a play that made you throw something? No? Me either. Feels good doesn't it? I also liked that they introduced the team as a whole as a sign of solidarity. Let's not also ignore the overall lack of penalties this game. HUGE difference from the preseason and last season. Let's keep that going. 9 - Remember the extra 10 points - You can't put a lot of stock into shoulda, coulda, woulda's, but we easily could have been up 10 more points by half. While the score made it look a lot closer at times, I don't think anyone was ever worried about the outcome. A lot of great teams struggled to put weaker teams away today. Atlanta and Pittsburgh easily could have lost today. We did what we were supposed to and put these guys away. We can't always say that. Enjoy it for what it was. 10 - Matthews - For all that is holy in the world, TUCK IN YOUR DAMN JERSEY! I don't know why this bothered me so much and I'm sorry to waste a point on it, but it drove me nuts. With that, he's a big boy and had a great RAC play. I look forward to seeing what he can do this season. All right folks, that'll do it. 1-0 and first place in the division. I look forward to the season with you all and I promise a special guest review by Bill this season. I hope everyone had a good day and I'll see you all next week!

They ran against the Pats because they the Pats had to respect the Chiefs passing game. The Pats will not respect ours.

Brady gets hurt