Thurman#1

The runner is presumed to have possession, unless he's fumbled. The receiver has not yet attained official possession. Makes sense to me, personally. Wouldn't be surprised if many disagree, with some justification, but I'm OK with it.

Sully is a terrific writer. But he's happy to write positive when things go well. Here's an excerpt from his story on the Browns win: "But as Buffalo fans who traveled to Michigan en masse contemplated the horror of a third straight defeat, the Bills shook off the dust (or was that a dusting of snow?) from a lost practice week and seized the game by the throat. "Stefon Diggs, who hadn’t been targeted once, broke open for a 5-yard TD strike from Allen just before halftime. Despite their horrid start, the Bills somehow led at half, 13-10, and you figured that it was only a matter of time before the Browns went away. "It was the latest example of a Sean McDermott team rising up in a perceived crisis for a much-needed win. A year ago on this very date, the Bills fell to 6-4 after a bad home loss to the Colts. They eventually dropped to 7-6, two games back of the Patriots in the division. Then they ran the table and won the AFC East. "They’re now 7-3, tied with the Dolphins in the division and a game ahead of the Pats and Jets. Miami has the tiebreaker at the moment, but Dolphins fans might want to look back at what happened to New England last season before assuming they have a significant edge on the Bills in the division." Sully's far better than some of the mopes on here.

Fair enough, but they don't usually run guys much in both STs and offense. It's usually one or the other with maybe a dabble here or there on the other. Perhaps they might take him off STs, or perhaps he'll be an exception to their trend. I personally wouldn't bet on it, though.

If he does demand his own top market value, I agree he'll likely be gone. IMO he'll take a bit of a hometown discount because he'll still be getting well into eight figures in AAV. He, like most of this team, really likes it here. But we'll see. You could be right, clearly.

Calling it like you see it isn't anything to be proud of. Pretty much everyone does, including folks who are wildly wildly wrong. And if he were really out of position or late often he wouldn't be here. He's here and he's captain and he's a three-time Pro Bowler and they picked up his option because he does what they want him to do a very large percentage of the time. Maybe not what you want and expect. But what they want and expect.

Most teams can't. One that could was the one that our head coach and general manager come from. They paid Davis and Kuechly very handsomely. Which positions did Davis and Kuechly play again? Oh, yeah, same ones Milano and Edmunds do. It's not a sure thing of course, but very possible. Edmunds is great against the pass because he's fast, pretty quick particularly for his size, and really heady. His long arms help. They also help him get off blocks. Yes, yes, yes. It's not a coincidence that his best years were the early ones where Lotulelei was playing well and this year when he's behind Settle and Jones. Very true. That's part of McDermott's scheme, but really every LB behind a good big DL is vastly helped. Even Ray Lewis was suddenly average after Siragusa and before Ngata. Davis and Kuechly were much the same, better behind some really big tough DTs.

Fair enough. Your crow will come after the season. He's likely to stay.

I don't think he's even saying that. There are talents on the offense that are indeed above average beyond Diggs and Allen. Hell, even the offensive line is playing overall at a slightly above average level, though Quesenberry at LT with a sprained ankle certainly didn't look terrific. Yet we ran the ball down the throats of a pretty good DL on a defense that is well above average both at run defense and overall. Is Gabe disappearing for periods of time? Yeah. But that happens with #2 WRs. It's kind of why they're not #1s. Fair enough on discussion style. There are a lot of trolls / wild-eyed pessimists on here. Particularly for a 9-3 team that's ranked very high on offense.

Going into the future, yes. Are our needs so serious that we aren't going to be able to compete very seriously for a Super Bowl? No, not at all. Not at all.

The Bills don't appear to want him back. Who cares what he wants. He isn't what he was. For several years he was excellent at handling both zone and man. Then his ability to handle man took a massive dip. It's not a mistake that his yards per reception took a massive drop, and was even lower in Tampa, though sample size makes his Tampa work statistically insignificant. That's even before getting into his constant willingness to be a distraction and to break team rules.

Yup. The most common formula for winning an SB is to have a great QB and a really good defense. There are other ways but that's the most common. You can't have a really bad group surrounding the QB. And we don't. They've got no other superstars than Diggs and Allen but the rest are good or better. It'd be nice if you could have sensational players at every position, but it's not realistic.

Didn't look that way to me. He [Smoke] couldn't stay healthy. And he was paid a lot for a guy who was unavailable as much as he was. He was actually pretty productive that year when on the field. 458 yards on 453 snaps.

Hell, no! His injury was a big one. Left us with Shakir and McKenzie at slot and neither has seized the spot. He's also the slot guy with the most work outside in case of injuries there. Come back, Jamison!!

129 degrees on the field beat the Bills in that game. Wearing dark blue while the Fins wore white. I think we're going to see a very different game up in Orchard Park, even if the temps are not a factor.

There's no right time to stack your roster. Anytime is good. Von Miller was our main move, and he was a terrific one, far better than any made by the Chiefs. We're fine.

Strong disagree here. If you're going to have luck it doesn't have to be through the season. More through the playoffs. Late in the season almost as much. And some teams are just good enough to make luck incidental. Nor does past bad luck affect luck going forward. It's more interesting than a concern.

This is a really good point, and one we (specifically me) don't think about often enough.

Yeah, it's an awful lot easier for wannabe GMs, who don't have to deal with salary caps, than it is for GMs, who have real-world consequences for bringing in every guy they would like to in an ideal world. Precisely. There's no punishment for wannabe GMs to say we need to pick up more and more and more.

Yup. Not to mention that they are grouped tightly in terms of unit. The defensive backfield has been absolutely decimated. So has the DL. That gives teams specific targets and areas where the backups are tightly grouped and easier to attack. This has absolutely had a huge effect on this team. Pretending it hasn't isn't making sense.

Looked to me like he started playing hero ball for a game or two. And when he figured that out and corrected it, he got the elbow problem. And the elbow problem absolutely is a problem at times. He can still throw hard when he puts his whole body into it. But he usually can throw hard as hell almost flat-footed.

We're talking about the last four games? You didn't say that. You did claim knowledge that our coaches weren't teaching well, which was and is ridiculous. We can't know that unless we're there, and we're not. Has tackling and pass defense been substandard in the last four games? For a team with 11 starters on the field, maybe yeah. For a team with around 5 backups out there, probably not. Their YPC for those four games is slightly better than NFL average, and they just strangled Nick Chubb. For a team without 3 or at times even 4 of their starting defensive backfield, I'd argue their pass defense has been pretty good. The D kept scoring well in hand against all but the Vikes. Overly critical? Yeah, probably, which I think was my overall point. We all get cranky and knee-jerk at times. I'm no exception. Reasonable to respond to that, isn't it?

Don't think he threw a block so much as he was trying to look like he was throwing a block without actually affecting the play. He did affect the play a bit, but it sure looks like once out there he was not trying to make any difference. I don't blame the refs a bit. You'd have to be staring right at him at the right moment to see him and the refs had a ton to look at at that moment.

There's always one guy. It's the sad truth.

You know for sure that it's that the coaches aren't coaching it, and not the players executing badly? Tell me, what's it like to be at all the practices? As for struggling against the run, we're 10th best at defensive YPC, and that's with many starters missing a lot of games. And 9th best at YPA, with the same large number of games missed. We're 5th in points allowed per game, 1.1 PPG behind the best in the league. 12th in yards allowed per game, 19 yards per game behind the #1 team. All against an extremely tough schedule.

Stupidity is sad. So is trolling. One is involved here.