dave mcbride

To be fair to Holmes, it was a great play by Jackson. Defenders are capable of making great plays too. All in all, I'd say it was a good throw by Allen, a decent-enough effort by Holmes (he was where he was supposed to be and would have caught it if not for the defender), and an elite play by a very talented first-round corner in his second season.

But that was the same with Jauron, right? They had a pretty decent D and terrible offenses under him, and he got them to the neighborhood of .500 doing exactly the same thing - minimizing mistake potential on offense, generating turnovers (his defenses were good at that and prioritized it), and keeping the game close - an approach that leads to close games, which in turn can lead to wins, especially against average teams and decent teams that just happen to be mistake-prone.

The offense was awful yesterday and the scheme was neanderthal. They won (largely because of the scheme, ironically enough!), so I'm happy, but let's not sugarcoat reality. They cannot roll out that gameplan against teams with good offenses and QBs better than Mariota. To be fair, I also think they know that. As for the original question, wins are hugely important for progress, so I disagree with the premise. I'm of the mind that losses are nothing more and nothing less than losses. I'm not a "moral victory" kind of guy.

I think he's a good defensive coach and schemer for sure. With regard to that offensive plan yesterday, though, it ONLY works against a team with a QB as shaky as Mariota. TN's offense isn't good. Both the offensive gameplan and the overall scheme were high-school level in their sophistication, which ironically was just what the doctor ordered given the opponent. But they showed no signs yesterday of being able to run a complex offense -- the sort you need when facing the good teams who are bound to put up 20+ points. Baby steps, I know, but I'd like to see a bit more sophistication going forward because Jeff Fisher is no model to follow in today's NFL.

This is a good assessment. https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/10/08/buffalo-bills-tennessee-titans-josh-allen-sean-mcdermott

Neither of the interceptions last night should have been ints. Both should have been easy catches on perfect throws.

"Reformed homer" - i love it!

how many freaking drops can a team have? Christ.

What a great series of accurate throws.

To repeat - luck’s critics are so full of crap. He is not the problem there.

Luck has looked phenomenal tonight. God, so many drops. Sucks.

That's unfair to Andre Holmes. He wasn't even drafted and no one ever expected anything from him.

I have no idea what will happen, but McCoy went to Pitt and is from Harrisburg. Le'Veon Bell's ship has sailed, it looks like, and there is no way that the Steelers are giving up on the season. Shady is still an elite back (he has NOT lost a step), and he's on a reasonable contract. It makes a lot of sense for both teams given that McCoy is simply not going to produce for Buffalo in the current setup.

They'll have to do something about the stat measurement if they go that route because the college system WILDLY skews stats in a bad way for both team offenses and defenses as well as individual players.

Bills fans will find places to tailgate. If anyone can figure that out, it's Bills fans.

They would have started Taylor last year, no?

good back and forth with Kurt Warner in the comments too. Warner disagrees with Orlovsky's take. I don't disagree; I'm just saying that one QB may be better than the other. I guess the larger point is whether our head coach is Jeff Fisher redux - a defensive guy incapable of fielding a creative offensive scheme because of conservative-approach-is-the-best-approach priors.

I think most would argue that Goff was a better prospect. His going #1 overall was uncontroversial.

Sideways nod to trading a third for Kelvin B!

Beane had nothing to do with Woods, but Whaley was utterly powerless the day McDermott was hited and wasn't making any decisions. That you can be assured of.

I can't argue with this.

I worry about the very real potential for long term PTSD/shell shock for Allen. It's happened to more than a few QBs who have been forced to play early on in abysmal offenses.

They were playing one of the best qbs in history on the road, and the Packers were not going to be shut down. The D made a bunch of plays, generally held them to punts and FGs (only 2 TDs), and created some real TO opportunities. Plus the offense turned the ball over three times and couldn't move the ball at all. Holding a good offense to ~20-25 points on the road is a win in today's NFL.

PS - I do think that the D looked solid in that game. That said, I also think that the Pack missed a lot of plays. They should have scored about 31 by my reckoning (not 45).