Dr. K

The fan was out of line. I don't blame Jackson for a second.

Annie Oakley (1860-1926) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Oakley She played for the original Buffalo Bill.

I can see that they might have called roughing because the refs frequently do on clean plays, but realistically, there was only a fraction of a second between when Lamar released the pass and Oliver hit him. No way could Oliver have held up at that point. It was a brutal but clean hit.

I was stunned and amazed at the Bills comeback. It produced one of the most memorable games I've ever seen by the team. After the high of the win wears off, however, I think most of us see that the Bills have some serious problems going forward. If the Bills defense plays the way they did for the first three quarters of the game, they are going to have a season like the Bengals last season and miss the playoffs. The offense struggled but at least, with Allen, made some plays and managed to score 19 points through three quarters. But the defense was awful. Physically overmatched, and the Ravens did whatever they wanted as if they were men playing boys. Serious issues with both run and pass defense. I think they can be better, but I'm not convinced those weaknesses aren't fundamental. McDermott and Babich have their work cut out for them. They are not going to stop any good team playing the way they did last night. They say the first game of the season is a liar. The result of this game are no indication that the Bills are going to go to any Super Bowls.

This was a great and ridiculous win. The Bills were totally outplayed--at least on defense--though most of the game. I don't know what you can predict about the rest of the season from this result. The Bills have to fix their defense. There are 16 more games to go. The Bills are likely to have to play the Ravens again and they have to be better. Who knows what the rest of the season will be like. But right now that doesn't matter. One of the happiest postgame feelings I've had in sixty years of following this team.

I've been watching this team since the 1960s. I have never seen anything like that.

I loved seeing the Chiefs lose, but I will not overreact to game one of the NFL season. Too soon to draw any big conclusions.

I would emphasize your use of the word "judiciously." Count me as most definitely against the "throwing chairs through windows" theory of coaching. I've been watching the game for sixty years and I think the emotional speakers and dramatic actors wear out their schtick pretty fast. Once you throw one chair through a window what do you do next? Throw a sofa? Throw a baby? It becomes performance, and players see through that. Marv Levy was not a "throw chairs through windows" coach. He might express anger or frustration, but if you compare him to other head coaches he was way on the intellectual side, quoting Tacitus and poems to inspire his players. Look at the coaches who have been the most successful: Bill Walsh was way cerebral. Don Shula. Hell, even Belichick was more an strategic than an emotional leader. McDermott's psychological style tends more "cool" than "hot." Compare the culture of the team and locker room under him vs. that of his predecessor, the much more theatrical Rex Ryan. We'll see how the team responds after the Chicago fiasco.

Wow. The backups look terrible.

I liked the anecdote McDermott told about the coach throwing the chair through the window to motivate the players before the game . . . and then, next week, he had nothing. That's a crucial difference, I think, between steady leadership and what I'd call "performative" leadership. A lot of people are attracted to the "throw chairs through windows" leaders, but IMHO that is fool's gold. It may work for a game, or even for a season, but it's not a consistent winning strategy, as anybody who has had such a boss can tell you.

There's a contingent of Bills fans who somehow think that if a coach yells a lot and gets angry, he must be good. Sort of like Matt Patricia, who went 13-29 with the Lions.

Loved that. I was a physics major at the U of R. 9.8 meters per second squared! He even knew Galileo was from Pisa!

I meant no disrespect.

It's "fared," believe it or not. A synonym for "ate." When you say someone "fared well" you're saying they "ate well." Appropriate metaphor for a team where "everyone eats."

I've had the same questions about Cooper. He seemed like a fit for the locker room, and he made a few plays, but he did not get thrown to anywhere near as much as I'd expected. Do Josh or Brady not trust him? Does Cooper think that the Bills were not using him properly, or have his skills deteriorated, or is it a matter of money? Seems weird that he's not been on the radar.

Does this suggest that the Bills consider Tre White better than Rasul Douglas at this point?

I was at that Houston game where Haygood Clark ran back the interception to win the game in the last minute.

I'm still trying not to think about it.

To a degree, yes. I'm sure I'll still feel awful if they lose a heartbreaker--there've been so many--but I've enjoyed this season more than any in a long time, and life will go on.

I'll feel better if they can keep Kelce from being open in the middle of the field without any defender within five yards of him.

I am overjoyed the Bills won that game despite giving up as many yards as they did in the earlier Ravens game where they got beaten by 25 points. The Ravens really looked like the better team much of the game, but the Bills still won--it reminds me of the way the Chiefs have won crucial games, and the way the Patriots regularly beat teams who played well enough against them that they should have won. I am very curious as to how they are going to come out against the Chiefs.

I really want the Bills to win in order for them to go to Arrowhead and beat the Chiefs on their home turf. Tomorrow is a big deal.

Having spent entirely too much time in the last couple of days reading and listening to what the commentators are saying about the Ravens and Bills, the consensus seems to be that Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson are unstoppable, the Ravens are the greatest team since the Monsters of the Midway, and the Bills should just curl up into the fetal position and beg for mercy. What the point of even playing the game, let alone watching it? /s

Well said. That KC loss hurts whenever I think of it, but there's not a team in the league that doesn't have losses that keep their fans awake at night twenty years after the fact. People who obsess about such moments (I've been one) can never move forward, and cannot see clearly the dozens of other choices and chances that go into every victory or loss. McDermott is a better coach than such people are capable of seeing. And the hypothetical coach they want to replace him will always be somebody who has never made, and will never make, any of the crucial mistakes that real coaches do.

Teams (not just the Bills) do that so that, if the drive fails, they don't leave enough time on the clock for the opponent to drive the length of the field and score.