finn

Sans corrupt referees. I have to say, they're calling a fair game today. After the Philly, game, I'm surprised.

You left out the part about who they're throwing to.

When will the light go for the Bills and they bench Davis? The guy is a liability out there. I don't care if he's a good blocker. Better to put a lineman if you want a blocker. Maybe he'll even catch a ball on occasion.

Well, he shoved him hard two beats after the ball was gone. They almost always call that.

What's the over-under on the first bad call by the officials against the Bills?

The league assigned Dallas homers. I would prefer them to just be honest and give Dallas 14 points outright then arrange a fair game. At least the Bills would have a chance.

The result of the game today was decided the moment the officiating crew was announced, just like in the Philly game. The NFL has found a formula to produce the result they want without risk to them: Pick crews that will favor one team over the other, then fine the hell of out of any coach or player who objects. Helps to have idiots like Reid and Mahomes complain loudly about legitimate calls. I'd say there's just one way the Bills can win, and that's if they absolutely blow Dallas out of the water. If the game is remotely competitive, the refs will ensure Dallas wins.

True confessions: When the Bills are down and the other team is driving, I often just follow the comments sections here, which run ahead of the time-lagged game. If there's a good play from the Bills, I go back to the game to catch it. Otherwise, I just wait till the offense takes the field again. Can't stand seeing my team getting beat.

Does this mean the book will hire the refs to put their their thumbs on the scale?

I did. He sounded frustrated, which is understandable, but he's got to keep that to himself. It may not be fair to say he was complaining exactly, but that is how the media is framing it, naturally, and it's a potential distraction for a team that doesn't need more distractions. You'd think he'd have learned from last summer's experience to just say bland things like Allen and others. Who cares if he's frustrated? What matters is that the team wins.

The opposite may be true, actually. Mahomes did everyone a disservice by complaining about a perfectly correct call, making legitimate complaints seem like must more whining. He used a lot of capital for no reason except to indulge his petulance.

It's a bad look to get a lot of targets, produce little, and drop the ball--then complain to the media.

Or 21 if the horse collar had been called, or even intentional grounding not called.

The Narrative now is Mahomes is the best quarterback playing, period. But looking over these stats, you have to consider that until last year, he was throwing to TWO future Hall of Fame receivers in Hill and Kelce. Has there ever been a quarterback with two HOF receivers? Seems to me that always be a caveat accompanying the incessant, breathless praise of Mahomes. Even a middling QB like Tua can put up star numbers with two excellent receivers. Maybe I should whisper this: "Mahomes is overrated!"

I like Lawson and of course Floyd, but Settle, Addison, Poona Ford aren't contributing much. I keep thinking about how Beane might have put the money he's spending on them, together with Harty's salary, and spent it on DeAndre Hopkins. The numbers probably don't add up, though. Ford especially was cheap. Plus, who would replace them? I'm just lamenting that our wide receiver depth is so thin. Diggs and.... crickets. Shakier is the only bright spot.

I agree there is no league-wide conspiracy to influence games. Too risky. But I think the "little biases and preferences" play a far larger role than most people think. There's a reason betting on sports was illegal until 2018: human beings are easily corrupted, and no one is easier to corrupt than referees, who can so easily argue that this or that call was justified, or they didn't see a given offence. Money aside, a given ref might just want his team to win. What's to stop him from not seeing, say, a horse-collar tackle when his team is in trouble, and instead seeing intentional grounding? Or throwing 15 flags on one team and one on the other? So there's outrage. So what? It's all forgotten in a week, and you helped your team win. In fact, my biggest concern Sunday is not the matchup, but the refs deliberately calling holding to stall Bills' drives and pass interference to keep Cowboys' drives alive.

What little I've seen of Rapp, he reminds me of Damar Hamlin. Lots of aggression, no instincts or feel for coverage.

But other teams aren't always smart with the contracts they offer. The Gabe Davis name may still have enough cache from the 13-second game that teams may not see that he's no more than a blocking receiver. Let's hope so, because I would say he's a net liability on this team, his blocking and locker-room presence outweighed by his unreliability as a pass catcher. Davis has a catch rate of 56.5% Shakir has an NFL-best catch rate of 83.9%. How many drives this season would have resulted in scores if Shakir had replaced Davis? How many more drives will Davis kill this season? People remember his handful of clutch plays, but they don't see that he's often just taking up space on the field, keeping a potentially more effective weapon on the bench. He's been doing this his whole career with the Bills, save for that small number of plays, which are due as much or more to Allen's perfect passes. Since he became a starter, he's held back the Bills. Time to say goodbye.

Any thoughts on Benford moving to safety if Elam works out? He has the requisite size, speed, and zone skills. Not a new idea, I know; I'm just trying to remember if there was a logical objection. Moving him to safety would allow Beane to use his first draft pick on a WR and move on from Davis, upgrading two positions and saving a lot of money to boot. Might still need a second safety, though.

Having Davis on the team is like having the second-best hand in poker: good enough to lose with.

Did you his whiff on the first throw from scrimmage last game? Allen got the pass off to Cook for a big gain, but only with the DE in his face, courtesy of Brown, who was faked out of his jock strap and fell to the ground. That's our "better than average" right tackle. He's been so awful, mediocre/awful looks good to us. Hoping that Van Demark or Tommy Doyle can replace him next year. He represents a serious weakness on the team.

Weirdly, this is the best Bills news I've heard in a while.

Is Hamlin really that bad to stay on the bench even though Poyer and Hyde are barely hanging on? Yes, he was a liability when he played, pre-injury. But surely he's developed since then, right? Of course, we've been wondering the same thing about Elam. Could be McDermott's judgment is wrong. Or it could be both players just aren't very good.

I remember Reed being a different player in the Super Bowl against the Giants after they hit him again and again.

The trouble is, he's taking someone else potentially more effective off the field, say another pass-rusher or DB. If he can be handled by a single tackle on all but two of his snaps, that works a lot better for the other team than for the Bills. I realize the Bills are trying to strike a balance between getting him back into form and playing an ineffective player. Given their record since he's been playing, I'm not sure the investment has paid off. But if they make the playoffs, and Miller gets back even close to being the player he was, it probably will have been worth having him basically do his rehab on the field all this time.