dave mcbride

Terrible call. Any decent coach is defending against the fake on any punt formation play that's less than 4th and 5.

Who knows how good gaines will be? He was excellent in his rookie season and excellent so far for buffalo. Let's reserve judgment before we declare players "stars" or not.

I gotta confess - Gaines has *really* impressed me. An elite cb is equally valuable as an elite wr. I was down on the trade, but i'm man enoujgh to admit it if i turn out to be wrong. Let's see how it looks after week 17. Scott, he's playing a lot better than solid.

Monstrous today.

+25.

I think SF has some of the best young defensive talent in the NFL. Buckner and Thomas are porential superstars. The Bills were 7th in the nfl in offense after the miami game last year.

Don't look now, but SF is actually loaded with elite young talent on defense. They look to me like a young Seattle. DeForest Buckner and Solomon Thomas are elite talents.

Hasn't it been clearly established that Jones ran a really lousy and confused-looking route? Shouldn't that basic fact be driving the conversation? I'm not trying to defend Taylor's overall game, btw -- he has to put the team in a position to generate more than 3 points before switching over to 4-down ball in the final couple of minutes (when point totals go up given the extra down). But on that play, a better route results in that looking like a perfect pass.

I think that on balance he's a near-elite player, but he does have and always has had basic flaws to his game, especially accuracy and consistency as well as taking far too many sacks. He is one of the greatest runnning qbs of all time, plays well in the clutch, and has a great arm. While Terry Bradshaw had a different game, in terms of the combo of strengths and weaknesses, they are similar players. With regard to this comparison, btw, I don't care how many super bowls Bradshaw won; most of them can be chalked up to the greatest defense in league history.

Interesting comments near the end in a characteristically excellent analytical piece by Andy Benoit: https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/09/18/jared-goff-los-angeles-rams-sean-mcvay

You're doing the lord's work here, AD.

More on why Jones screwed up, more or less -- https://www.buffalosportspage.com/final-play-throw-catch/ . Read to the end.

In the cold light of dawn, it's increasingly clear to me from watching the overhead view posted by 26cb that that was basically a perfect throw. Jones really screwed the pooch on that one--no field or time awareness plus a late stagger that occurred after taylor released it. Jones just blew it. There's really nothing more to it.

Yup, and bump.

Looking at this, yes, it's hard to figure out what jones was up to there. He needs better clock awareness and a sense that if he's got a clear and open shot to the end zone, the qb is probably looking that way.

Just watching it now for the first time. Why would he ever cut to the sideline at the 3 with almost no time left? It doesn't make sense. That should have been a cut to the pylon.

Yeah, hard to say. The route looked sloppy and it may have been that taylor saw the td and threw for it. Jones actually slowed down for a moment near the end of it too. The throw certainly wasn't accurate enough (that was an extremely difficult catch to make) if that out pattern at the end was the route, though.

Eff Jerry Jones. Jones makes Kraft look like Mother Theresa.

I don't understand your response. Can you please clarify?

That's not a logical response. Seriously. If a pitcher gives up 1 run and pitches a complete game yet still loses, is he to be blamed for losing?

Huh? UCLA's defense is freaking horrible and can't stop anyone. A qb should expect a victory every time if the offense puts up 45.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/09/15/near-mutiny-forced-the-hand-of-marvin-lewis/

Yup. It leads to a fair amount of sacks, but the upside is big.

Don't confuse TBD with a press room. You're arguing with people who want to engage with you about specifics, and responding by saying that you disapprove of his press is the metaphorical equivalent of hand-waving. Pretty much all of the informed posters here have the ability to dig deeper than mouthing cliches from the press, so in this particular context bringing it up is a red herring.

It's greatly appreciated!