dave mcbride

I am shocked. Shocked.

not true. Football Outsiders does.

(I'm looking at you, Bodine)

I don't think he was failing at playcalling so much as the Bills were making mistakes. If you think about it, he basically decided that we're gonna showcase our best player - our quarterback - and take inspiration from his moxie and playmaking ability to get the offense in high gear from day one. It was a "statement" plan meant to shut down any notion that the Bills have some sort of caretaker QB. They DID move the ball, and literally every play early on was an Allen play (pass/scramble/designed run). Mistakes happened - Dawkins getting beat, Beasley dropping a pass he really should have caught without a problem, a tipped pass, and a botched snap - but none of those were playcalling issues.

I just think it's one of those injuries that lasts a while and which can be managed through snap count limits with the hope that the player eventually gets to 100 percent and can go full speed with a bunch of snaps already under his belt. I'm not 100 percent sure about this, but I do know that the injury almost always lingers.

Shortly before the regular season, mcdermott said he was dealing with a turf toe issue. It’s debilitating but doesn’t necessarily sideline you. It greatly affected antowain smith in his final year in buffalo but he always suited up. Same with eddie george one season. I think the only way to deal with it is manage snap counts and wait for it to fade. It can really linger. Crappy injury.

This is the very definition of throwing a player under the bus: “Yeah, if we just make plays on the balls that we actually threw down the field, that’s a different number," Gase said. "I mean, we had opportunities. We had a chance to win the game. We have to come out of our double move. The guy falls down and we don’t come out running. So if we do that, then all of a sudden we’re scoring a touchdown. Guys need to do a better job of executing what they’re supposed to be doing.”

You do know that Foster has turf toe, right? It has been reported on. It’s a tough injury to deal with, as I’m sure you know (it’s a torn toe ligament). That was a perfectly fine throw. Agreed. Foster is hurt! People are aware of this, right?!?

I think Blake might be pulling a Jeff Gillooly job before too long. Watch for it! https://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/1713604

To be fair to DeMarco, that pass thrown by Peterman was thrown way too hard given how close he was to the receiver. There was no touch at all.

Criticizing the people playing for you in public to a ravenous local press is about as dumb as possible. He's basically provided them with a negative narrative on Robbie Anderson, their best receiver. You think Belichick would ever do that?

In contrast, Bill Barnwell seems to have actually watched the game and gives a fair and mostly positive analysis: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/27572572/barnwell-week-1-five-most-surprising-qb-performances. Scroll down for his fairly long evaluation of Allen.

It sure looks like that with Roethlisberger. After the game, i was watching Deion Sanders (a blowhard but actually quite perceptive) on NFL Network, and his bold prediction was that BR won't last the season. He said he looked disinterested and also brought up the sort of retirement talk you mentioned.

... and he was targeted 17 times. He generated 5.8 yards per pass attempt, which isn't great. The Bills are always going to allow a guy to make some underneath catches given their stress on preventing big plays to the wideouts.

Foster is hurt. There's a reason he's not playing much now.

Speaking of Darnold (who I think do is pretty good): https://forums.jetnation.com/topic/146694-the-underthrown-darnold-pass-to-robby-that-would-have-won-the-game/ The dissection of the play along with the gnashing of teeth feels very, very familiar ... It was Rich Gannon, not Warner.

No, Thomas never did it, and Gannon was right. Only Craig and Faulk have done it.

Agreed. Connor is significantly worse than Bell. I also think Roethlisberger looks kinda near the end. Without looking, derek anderson ?

Look, he has had zero losing seasons in 12 years with a lot of personnel turnover. The NfL is a rough business with a lot of a-holes (including roethlisberger, who by many accounts is a big one) and sadists. At the end of the day, he has 2 SB appearances, one SB victory, and a .654 winning percentage. They have had talent, for sure, but so do a lot of teams that fail.

The people on that team are the people colbert brought in. You don’t think teams didn't know about martavis bryant and AB in college? Trust me, there foibles were well known. Anyway, when it came to sundays, the players played and stuff was kept under wraps. He has been there for a long time and has never had a losing season. He is a good coach. It is amazing to me that so many people think that tactics are all that a coach is in charge of. There is so much more than that. People who say this stuff think marv levy was a bad coach. No losing seasons, tons of playoff appearances, 2 SB appearances, and the second highest winning percentage this century after belichick.

I strongly disagree, but I don’t care quite enough to do a deep-dive argument about it. People said the same about Joe Torre, and they were wrong because they overestimated tactical acumen over people management skills. Tons of NFL people think Gase is a truly brilliant offensive mind, bit he’s a bad manager of humans.

They haven’t had a losing season in forever. He’s a good coach (people REALLY underestimate the skill it takes to manage 53 personalities, and he’s good at it), but this looks like a transition year for them.

Roethlisberger looks like Jim Kelly circa 1996. He looks old.

If the back of the ball is touching the EZ line, it’s a safety. I think it was probably the right call. The bills deserved it, frankly. That has to be fair caught (like the earlier one rightly was by hyde at the 5 - there was jets guy behind hyde on that play who was ready to down it at the 1-2 yard line).

Not to sound like a broken record, but the bills’ run blocking was the problem for him last year. You’re seeing that with gore now.