Koufax

Run run pass! Stay in the pocket! This is great Bledsoe stuff we have here! Allen has to be way faster and had a clean run between LT and LG. And to those who are happy he isn't hurdling people, his injury risk is much higher in a collapsing pocket than it is going +60lb collsion along the sideline.

Only thing better than runs up the middle for no yards is deep high risk passing! Because that controlled completion stuff was working!

Thank goodness we have Dorsey! That throwing the ball 5-10 yards accurately was going to lead to too many touchdowns. Let's run for nothing and then throw deep a bunch! Stupid playcalling. Establish the run later, right now complete the ball on short passes.

What version of a change is best is debatable, but you are exact right here. At some point there was a concerted effort to make him Bledsoe 2.0 at worst, and at best creative outside the pocket but not beyond the line of scrimmage. I think this does two things that hurt the Bills: 1) Prevents him from gaining big yards in key moments, instead of forcing something or taking a sack (feel free to slide or step out of bounds like Mahomes, hurdles and hits not necessary). 2) Recently has defenses sitting back in coverage a little more without the threat of a run. No surprise that Belichick and Daboll know him really well and adjusted for this change, taking away the success when he does throw it after escaping the pocket. I don't like designed runs that put him in harms way and we have moved away from, but the get outside the pocket, and tuck it and run if you don't have something is a huge part of his amazingness. And now on the flip side, you hear a lot of "avoid hits, avoiding risks" as a reason not to run. I completely disagree with the logic here. While I hope he never has a major injury, I'm much more concerned about the types of things that knocked Brady out for a year than him making contact with a defensive back on his own terms. Not quite as simple as this, but I wish we would: 1) Start the games passing only...do not establish the rush. Try to complete as many 5-15 yard passes as possible (he has been hugely successful at these). 2) When those aren't available and something obvious isn't available deeper, get out of the pocket quickly looking for someone to open up and if not to run for whatever is available. 3) Later in the game as we have established the pass and completions, we know what the defense is doing, we get a lighter box, then start to run the ball with Cook. Josh's accuracy and completion percentage have been awesome. Diggs is incredible in the 10-15 get open catch the laser. Kinkaid is has been awesome at getting open intermediate and catching the ball. Our other receivers are pretty solid too. Or Dorsey can keep doing what he is doing and see if he keeps his job...

October misstep by a team that squashed the Fish 48-20. October missteps can cost you home playoff games, but it is one of the best months to deal with some adversity and get past it. If you doubt this offense can do that, you haven't been paying attention (I said can, not will...they have to make it happen). Our defensive injuries (if/when we really get Von back, losing Tre, Milano, etc...) remain a big question mark when stopping Mahomes and stopping the Dolphins are key stepping stones to anything we would consider a successful season. Short week and manageable opponent at home, then mini-bye to right the ship. Find a way to get to 5-3 against the Bucs...

If you wanted Miller for his October impact you will obviously be disappointed. Be patient and let him return from a huge injury. I am happy to be patient and see what he can do for our stretch drive starting Thanksgiving and especially into the playoffs.

Okay, I'm not blaming the Ineligible Man Downfield, because we should focus on Dorsey, and not stopping Mac Jones despite the irrelevant action of the the center on the penalty play. I wouldn't even worry too much if they didn't throw a flag since it would feel like begging and it didn't influence the play. But they did throw a flag, so why did they call it off? Center is across the 26 prior to release, ball was snapped inside the 25. Any rules guys know if there is some technicality that I'm not aware of? Is it because the ball was caught behind the line of scrimmage? Or was this a mistake by the official to call off the flag that was thrown? They never went to any rules official discussion on the telecast as the Pats were in hurry up, but it woudl have been nice had this been enforced.

I definitely don't like firing him, but I really would like a little soul searching and him doing better.

Let's forget about the ineligible downfield and a lot of other things. This game is about two things: 1) Dorsey trying to make Josh be Bledsoe 2.0 and calling too many runs up the middle. Short passing game was there all game long and we have to stop trying to rush up the middle is smart or Josh having 17 rushing yard is a plus. Taking more shots in the pocket than any hurdling a DB risk would be. 2) Defense letting Mac Jones down the field to win it. He made a couple really good plays that you have to live with, including on the Epenesa pressure, but or vaunted secondary couldn't come up with a big play anywhere in that sequence. Would have been such a good ugly win had they somehow pulled it out, but this team needs to change what it is doing, not repeat and hope it works better.

1) Josh moving in the pocket has to be a threat and a danger. 2) Josh has to be willing to run if there is space and no open receiver. We don’t want him hurdling linebackers but can’t be afraid of sidelines and a DB. 3) We need as many completions as possible. Can’t take seven yards if it isn’t open but we need to keep getting yards and continuity with our skill players and not relying on the O Line beating a D Line. We have gotten into Bledsoe 2.0 mode, and we have a lot of weapons to make it work, but that isn’t our best football and the slow starts and inconsistent results are obvious.

That was hard. We are on to New England. Anybody know when the last time the favored team won an NFL game but failed to score as many points as they were favored by?

Guy throws the ball 50 yards and hits his best receiver in both hands, I'm not going to nitpick. Also, I enjoy Josh not running recklessly, but while we are talking playcalling, I don't want many designed runs, but I think there are options to roll out that allow him to run outside the tackles if nobody is open. And I will state this again. Josh initiating contact with a DB or hurdling someone outside the pocket is less of an injury risk than sitting in the pocket. Rough sport, and I'm would like him to be set up to have some options outside the pocket sometimes, and not put a Drew Bledsoe poster on his wall quite yet.

I wrote about it in the other thread, but I played in Europe (another sport) 14 seasons, and remember every trip over there. You have two priorities: 1) Go as early as you can. Every 24 hour window before performance will be a big benefit. 2) Once travel is set and you can't change it to earlier, shift your schedule at home drastically. Individual players choosing 4am jogs Monday morning, Tues/Weds practice as early in the day as allowed. 3) There is no three. Everything goes into the first two. It sucks, but is the way to maximize your Sunday performance in a strange time zone. 4) I never got a chance to do it and always had red-eyes (west coast start), but from NY you can fly morning with an evening arrival, and I would suspect that is easier on sleep schedule.

I thought Elam played better than the outcome of the plays he will be beat up on. Needs to play better and some flaws, but some good throws against him. Tre isn't coming back this season, so right now I am optimistic and glad to have him, even if he isn't going to be a superstar any time soon.

Not a sports science person, but I played a (different) sport in Europe for 14 seasons, and remember each and every travel week to start the season, a few with games shortly after, and a few with some training time to settle in. My thoughts on the travel: Thursday night is unbelievably hard, and if it was a choice by the Bills team, it was a bad choice (if enforced in any way by the NFL, than a tough scenario against a team that was settled in). You want to go as early as you can AND if not, you need to switch your internal clocks and schedules in Orchard Park AS SOON as the Dolphins game is over. That means putting your watch on London time and if that means a 5am walk through on Tuesday, do it. So in summary two points: 1) Make your travel plans as early as allowed, period. Don't put practice schedule or anything else ahead of that. 2) Before travel switch your schedule immediately and don't pretend you can do things on Buffalo time Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday without it impacting you later in the week. I don't think the Bills/NFL did either of these things perfectly. If it is like a Thursday short week against a team coming off a bye...oh well, blame the schedule makers. But whatever part of this was on the Bills side, if they didn't maximize those two items and considered any third factor, bad on them.

I have $27 burning a hole in my pocket Bills Mafia. What are we doing to make this sad moment special and rally around Tre? Let’s figure out how we can make a difference, show him our love and support, and make something great happen in the community between now and when he charges out of the tunnel healthy next year. Who has some ideas or should this get split into a separate thread?

Absolutely. Dorsey called a bad game, but easily good enough to win if not for bad Josh. This game was easy to win with same Dorsey and mediocre Josh...it took really bad Josh to lose. But a good Dorsey would have also been enough to overcome today's bad Josh and put him in a better position to succeed.

Allen is completely to blame, and my first fault here. Good Josh is so good that bad Josh is just crushing, and this was bad Josh. But the playcalling was also atrocious for this defense. Front four pressure up the middle all night, didn't roll out at all, got away from the 8-12 yard possession passes to Diggs and TEs, etc.

Fixed it a little more. 1. Josh 2. Josh 3. Dorsey 4. Josh 5. Dorsey [6-123 see above] 124: bad punt (middle of the field low hang time and would have only netted 40 on a fair catch?) 125: Josh 126: Dorsey

Josh will win us some games, and today it was a turd by him. No sugar coating. Also a turd by Dorsey. That is a very good defense, but it would have taken so little to beat them and be 1-0 right now. Little things, like two missed tackles by White, and a crazy bounce on the TD, a horrible punt at the worst time. But this one is all about Dorsey and Josh having one of the worst games you could have, and the only good news is first game is so much better than last game for it to happen.

Why? This is a very talented football team, and to add an elite pass catcher will be quite useful over the next five year. He is likely to be the best TE in history of the Buffalo Bills as we don't have a big track record, but he doesn't have to be Kelce for this to be a great pick. #27(25) needs to contribute to the team and he will. Have you seen him play? You need to spend #1 picks on very good football players. Obviously very good is more important at QB/Edge/OT/CB in most cases and these positions often go higher. He has to be good at football, and he has to be better than someone who would have been an obvious pick there.

If you think 27 (25) bears on his shoulders pushing us over the edge then you have bough in to the ESPN/NFL promote the off season hype. Be the best player you can be over five years knowing that rookie impact varies. Do that year after year at 25 and I hope pretty soon at 32 and good things happen. I love the upside of this pick. Someone behind him will be better and someone in front of him will be worse. But at the time we pick he was at the top of my board and can have an impact immediate but doesn’t have to. Go Bills.

Talking to a friend who is very high level in another draft room and he said he really likes our pick of Dorian and thinks he might be a monster in our defense. I was complaining saying that I like our first two picks but didn't quite understand our third, and he quickly disagreed. Fingers crossed he is right.

Great teams get to draft great players and that helps them stay great teams even without top-15 picks. Who do you think was available that will be a better player over the next five years? I don’t see anyone. Maybe because the only game I watched was against USC, or maybe because I have been watching so much Kelce the last few years. Knox or past utilization of TEs are bad reasons to select an inferior player. So if you don’t love this pick, name the player for the record so we can all cycle back. Everyone who was here years ago was on Ngata over Whitner, Orakpo over Maybin, but I think we got the best player we could and am excited. Before the pick was made I was really hoping for Kincaid and think he is by far the best pick we could have made.

"Areas of need"? We are good enough to take talent and not get less talent because of a perceived hole in the roster. If you draft for need you are assuring of getting less talent. Hoping we go get some talent.