PBF81

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/orchard-park/14127/daily-weather-forecast/2128285?day=3

Yeah, but seemingly more snow. That was a weird game, everyone was standing, but with the snow pack, your a$$ could rest on the top of the seat. Gonna be worse this time.

Agreed. If not, looks like they're going to have to be clearing the field every 10 minutes. Was at the Miami game last year, that was no picnic weather wise, but this looks a lot worse. At least it stopped before that game and we just had the aftermath. Not sure how many fans are going to bail, seems dangerous to go. This ph'n blows!

16-12 Bills

With this our staff still can't win a Conference Championship much less more. Imagine how good Allen could be if he had a good OC and some consistency/continuity there instead of the revolving door of questionability that he's had.

Davis is a fan whipping boy. I don't recall ever seeing so much animosity for a bargain player that makes about $1M/season. This could be one of those times when we'd better be careful what we wish for, we may get it. He's not Waddle or Samuel, but he also doesn't get paid like they do. The hate for Davis is irrational.

I posted this, exactly, which odd what your statement was on; That's not two things, it's one. There's no guessing involved. Just passing along what was reported. They did this when we played out "home" game in Detroit too. The players left ahead of time, and yes, it was chaos. Obviously the fans had difficulty following. It appears to have originated via some radio host in Pittsburgh, but much question as to whether he's not simply blowing hot air. Just hope our fans can get to the game. Would suck if many couldn't.

How'd you debunk it, was it not really Thompson playing? Marino resurrected in disguise. Sounds official, but only if a state-of-emergency is declared.

We could say the same thing retroactively about the Skylar Thompson Miami game last season, ... that we nearly lost. Anyone seen this ... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-12953427/Playoff-game-Steelers-Bills-Buffalo-moved-CLEVELAND-bad-weather-prompts-state-emergency-declared-western-New-York.html

Blubbo ... LOL

Let's see what Beane does this offseason. It's taken him six offseasons to hit one like this. Let's hope he's grown in the role and continues on that path. As @GoBills808 said in the first few posts however, it would be nice if the team starts pouring some serious resources into the offense around what is not only the centerpiece of our team, but one of the centerpieces of the entire league right now. Now, as in this offseason, would be a good time to look ahead and plan that out given Morse's age and some other nearly due contracts for the OL; the looming departure of Davis; no goal-line rushing option beside Allen; and more WRs that everyone is incessantly whining about.

Is it a good thing when he's your only option? We're discussing this particular game and whether that's an advantage or not over having two RBs, either of which, in addition to a short passing game, can run the ball at the GL. Context Well, as stated, it's a fantastic opportunity for McD & Co. to shine. Hopefully they do and we're on to talking about KC coming to Buffalo to get spanked.

And 14 points. Did you look at the two games before that? Not exactly against the Raven starting D either.

Yeah, we're all on pins and needles seemingly. Pitt's offense is surging, ours is seemingly in regression. Allen's our primary ball carrier inside the red zone these days, again. Apart from that outlier Dallas game Allen has 254 rushing yards and 8 TDs, Cook has 328 and 0 TDs. The big thing may very likely be whether the defense comes out as it has in McD's playoffs thus far, by playing not to lose and slacking up. That could easily cost us the game if we do that given the way that our offense is trending against below-average defenses recently. Drops included.

Allen should always keep running as an option in the open field. Where the team should have other options, whether it be rushing or passing, is at the Goal Line. Not that Allen shouldn't do a sneak here or there, but constantly being the primary GL option isn't good for his long-term prospects. Cook isn't good at the GL, obviously. Fournette's much better. Of Fournette's 34 career rushing TDs, over half, 18, have been from the 1 YL, five more have been from the 2, and 29 of the 34 have been from the 5 or closer. I have no idea why he hasn't been on the roster, which implicates coaching as it cannot be anything else. Which says that apparently isn't the kind of offense that they want down there, which is a little head-scratching.

He did a fantastic job when had Brady. Unfortunately he was on the other side of the tracks, not even achieving mediocre, when he didn't.

Completely agree. That's why Harris/Warren have a significant advantage like that. I mean look at what New England did to us that one year with the snow when they threw the ball what, two or three times maybe, all game. Still, we have options. But what we don't have is a RB that can play effectively in those conditions pending Fournette. See my recent posts above. There are many questions heading into this game, among which are whether or not our D is once again going to play not to lose. Our offensive production is down under Brady, contrary to popular opinion. So the D will have to step up. Either way, there's no reason why the Steelers should outscore us in Buffalo. The other thing that's evident, is that the Steelers are playing their best football since Roethlisburger was their QB, under Rudolph. Whether that last remains to be seen. Let's hope that the weather's on the positive side, not all that bad, just cold, and that we win this one. GO BILLS!!!

Well, OK, but why should a head coach have to babysit an OC then? it seems that a competent OC, even on a team with a defensive type head coach, would be doing much better with Allen & Co. Wouldn't it seem to hinge on how competent that OC actually is? And frankly, how much direction and guidance apart from constructing a playbook to play to our strengths is actually needed with Allen? Doesn't seem like much. Look at Daboll's rankings as an OC before coming here and being handed Allen. They suck. They're awful. So why did McD hire him? Then Dorsey, whom I said was mystery meat back then and was chided. He was mystery meat and so is Brady. But the fact is that neither had any body of work or experience, so at best it's a die roll. As I've often opined, Dorsey ran the offense as if he was running it vicariously in attempting to relive his prolific days as a QB at U. Miami. The evidence supports that. Brady may end up being the next great OC, who knows, but right now it's not trending in that direction. It's trending oppositely despite overly positive narratives. And then there's this "complimentary football" cliche nonsense, that for us anyway appears to be the offense supporting the defense. But what if our D collapses again and goes into fear mode and play not to lose mode in the playoffs? Isn't that why we've lost our later round playoff games to any team seeded better than 5th? It seems to be. We have Josh Allen! The team should be bending over backwards to protect him and get him receiving options, something that they haven't even significantly approached doing until this past offseason, McD's sixth. Meanwhile, the incessant crying over not having adequate WRs ... Is it not possible that McD refuses to hire a highly competent OC because he realizes that if the offense then outshines the defense, and yet we continue to fail to progress into the later rounds of the playoffs, that there's a chance he would get fired and replaced by that OC? There's obviously a chance of that, if we had such an OC. But none of the guys he's selected are that good. How many seasons should Brady be given to find out there? Meanwhile, Allen, as you reasonably said, or at least implied, is "struggling with his mental state." Why wouldn't he be. What is unreasonable is expecting consistency from season to season under those circumstances. What he's having to go through, all because McD is a "defensive minded coach," isn't reasonable. It's also holding the team back. We've averaged the fewest PPG that we have over the past three seasons. It's been the lowest under Brady. Anyone can argue as they may, but that's a fact, and that's even with those two explosive games against the Jets and Dallas, and Philly even to kick things off for him. We've averaged 24.6 offensive PPG under him. Before this season began, I was thinking that we may hit 34 PPG which was actually supported by Allen's statements of what he was expecting from himself and the offense in some non-official interview somewhere. He estimated over 5,000 passing yards for himself, the strongest-armed QB in the league. Is that unreasonable? Hardly. Yet, he's averaging 244 passing YPG under Brady, a 17-game season pace of 4,148 passing yards and 1.4 passing TDs. That would have placed him at 8th between Love and Stroud for yards, and 11th tied with Stafford and Jackson for passing TDs, and one behind Carr and one ahead of Stroud, and the only one of them that played all 17 games was Carr. So it's not just me. At the end of the day it's on this coaching staff, presumably led by McD, but obviously it won't be if things don't go our way, to make whatever adjustments we need to make for this game to beat the Steelers. If we can't, expect more illogical changes and scapegoating and avoidance of the real issue(s), and what, yet another OC for Allen in as many years going into his fourth season. Yeah, that would be great for his development. If it goes right, great. We'll all be happy. But going right means a first. Will we see a first under McD in his 7th season? Let's hope so. GO BILLS!!!

Speaking for only myself, that's not how I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it from the angle that the Steelers are better suited to run in siht weather. For starters, remove Allen's rushing yards from those. Not sure we need to turn him into a RB in that slop either. But let's compare the primary ball carriers for both teams. Cook, who has 1,122 rushing yards and 2 rushing TDs. Najee Harris, who has 1,035 and 8 rushing TDs. Jaylen Warren, who has 784 yards and 4 rushing TDs, in 0 starts. If there's a false narrative, it's that for some strange reason Cook's rushing game is flourishing under Brady. It isn't. Looking at merely the other six games besides that career-best outlier of the Dallas game, anomalous to be sure, Cook's posted the following rushing games: 17 for 73 16 for 43 10 for 58 20 for 70 16 for 48 13 for 36 That's a combined 92 for 328, and 3.6 YPC. Also, 0 rushing TDs. So yeah, if Allen is going to contribute to all of the goal-line carries and TDs, sure, our rushing game may be better. Not sure that's where we need to have Allen however, and the fact that the team is still seemingly option-less at the goal line should be disturbing after seven seasons like that. Furthermore, look at Cook's last few games. He's averaged 3.1 YPC. His next three best rushing games besides the Dallas game were all under Dorsey, not Brady. Just sayin' there, for purposes of squelching a false narrative. 7 of our rushing TDs under Brady not including that Dallas game, were by Allen. I thought we were trying to protect Allen more. Scrambling and running in the open field is a whole lot different than running into a pile on a regular basis, but more disturbing is that the team cannot seem to find a way to do it w/o rushing Allen. Either way, that trend is not a positive one, neither is our offensive scoring trend of fewer than 20 PPG over the past three games, not exactly against the league's elite defenses either. Yeah yeah, dropped passes, etc., we get it, but we've been crying about those for years. In fact, it'll be quite interesting how the team plays without Davis if he can't go. I'm curious what the lamenting will be about then. Meanwhile, Harris posted his two best and very good games, and three of his top-five on the season, in the past two and three weeks respectively with Rudolph at QB. 3 rushing TDs in the last two games and as a team, their 2nd and 3rd best rushing games on the season the last two games. So what this seemingly comes down to is Allen running the ball for us near the goal line, Cook doing it in the open field where he's not been good except for one game under Brady, and two RBs that are hot as a tandem and are legitimate 3-down backs fully capable and if not even suited to playing the kind of football that will require less stable footing in the open field. I hope we gear up right, as I recall, in last season's playoffs I think it was, the team stated that they didn't outfit the players with the proper cleats, ... for a home game. So we'll see. But if this comes down to an inability to throw the ball, much as that New England game a number of years ago where they threw what, two, three passes or something like that all game, it's a stretch to say that conditions like that favor us. That's also not to say that you have to avoid passing, but in high winds the likelihood of TOs increases significantly. We'll see. But this love for Brady in defense of McD is blurring a lot of peoples' objectivity. In fact, we're doing the exact opposite that we said we should be doing to keep Allen healthy, not only for the season, but for many seasons. He already has a shoulder injury. Doing all of the goal-line rushing is insanity over the long haul. Open field, yes, let him run and scramble, but dang if we, after six seasons, can't find a decent goal line RB.

First game, no?

https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/orchard-park/14127/daily-weather-forecast/2128285

Allow me to ask as well, why is it that you think that there's a "churn" at OC that is preventing the optimization of the "key player" on the team? Even Daboll's credentials coming here were incredibly questionable. I'm not sure anything can be trusted for lake effect snow events. Remember that monster storm we had what, six or seven years ago maybe. The computer weather models suck these days anyway.

Congrats!! Any relationship to Mike Stojanovich from the Rochester Lancers in the '70s?

The forecast that I just looked at says this; Lake-effect snow and intense squalls, accumulating an additional 6-10 inches; windy and colder High 24, Windchill -1, 30 mph winds We're 72 hours from game time

Roger Brady could easily add plays however. It's ridiculous to think that he can't. Let's not forget however that he's novice, inexperienced, and OJT. Think about all that was said that was positive about Dorsey when he replaced Daboll. And that is no minor reference to the oft-repeated notion that Allen wanted him as OC. But the point is that people are saying that the offense has improved, whatever the circumstances, when the opposite is the case. They're/we're also saying that the defense has improved, and while it has not gotten worse, that also isn't true. How long are false and/or flimsy narratives going to carry McD's water. I'm not seeing a ton of evidence that the issues you cited are gone despite unsubstantiated narratives simply claiming that they are. As to "managing the QB's (Allen's) mental state, you won't find a bigger critic than me given that he's had three different OCs in as many seasons and may have a fourth next season as well. Whose fault is that? Obviously not McD's, he's only the head coach. It can't be, the narratives don't support that. The masses will figure it out at some point. In the meantime, more damage to the QB's mental state, including no consistency from season to season, will occur. Meanwhile, that QB, with nothing but his physical and mental talents individually carries this team. The impact of this game is much bigger than people realize. BTW, Davis may not play. According to most, his absence should benefit the team. That should be interesting, the fallout from that too.