Niagara Gazette

‘The Bills are still a work in progress, as coach Sean McDermott and the players will be quick to tell you. They’re an imperfect team in an imperfect league with no truly great teams and what seems like two dozen franchises that are struggling with poor offensive lines. But they’re now 4-1, still third in the AFC. They’re a flawed team, but a probable playoff team.’

‘Allen’s first half was as bad as I can remember. With a national audience checking out a battle of 3-0 teams, Allen looked exactly like the overmatched gunslinger much of the national media know him to be.’

‘Simply scoring before halftime will be an achievement. It will be a good test for Allen and an improving offense, against a team that shut down Patrick Mahomes, Jared Goff and Ben Roethlisberger in the first half during their current run. I imagine offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has been saving a few things for his old boss and mentor, Bill Belichick.’

‘“They are a new team,” she added, noting that this year’s Bills are off to a good start at 3-0. “They’ve got to learn to play better as a team. Sometimes I feel like (quarterback Josh) Allen is the whole team and they’d be better off if he brought the whole team together.”’

‘They had played shabbily with the lead against the Giants in Week 2. For the second straight week, they showed their age, looking like an immature team that wasn’t used to playing with a big lead, one that felt it could put things on cruise control against an inferior opponent.’

‘For the first time in many years, the Bills appear to have a legitimate NFL passing game, one that can rise up in difficult circumstances and win games that seem lost — as well as games they’re expected to win.’

‘Look, it’s only one football game. Years of harsh circumstance have taught us not to overreact, one way or the other. But Sunday’s remarkable, season-opening 17-16 win at the Jets is the kind you point back to, one that can help forge a young team’s winning culture.’

‘But some preseasons are more meaningful than others. This one feels different. The Bills have the sense of a team whose time has finally come, one that has a good chance to be one of the five NFL teams, on average, that improve by four games from one season to the next.’

‘Morse had three concussions, core muscle surgery and a lingering foot sprain that kept him out of games in KC. He played only seven games in 2017 and missed five games last season. He didn’t play the Chiefs’ two playoff games in his rookie year with a concussion.’

‘Twenty years later, the Bills appear to be on the rise again. We’ll never see a collection of talent like the Super Bowl team, which came together before free agency. But it has similar elements — a young franchise quarterback in Josh Allen, solid free agent acquisitions, a top defense with rising young stars in Tremaine Edmunds, Tre’Davious White, Matt Milano and a talented rookie lineman in Ed Oliver.’

‘There will be a temptation to rationalize Allen’s performance if he falters in Year Two. But how high should expectations be set for the Bills’ gifted young quarterback? The evidence suggests that if he’s going to succeed, the bar this season should be set high.’

‘One can only hope that this is a sign of Lawson ‘showing’ his maturation process and not him ‘telling’ us that he is going through that. One can only hope that this is the emphasis he can bring off the field, so he can bring that added focus once he gets back onto the field this season.’

‘But in the sports world, it’s almost like we can tune out all of those things and come together as one. So once the Bills honor Pancho one final time during the home opener against the Cincinnati Bengals (Sept. 22, so you can mark the calendars), I hope we can come together as a community once again and honor a man that embodied just what the Buffalo spirit is all about.’

‘With the amount of capital that was used rather than traded away, several “steals” throughout the process and even adding undrafted free agents that could contribute, Buffalo has put itself in position to compete for playoff contention in 2019. Even considering 2017’s playoff season, this looks like it may be the Bills’ best chance to win the AFC East since the turn of the century.’

‘McCoy is the one face that no longer fits on a roster that has been almost completely reshaped under Beane. He’s over the hill. He’s an inconsistent, self-serving leader who got benched for a play for the season finale a year ago. He’s also in the final year of his contract (at $6 million) and has a couple of off-field civil suits pending.’