Cash

Do we just stink now?

Hear me out - how about a guy who sucks? I'll pass, thanks. I don't know the safety situation around the league, but it seems like our only viable trade target would have to be an aging-but-not-washed veteran, on a bad team, probably in the last year of his deal or otherwise on a cheap deal cap-wise. And probably the price we're offering is around a 6th round pick or a little more. I'm not sure if there's anyone around the league who fits that bill and represents a clear upgrade over our starters, but if there is I'm all for it.

I haven't given up (yet?) on Bishop being a plus player this season. Keep in mind that he wasn't able to practice for the vast majority of training camp and all of preseason. So from a rookie development perspective, he's something like 6 weeks behind. There are a lot of rookies that need like 4-6 weeks of the regular to start acclimating to the pro game and contributing positively on a regular basis. There's a very realistic scenario where Bishop gets better every week until he's ready to be a plus (or at least not-minus) starter. If he hasn't gotten in the lineup by around the bye week, I'll start losing hope for Bishop contributing this year, but not until then.

Those questions are the worst, yeah. I assume it’s always because the reporter in question has written about XYZ player in his gamer already and needs a quote to fill in for a placeholder. I understand where they’re coming from in terms of making their job as easy as possible, but there’s a reason I don’t read many gamers any more.

Speaking of Madden, the screenshotted play is basically 9 Velcro with “coverage deep” on, except that in the game your D-ends stay on the line pre-snap. As for the Hail Mary itself, I hated the play call as soon as they lined up after the defensive timeout. I didn’t need the TV montage to know that Rodgers is the best HM thrower in the NFL. The key is that he throws it super high, so if his receiver posts up at the right spot, it’s basically impossible to knock down. I expect McDermott and Babich to also know this. So, knowing this, how best to defend Aaron Rodgers? I’m not sure, but I’m sure that the worst thing you can do is give him time to wind up unmolested and throw the exact ball he wants to throw. The 2 man rush guaranteed that Rodgers would have exactly that opportunity. I could have lived with a 4 man rush, a 3 man rush (especially if a 4th comes on a delay), or some sort of blitz (like send 5 or 6 and everyone else is in the end zone), but that plan was unacceptable under the circumstances. McDermott said in his halftime interview that they were playing the sideline. That’s dumb. Let them have the sideline. They’re already at a perfect distance for Rodgers to reach the end zone, and you can live with a 50+ FG attempt in swirling winds if you have to. Job 1 needs to be defending against the TD.

I'd even take that a step farther. Everything I've read about our two losses (and the eye test) suggests that opposing defenses are having great success clogging the middle of the field and daring us to win outside. To date, we haven't done much winning outside, and there's no reason to think we were going to start. The only guy who plausibly might develop into an outside threat this year is Coleman, and even if he does that's probably not enough. If Cooper works out, it should hopefully force defenses out of the "cover 0 or single high with a spy" defenses that have worked well thus far. Even if he doesn't work out, you're still looking at Allen's desperation heaves being thrown at Cooper instead of Mack Hollins. That makes me feel even better about the price we paid. Dotson is young, but also he sucks. Being young just means he'll get to keep sucking for a while before falling out of the league. Cooper is barely on the wrong side of 30, but looked great last year and shouldn't hit a wall for another year or two. Realistic possibilities: -Cooper plays well for us and re-signs to a 1 or 2 year deal. I would still want to draft a WR next year; just wouldn't have to be 1st or 2nd round. -Cooper balls out this year and we can't afford him. In that case, we're getting maybe a 4th round comp pick in 2026? We still need to draft a WR high, but this also makes the trade cheaper on our end. -Cooper is just okay or sucks, and has to sign a 1 year "prove it" deal somewhere. This would suck, but is also a risk well worth taking.

Agreed. Some people are pretty flat or down most of the time - low energy - but can flare up when they get angry or whatever. That's kinda worst of both worlds when it comes to a leader/boss. I wasn't around Dorsey day-to-day obviously, so I don't know if he fits that bill. But it's definitely a personality type that's out there, and it seems like it might've described Dorsey during his tenure as OC. I wasn't bothered by the meltdown at the time... with the caveat that if that's a pattern that persists, it's really bad. Having one (1) meltdown after a legitimately brutal loss in one of your first games as OC shows fire & passion. Having a second meltdown, pretty much no matter what, means he didn't learn from the first one.

Or insist that Thursday games come ONLY after a bye week or another Thursday game - so you could play TNF and Thanksgiving in back-to-back weeks but otherwise would need to be coming off a bye. The owners wouldn't want to do it, but it's the right move whether they want it or not. Not everything needs to be about increasing revenue IMO.

I noticed that too. The other possibility is that they think Clapp can play OT in a pinch, but I can't recall hearing about Clapp liniing up at OT at any point of training camp.

I dunno, what does “that tough a catch” mean? I already said it has to be considered a drop; there’s no disputing that. But Saquon’s drop on that 3rd down last week? That was way worse. Saquon’s drop came on a a catch like Cook’s 4th down conversion last week - wide open; just jogging; and a quick but soft throw that the receiver could see the whole time. Compare that to Cook’s drop on Monday: still wide open, sprinting all out for 5+ yards, not knowing if he’d get there or not; and having to spot a much faster ball over his shoulder. There’s no disputing that’s a harder catch than the one Saquon should’ve caught. If Cook has another one of those drops this year, I’ll be way more worried than I am right now. As long as he keeps making the easy ones every single time, I can forgive the hard ones.

Pretty significant improvement from last year to this year, IMO. Allen has always been pretty shaky on those WR screens - one of the reasons we never got much traction is that Allen often put the ball at the WR's feet - and that hurts RAC even if the WR catches it. Through 3 games, he's been excellent at throwing them quickly and with great ball placement. (Having improved blockers at WR in Hollins and Coleman also helps, as does having better RAC players catching in Shakir and Samuel vs Business Decision Diggs last year.) I remember after the playoff loss last year, I was chatting with another Bills fan, and the topic of Josh's game came up. He semi-rhetorically asked how Josh could get better at this point. I took it seriously, and came back with screen passes, deep shots, and risk-based judgment. So far this year, Allen looks way better than last year on 1 & 3, and about the same on 2 although the sample size is extremely small there. Still TBD are his RB screens; I don't think we've run one yet this year.

It should be! But I've seen teams come out looking like their top priority is keeping the other team's offense off the field. Sometimes that leads to scores anyway, but more frequently it leads to run-run-pass with no margin for error on 3rd down.

Agreed. I class it as a tough catch that still counts as a drop. Great effort to get to the ball, would've been a major highlight-reel if he caught it, but ultimately the ball went through his hands and that has to be counted as a drop. Much less concerning than his TD drops last year.

Agreed! Ravens look scariest when they play 2 TE with Henry in the backfield, and they can run Henry, run Lamar, or do playaction. But they take Henry out when they're in passing mode. If we get up 2 scores, I think we see more Justice Hill than Henry. I don't care how much time we take, or whether it's on the ground or through the air, but the priority on offense should be scoring TDs every time out.

Per the first 2 websites that came up when I googled, tonight's referee is Shawn Smith. I have no idea if that's good or bad.

I stopped listening to his podcast once it moved from a dialogue to a monologue, but even in the dialogue days it was getting to be a tough listen sometimes. Back when we were still fairly inept through McDermott's first couple years, it was a great listen. But Joe never seemed to fully adjust from "the Bills are a national joke" to "the Bills are legitimate Super Bowl contenders". Example: he kept using the same post-game awards (nearly all of which were for negative things) well into Allen's and the team's ascendancy. It was cringy listening to him give out 3 awards mocking Bills for playing bad or not showing up when the game was like 41-10 Bills.

Ed O!

Yes, and I’d add his playoff experience as another factor.

I largely agree with this, but would add that this could be the week for a deep shot to connect.

I agree with this. The "any given Sunday" part is very real, as said adamantly by a couple posters upthread. NFL teams are all super good, and even a bad team (on their best day) is good enough to beat just about anyone, unless that someone is a better team also on their best day. And the players, while absolutely the best of the best of the best, are still human beings and fundamentally imperfect. Is it possible for some (probably not all) players to be less than their best on a given week, because they're either overconfident after a big win, or because they're mentally unfocused due to already starting to think about the following week's matchup? Yeah, that's possible. I would imagine it happens some of the time, to some of the players. (Not necessarily the same guys every time.) Is that enough to produce a quantifiable statistical effect for either "trap games" or "letdown games"? Clearly not, because we can't find either! But there's a lot of noise in there - these guys are professionals, most are capable of fully focusing on the upcoming opponent with no letdown or distractions, AND crappy teams don't always play well enough to take advantage of a mental lapse by a favorite.

Great post! RE: Samuel - I think some of it is gameplan specific, but I also think they’re trying to limit his snaps to give his turf toe the best chance to heal fully.

Agreed. It looked to me like QB/WR not being on the same page, rather than a missed throw. Without knowing how they're being coached, there's no way for us to know if it was someone making the wrong read or just two equally valid but different reads. A missed opportunity to be sure, but not shocking considering the lack of preseason time and MVS being new to the team.

The speed rush that got him the sack looked great. And the spin move the replayed, though it didn't quite get home, was an absolute thing of beauty and forced a rushed throw.

I'd give one to Baylon Spector. Came in unexpectedly due to injury, played almost the whole game as QB of the defense, and did a very respectable job. Big reason we won is that our defense got better throughout the game.

Exactly! I was saying this during the game. The guy next to me at the bar was moaning about we "could've had Worthy", and fine, whatever. But he did concede that we've seen guys make those contested catches against us a million times, but we haven't had one of those made for us in pretty much Allen's whole career. It's nice to have a guy who can win even when the corner has good coverage. I was also pleasantly surprised by his snap count - leading all Bills WRs. I think the coaching staff has a lot of trust in him already, which bodes well. He's a good blocker, a potential deep threat (as we saw on his big catch), and can chip in some RAC as well. Agreed. So far, Worthy seems like mostly a gadget guy, and a really good one. Andy Reid will make great use of him, I'm sure. Having that speed to keep the safeties deep wouldn't be bad, but I think the Bills had an even greater need for a guy like Coleman.