One Thing: Keon looked terrible yesterday

[Eastport bills]

Don’t take anything out of that game, but his high point ability and catching in a crowd is not what it was in college. He’s OK and he’ll get better, but he gets no vertical separation and drops balls occasionally. If you involve him early and get him confident then Josh might trust him in crunch, but if he has 2 catches through 3 quarters, give me any other option on 3rd down.

[todd]

He was garbage yesterday, but let’s pump the brakes on insinuating he’s a bust. He’s a WR in his first year. Who started. 

[DrDawkinstein]

7 minutes ago, Eastport bills said:

Don’t take anything out of that game, but his high point ability and catching in a crowd is not what it was in college. He’s OK and he’ll get better, but he gets no vertical separation and drops balls occasionally. If you involve him early and get him confident then Josh might trust him in crunch, but if he has 2 catches through 3 quarters, give me any other option on 3rd down.

 

lol. Folks in here acting like their entire memory reset on Jan 1...

 

 

[DrDawkinstein]

 

 

[Beck Water]

6 hours ago, Back2Buff said:

I will forever be baffled when people act surprised with Keon's performance.  This is who the player was before he was drafted.  This is the guy he is.

 

There were a lot better option available and Beane fumbled it.  It was a bad pick at the time, and he hasn't shown much more than what everyone knew you were getting prior to the season.

 

He will never be a number one WR and I think it will be a stretch for him to be a number two.  He will be a situational spark plug.  

 

WR is STILL a massive hole yet again.

 

The last thing you say is true.  WR will continue to be a massive hole on the Bills until/unless we have a receiving corps the like of Chase/Higgins/Boyd or St Brown/Williams/LaPorta or Jefferson/Addison/Hockenson or maybe Kupp/Nacua/Higbee.

The next couple sentences up remind me of the sort of thing people wrote about Allen after the draft, his rookie season, and whenever he had a bad game his second year.  Because everyone knows, the player you draft is the player the team will get, Forever and Ever, Worlds without End, Amen.

 

I'll leave the "lot better option available and Beane fumbled it" bit for after next season.  

I think we need to bear in mind that Beane has been pinning the Bills receiving hopes (for years) on guys who can play, but are relatively short and can get neutralized by aggressive, physical defense.  Then we get annihllated in the playoffs when the refs say "let 'em play" and fail to call DH or DPI, or (as with the Lions) call it, but only a fraction of the time that it's actually going on.  You can't change the outcome by doing the same thing.

 

Beane also has a profile of drafting relatively raw but immensely physically talented players (Allen, Edmunds, Rousseau, now Coleman) on the theory the staff and the players will "coach them up" if the player has the right mindset.  Sometimes it works well (Allen, Rousseau), sometimes it works OK (Edmunds), sometimes it doesn't work (Elam, apparently).  Coleman is to be determined.

 

 

Edited Monday at 07:35 PM by Beck Water

[eball]

I'm not sure what game you were watching, but the majority of those "targets" were uncatchable balls.

 

[billsherd]

He definitely didn't have a good game yesterday. 

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, notpolian said:

I sound like a broken record, but in my opinion the Bills offense was on fire when Coleman and Kincaid were out hurt.  I say make Coleman WR4 or 5 in the playoffs. 

 

OK.  So that would be Indy, KC, SFO, LAR for Coleman and KC, SFO, LAR for Kincaid.  Let's hear your argument that those games were more "fire" than, say, DET, SEA, TEN, JAX, and 2nd MIA: Go.  Now on to the second point, let's hear your argument that the absence of Coleman and Kincaid were causal factors.

 

Coleman already is WR4 or 5 in the playoffs.  In case you weren't watching, neither Shakir, nor Cooper, nor Kincaid, nor Knox played a single snap.  That would seem to indicate that the Bills consider Shakir, Cooper, and Kincaid at least of more importance than Coleman, making him functionally #4 or #5.

 

1 hour ago, blitzboy54 said:

My issue with him is he wants to be a jump ball receiver but doesn't fight for the ball. At least 3 passes yesterday could have been DPI if he would push his way back to the ball. 

 

He fights back to the ball plenty.  I think his instructions for yesterday were, "Don't".

[JMM]

I think it's way too early to judge him and frankly most wrs in general until after their second year. Many make a big jump in year two. There is a lot of potential there, obviously he has good body control and is strong. The lack of separation is something that can't be ignored though, I have watched him all season and it's troubling. Let's see if he improves his route running and if they do more to get him open as time goes on.

[Beck Water]

45 minutes ago, eball said:

I'm not sure what game you were watching, but the majority of those "targets" were uncatchable balls.

 

 

Agree.  There were 3 he could have had though.  We'll see Weds if they count them as drops.

[eball]

1 minute ago, Beck Water said:

 

Agree.  There were 3 he could have had though.  We'll see Weds if they count them as drops.

 

I won't rewatch that abomination of a game but it looked like guys were just going through the motions, and drawing any conclusions from what was essentially a preseason contest doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

 

[Beck Water]

1 minute ago, eball said:

I won't rewatch that abomination of a game but it looked like guys were just going through the motions, and drawing any conclusions from what was essentially a preseason contest doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

I actually thought for the most part guys were going pretty hard.  We were starting our 2nd string OL the whole game, across the board, and I think they wanted to show what they could do.  0 sacks despite Trubisky having the mobility of a busted lawn mower and being slow with his reads; 130 yds rushing - not too shabby.  I think Mitch is well-liked and the receivers who played wanted to run decent routes for him.  Hollins was playing for incentives and going hard. 

That said, they weren't giving it everything they'd got to gain YAC or fight back through contact.

 

I think it shows the guys who played were going pretty hard in that McDermott had to resort to tactics like punting instead of attempting a FG when the Bills were on the NWE 35 yd line and declining a holding penalty when NWE was on the BUF 24 so that NWE got to kick a 42 yd FG instead of a 52 yd try.  Then he played his trump card, substituting Mike White for Mitch Trubisky.  

 

That's the point at which the offense at least just went through the motions.

[oldmanfan]

Just now, Beck Water said:

 

I actually thought for the most part guys were going pretty hard.  We were starting our 2nd string OL the whole game, across the board, and I think they wanted to show what they could do.  0 sacks despite Trubisky having the mobility of a busted lawn mower and being slow with his reads; 130 yds rushing - not too shabby.  I think Mitch is well-liked and the receivers who played wanted to run decent routes for him.  Hollins was playing for incentives and going hard. 

That said, they weren't giving it everything they'd got to gain YAC or fight back through contact.

 

I think it shows the guys who played were going pretty hard in that McDermott had to resort to tactics like punting instead of attempting a FG when the Bills were on the NWE 35 yd line and declining a holding penalty when NWE was on the BUF 24 so that NWE got to kick a 42 yd FG instead of a 52 yd try.  Then he played his trump card, substituting Mike White for Mitch Trubisky.  

 

That's the point at which the offense at least just went through the motions.

They punted there to make sure Martin got a bonus.  There was a lot of focus on having guys reach bonus conditions.

[Kirby Jackson]

6 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

They punted there to make sure Martin got a bonus.  There was a lot of focus on having guys reach bonus conditions.

This is absolutely one of my favorite things about McDermott and the organization. They really look out for their guys. As I understand it, Buffalo has a good reputation amongst players and agents now.

[Beck Water]

7 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

They punted there to make sure Martin got a bonus.  There was a lot of focus on having guys reach bonus conditions.

 

Right.  But if "getting a win" was "priority #1" the way the coaches were saying before the game, don't you think they would have gone for a FG? 

There would be other punts, and there were - and Martin getting his bonus depended upon a very heads-up and go-hard play from Jamarcus Ingram.

[DrMaxPower]

He was having a decent year until the injury. There's certainly been a dip since but I'm not going to get too lathered up about a super raw rookie who is used to being done playing 5 games ago.

 

That said, I think Josh's style of play is a contributing factor to his lack of separation. Josh very rarely pulls the trigger on schedule. Keon is a guy that needs to be hit coming out of his break, not 10 yards later after the DB has a chance to react and close the distance.

 

They need to spend some time together ironing out their timing.

[oldmanfan]

1 minute ago, Beck Water said:

 

Right.  But if "getting a win" was "priority #1" the way the coaches were saying before the game, don't you think they would have gone for a FG? 

There would be other punts, and there were - and Martin getting his bonus depended upon a very heads-up and go-hard play from Jamarcus Ingram.

Agreed.  Priority # 1 to me was not getting anyone hurt 

[Billsatlastin2018]

I never watched the game. Believed it was like a Bye game… totally vanilla which apparently it was.

 

Preferred Red Zone and my ATS Pool- finished 2nd with a 107-73 record. (You pick 10 per week). My only interest in the Bills yesterday was having all my closest competitors pick them- not me and finding out that there weren’t any injuries at game’s end. ✔️👍

 

 

[Freak-O]

6 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

It’s not one bad game.

 

He has been inconsistent all season - and more prominently post injury.

 

 

We win pretty much every game, post record numbers and have a dozen or so receivers. It’s not odd that a rookie doesn’t get as many targets as an established star. I don’t remember many drops from him but I do remember several really good catches. 

[HappyDays]

1 hour ago, billsherd said:

He definitely didn't have a good game yesterday. 

 

So the good news is that his usage yesterday wasn't real. It was literally just non-stop jump balls regardless of his leverage or the coverage scheme. In fact I would bet anything the team schemed those up intentionally to get him some reps and get some teachable moments on film in a meaningless game. They know what Coleman's strengths are at this point in his career. He'll be used appropriately in the playoffs.