dave mcbride

Gunner, I respect your opinion a lot, so I'm going to ask you this: the offense was capable enough to score reasonably consistently early in games, which suggests execution worked at some level. Yet in their final seven games including the Jags game, they scored all of three points in the 4th quarter. That strikes me as nearly impossible to do. They also generally sucked in the second half of games. While I can't pinpoint anything Dennison did in particular, it did seem to me that the game plan was repetitive and after 30 minutes pretty damn predictable. Just look at McCoy's rushing numbers in the early parts of games vs. the later parts of games. Some of that has to fall on the coordinator.

Bortles has zero to do with the jags’ progress this year. He is horrible.

Belichick can coach forever, but Dorian Gray can’t play forever. Who wants to pay $50 for a box of dirt-flavored snacks? https://tb12sports.com/collections/nutrition pure snake oil.

Kupp is decent (a solid JAG), but Goff is overly reliant on him — he looks his way too often in tight-game situations. As Watkins, who is a LOT better, gets integrated into the offense, I expect his numbers will go up and Kupp’s will go down.

I was talking about 2013, not 2016, and in 2013 the Panthers had 10 sacks from 3 dbs. I’d be surprised if any other team in recent years got souble digit sacks from a trio of DBs. A db getting a sack is by pretty much by definition a blitz situation. You may be right about 2016; I don’t know. Their defense was a lot worse in 2016 than it was in 2013, although it was almost a function of a talent decline and injuries. For the record, the Panthers were blitzing at a rate of around 24 percent in 2013-14, which wasn’t a lot (23rd and 24th in rates those two seasons). That said they were very good at it and highly productive — second in the league in pass rushing productivity when blitzing as per pff. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.catscratchreader.com/platform/amp/2015/2/11/8022539/carolina-panthers-2014-pass-rush-greg-hardy As for “nitpicking”, debating details is fun, at least for me (after all, this ain’t the bbmb). If you’re not into it, I won’t engage with you. No worries either way. Appreciate the info you provided, btw.

Let's keep this friendly. You wrote the following: "To say he plays a defense that doesn't need a great pass rush would sound stupid I imagine but it's true." The reason their defense finished 3rd in DVOA that season was largely because of the pass rush. I followed them because they were neck and neck with the Bills that season in the sack total competition. The Bills went into the final game with the lead (and ended up with 57, best in team history by a lot), but Dareus got benched against NE, the Pats ran the ball all game, and Carolina got six sacks.

People are really defending Dennison? All you have to look at it is the second half performances. That's when a team has figured out what you're doing, and it's upon you to adjust. He stinks and is thoroughly uncreative. Yes, I realize that working with Tyrod Taylor was likely not an ideal qb for him (to say the least), but 3 points in the 4th quarter in the final seven games?? Come on. They ran the same plays they ran earlier in the game repeatedly in second halves throughout the season.

I think you should at least acknowledge that 60 sacks is off-the-charts crazy good. And if you dive into the numbers, only 2 people had more than 10 sacks (Johnson with 11; Hardy with 15). The LBs had a bunch of sacks, one safety had 4 sacks, another safety had 3, and a CB had 3 (10 from 3 DBs is a LOT). Davis and Kuechly had 6 in total. All of this suggests a fair amount of blitzing.

The Panthers' D had 60 sacks in 2013.

Barf. Have at it. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/sports/football/tom-brady-patriots.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0

Thompson arguably cost the bills 6 points on his own in the jags game - the drop before halftime arguably forced the bills to punt, and his ridiculously stupid hold on the big shady reception that coat the bills 33 yards. Not a reliable player, in my opinion.

Carolina's offense under Shula measured by DVOA. That's a team with some talent on it, and they should arguably have been better over past half decade. 2013: 10th (they had been 10th the year before too under Chudzinski, with Shula as QB coach) 2014: 20th 2015: 8th 2016: 25th 2017: 17th Not horrible, but certainly not great. Middle of the pack.

I never thought he was a 300-carry back - he should be a 240-260 carry and 60 reception back -- and he definitely shouldn't be your grinder when you're managing a 21-13 lead late in the third quarter. I'm stating the obvious here, but the thing a team needs to do with him is get a second good RB who can fill in while he takes breathers. The Bills did that in 2015-16, and the Eagles did it in 2014 with Sproles (5.8 ypc). Bryce Brown looked like that guy in 2013, but turned out to be a bust. He has at least one elite season left in him and perhaps two if used properly. Re the Jags game, if not for Deonte Thompson's blindingly stupid hold (that defender had no chance at Shady), McCoy ends up with another 33 yards to his yard-from-scrimmage total - 148 in total on 23 touches, I believe. That's a helluva game for a guy in a walking boot earlier in the week.

I fundamentally disagree with this. The first Dolphins game was a classic case. The Bills mixed it up on offense in the first half, and he had 8 carries for 46 yards. He finished with 20 for 50. It happened in game after game (think the Chiefs game too) because whenever the Bills got a lead, they turtled and slammed McCoy into 8-man fronts repeatedly. And just think of the second Miami game, where he had three highlight-reel level broken tackles just to make it back to the LOS on one play. Moreover, as Gunner Bill noted, the outside zone scheme is a bad fit for a guy that likes to bounce it outside. The inside zone scheme forces him to stay inside, which is what he needs. The Bills run game was both badly designed and badly play-called, particularly in second halves of games. PS: versus Atlanta, he started out with 15 carries for 77 yards. Turtle mode happens in the fourth, and he ends up with 20-76. It happened a LOT.

Kornheiser is admirable in a sense because he has been arguably one of the two or three worst sportswriters/commentators for THREE decades. Skip Bayless keeps it a tight competition, however.

You should never be allowed to be an NFL ref, Doc. Every game would be a four-hour flagfest.

You’re arguing the letter of the law and I’m arguing reality. Woods’ block was legal, but that’s not really the point .Watch it going forward - it is never called. Pick a random jags-texans game and watch from start to finish — you will quickly see what i mean. And seriously, watch the Pats 2p conversion again. That play starts at the 2.5 yard line and when amendola catches it, hogan has the end zone line - Freeze it at the beginning of the 5 second mark - that is when the catch happens and it is clear as freaking day that the falcons’ defender has been pushed to the goal line at the moment of the catch. It is literally inarguable. But they don’t. I thin it’s fine because there are too many flags as is and I don’t really like the rule because it requires players to unnaturally disengage. But that’s neither here nor there. The defense gets away with a ton within 5 yards of the LOS too.

Watch games - it literally happens all of the time. A close friend of mine who is a Pats fan complained about Bob Woods’ block on a td pass in the 16-0 victory over the Pats last season, and I made a point of looking out for it afterward. It literally happens in every game and is never called. Trust me.

See the video link above and practically any NFL game. It is never called. Large parts of the Pats' offense center around it. Whether you think it's fair or not is immaterial - the league lets it go and players play with an expectation that it ain't gonna be called.

They clearly went for his legs early on a low hit but it wasn't called.

Oh come on. If you call penalties in which the WR block begins WITHIN one yard of the LOS and goes slightly beyond, you will see 20 penalties a game on that call alone. Half the Pats' TDs in goal to go situations would be nullified. As would the TD the Bills scored against NE last year (the Brissett game) when Woods begin his block within one yard of the LOS and sustained it past that point. It happens all the time and NEVER gets called if it begins that close to the LOS. A little Chris Hogan for ya, on a play which the Pats run constantly:

As much as we complain about the call, let's not forget that the Bills were gifted two wins this year. The refs made a horrible call on that Colts 2P conversion (the block absolutely began within a yard of the LOS - I watched it multiple times), and the fumble call on Matt Ryan was beyond ridiculous. It's not often (more like never) that you see a pass that goes 15 yards down the field get called a fumble. The Bills got their calls this year, and they were the difference between 7-9 and 9-7. The Bills were absolutely screwed in the Miami game last year (remember the two non-PI calls in the EZ on on Charles Clay that arguably cost the team 8 pts PLUS all of the other stuff?), and if they had gone into the Jets game at an 8-7 record, they probably would have won that last game (against a horrible team) instead of tanking. Overall, the refs were kind to the Bills this season.

I think that Taylor is *definitely* gone, and I think Dennison is *probably* gone. Re the latter, I think it's more like 60-40 that he goes, so I wouldn't be shocked to see him back either.

Kamara absolutely deserves it. It's not even really close, actually. 6.1 ypc, 10.2 ypr, 13 TDs, 1554 yards from scrimmage - amazing. (Upon further reflection, Kareem Hunt had a great year too, but I still give it to Kamara.)

Enh, just a personal preference of mine. If the defender is breaking on the ball too and has a clear shot at it, let 'em play, and may the better player win.