4 drives ended by dropped passes

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

3 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

lol "a killer"...with 13;52 left in the 3rd Q down by 4???

 

this place...

it's something, isn't it?

[JerseyBills]

18 hours ago, HappyDays said:

Unfortunately Diggs getting the ball ripped out of his hands by a 5'9 CB was the most impactful of them all. I would say bare minimum all of the drops together took at the very least 10 points off the board, and forced a banged up defense to keep coming back on the field. Make no mistake - the Bills skill position players lost this game.

The 3&outs killed us. Jags dominated t.o.p and plays ran. They wore us out and still we had a legit chance at winning if not for key drops and penalties. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Agree. Although I don't think a factor in the Milano injury. I think that was just one of those unfortunate things that can happen. The turf was more of a factor in that than the exhaustion / jetlag IMO.

Who knows. I have trouble getting mad at the turf when everyone is playing on it. Bills have turf. 
 

 

 

[DrDawkinstein]

10 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

Tell me if I'm wrong here, and I havent gone back and done the play analysis some of you have, but IIRC...

 

There were a couple 3rd downs that Josh could have run with the ball and likely picked up the first down, and even started to, and then pulled up and tried to toss it instead which resulted in a drop/incompletion and drive kill. I feel it happened at least twice, maybe once to Knox?

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Matt_In_NH said:

I was trying to remember a Knox drop.   We are counting the play where it got a hand on the overthrow as a drop?   Next thread…

 

Exactly what I was referring to above, thank you.

 

Some of the "drops" mentioned in this thread were just bad throws by Josh after making the bad decision to throw it instead of just tucking it and running for 5 yards.

 

I know a lot of fans and coaches want him to stop running, but yesterday was when we needed it the most. When nothing else can get going, we needed a couple of pick up from Josh's legs. The problem is he has been coached to well to hang in and try to make a throw and not do it all himself.

 

Tough situation for him. Damned if he does, damned if he doesnt. That's why I fall back on coaching needing to be able to see that and let him know. The problem is our HC was probably too busy being the DC and trying to figure out what was going on on D with all those injuries.

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

19 hours ago, Blackbeard said:

It’s sucks 4 passes were dropped. 
it happens.  Sometimes it’s a lot.  Sometimes it’s one or two. Sometimes it’s the wr.  Sometimes it’s the throw. 
 

And sometimes drops are rare (see: 48 pts).  

 

and drops happen to all teams.  
 

It’s more normal than you think and doesn’t mean gut everyone.  Dropped balls are part of the game.  No wr catches 100%. 
 

 

gonna go root for our farm team against the dolphins. 
 

 

 

 

Just like the QB occaisionally sailing them.  It was unfortunate.  

1 hour ago, Matt_In_NH said:

I was trying to remember a Knox drop.   We are counting the play where it got a hand on the overthrow as a drop?   Next thread…

 

1st quarter.  Allen rolled right and threw it fairly low, but what felt like catchable.  I'd have to see the play to confirm full on drop or not, but they didn't show like any replays on TV. 

[HappyDays]

5 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

lol "a killer"...with 13;52 left in the 3rd Q down by 4???

 

Yes! This game turned into a gritty defensive struggle. It was 11-7 at that point in the game. Every single 1st down in a game like that matters. That being a catch would have at the very least moved the chains, kept the defense on the sidelines longer, and led to us scoring a minimum of 3 points. That was absolutely a huge momentum swing. You're crazy if you try to pretend it wasn't.

 

And now I see Bills fans today pointing to Davis's final stat line as if that wipes away his crushing mistake on a simple pitch and catch? Davis had just 28 yards before the Jaguars went up two scores halfway through the 4th quarter. It was nice of him to wake up at the same time the Jaguars defense started sleepwalking with an assumed victory wrapped up, but overall that is a piss poor performance from WR2.

[PBF81]

13 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

Milano, White, Rousseau, Von Miller, Daquan Jones. 

 

I mean those 5, plus Oliver, are our best defensive players. Take 5 of the 6 best defensive players off ANY defense in the NFL and they struggle. I don't think that is a GM issue. It is an injury issue. 

 

You know that we're going to disagree here.  

 

My argument, and realize that I understand that we disagree, so just posing this as I view it, but White and Miller were out most of last season and we adjusted well.  Rousseau disappeared after his first four or five games too.  He'll be back too, so it's not as if he's out for the season.  

 

Jones is a loss, but let's look at reality here, the past three seasons we've started out strong defensively, as a team.  It's seemed to me that we get a little too amped up at the beginning of the seasons as if thinking that if we go 5-1 or 6-0 we've achieved some kind of victory or something, and at the expense of later season consistent play.  

 

Having said that, we have no idea that Jones would have played all that strongly all season, and at 32, and amidst a team that has been playing emotionally high from a defensive perspective, he's a sack away from his former season best and 1 TFL away as well.  I find it unlikely that he was going to continue to play like that, at 32, for the other dozen games.  So I'm not willing to put him into that status.  He's already outplayed himself from all 16 games last season.  It's quite possible that much like Rousseau he would have largely disappeared much of the rest of the season going forward.  There's nothing in his recent history to suggest that he would have posted the season that would ultimately render him one of the best players on the team.  

 

And frankly, when a DT that got a 2-year contract for $14M is "one of your best players," yeah, I'll put that into the GM wheelhouse for accounability.  There obviously wasn't an enormous demand for his services.  He has absolutely zero particular career accolades, so we need to stop talking about him as if he were Kyle Williams.  

 

Milano is obviously a huge loss, and you should also remember me having said numerous times that should Milano go down, then we'd be screwed at LB.  

 

I have no idea what alignments we're playing on D, it's unconventional to be sure.  They're erratic at best.  I haven't see another team do what we do.  I've expressed that earlier and no one pointed out any that have.  I don't watch much outside of highlights outside of here.  But we don't play a traditional 4-3 nor a 3-4.  

 

I will give McD credit for that, but it's also a chicken-egg thing.  

 

Anyway, Milano was our only above average LB and the "glue" that held that unit together and allowed for its adapability and versatility.  We're presently left with a bunch of average LBs at best, and a role-player in Floyd. 

 

But at the end of the day, my question is always going to be, which player that we drafted is there to step up?  

 

That's definitely a GM issue, at least to some significant extent, disagree as we may.  

 

Either way, take your list and remove the three players we were without for 2/3 of last season either in performance (Rousseau) or injury (White, Miller), and here's what we have; 

 

Milano, White, Rousseau, Von Miller, Daquan Jones.  

 

I'm not sure I'm willing to cut the kind of slack that McD's going to end up getting over the loss of those two.  Milano yes, but again, that's entirely due to poor planning in six seasons by Beane.  

 

 

13 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

The only place where you can, IMO, point to Beane based on defensive performance so far is at safety. You expressed that concern in pre-season (and I agreed it was a legit concern) about two old safeties both coming off injury. So far it does look like bringing both back was an error. We look slow back there. That might be a GM mistake. The rest is just injuries that tbh no team in the league would be able to sustain without significant drop off. 

 

IMO it is a GM issue.  Not sure I'd use the word mistake, but to the point.  

 

Keep in mind however that we signed Rapp, who is a very capable replacement, and possibly even better than Poyer at this point.  Either way, it's not such a dropoff that it should be all that.  

 

We agree, I think, that the single biggest issue of it is Milano.  McD has had to shift players around in unconventional alignments due to the lack of a much above average LB next to Milano, so we're about to see what the "defensive genius" does now, as well as how good our LBs after Milano truly are.  But plenty of teams lose a starting LB and their D doesn't fall apart.  The Jets lost Moseley several seasons ago for the season and their D was better than it was either the year prior or after.  If ours does, then obviously it has to do with drafting, aka the GM.  

 

Just my two cents as usual.  

 

But talk about overreacting here, the only consistently performing player 

 

 

[GunnerBill]

42 minutes ago, PBF81 said:

 

You know that we're going to disagree here.  

 

My argument, and realize that I understand that we disagree, so just posing this as I view it, but White and Miller were out most of last season and we adjusted well.  Rousseau disappeared after his first four or five games too.  He'll be back too, so it's not as if he's out for the season.  

 

Jones is a loss, but let's look at reality here, the past three seasons we've started out strong defensively, as a team.  It's seemed to me that we get a little too amped up at the beginning of the seasons as if thinking that if we go 5-1 or 6-0 we've achieved some kind of victory or something, and at the expense of later season consistent play.  

 

Having said that, we have no idea that Jones would have played all that strongly all season, and at 32, and amidst a team that has been playing emotionally high from a defensive perspective, he's a sack away from his former season best and 1 TFL away as well.  I find it unlikely that he was going to continue to play like that, at 32, for the other dozen games.  So I'm not willing to put him into that status.  He's already outplayed himself from all 16 games last season.  It's quite possible that much like Rousseau he would have largely disappeared much of the rest of the season going forward.  There's nothing in his recent history to suggest that he would have posted the season that would ultimately render him one of the best players on the team.  

 

And frankly, when a DT that got a 2-year contract for $14M is "one of your best players," yeah, I'll put that into the GM wheelhouse for accounability.  There obviously wasn't an enormous demand for his services.  He has absolutely zero particular career accolades, so we need to stop talking about him as if he were Kyle Williams.  

 

Milano is obviously a huge loss, and you should also remember me having said numerous times that should Milano go down, then we'd be screwed at LB.  

 

I have no idea what alignments we're playing on D, it's unconventional to be sure.  They're erratic at best.  I haven't see another team do what we do.  I've expressed that earlier and no one pointed out any that have.  I don't watch much outside of highlights outside of here.  But we don't play a traditional 4-3 nor a 3-4.  

 

I will give McD credit for that, but it's also a chicken-egg thing.  

 

Anyway, Milano was our only above average LB and the "glue" that held that unit together and allowed for its adapability and versatility.  We're presently left with a bunch of average LBs at best, and a role-player in Floyd. 

 

But at the end of the day, my question is always going to be, which player that we drafted is there to step up?  

 

That's definitely a GM issue, at least to some significant extent, disagree as we may.  

 

Either way, take your list and remove the three players we were without for 2/3 of last season either in performance (Rousseau) or injury (White, Miller), and here's what we have; 

 

Milano, White, Rousseau, Von Miller, Daquan Jones.  

 

I'm not sure I'm willing to cut the kind of slack that McD's going to end up getting over the loss of those two.  Milano yes, but again, that's entirely due to poor planning in six seasons by Beane.  

 

 

 

IMO it is a GM issue.  Not sure I'd use the word mistake, but to the point.  

 

Keep in mind however that we signed Rapp, who is a very capable replacement, and possibly even better than Poyer at this point.  Either way, it's not such a dropoff that it should be all that.  

 

We agree, I think, that the single biggest issue of it is Milano.  McD has had to shift players around in unconventional alignments due to the lack of a much above average LB next to Milano, so we're about to see what the "defensive genius" does now, as well as how good our LBs after Milano truly are.  But plenty of teams lose a starting LB and their D doesn't fall apart.  The Jets lost Moseley several seasons ago for the season and their D was better than it was either the year prior or after.  If ours does, then obviously it has to do with drafting, aka the GM.  

 

Just my two cents as usual.  

 

But talk about overreacting here, the only consistently performing player 

 

 

 

The Bills ended up on Sunday with a PS defensive tackle playing defensive end on the first unit (he is at best their 7th choice at the position). The other defensive end out there is probably their 4th best guy when everyone is healthy. So whether you think Rousseau was average or whatever last year (he was better than that) the drop off from him to what was out there yesterday is still significant. They were down both starting corners. And then while I agree with you re. Daquan Jones's career and the lack of demand for his services (I have said that myself recently in response to people who were desperate to extend him) there is absolutely zero doubt that he has been a really important and consistent player in this defense since he signed. And then they also lost their best defensive player a first team all pro last year who was trending that way again. That explains what happened yesterday (plus Taron missing some plays though he returned to the game). It is really simple. They ran out of players.

 

If the Bills had to play that defense without all those guys the rest of the year it would be a bottom feeder defense. And that wouldn't be a GM problem. It would be an injury problem. Luckily, they don't. They have lost 3 important players for the year. Two of the 3 former first team all pros on this unit and Jones. That hurts. But Floyd isn't serious by the looks of it and they will get Rousseau, Von, Kingsley and Shaq all back healthy. Add that to AJE who has really come on since the middle of last season they should still have some horses to rush the passer. They will get Benford back and that helps at corner. They will miss Jones but they at least have some vet depth there (even if neither Settle nor Ford really float my boat much). Milano is the biggest miss. He is our best defensive player. It is like taking Chris Jones off the Chiefs (they are immediately noticeably worse) or Nick Bosa off the 49ers (when he missed most of 2020 they went from 6th in sacks in 2019 to 27th in sacks). You can't replace those elite players. Nobody in the NFL can. That is why when you lose them it sucks so hard. 

 

In short I expect the Bills defense to still be top half of the league. But without the 3 guys it has lost for the year it won't be top 5 IMO. However, if they had to end up with the guys who were on the field at the end of the game yesterday playing all year across the board.... then they would be towards the bottom of the league defensively. 

 

And one final point... injuries were a problem on defense at the end of last season too. I have said it they were without Von at the end of the year, had Tre not back to his best and then Oliver and Poyer held together by sticky tape and Jones missed the playoff loss too. 

 

The pattern here is simple.... when you take or severely handicap 5 or 6 starter off a defense and they are among the best players on that defense the defensive performance declines. That is the NFL. 

 

EDIT: please do not do your usual and stretch this to "the GM is blameless." Because I haven't said that. I have talked to you before about the fact that there are legit questions in my mind as to some of the team building decisions. And I have even agreed with you on some of them (e.g. going with two old safeties off injuries and the middle linebacker position as it looked before the season). But putting the collapse of the defense at the end of the game yesterday down as a "GM issue" is ridiculous. It was an injury issue.

Edited October 9, 2023 by GunnerBill

[Warriorspikes51]

On 10/8/2023 at 1:39 PM, Alpo Chino said:

Yes. One the more frustrating games I've seen in years. Dropped balls, we kept coming up a yard short on 3rd downs. Reffing. 

Every Jacksonville game is like this. 

[RoyBatty is alive]

On 10/8/2023 at 12:33 PM, mannc said:

I don’t recall a Diggs drop…

the pass at the end of the game that ended in an interception was worse than a drop.  Diggs is allegedly elite, you dont let a defender beat you for the ball if you are one of the top WRs in the ke4ague.

 

I am amazed more people arent mentioning this.  That alone was enough to turn the outcome of the game, Digggs cant lose that ball.

[Mr. WEO]

2 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

Yes! This game turned into a gritty defensive struggle. It was 11-7 at that point in the game. Every single 1st down in a game like that matters. That being a catch would have at the very least moved the chains, kept the defense on the sidelines longer, and led to us scoring a minimum of 3 points. That was absolutely a huge momentum swing. You're crazy if you try to pretend it wasn't.

 

And now I see Bills fans today pointing to Davis's final stat line as if that wipes away his crushing mistake on a simple pitch and catch? Davis had just 28 yards before the Jaguars went up two scores halfway through the 4th quarter. It was nice of him to wake up at the same time the Jaguars defense started sleepwalking with an assumed victory wrapped up, but overall that is a piss poor performance from WR2.

it was 1 minute after halftime ended. So, It’s a ridiculous point.  They were down by 4.  There was half a game to be played.  Davis provided several of the biggest plays on their subsequent scoring drives.

 

this is just more totally mindless Davis bashing.  He played a very solid game.  

[BADOLBILZ]

6 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Some of the "drops" mentioned in this thread were just bad throws by Josh after making the bad decision to throw it instead of just tucking it and running for 5 yards.

 

 

Knox had a drop prior to the play where Allen overthrew him while on the run.

[Royale with Cheese]

My dogs thought they were in trouble when Gabe Davis dropped the ball on that 10 yard stop.

I had to let them know they didn't drop the ball.

[Alphadawg7]

6 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

Knox had a drop prior to the play where Allen overthrew him while on the run.

 

Yes, this is the play I am referring to that was one of our first few drives.  

[HappyDays]

8 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

it was 1 minute after halftime ended. So, It’s a ridiculous point.  They were down by 4.  There was half a game to be played.  Davis provided several of the biggest plays on their subsequent scoring drives.

 

this is just more totally mindless Davis bashing.  He played a very solid game.  

 

Through 3.5 quarters our WR2 had 28 yards. Very solid? That's crazy. He has an elite WR1 garnering all of the attention across from him and he can't separate from man coverage. On an extremely simple pitch and catch he let the ball get into his body and bounce off his hands. In a game with no margin for error for a myriad of reasons, two drive-killing drops from usual suspects Davis and Knox were big momentum swings. If this was a one-off single game issue you can live with it but it's instead a persistent issue that has directly led to us missing out on the #1 seed each of the past 3 seasons.

[Alphadawg7]

2 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Through 3.5 quarters our WR2 had 28 yards. Very solid? That's crazy. He has an elite WR1 garnering all of the attention across from him and he can't separate from man coverage. On an extremely simple pitch and catch he let the ball get into his body and bounce off his hands. In a game with no margin for error for a myriad of reasons, two drive-killing drops from usual suspects Davis and Knox were big momentum swings. If this was a one-off single game issue you can live with it but it's instead a persistent issue that has directly led to us missing out on the #1 seed each of the past 3 seasons.

 

Davis also had a 2nd drive killing bad drop on 3rd down.  But, an unrelated penalty negated the play so the drop is wiped from his resume, but doesn't change the fact he dropped a 2nd drive killing pass on 3rd down.

[BADOLBILZ]

16 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

it was 1 minute after halftime ended. So, It’s a ridiculous point.  They were down by 4.  There was half a game to be played.  Davis provided several of the biggest plays on their subsequent scoring drives.

 

this is just more totally mindless Davis bashing.  He played a very solid game.  

 

 

The extra fatigue impacts the emotions of the team and I agree with the OP that those bad drops were particularly deflating to the Bills and created a lot of space for the Jags to stick to their gameplan.  

 

Not the first time we've seen an exhausted Bills team on a roller coaster like this in an international game. 

[Mr. WEO]

17 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Through 3.5 quarters our WR2 had 28 yards. Very solid? That's crazy. He has an elite WR1 garnering all of the attention across from him and he can't separate from man coverage. On an extremely simple pitch and catch he let the ball get into his body and bounce off his hands. In a game with no margin for error for a myriad of reasons, two drive-killing drops from usual suspects Davis and Knox were big momentum swings. If this was a one-off single game issue you can live with it but it's instead a persistent issue that has directly led to us missing out on the #1 seed each of the past 3 seasons.

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Davis also had a 2nd drive killing bad drop on 3rd down.  But, an unrelated penalty negated the play so the drop is wiped from his resume, but doesn't change the fact he dropped a 2nd drive killing pass on 3rd down.

 

so....a SECOND   drop that was negated by penalty was still "game killing"?  lol that's pretty funny actually.  So that means he actually caught 2 back to back sweet TD catches in the 4th Q!!  

 

anyway , this was Davis's day:

 

in the 1st Q, Davis had 1 catch for 9 yards on a 2nd and 10. 

 

2nd Q catch for 9 on 1st and 10

2nd Q catch for 10 on 3rd and 4 to 15 yard line. Bills score next play

 

3rd Q  drop by Davis on 3rd and 10 1:05 into the 2nd half with score still 11-7.  JAGs would punt on the next series.  Still 11-7

3rd Q  incomplete to Davis on 2nd and 10.  Score was still 11-7, 8;10 left in the 3rd Q.   Where's that pendulum?

 

Bills D gives up 4th Q TD 

 

 

4th Q catch for 24 yards.  later in the drive beautiful 9 yard TD catch.  Nullified.  immediately followed by beautiful 19 yard TD catch, bringing the score to within 5.

 

Bills D give up another 4th Q TD

 

4th Q catch for 29 yards to the 3 on 1st and 10.  Bills score 2 plays later, brining them again within 5.

 

The elite WR1's contested pass ending up as an INT was the actual play that killed them, not one dropped pass on 3rd down a minute into the second half.  Diggs also negated a TD with a OPI penalty.  In the 4th Q, Diggs had 4 targets for the INT 2 catches for 13 yards.  

 

The 4th Q was all Davis and Allen. The deep catch to the 3 set up a TD.  Then a TD called back--immediately followed by another great TD catch.  So that's catches for 24, 19 and 29 yards on scoring drives.  NOT SOLID ENOUGH!!!!!  lol

 

your bias has led you to lose your minds.

 

 

3 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

The extra fatigue impacts the emotions of the team and I agree with the OP that those bad drops were particularly deflating to the Bills and created a lot of space for the Jags to stick to their gameplan.  

 

Not the first time we've seen an exhausted Bills team on a roller coaster like this in an international game. 

 

I don't think the Jags gameplan was to go scoreless for 12 minutes in the 3rd Q after Davis's "game killing" drop a minute into the Q.

[PBF81]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

In short I expect the Bills defense to still be top half of the league. But without the 3 guys it has lost for the year it won't be top 5 IMO. However, if they had to end up with the guys who were on the field at the end of the game yesterday playing all year across the board.... then they would be towards the bottom of the league defensively.  

 

I'm not sure what we disagree on primarily here.  Seems as if we generally believe similarly with the exception that I contribute it to a depth and poor drafting issue related to depth, if not starters, particularly since Beane didn't even draft White or Milano to begin with. 

 

You say it's an injury issue, which is obvious.  But the question becomes who's backing up those players.  And again, White was out most of last season.  Put another way, there's no difference from last season and the games he was out and this one in the games that he'll be out.  Same for Miller's status.  

 

So yes, it's obviously an injury issue, but my point is that who are the depth players capable of stepping in to prevent the tragedy that you've referred to under certain circumstances?  

 

Also, I was addressing your statement that we'd be a bottom-dwelling D now, which you've since edited.  

 

Either way, you seem to have been referring to hypotheticals whereas I was referring to reality.  Jones isn't out for the season.  What's Johnson's injury?  How long?  

 

From what I can tell the only players lost for the season at the moment are White and Milano.  And as I outlined, other players have lost a key LB, like the Jets losing Mosely several seasons ago, and played decently, and better than they had in the prior season or subsequent season.  Many other teams lose a key player on D even two or three and still play solid D.  

 

Again, I blame the lack of adequate depth on Beane resultant from injuries, that I've been pointing out now for at least two seasons, that if Milano ever went down we'd be screwed at LB, so this isn't exactly an "experts" only puzzle.  

 

You stop at the injury part of it.  Look, I get it.  But we need to realize that's where we disagree.  Backfills for injuries are #GMthingz.  You say, apparently, that they're merely injuries and that adequate depth is something other than a GM thing by implication.  

 

I get it.  No need to argue further.  But please understand the difference.  

 

 

[GunnerBill]

Just now, PBF81 said:

 

I'm not sure what we disagree on primarily here.  Seems as if we generally believe similarly with the exception that I contribute it to a depth and poor drafting issue related to depth, if not starters, particularly since Beane didn't even draft White or Milano to begin with. 

 

You say it's an injury issue, which is obvious.  But the question becomes who's backing up those players.  And again, White was out most of last season.  Put another way, there's no difference from last season and the games he was out and this one in the games that he'll be out.  Same for Miller's status.  

 

So yes, it's obviously an injury issue, but my point is that who are the depth players capable of stepping in to prevent the tragedy that you've referred to under certain circumstances?  

 

Also, I was addressing your statement that we'd be a bottom-dwelling D now, which you've since edited.  

 

Either way, you seem to have been referring to hypotheticals whereas I was referring to reality.  Jones isn't out for the season.  What's Johnson's injury?  How long?  

 

From what I can tell the only players lost for the season at the moment are White and Milano.  And as I outlined, other players have lost a key LB, like the Jets losing Mosely several seasons ago, and played decently, and better than they had in the prior season or subsequent season.  Many other teams lose a key player on D even two or three and still play solid D.  

 

Again, I blame the lack of adequate depth on Beane resultant from injuries, that I've been pointing out now for at least two seasons, that if Milano ever went down we'd be screwed at LB, so this isn't exactly an "experts" only puzzle.  

 

You stop at the injury part of it.  Look, I get it.  But we need to realize that's where we disagree.  Backfills for injuries are #GMthingz.  You say, apparently, that they're merely injuries and that adequate depth is something other than a GM thing by implication.  

 

I get it.  No need to argue further.  But please understand the difference.  

 

 

 

There is simply no way to backfill for losing your best players. No GM in the entire NFL has a replacement for Matt Milano sitting on the bench. 

 

Oh and Jones is having surgery. That is confirmed. He is done for the year. 

 

And I never changed my view on bottom dwellers. That was always specific to the defense that finished the game yesterday. I was very clear about that. They won't have to put up with that D. They have some guys to come back. But they have lost two first team all pros and another key defensive starter for the year. Show me another unit (offense or defense) in the entire league that has already lost that level of player for the season. 

 

Every team has injuries. Not every team has this. And when teams do they generally struggle to make the playoffs. I will say something you will probably agree with now.... I think the Bills are shooting for a wildcard at this point. These are back breaking injuries on D.