Rubes

Not always, no.

My sense is that there is a difference between a regular naked bootleg and one where it’s down at the goal line with a design to get Josh into a situation where defenders have to choose. I don’t recall seeing that specific type of play this season. Josh may have tried a bootleg, but I don’t recall seeing that kind of option play.

I mean, I guess? I get the idea of surprising a team in the playoffs when needed, but they didn’t pull it out last year in the playoffs. And it’s such a hard play to defend, why not dare teams to prepare for it and keep trying it until someone figures it out? Then they can look at what that team did and see what kind of weakness it introduces to the defense.

Been wondering for a while about the Bills offensive strategy when they’re down inside the other team’s 5-yard line or so. Seems like they’ve had some troubles down there this season, and it puzzles me. One of the best designed plays I’ve seen from this offense came last year during the away game at the Pats***. The Bills were inside the Pats*** 5-yard line, and the Bills ran two receivers to the left, one of whom was Dawson Knox. Allen ran a play-action bootleg to the left, and since he can outrun any LBs to that side, he created basically a 3-on-2 situation with the defense. All he had to do was read the two coverage defenders: if they stuck to the receivers, he just runs it in, and if one or both leaves the receiver to stop him, he just easily flips the ball to the open receiver for the TD. In this case, the defender on Knox came after Allen, and he sidearmed it to a wide open Knox. It’s a brilliant design, mostly because Allen is so big, fast, and strong that he creates an almost indefensible play. All it takes is a decent play fake to freeze the LB on that side, and there’s almost nothing they can do to stop the TD. So what the heck happened to this play? It could be me, but I don’t recall seeing it again after that. Until Sunday night. And it worked, just as well as it did before. Get Josh out of the pocket to a situation with a numbers advantage, and force the defense to choose their demise. Now, I’m not advocating that we try this play every time we’re down inside the 5-yard line, but this play is so damn hard for defenses to cover I just can’t image that we don’t see them try this at least once every game or two. Even if it gets defenses to key on it, at least you’re potentially opening things up for a regular run between the tackles. I’m sure the answer is that defenses are already keying on that play and are doing something to negate it, but not sure what that would be. I’m obviously no offensive coordinator.

I love it when Gilliam comes into the game. That guy gives the offense a lot of options, and he’s an excellent run blocker. Not as exciting as when Allen is chucking cannon balls at Diggs or Davis, but it’s fun to watch when Gilliam is in. For me, at least.

And yet we still won by double digits, and Allen didn’t have that level of play against Kansas City.

Jesus, if the offense scores a TD there with first and goal instead of Allen throwing a bone-headed INT, this would be a completely different conversation.

I say we blame McKenzie for that. Cool part about this clip is that it shows just how important Edmunds and Taron Johnson are to this defense.

This sounds awesome! It would probably sound even better if I could ever understand what DVOA means.

I disagree, at least for Boogie. I think he has shown some decent flashes so far this season. He has a ways to go to become what we need him to be, but I’d say he’s making some progress.

I can’t imagine anyone being concerned about the Steelers throwing for over 300 yards in a game the Bills won by 5 touchdowns. I also can’t imagine anyone being truly concerned about our defense allowing over 300 yards to a QB who averages 300 yards per game for his career. Mahomes will get his; the real question is, how many points will you keep him to? 20 is pretty impressive.

I really wish people would stop with blaming McKenzie for the fumble.

Sure thing. Everyone is welcome to their own opinion, I guess.

As I've posted before, it comes right from McKenzie's mouth:

Sure, whatever you think. Sometimes guys come along at different rates than others. Guys have been known to be in the league for years before developing into special players. Sometimes it's opportunity, sometimes it's injury, sometimes it's other factors. I don't really care. They may be different situations, but there are similar underlying features. One is drops. I'm sure you weren't one of those calling for a replacement for Knox when he was dropping multiple easy catches. The hate on McK is largely unwarranted.

Good thing some of you folks aren't in charge of personnel, otherwise Knox would have been gone a long time ago.

I posted this in another thread, but this hating on McK for the fumble is most likely misplaced. From his own description of the play: From my view, I agree...it didn't look like he was supposed to get the ball like that.

McKenzie was asked about it and this is his report of the play: That's what it looked like to me, too. I don't think he was supposed to get the ball on that play.

I think we heard you.

He had 80 on 12 carries in the first half (6.7 per carry).

Not sure why they abandoned the run in the second half; Singletary was playing out of his mind. But it worked out in the end, so who cares!

This is just your friendly reminder that it's HIPAA, not HIPPA.

Very logical. I just hope you're right!

Like him or not, a nice article from Tim Graham over at The Athletic. How the Bills plan to tackle their next tight end challenge: Travis Kelce A couple excerpts: Can the Bills contain him? They haven't so far... I hope they continue their current success...

I guess we all need something to worry about...