finn

I'm sorry, guys, but this is just not a good team right now. Receivers, tight ends, kicker, quarterback, pass rush, secondary, play calling...they're just average most places and not elite anywhere. Just being objective.

Brady knows they know that he knows that they know he knows that he knows they know he always runs on first down, so he runs on first down to fake them out.

At least they have Mack Hollins wonderful presence in the locker room. Did you know he goes barefoot even in cold weather? That should count for something.

It was an excellent punt. The gunners didn't do their job.

And considering that when Mahomes got off the bench after learning for a year, he found himself throwing to not one but TWO future HOF receivers, while Allen was throwing to Zay Jones and a washed-up Kelvin Benjamin, it's even more impressive.

Psychology is a weird thing. I wonder if Bass has declined precisely because the team has showed such faith in him up to now, with his mechanics getting worse and worse the more his teammates and coaches have rallied around him. Might be hard to regain one's swagger in that atmosphere. You're not cocky in response to sympathy; you're grateful, guilty, frustrated, and helpless, more of a weepy limp noodle than a fierce warrior with a chip on his shoulder. You can't go into a critical kick terrified you're going to let your friends down; that just doesn't work. No idea how he would get his swagger back. Frankly, I see him only getting worse, not better. If I'm Beane, I'd be looking at the worst teams with the best kickers.

It's more likely he'll return to his pre-suspension form: a pass-rushing specialist who comes in on third and long and can generate some heat. I'll take that. If the Bills are incrementally better everywhere than they've been this year, via getting back key players back and adding a few more--that's all they should need to be SB contenders. We're seeing it happen already with the emergence of Davis, the addition of Cooper, and the return of Taron and Bernard. If they stay healthy and add just two more pieces--a safety and a kicker--they're as good as anyone in the league. It's probably too much to ask that Bishop will develop into a starter or that Beane will trade for a quality safety. But it's critical that they have a reliable kicker, one way or another. That has to be their focus.

Yes, essentially we traded Diggs for Cooper, with the small additional salary (the $807k) offset by a getting a second-round pick for a third and a sixth for a seventh. In this light, it was a slam dunk on Beane's part.

Things may be coming together for the Bills after a 4-2 start that easily could have been 2-4. The Cook-Davis-Johnson trio behind a very good line is an exciting development, and now they have a truly high-caliber receiving corps in Cooper, Shakir, Coleman, Samuels, and Hollins, with Kincaid and Knox as potentially dangerous weapons also. Williams is balling, Bernard and Taron are back, and Miller is returning soon, along with Milano (hopefully) in time for the playoffs. The only concerns are safety and kicker. They might be ok with Hamlin and Rapp, but you can't go far with an unreliable kicker. That appears to be the only urgent concern now.

Right. It's like Diggs went on IR for six games, saw the error of his diva ways, and returned a team player--and a year younger. Meanwhile, the Browns, feeling unaccountably generous to its neighbor up north, decided to trade one of their second-round picks for our third next year for no particular reason. Beane is a genius.

Joe Buscaglia over at The Athletic has looked at the All-22 film and says Hamlin plays way too far back to keep things in front of him. That usually works, but at the expense of a lot of completions a more aggressive and athletic safety would deny. I hope they see him as a placeholder until Bishop learns the position or Edwards does something. (What happened with Edwards, anyway? Did Beane just flat-out overestimate his abilities?)

Given the cap hit for releasing him, I'd sign another kicker and assign a kicking guru to work with, someone who understands the psychology of kicking. If he regains his early form, he's an asset. Meanwhile, start scouting college kickers for next year.

Totally agree. History will laugh at that the Narrative had Lamar and Mahomes better---better!--than this centaur of a player.

They're 5-0 and defending Super Bowl champions BECAUSE they get a pass.

Meanwhile, whoever was announcing last week's KC game said that Mahomes' six interceptions were an illusion and that he's playing great ball. So Allen has zero interceptions and we hear about how many he threw last year and how many he could have thrown this year, and Mahomes DOES throw as many picks as TDs and everyone is making excuses for him. That's the power of narrative.

The Bass-McDermott contingent is waiting for the opportunity.

The refs would make the kick for the Jets if they could.

Teams deliberately set up third and long against the Bills because they know they'll fold. Third and two, they'll stop.

Underneath the flags, it's a good game.

God, I wish we had Garrett Wilson on this team.

I realize Hollins and Knox caught TDs, but both of them have been net negatives in this game.

I wish him the best, and I wish he was on the practice squad.

Brown, go take a seat next to Bass. You deserve each other.

Bass would have missed that kick.

A whole lot of late money tilted the line toward the Jets. Any connection?