HardyBoy

Hasn't McD lost a couple super poor defensive performance blow outs every year? The crazy thing is they might have put up one of those in the 2nd half against the Titans, just now the offense is good enough to put up 30+ to keep you in the game. Sounds like they the Jets flat out got out schemed (didn't watch), and for all we know they were covering screens a lot, the Pats just wouldn't run the screen unless they had them fooled to give up the screen. Let's not get too excited, Saleh seems like he can build a solid culture.

To be fair they were 2-5 in the red zone. Wondering if they felt their best chance to score was a deep shot. Also, I'm wondering if they felt that a 7 point lead with a fg there and punting deep with a 4 point lead were largely the same thing. A bit counter intuitive, but you gotta think Tenn goes for two if they score a td down by 7. No reason to think Henry is not gaining two yards. If you have a team down by 7 planning to go for two if they score...they are going to bleed the clock, especially with a rb like Henry. If they are down by four, two fgs can still win you the game easily, you just need to go quick in case that's what needs to happen. With a 7 point deficit it's touchdown all the way and you don't leave any time for your opponent to score on you again. That's what ended up happening basically, the titans scored too quickly, but they had to because the two fg option had to be left on the table and there is only so much clock you can kill once you get in the red zone.

If he was running with the ball in both hands the whole time he would have been able to. Not calling him out at all in this slightest, can't imagine the level of difficulty just to get the edge on that play and running with the ball likely helped him get that edge. Just if he puts both hands on the ball a split second sooner I think he reaches it out before contact. What a game though. It really comes down to those two red zone field goals in the first quarter I think. They had a chance to all but take Henry out of the game in the first quarter. Does Henry even get that long td if the bills score tds there? The safeties are likely playing different, etc.

Absolutely, it's not the greatest analogy, but I do believe the Bills FO and training staff believe they can extend players' primes using proper sleep, nutrition and player usage. The best inactive call I've seen in a really long time was Harrison Phillips. I think he plays if it wasn't for the rain in the forecast, and just a smart call given his knee history. The benefit of an 11 deep dline rotation that has a ton of flexibility is they are going to be able to rotate some guys as inactives over the course of the year for match-up and random day off reasons. The best of course being when the matchup allows for a random day off...put your players in the best position to succeed a shot and rest two.

Have to imagine it helps with injuries too, and helps maintain a high level of play for the entire season, instead of burning out. Not saying this is a fair analogy, but would you rather have Bruce for 60% of snaps for 100% of games or 100% of snaps for 60% of games?

Yet passer rating has his at #14 and QBR has him at #6... And numbers don't lie? Mind clarifying that?

I thought it was completely overblown until I saw the video of him touching her inside her butt cheek. Even touching the outside of her butt while dancing would be crass, but likely in the rhelm of who are any of us to moralize from afar without knowing the specifics of their marriage, etc. You could argue it was just a dance move and not anything more (not sure you'd win that argument, or should win it, if she thought it was inappropriate, but you could make it). The video of that touch though...he could (and probably should) be in actual trouble...touching someone like that gets people arrested. Also, you think the person taking the video just happened to start recording at just the moment he did that, or was he doing it for a bit and they started taping and got some of it on camera?

Someone grinding on you does not give you permission to put your hand inside someone's butt cheek. Also, she wasn't grinding on him, she was dancing...that's not grinding. Would it be appropriate for him to have touched her chest because she was dancing with him like that? If he was at a strip club getting a lap dance, which this was nowhere near by 100 miles, what would happen if he touched the dancer without her permission, especially where he touched her in that video on page six of the thread?

Not sustainable. Ross is the problem, he is an awful awful meddler. I lived in South Florida from 2012-2020, it's talked about on local radio, they're just so irrelevant that it doesn't make national news much.

I just looked it up...the stadium authority took out a loan for $850m. After they refinanced, the overall cost of the loan went down by $100m alone. Doubt that tops the Miami Marlins stadium mess in terms of cost to a city, and at least the stadium will be used vs Marlins Park (still not sure that an NFL stadium would draw as many people as an MLB stadium just based on number of games, but Marlins Park has awful attendance).

How much is the total cost a $150m loan over 30 years? You think Santa Clara had that just sitting in the bank?

Yeah, I'm curious what people who understand line play watch the all 22 (I'm talking specifically about me being clueless). If they're basically letting them get pressure to a specific part of the field intentionally, that's not necessarily bad play I would think. Like they know they're going to likely get beat, so basically make it so you intentionally let them beat you to different places intentionally to let JA shift in the pocket for his 3rd and 4th reads/have the plays turn into secondary planned scramble drills. Wonder if that is what they did last year so successfully, and they tried the first two games to do what Allen worked on over the off-season, and it just wasn't quite there yet. I remember hearing Allen say that he has a choice in the off-season to learn new stuff or talk to the coaching staff and just keep certain things out of the game plan. Wondering if they ended up going back to what was working more last year with the line, and they're going to put some of those in cutting routes that JA was working on on hold for a bit. My guess is doing that choreographed Okey doke (assuming that's what they're doing) does make the running game more challenging.

It seemed like they did something protection wise to give JA an outlet to scramble to his right. The up the middle pressure wasn't there so he could step up and then out over and over. That could have been a matter of the guards playing better for sure, but wondering if it was something they intentionally adjusted to have happen scheme wise.

Edit: Barlow wrote the lyrics, Weir wrote the music. How crazy is it that you get sent to boarding school and randomly get put in a dorm room with Bob Weir...

Think that one's actually a John Perry Barlow song, who was such an amazingly cool and influential guy. Sorry for being "that guy," but more about not missing a chance to shout out JPB!

Maybe I should refine this a bit. It is very hard to compare defenses across eras, so I am not going to. Players are bigger, faster, stronger today than even 20 years ago. The schemes are more complex and the coverages more exotic. If you put a modern nfl offense against even the 85 Bears as they were schemed and constructed they would get destroyed. Josh Allen is playing against the most difficult to read defensive schemes in the history of the league. Game plans are being designed by machine learning models that can predict scarily well what a team is likely to do in various situations way better than people can. Unadjusted for era, even mediocre defenses today are much better than defenses in the past, especially pre the 2002 bucs I would say. You can say all you want how dominant sprinters from different eras were against their competition, but fact is world records get broken every year. Does not mean that the sprinters from former eras are were bad, or even that if they were in their primes today they wouldn’t be setting world records, but the game keeps improving. So, in absolute terms, unadjusted for era, I would feel pretty confident saying that the healthy 2021 Steelers defense is one of the most challenging to play against all time. You stick them in 1985, they would be historic (shoot, last years Bills defense would be historic if you stuck them in 1985). Flip it, and stick the 85 Bears in the league today and they’d get run off the field. You know what, I’ve been getting such strong reactions to my posts the last two days, I’m just going to go all in! The 1985 Bears and the 1986 Giants defenses are mediocre by today’s standards.

Dolphins was a big stretch, they have a great secondary, which is a matchup challenge for this team, but the Bills ran on them. The Steelers, absolutely I will die on that hill. Three in their prime all pros on the dline, and Hayden and Fitzpatrick in the secondary. If they stay healthy that defense is insanely good.

The Steelers dline, Hayden and Fitzpatrick, no question there IMO if they can stay healthy. The dolphins secondary is really, really good. That one might be a bit of a stretch in terms of top 50, but as far as matchup problems for this Bills offense, I would say absolutely this would be one of the 50 hardest defenses for them to match up against in the history of the league (yes I know how much the game has changed).

They’re clearly not in game shape yet, and the timing with the receivers is off. They just played two top defenses, potentially top 50 historically good defenses, and should have won both games, with a struggling offense (that blocked punt team screwed things up). Give them a minute to figure out how they are being played and make adjustments.

I know, this is crazy. Not the type of attention I was hoping for though.

I guess that’s my initial question: are there reasons this wouldn’t work from a rules or just the fact that you can’t make a good decision in that situation because is so fast perspective.

There is literally an article on this from a few years ago: https://www.sbnation.com/2017/7/19/15992038/let-your-quarterback-punt-please-nfl-football Haha that was genuinely funny (no sarcasm). I was like is that Debbie Reynolds?! Then the end of the commercial with the umbrella…yup!

You guys need to read Belichik’s comment on how the kicking game evolved over time and start anticipating the next potential advance. Again, you would scheme this in a way that the qb would be running away from any rushers sideways if the ball is going to the punter. Honestly, punting on 4th and 1 from the other team’s 41 is just a really bad play. I get pinning them deep and hoping your crowd can help lead to a turnover, or you get great field position, but how about you just get a yard and there is your turnover for all practical matters, and you have great field position. That’s literally what I said when I was saying it could be like a ruby play (I am well aware of the sarcasm)! Maybe not long 4th and inches, but on 4th and 5 on the 40, if the play isn’t there then you punt it, but the punter is a specialist for just that situation, and a former qb and could also throw it in instead of punting.

Not if you go for it a bunch and the punter is a decoy. He’s one step punting it out of the end zone if he gets it basically. Almost like a ruby play. They run it on the jet sweep and lateral to the punter to punt it down. Basically an option play with the punter as a part of it. Keep Allen out of it completely if you want. Or teach a qb that couldn’t quite make it to punt and carry them as a dedicated special team player for 4th downs inside the 45.

I mean obviously they would scheme it in a way that Allen isn’t at risk of getting hit, I’m not suggesting he stays in to block a punt rush. I guess what I’m thinking is you’re basically running a regular offensive play with Haak in as an option in case the play isn’t there scheme wise.