finn

I'm not sure the real experts underestimated Allen that egregiously. Do we know of any teams that had him lower than the second round? They knew about his upside but also knew taking him high was a gamble, which it was at the time. The "experts" in the media are another matter. They've learned they don't need to watch tape, meet the player or consider intangibles like motivation, competitiveness and football intelligence. Their job is to f*llate the darling of the day (Mayfield, in that draft) and parrot other "experts" on the other picks, which evidently is what fans want to read. And they're the ones, most of them, who are still refusing to acknowledge they were wrong.

Yes, me too. Same size, mobility and big arm. Plus, if his team was down late in the fourth quarter, you knew almost with certainty that Elway would bring them back. Allen is displaying that same trait. Not sure Elway was as accurate as Allen has been these past three games, though. That's Allen's upside: A more accurate Elway. Wow.

Good stuff. I wish Turner didn't have the voice of a 13-year old. Allen is an anomaly, and it's interesting to consider why. Plenty of other big, physically talented QBs have come into the league, and plenty of others have been as intelligent, coachable, eager to learn, selfless and competitive as Allen. But we've never seen these traits combined in one player. It's unprecedented. That package gives him the potential to be the best of all time.

This is the key, I think. Other quarterbacks have had equally impressive physical gifts--think of JaMarcus Russell and Ryan Leaf, for instance--but rarely do you see one with these kind of gifts AND a burning desire to improve, together with humility and intelligence. Quite a package!

Did anyone else notice the uncharacteristic pass Allen through t Diggs halfway through the fourth quarter, the one where Diggs took a big hit? Aside from a few incomplete fades into the end zone last year, I can't recall Allen actually lofting a pass instead of rifling it as hard as he can. All last year fans were begging him to put some air under the ball as you see all the great quarterbacks do. Is he finally catching on? That was a beautiful pass, very Mahomes-like. May it continue!

You can see in this Jets thread the narrative that's just now forming and will be everywhere soon: Allen is good only because he's surrounded by talent, with no acknowledgment that last two years he had mediocre talent around him (on offense). He can't win.

He'll suck all season and all season the writers will make excuses for him while glorifying what little success he has. The nausea continues.

I agree Darnold isn't going anywhere. He's a very good quarterback. Mayfield and Rosen are the busts. Allen and Darnold will be the success stories.

I agree that it's hard to hear the same people who piously condemn these protests as as unpatriotic turn around and cheer a president who sneers at the military as losers and suckers. There's a saying, "No one belongs to a cult." Trump supporters, at least those who display this degree of cognitive dissonance, don't realize they belong to a cult and are behaving like cult members. All criticism of Our Dear Leader is invalid. He is noble, strong and brave. He fights for us. He loves us. He is the Messiah. It's like fricking North Korea or China under Mao. And it's happening here! .

Reminds me more of Mean Joe Greene, for the old timers out there. Same size, ferocity, power and relentlessness.

Forgot the shoulders, just put some more air under the ball. Compare Allen's deep ball to Mahomes: Allen throws it on a rope, which means if it's off just a bit the receiver will miss it. Mahomes lofts it in a pretty arc so the receiver can run under it.

Why pick a Singletary clone with a high pick? At least choose someone with complementary skills. A banger, for instance.

This I have noticed. How can they judge a play if they don't know the players' respective assignments and, as you say, the context of down, distance, personnel, situation, etc. Plus, they grade many of Allen's throws as interception-worthy without grasping that he has the arm to make them, the whole point of the frequent comment that he is "one of the few quarterbacks who can make that throw." I wonder how much time they put into their analysis.

This is as a good an opportunity as any to ask a question that I've always wanted to ask: Why is this board down on PFF? I'm not defending them, just curious.

As I recall Vosean didn't shine in camp or preseason. The word on him was inconsistent: terrific plays mixed with blown coverages and overrun plays. Also small. Probably no coincidence they stashed him on IR. I don't think Bean would assume he can start next year; more likely he'll be allowed to compete with a FA and/or mid-round draft pick. But you never know. If they get a pass rusher and top WR in free agency and draft a WR in the first round, they could go for a OLB in the second round.

It's normal, even inevitable, to foreground the negative when your team loses. But they could easily have won, not just because they were the better team (as the OP points out), but that they played better, too. The difference was the home crowd. I don't think it was Texans adjusting at halftime or even the Bills being too conservative overall, but rather the crowd getting into it after the Watt sack and Houston feeding off that energy. If you've ever played a sport before a big crowd you know how that can pump you up and make you a better player. Conversely, it's hard to keep your play strong when you sense the momentum shifting, such as after Allen's fumble. The refs are human, and they, too, were inevitably influenced by the crowd. (This isn't empty speculation: the phenomenon has been documented. See Scorecasting by Tobias Moskowitz, for example.) In other words, play this game at home or at a neutral site, and the Bills win. So Bills fan should temper their emotions with a dose of rationality. The Bills don't suck, Allen isn't a bust, and the coaches aren't any dumber than any of the other playoff coaches. (Good god, can you imagine the grief the Houston coaches would have gotten for going for it on fourth down and basically snatching defeat (or OT) from the jaws of victory?). They're fine. I think the lesson here is not be less conservative overall but be less conservative in spots, like going for it on fourth down in at least two occasions (not the fourth and 27!).

Yet people are criticizing Daboll's running-play calls on second down in the fourth quarter. He must shake his head. A game of inches and either you're a genius or an idiot, for exactly the same body of work. Anyway, Singletary is terrific and a key building block on offense. They're pretty close, just a WR, backup RB and maybe RT away, along with better depth. This would have been a different season with just one more competent WR.

I agree that he jumped too early but not that it was a bad throw. It was exactly on the money. Those kinds of drops and non-catches have plagued Allen all year, contributing to the "Allen isn't accurate" trope. Smurf receivers with bad hands backed up by practice squad players, that's what Allen has had all year. Is it any wonder he tries to do too much? Who else is going to make a play for him?

So all the good or incredible things the Bills did--the touchdown call, the huge screen to Singletary, Allen's incredible across-the-body throw on the run, the beautiful pass to Williams in the end zone, the seven sacks, shutting down one of the best WRs in the game, all the excellent plays and calls and stops are mere givens. Praising or savoring them amounts to giving out "participation trophies," as is the mere fact that the Bills got to the playoffs at all with that thin offense. Not enough! You're like a spoiled kid. "The ice cream is too melty!! And it's the wrong flavor!" Yes, it hurts they couldn't close the deal, but "heads should roll"? Spit on players that fought their hearts out and gave us an incredibly exciting season? What's wrong with you?

He did well for a practice-squad player, which is what he is and should be on most NFL rosters. On the Bills', he should have been active all year, which underlines how much the Bills needed that last piece. A few weeks ago here I wondered if Beane and McDermott were surprised at this run and wished they had added that last key player, and I was assured this wasn't the case, that the current roster was all part of the process. That was the Koolaid talking. I think they were surprised and did regret not adding somebody better than Foster and Williams (i.e, virtually any warm body). No blame: great they did better than anyone expected. The cruelty here is that they and Allen are enduring scorn across the league--and on this board--for not doing WAY WAY better than expected (one way is not enough). I mean, Allen was came into the league as raw as any QB ever, probably, and he takes the team to the playoffs in his second year with only two receivers and a rookie tight end. Duke Williams is the Carwell Gardner or Keith McKellar of this offense, a guy everyone desperately wants to be good and is simply not.

This is fair. It's just that we saw Michael Vick and RG III do much the same and receive the same hype and then fade into oblivion. Also (speaking for myself), adulation is annoying. Living in Brady country, I hear it all the time. In place of cool, objective analysis commentators try to outdo each other praising the Patriots and especially Brady. I suppose jealousy is another factor: I wouldn't mind Allen getting more love. Finally, I sincerely believe Jackson will be figured out soon. As a fan wrote on the Ravens board, the Bills made the Ravens look like they had a gimmick offense. I do think he's more gifted as a runner than Vick, RG III, Randall Cunningham, Steve Young and others, but he's nowhere near as good a passer as the top QBs in the league. Yeah, yeah, 36 tds, etc., but, as many people have pointed out, virtually all of these are based on his scrambling or fear of his scrambling. That's to his and the Ravens' credit, but it suggests that if you shut down his running, take away the middle-field throws to his tight ends and force him to throw outside, his effectiveness will diminish, maybe a lot. In the meantime, I plan to enjoy watching him embarrass defenses (besides the Bills) trying to stop him.

Jackson deserves the MVP award probably, or at least he deserves strong consideration, but I think defenses will figure him out soon, likely following the Bills approach. He could well be just another guy in two years. Maybe even in the playoffs. We had this discussion when the Bills played the Ravens: contain him in the pocket, take away his tight ends and score more than 20 points. If teams can do that to him consistently, he's not a great QB, or even a very good one.

Metcalf was still available when we took Cody Ford, so him instead of Ford is probably the relevant comparison. My take is that short term, Metcalf would have been the better pick. Long term, can't say yet. Ford looks like a keeper, though.

What worries me is that Nsekhe will be out and Watt will be in, meaning Lee Smith will be helping Cody Ford, meaning at least two or three drives will be killed by holding penalties. I'm also worried about Levi Wallace being out and Will Fuller being in. What gives me hope is that the team is clutch and the coaches prepare the players well. Simply, it could go either way. An edge to them on paper with the injuries and home field advantage, but the overall advantage to the Bills because they have more heart.

Too bad it's a home game for the Pats, meaning they'll have all the cheats they've undoubtedly installed over the years in the visitor's locker room and elsewhere. They would lose in Tennessee playing, you know, just football.