PBF81

Agree Here's the thing tho, this got me rewatching that 3rd-and-22 play. If you're only going to rush 3, then you'd damn well better have more than two guys covering, or at least prepared to cover beyond the 1st-down line, which was our 30. The play starts with us showing 6 on the line, only three commit to rush, which is obvious after the ball's snapped. Tua sees this too. Seconds later after he releases the ball you can see that they've flooded the left side and we have 5 coverage guys on the line-of-scrimmage side of the 1st-down line. 4 of them are in the middle, 2 nowhere near any offensive player, 2 chasing whomever just passed them up the middle, and the other on the left side making sure that that Durham Smythe who blocked-and-released doesn't make a play. The latter seems to have been the only coverage guy that knew what he was doing. Otherwise there are 2 safeties playing zone left to cover Waddle and whomever else that is (Hill presumably) that's wide open on the left side just after the 1st-down line and also in for a 1st-down and a big play if Tua goes to him. So in short, we have 3 guys rushing the passer, apart from Miller not even our best pass-rushers; 8 guys in coverage, where one of those was is a mystery, four were over the middle covering one guy, two of them really covering no one presumably there in case Tua tried to scramble or hit Mostert out of the backfield late (highly unlikely) one covering Smythe, and two left in zone to take on both WRs that ended up going deep beyond the 1st-down marker. And Miller, who was completely taken out of the play by Smythe on a great block before Smythe released, Basham and Jones are the three guys you want in that situation and 3-man rush? Seriously? That's coaching. That's clearly on coaching, at least largely, unless the players were told something different and ignored it, which I would then still suggest is a coaching issue, just of a different nature. Granted, it was hot, brains were melting, etc. I get it, but on those singular big plays, arguably the biggest in the game, you've gotta pull your head outta your a$$. Some of this should be instinctive and in-your-sleep kinda stuff for these guys. I'm not a big Oliver fan, but those are the three that should have been pass-rushing that play. Rousseau for sure. I'd have even put Lawson or Epenesa in there before I'd have put Jones or Basham in there.

They also weren't anywhere near consistently good either. It should be interesting for sure. It seems that in comparison the DLs are similar, but that the LBs on the Panthers back then we're notably superior.

Except that McD isn't, he's become very effective at throwing others under the bus furtively.

MUCH weaker. IMO this is going to be a serious lesson in how the grass isn't always greener ... ... and Beane's management aside. A lot of things shouldn't be happening against a regular season #1 or #2 ranked Defenses in the playoffs.

Well yeah, of course, I'm not even sure we have that ability to do it effectively. And blitzing the MLB, a good OC on the other side, and seasoned QBs of which we play a lot this season, can pick that apart too. We'll see soon. LB unit seems so weak, weakest that I can recall.

It's one thing to say "attacking defense," it's another to have the personnel to run it effectively w/o undue risks. Do we have the pass-rushers to be able to do that w/o having to blitz regularly. Remains to be seen, but unless we get some consistent pass-rushers, it remains to be seen. No one should be thinking that Miller will return to what he was at 34 and coming off that injury, and who knows when. Rousseau was very inconsistent and came out strong in his first four games last season but then disappeared. Floyd comes in at 31 which should help. I'm not sure we have the talent to attack as such effectively.

LOL, okay, well, when you say that Allen shared no blame for any of our playoff losses, isn't that essentially saying that, McD aside. Short answer: yes. Anyway, who cares. Camp starts in a few days, all of this will be sorted out over the next month, and otherwise we're talking about some stupid poll where Burrow and Allen, two of the few premiere QBs in the league, are two spots apart in some ranking. If you want to analyze Allen's playoff performances, we can do that, but to suggest that his play in the playoffs has been either consistent or fault-free in losses is remiss. Among Allen, Mahomes, and Burrow, the least consistent in the playoffs has been Allen, by a wide margin over Mahomes although only marginally over Burrow, nonetheless. He can take steps to changing that this season and prove that last season's playoffs were all an anomaly. Right?

My take is that the difference between our team today and the same old from the 20-years drought is Allen. I think that says it all. And yes, I understand your mentality, it's alive and well here. The losses are all team losses and have nothing to do with Allen or McD, but when we win it's them that are responsible. Yeah, many of us fully get it. LOL

Yeah, thanks! Allow me to ask, whom do you blame? Because when I put the blame where it belongs, it seems to go over about as well as black person at a KKK rally. And how about Davis, who's outperformed Diggs in the playoffs? What's your take there? Yeah yeah, we all know, Davis wouldn't have done what he did if Diggs weren't on the team, so Diggs gets credit for Davis' catches. Or something different? I'm curious whether you're consistent. Otherwise, since my comments were general in nature, how about the other three playoff losses, was Allen anything to blame for those, the '20 season KC loss, the '19 season Texans loss, or the Bengals loss this past season? Or was he guilt-free there too? As to the topic of this thread, and in light of what you said, take away the two games of the '21 playoffs and to be more than fair, Allen's other 6 playoff games are mediocre tops! 6 games otherwise, 8 TDs (1-1/4 TD/game for the math challenged), 6 TOs, and only one game with a rating better than average for those 6 games and an 85.0 rating for the 6 games aggregately. He had more TDs in the two playoff games in '21 than he did in his other 6, demonstrating massive inconsistencey. That's poor and for reference purposes, this past season would have ranked 26th in the league and in Derek Carr, Justin Fields, Mac Jones, and Russell Wilson category. Just sayin' And I'm one of Allen's biggest apologists and defenders.

In fairness, I'm not going to blame Allen for most of our playoff losses, particularly in '21. It's our defense that sucks rhino weenie on the playoffs. I put that on coaching. But agree that we're not likely to win three or four straight in the playoffs for that reason.

Overreaction much? We're talking two spots apart, for well over a thousand players. If you're ardent position were so valid, others wouldn't have rated Burrow higher. Who cares, it's an idiotic poll. Take things personally do ya? Easy chief! Life's too short ... Besides, I thought the defense had rested. 🤔🧐😎

Since you brought it up, there too Burrow's been far more consistent. He's also been to a Super Bowl in his 2nd season. Josh hasn't been in five. Just sayin'.

Roger that on consistency. It certainly hasn't been his friend.

Let's end this. It's going nowhere. I will say this, IMO Burrow is the better pure passer. Allen's overall athletic abilities are better as are his non-passing contributions. I suppose which is better, and they're different by two whopping irrelevant spots in this survey, is up to the circumstances of the play of the teams that they'd be on. Since Beane can't draft, we need Allen. Put Allen on Cincy and IMO he's even better than he is now. Not sure how good Burrow would be here, but guessing not as good as Allen. But in line with that, if I had to guess today whose career, which of those two that is, will last longer, I'd put all my money on Burrow in a NY second.

So "wins" are predicated entirely upon the play of the QB insofar as ANY/A goes in your mind then? Question, is it possible for a QB to be good but the team not win as much as a team with a QB that isn't quite as good? If so, then why?

Are they more important? How do you measure QBs comparatively? What stats do you use?

I am as well. I'm not big on, to start, a top of the coaching staff, aka all the key positions, that used to coach at Carolina, I mean it's literally like we transplanted the coaching staff from McD's time there to here, now. That's concerning since they did nothing there. Pegula's statements about the recent moves specifically address the "business side," per his own statements. To me that means it's not a focus on the football side. If those people start getting involved in football decisions, or influencing them, then I will be more concerned about that as well.

The ones that Burrow is better than, the ones typically used to valuate QBs. Just look at 'em, if they're better than Josh's, those are the ones I'm referring to.

Ooh Ooh, Mr. Kotter, ... hIs passing metrics over the past two seasons have been better than Allen's.

My money says he outperforms everyone's love interest Sherfield. LOL

We still get our guys from Carolina. I think McD's gotten just about everyone down there that he knew though, so for that reason that's gotta be coming to an end. Not sure what he does after that. Hell, the entire top of our coaching staff hales from there. Dorsey, Shula, and to a lesser extent Brady on the offensive side, and on the D side after McD we have Washington, Holcomb, and Babich. Those are all the top guys. At least the player pipeline guys that were there with McD are now applying for Medicare, so we've avoided further disaster there. LOL

Perspective I suppose. Like I said, it's going to be an interesting season. If you don't think those things are of concern, then you won't agree. In short, lack of proven anything relevant across the board.

Yikes!

As with everything, time will tell. I don't follow the Sabres closely enough to see the details, but I recall plenty of talk saying they same thing over the past decade. Esp. when they drafted Eichel. I don't think that Raccuia had any impact on the Bills, let's hope that Terry & Co. keep their hands off.

Hence my statements. It is what it is. Again, I and obviously some others don't find it to be inspiring.