finn

Probability still says the Bills will win.

The injury risk isn't from him running, it's from being frozen in the pocket because he's been forbidden to run.

He's seeing Spencer Brown.

Remind me: Have the Bills ever stopped a team on third down?

My only hope (if they trade him) is they sell him as someone with a skill set that doesn't work for the Bills but would for another team.

Especially turf toe, which can end a player's season. It's no joke.

Causing his players to lose confidence seems to be a McDermott specialty. Cook, Elam, Allen, maybe Dorian Williams... Rather than work with what they're good at, he wants them to fit his conception of a good player, and that damages their development. Or is that unfair?

Not McDermott. He would be satisfied with anyone who can hand the ball off, not take sacks, and get close enough to the end zone so they can kick a field goal. He has one of the most effective running quarterbacks in NFL history, and he wants him to be a pocket passer.

Agree. McDermott doesn't care about an explosive offense. He wants to win with defense, a strong run game, and a reliable kicker. He's been gifted Secretariat and wants to use him as a plough horse.

I think this is an accurate take. McDermott appears to have laid down the law: No more Allen runs. From his perspective, the restriction makes sense: run the ball, throw short passes, let the defense do its thing. His fervent dream: Allen as game manager. But look at it from Allen's perspective: His opponents are taking away the deep ball, his own coach is taking away his running, he has just one quality receiver, his line sucks, and the play calling is predictable and dull, no fun at all. No wonder he's rather be playing golf. The guy has been bequeathed one of the most gifted QBs of all time, and he's shuIt's like making Secretariat pull wagons.

Thought experiment: How would Mike McDaniels, Andy Reid, or Kyle Shanahan do with Josh Allen as their quarterback? Now you see the problem. And he's not going away soon.

1 catch for six yards. For the WR 2.

I never did find out what happened to Dorian Williams. Was he injured or pulled out?

I love this idea. That might really shake up the malaise that seems to have settled in. Can Kincaid and Andy Isabelle really perform worse that these mediocrities?

The D gets a pass with those injuries. The offensive problems are really all about Dorsey, who is always one step behind the defensive coordinators he's facing: always reactive, rarely proactive. Even with a competent right tackle and reliable second receiver, this offense would not all that much better with Dorsey at the helm. It was expedient and good politics to hire from within, but it might have been the biggest blunder of the McBeane era. And after these past two games, it might finally--finally--be dawning on McDermott and Beane that the Bills won't make it to the Super Bowl with Dorsey. Unless the lose the next two, though, or maybe three, he's going nowhere until the offseason.

I think so, too. McDermott may or may not be head-coaching material (or SB coaching material), but he's a top-five defensive coordinator. He could lose two other starters and still hold the pats under 20. If we only had a top-five offensive coordinator...

Did I miss that? I thought he was still allowing four or five pressures a game.

I wouldn't mind Boogie around now. So did the Giants. Just saying.

And so young!

Bills 20 Pats 17 Another nail-biter.

I always wonder whether team-wide poor performances like this--the mistakes here and there adding up--are due to preparation, team apathy, distraction, etc., or they're the result of a cascade effect. Gabe Davis doesn't trip, for example, and Allen hits him for a 30-yard gain that excites the crowd, leading Brown to focus just a bit more on his blocking and Knox on his catching. Really hard to know for sure. As an amateur athlete, I have off days that I just can't explain, and sometimes they seem to cause my teammates to lose focus, too. Works the other way, too. A single great play can change everything. In other words, the difference between a very bad and very good game might be very slim indeed. If true, some or most of the media pronouncements about the quality of a team or player could be just plain wrong.

I don't know. It looked to me that Davis and Sherfield both tripped over their own feet. The DB's hand might have brushed Davis' leg, but it looked like he was going down, anyway.

Except Von Miller's. I don't blame Beane or Miller; pure hindsight, so it's not about Beane's judgment or Miller's play. But the fact is Miller got a gigantic contract for eight games of high-level production. It's not at all clear he'll be back to form this year, and he'll be 35 next year. Imagine spending that money on, say, Davante Adams.

Good observation. In this game, the offense wasn't as bad as it seems, and the defense wasn't as good as it seems. Another plain observation that might cut through the smoke: On offense, Bills have two superstars and a bunch of average players, along with an average OC. We're seeing the results, for better and worse.

Are you referring to his string of run plays? That was good to see. Wish he had thought to do that earlier in the game.