Rubes

Great point, for sure. I remember thinking at halftime of the Denver game that the only way I thought we had a chance was to get a turnover or two.

Great point!

...with the game on the line, in the 4th quarter, with the lead, and the ball...the Bills went on a 16-play, 7:30 minute drive to get points and essentially put it away. Sure, they had some help from the refs along the way. But seriously, who saw that drive coming? That's not how we do things in Buffalo.

I'd say the only things we have going for us are Julio is not at 100% with back issues, and McDermott has a history of getting to Matt Ryan (with Carolina). So maybe he can repeat the magic with our defense now. If we can figure out a way to motivate Dareus to play well, then I'd say this defense could be nasty and we might have a (long) shot.

I still have no idea how the refs missed our guy calling timeout right in the middle of the field.

Next week will be tough, and from the way things are looking now, Cincy is starting to wake up and look tough too.

As they say, WR is one of the toughest positions to learn in the pros.

They've been playing great, especially Gaines. I'm a little worried about what will happen when they play a sound, disciplined offensive team with a very accurate QB like Atlanta or NE***, who do a great job of exposing the holes in a zone cover defense. But for now, I'm very, very happy with them.

It's especially surprising given that Dennison said in the offseason that they would be doing more of this stuff. That's what I was hoping to see. But not seeing it the first two weeks had me puzzled. It's the perfect type of offense for Tyrod. Nice to see, finally.

For the life of me I can't figure out why this conversation has to be so hard. You don't like the BN? Great, don't pay for it. We also don't need to hear why you think you're so much smarter than everyone else by not paying. Just don't pay. Others see value in some or all of the journalism on that site and understand the reason and need for supporting it. If you feel the need to criticize or mock others for doing so, do everyone a favor and go read another thread.

I appreciate it as well. Thanks.

I'm kinda thinking the same thing...

Nice to see we have our work cut out for us this week...

Really nice post, thanks Shaw. I agree with most of what you said, and it's nice that you placed it into a broader context that isn't doom-and-gloom. Oh, and I agree with the posters that say this is not a bend-but-don't-break defense. You can't stop every single drive. The Bills only allowed one lengthy drive in the second half.

Thanks for doing that, Scott. The grown ups around here appreciate it.

Well, I'm glad at least that we all agree who is most at fault here.

I don't understand why this discussion keeps devolving into "I don't like the BN writers, so I'm not giving them my money." Fine, don't give them your money. Just like if you passed an actual newsstand and saw a copy of the BN there, you don't have to buy it if you don't want to read it. This is about the expectation that you should read BN stories for free. These people's work shouldn't be free. If you like it enough to want to read it, go ahead. Just pay a really little bit of money for it, so it will always be there for you. If nobody likes the BN, it will go away. If some people like it but nobody pays for it, it will go away. If you're fine with that, more power to you. I'm not fine with it. Even though I despise Bucky and Sully and their constant crap, I still like the other writers. And I also like some of the other non-sports writers at BN. Jerry Zremsky is one of the best journalists in the entire country. I moved away from Buffalo a long time ago, but I subscribe online because I keep coming back to BN articles and I want to see that resource survive. I also subscribe to three other newspapers, one here in Salt Lake and two others online, because I keep coming back to their content and I appreciate it, and I want to see good journalism survive. Nobody is forcing anyone to pay for something they don't like. But if you like even some small part of it and want to see it continue, it's time to reconsider.

But "it was just the Jets"....

I guess I must have misread it then. I was just saying that bringing up his interception as a way of defending his coverage ability is a bit misleading. He did play a very good game, but from what I saw and read his coverage skills were not his strength in that game.

A pick on a deflected 2-point conversion hardly provides a good counter argument.

Sounds like Humber may be a liability in coverage, so perhaps Jenkins is being brought in as a 3rd down back.

Wow, happy birthday! I didn't think anyone other than Rockpile came close to me in age.

Still don't know how they explained that one.

Just be thankful we didn't have the refs from the Packers-Seahawks game. Brutal.

Well, if there's one thing you can say about the opener against the Jets, it's that one would have hoped the stats would turn out that way against a bad team (although I still think the Jets have a pretty good defense). Carolina's the #3 defense, so if we're looking for a good test of this offense and where it's at, this would be the one.