THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - No Bills on Sunday Afternoon, No Problem

[Big Turk]

1 minute ago, Limeaid said:

 

The Cordy Glenn trade was good deal for Bills for he did not even last full remaining three years of contract. He played 19 of 32 possible games and started 18 having concussion last 10 games and one game suspended for discipline.  No bites after Bengals.

 

Let's remember this when Beane inevitably has to let player(s) walk as a UFA...

Edited December 5, 2022 by Big Turk

[smuvtalker]

13 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

 

3.  Stefon Diggs is great.  Diggs makes himself great with his brains and attitude.  There some receivers out there who are out of this world.  Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase in particular.  They do things that Diggs literally dreams of. 

Excellent write-up as always Shaw.  However, I have to disagree with you on one thing.  While I do think that Justin Jefferson is other-worldly, I just don't think I would put him levels above Diggs.  Yes, he is amazing and has done quite a bit in the short amount of time he has been in the league, but Diggs is one freak-of-nature, exceptional WR himself.  IMO, there isn't a better route runner in the league, his footwork is simply X-rated, he is fearless, he makes the tough catches over the middle, battles for the football when he has to, and plays so much bigger than his size.  He is our certified #1 go to guy, yet when we need the first down, defenses still can't shut him down.  Another thing I think that is underrated is his speed.  The guy can still flat out leave DBs in the dust.

 

I think the comment you made that Jefferson does things Diggs wishes he could do is what I most question.   What does Jefferson do that Diggs can't?  Other than be bigger lol.

 

Nonetheless, great write up as always.  This is shaping up to be one of the most competitive, exciting years of football in a long time, and I'm looking forward to what it has in store for our Bills.

 

[WhoTom]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

When you draft at the bottom of the first round for as long as the Patriots did, you simply are going to have great difficulty coming up with the true stud players you need to threaten opponents.   You have trouble getting a Diggs or a Justin Jefferson, you certainly have trouble getting a QB, you have trouble getting a top offensive lineman or a stud edge guy.   They always go before you draft.  

 

True. I like to think that when Beane is faced with that scenario, he'll do his typical wheeling and dealing, trading late-round picks to move up in the early rounds. I don't follow the draft all that closely since I don't watch college football, so I don't know whether Belichick has done much of that, but I suspect not.

 

 

 

 

[Buffalo Junction]

4 hours ago, Chaos said:

Yes. Drafting 30th every year really doesn't lend itself well to creating a stream of franchise Qbs.  As recently as 1 week ago, 10% of all starting QBs in the NFL were drafted by Bellichek (brisset, jimmy g, mac jones)

He tends to draft high floor guys at many positions which limits prospective top talent. Couple that with whiffing on WRs at an exceptional clip and you have a recipe for ineffective offenses and few difference makers across the board. 

[NewEra]

1 hour ago, smuvtalker said:

Excellent write-up as always Shaw.  However, I have to disagree with you on one thing.  While I do think that Justin Jefferson is other-worldly, I just don't think I would put him levels above Diggs.  Yes, he is amazing and has done quite a bit in the short amount of time he has been in the league, but Diggs is one freak-of-nature, exceptional WR himself.  IMO, there isn't a better route runner in the league, his footwork is simply X-rated, he is fearless, he makes the tough catches over the middle, battles for the football when he has to, and plays so much bigger than his size.  He is our certified #1 go to guy, yet when we need the first down, defenses still can't shut him down.  Another thing I think that is underrated is his speed.  The guy can still flat out leave DBs in the dust.

 

I think the comment you made that Jefferson does things Diggs wishes he could do is what I most question.   What does Jefferson do that Diggs can't?  Other than be bigger lol.

 

Nonetheless, great write up as always.  This is shaping up to be one of the most competitive, exciting years of football in a long time, and I'm looking forward to what it has in store for our Bills.

 

Agreed.  He’s taller and has a larger catch radius.  That’s all.   Diggs is 1A, 1B or 1C-  he’s not 2A imo

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, Buffalo Junction said:

He tends to draft high floor guys at many positions which limits prospective top talent. Couple that with whiffing on WRs at an exceptional clip and you have a recipe for ineffective offenses and few difference makers across the board. 

Please be happy in your belief Belichick is just an average coach.  

[Shaw66]

3 hours ago, smuvtalker said:

Excellent write-up as always Shaw.  However, I have to disagree with you on one thing.  While I do think that Justin Jefferson is other-worldly, I just don't think I would put him levels above Diggs.  Yes, he is amazing and has done quite a bit in the short amount of time he has been in the league, but Diggs is one freak-of-nature, exceptional WR himself.  IMO, there isn't a better route runner in the league, his footwork is simply X-rated, he is fearless, he makes the tough catches over the middle, battles for the football when he has to, and plays so much bigger than his size.  He is our certified #1 go to guy, yet when we need the first down, defenses still can't shut him down.  Another thing I think that is underrated is his speed.  The guy can still flat out leave DBs in the dust.

 

I think the comment you made that Jefferson does things Diggs wishes he could do is what I most question.   What does Jefferson do that Diggs can't?  Other than be bigger lol.

 

Nonetheless, great write up as always.  This is shaping up to be one of the most competitive, exciting years of football in a long time, and I'm looking forward to what it has in store for our Bills.

 

I think you're correct and I was wrong.  I was under the impression that both Chase and Jefferson had 3-4 inches and also arm length on Diggs, and that made them better on jump balls.  Actually, all the differences are negligible.   40 times were close, too,  

2 hours ago, NewEra said:

Agreed.  He’s taller and has a larger catch radius.  That’s all.   Diggs is 1A, 1B or 1C-  he’s not 2A imo

He's only an inch or an inch and half taller, and I have longer arms than he has.  Jefferson and Chase.   It sure looks like Jefferson plays bigger, but the numbers don't suggest a major difference.   

 

I wouldn't trade Diggs's tenacity or leadership.  

[nosejob]

8 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

he announcers pointed it out early in the game about White, and it was accurate.  When White isn't hurried in the pocket, he's deadly.   When he begins to feel the pressure, he really struggles.  If your pass rush is anemic, the Jets can throw the ball.  

 

This is why I advocate for the 4-3. If they think they can get pressure with 4, they better be creative with stunts. If they think they can rush 3 and drop 7, we'll give up too many yards on the ground. IMO, 4-3 helps stuff the run and gives us the luxury of sending a LB on a blitz pretty much every play. They won't know who or from where. We need to lay the wood to White early and often.

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, nosejob said:

This is why I advocate for the 4-3. If they think they can get pressure with 4, they better be creative with stunts. If they think they can rush 3 and drop 7, we'll give up too many yards on the ground. IMO, 4-3 helps stuff the run and gives us the luxury of sending a LB on a blitz pretty much every play. They won't know who or from where. We need to lay the wood to White early and often.

Well, then you're just stuck watching a team that won't play defense the way you want.  I suppose they might go against tendency and blitz a lot because it's such a good way to pressure if the guy your playing doesn't have much experience.  But the Bills won't do it out of the 4-, 3.  If everyone is healthy (except Miller), it'll be 4-2, as we've seen.  I don't see the Bills sacrificing the pass coverage scheme just to get another linebacker on the field.  If they blitz, they'll send Johnson, Elam, Poyer, maybe even a corner in the right formation.  And sprinkle in Milano and Edmunds.  

 

I was looking at Football Outsiders today.   Their system shows that the Bills have a very successful run defense playing the way they've played for several years now.  Where the Bills have struggled is in the passing game, which isn't surprising given that they played more or less the whole season with Dane Jackson, Kair Elam, Damar Hamlin, and Christian Benford.  Get Poyer and White back out there full time, with Milano and Edmunds back, I expect the pass defense now will tighten up.  The big beneficiary of the Bills getting healthy will be Hamlin.  With the veterans around him, Hamlin's responsibilities should narrow, and I expect that will help.  I hope they get Elam back, too.  

[HomeTeam]

17 hours ago, Logic said:

Thanks as always for the post.

Yesterday was the most fun I've had watching football during a non-Bills Sunday.

Jets-Vikings, Chiefs-Bengals, and Dolphins-49ers were all great games on their own, but were even more interesting because of the playoff seeding ramifications they had on the Bills.

 

I couldn't settle on an early window game, so for the first time ever, I watched NFL Red Zone for the whole three hours. It was excellent! commercial-free football, jumping around from game to game, whichever had the most exciting action at any given moment. The completist part of me missed the "chess match" aspect of watching one game from start to finish. But that was more than made up for by the ability to compare and contrast the different styles, strengths and weakness of each team as Scott Hanson jumped from game to game, and by the fact that I didn't have to sit through any commercials. Just constant, non-stop football. I'm not sure what took me so long to come around to the Red Zone channel, but boy was it fun!

The Chiefs, as pointed out on social media today, are 1-5 in their last six games against the Bills and Bengals -- and are 13 seconds away from being 0-6 in those games. The Chiefs are still talked about as the class of the AFC by almost everyone, so I found that to be a pretty interesting fact.

The Dolphins look like a different team when they go against a top 16 defense. Tua was totally off yesterday. All QBs have off days. We saw our own QB have a series of them just this season. Whatever it was about going against the 49ers, Tua was missing gimme throws left and right. It was downright bizarre how inaccurate he was.

Bills seem to be exiting their slump at just the right moment. Win five winnable (not easy by any means, but all winnable) games and they get a bye and home field. An exciting month of December football ahead.

Couldn't agree more on the NFL redzone. First time watching it this Sunday and I was so impressed at the quality of the programming by the producers and Scott Hanson. No commercials was the icing on the cake. I did find myself switching to the Chiefs Bengals game though to appreciate the okay by play if a complete game. 

[smuvtalker]

On 12/5/2022 at 3:41 PM, Shaw66 said:

I think you're correct and I was wrong.  I was under the impression that both Chase and Jefferson had 3-4 inches and also arm length on Diggs, and that made them better on jump balls.  Actually, all the differences are negligible.   40 times were close, too,  

He's only an inch or an inch and half taller, and I have longer arms than he has.  Jefferson and Chase.   It sure looks like Jefferson plays bigger, but the numbers don't suggest a major difference.   

 

I wouldn't trade Diggs's tenacity or leadership.  

Amen, neither would I.  Another thing I've noticed, or, not noticed, Diggs hasn't really had alot of jump balls to fight for.  He usually either turns his guy into a statue with his ridiculous footwork, or, leaves him.  One thing I have noticed that kinda sucks is, one several occasions, on deep balls, Diggs has his guy burnt and the ball simply is underthrown, or overthrown.  

[Shaw66]

2 hours ago, smuvtalker said:

Amen, neither would I.  Another thing I've noticed, or, not noticed, Diggs hasn't really had alot of jump balls to fight for.  He usually either turns his guy into a statue with his ridiculous footwork, or, leaves him.  One thing I have noticed that kinda sucks is, one several occasions, on deep balls, Diggs has his guy burnt and the ball simply is underthrown, or overthrown.  

I agree until you get to underthrown or overthrown, or at least the implications of that.  I've come to believe, actually, I think, understand, that NO ONE throws the ball in one-square-yard window consistently.  Accuracy at that distance is a relative thing, and the ball only LOOKS mover or under or perfect.  Great accuracy at that distance is getting it within a somewhat bigger window than that.  It just looks accurate, depending on how the receiver adjusts to the ball and other factors, including where the defenders are and what they do.   Perfect at that distance, or even close to perfect, is impossible.  

 

Mahomes is accurate, and he appears to "miss" on his share.  Rodgers does, Brady does.  The difference between the best QBs and all the others is how often they get it within that window.  

[smuvtalker]

49 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I agree until you get to underthrown or overthrown, or at least the implications of that.  I've come to believe, actually, I think, understand, that NO ONE throws the ball in one-square-yard window consistently.  Accuracy at that distance is a relative thing, and the ball only LOOKS mover or under or perfect.  Great accuracy at that distance is getting it within a somewhat bigger window than that.  It just looks accurate, depending on how the receiver adjusts to the ball and other factors, including where the defenders are and what they do.   Perfect at that distance, or even close to perfect, is impossible.  

 

Mahomes is accurate, and he appears to "miss" on his share.  Rodgers does, Brady does.  The difference between the best QBs and all the others is how often they get it within that window.  

Very well stated....no argument whatsoever from me on that post.

 

Call me being greedy, but that's definitely an aspect I'd love to see Allen and Diggs connect on more, is the long ball.  From everything I do see, there have been several instances at least that I have seen Diggs flat out burn his man, and even though the completion is made, he's had to come back to the ball.  Again, this is me just being greedy, and nitpicking.   

Edited December 10, 2022 by smuvtalker

[Shaw66]

2 hours ago, smuvtalker said:

Very well stated....no argument whatsoever from me on that post.

 

Call me being greedy, but that's definitely an aspect I'd love to see Allen and Diggs connect on more, is the long ball.  From everything I do see, there have been several instances at least that I have seen Diggs flat out burn his man, and even though the completion is made, he's had to come back to the ball.  Again, this is me just being greedy, and nitpicking.   

I agree, but it is greedy.  Or spoiled.  Nothing wrong with the dime he dropped on Diggs that was called back.  It's easier to remember the misses because they stand out.