finn

Ravens making it look easy, Bills making it look hard.

The Bills have only one NFL receiver.

The Bills are the better team in pretty much all areas, including coaching, so they should win. I would be less confident if the Bills were fielding last year's defense against the heavy, three-tight end offense of the Ravens, but Daquan, Rousseau, Settle and Basham have been great, and now Oliver is back. The Bills offensive line, though.... They really have to to turn that around, starting today. Saffold is playing like he's 60 and Brown like he's 13.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whenever this board discuss why the Bills lost, someone always trots out this bromide. The manly thing to do is soldier on! No excuses, men!

And a choke kicker.

I wonder if it was a mistake to cut Ford. Anyone hear how he's doing in Arizona? That would be rich, the Bills struggling at guard after cutting two good guards in Wyatt and Ford. (Although I noticed I had a hard time writing the word "good" so soon after typing Ford's name.) If Saffold continues his poor play, the Bills might consider putting Bates back at his more natural left guard position and put...uh... someone at right guard.

No fun to lose, but this game is like the wind game against the Pats*: an aberration. If the Bills can only be beat under bizarre conditions like these, that means they have a terrific team. All those injuries PLUS the heat, PLUS playing an away game on a short week, and they lose by two after outplaying their opponent in all ways but the score. The stars had to align perfectly for an inferior team like the Dolphins to win, and by definition that is unlikely to happen again. So I'm not too upset about this loss. As many posters have pointed out, the team played their hearts out and showed a lot of resilience.

First bad play calling from our OC I've seen. Two expected run plays that get stuffed, setting up a third and long below your own goal points. At that point you might as well run again and punt. It's like playing to your weaknesses.

I'm going from memory, so take this accordingly, but as I recall he made two critical mistakes: allowing the winning TD in overtime against the Bucs by busting the coverage, and blowing covering in the famous 13-seconds debacle. Maybe his mistakes were few, but they were fatal. It's probably best he moved on.

Where did you see this?

I'm sorry, but Allen is better than both these quarterbacks. In fact, it's not close.

I enjoy imagining what it would be like for my team to be facing Josh Allen, let alone with a strong, balanced team behind him. Allen alone would make me anxious. I mean, what do you take away? His runs? His deep passes? His short passes? The (new) running game? It's like you're screwed no matter what you do, as the Pats* found out last year. So glad he's ours!

I'd like to hear an analysis of how the Rams are playing Allen. Seems like they're taking away the deep routes. Any observations?

The kickoff was bad, and McDermott is surely pissed. But let's keep some perspective. This is an excellent offense, and they'll score a touchdown in a half. The sky is not falling, especially with the offense playing lights out.

I predict a flag-fest against the Bills, especially the corners. The Bills will overcome the blatant bias, but it won't be easy. Bills 30 Rams 27 (overtime)

Journalists interviewing journalists, the height of quality news. /s

All this pre-season hype will likely cause the reaction to the outcome to be way out of proportion. If the Bills do go all the way, all these media types will froth at the mouth ("Team of destiny!" "Best QB of all time!") If the Bills lose, even in a close playoff game, the combination of egg-on-face and schadenfreude will create a disproportionate negative reaction ("Frauds!" "Overrated!"). In fact, the whole season could be a roller coaster ride because of this hyped-up consensus. People love being proved right, but they love even more seeing a giant fall. Unless it's their giant

Well, unless the Bills have decided to stress the run now that they have Kromer on board. Make the offense more balanced, take the pressure of Allen, and so on. In this case, they'll want all three backs, as well as Gilliam. I'm all for the two-tight end formation, running Singletary and Moss behind big Tommy Doyle and working in Cook on screens and flares. It'll be fun to see what Dorsey comes up with.

Don't you think he's a bit light for a full-time back?

Actually, that's a good point. I could think of no reason why the Bills, who say they value character, would cut Haack and keep Araiza before doing (true) due diligence on this matter. This at least is one plausible explanation. They might not have wanted to keep Haack under any circumstances.

I suspect this is what is really going on, much like the Watson case: They both did things they thought were ok and are shocked to hear them described in a context that makes them seem like rapists or harassers. Araiza is likely experiencing cognitive dissonance now: He can't conceive of himself as a rapist but he can't reconcile that view with the facts seen in an objective light. So, like Watson, he ends up in this weird place where he's basically saying, "Yeah, it happened, but I wasn't thinking of it as 'rape' at the time, so I'm innocent." If this is correct, he's making it ten times worse by letting his lawyer describe the girls as a "gold digger."

I wonder if the news was related to Araiza being the third punter drafted. I realize other factors were in play, but it could have been a key factor.

I wish I were as confident as you about their motives. The reported information is pretty damning. The girl told a friend about the rape immediately and went to the police the next day. Does that sound like a false This take makes the most sense to me. I didn't understand why they cut Haack knowing this news was about to break. (I'm very skeptical that they believed Araiza, given the information we have.) Your explanation clears that up. Of course, now they're screwed. They really have no choice but to cut him. His abilities aren't worth the distraction, division, and bad press. Maybe Keenum can hold?

I was going to ask the same question about Joe Brady. You'd think there would be at least a few articles about him bonding (or not) with Allen and meshing (or not) with Dorsey. But it's been crickets, as far as I know. Anyone heard anything?