Thurman#1

Because NFL teams pay for their info. That's why some amount of trust is reasonable. They wouldn't do that if the PFF folks were incompetent. Not that that means you have to agree with any of their specific conclusions. Disagreement backed by other data is totally reasonable.

So, you've watched the film yourself and compared their performance, right? Because if you haven't you're only revealing a cognitive bias and that you're perfectly happy operating that way. If you've watched the film and disagree, fair enough, that leaves plenty of room to disagree and make a ton of sense. If not ...

Good question in this context. An attempt? Or a contusion?

It's his responsibility, but it's not solely in his power. More, there's never in history been a coach who didn't have their team come out flat sometimes. It happens. Even to Lombardi. Even to Belichick. What separates the great coaches in this area is that it happens less often for greats than most others. And McDermott teams have had bad games sometimes, but flat games very rarely.

I disagree the line is average. With the current injuries and guys playing out of position, it's far below that. With everyone healthy and in position they're a good line at pass pro and average to below average at run blocking, possibly because they spend so little time on it. As for 20 - 25 yard run plays being missing, they're not. Singletary has a 46 yarder (MIA) and a 25 yarder (PIT). Could there be more if they were better backs? Yeah, sure. I'm not arguing that they are constant breakaway threats or great backs. But they're solid. And I disagree about your "holes" diagnosis. When there are holes these guys get yards. Too often there aren't holes. It's been said ad infinitum, but for good reason, they have fewer yards before contact than just about anyone around and that's mostly bad blocking. They're not slow. They're just not real fast. And plenty of guys without breakaway speed are NFL starters and good players for years. Would it be good to get an upgrade? Sure! Is that position the highest priority to upgrade, or even in the top three? I sure don't think so. Give me a guard or two, a CB or two, a second TE and maybe another interior DL, or a top-class pass rushing DE.

I'm sure you have seen good RBs get yards behind average to below average lines. That's what you're seeing in Buffalo right now. Singletary's averaging 4.9 YPC, and while Moss is lower, he's still making yards. Yes, they're not breakaway threats. But both are solid guys. And Beane certainly did upgrade the roster since losing to the Chiefs. Rousseau, Emanuel Sanders and Brown, for three, say hello. He didn't upgrade them in every area, which in our cap situation was just simply the way it had to be.

No, you're not sure. What you have there is a guess or an opinion, and one without any degree of substantiation or reasonable evidence. And by the way, the Steelers played flat and badly most of the first month of the season. Tomlin's damn good, but not perfect. Same with McDermott. And your evidence that he hasn't done that is non-existent. Entirely imaginary, as a matter of fact.

Absolutely not. This year Williams has been really good at G and pretty bad at T. When Brown is healthy at RT, our two best players are at the positions that are most important, with the best player at the most important spot. Boettger? Maybe. I just don't think he's been better than a healthy Feliciano. When healthy, this line has mostly (certainly not entirely, but mostly) been OK once they got Williams inside and Brown playing. When unhealthy like yesterday, considerably worse. Dawkins hasn't been the same after COVID, but still better than putting someone else there.

Thought it was worth repeating what was said on the the Bears - Steelers broadcast with 13:34 on the clock in the 3rd quarter. Announcer: "Harris has taken a lot of punishment this season. Doesn't seem to mind the contact. He actually told us he likes to get hit." Color Man: "And he's taken some big hits, Jamal Adams for the Seahawks got him, Edmunds for the Bills got him one time, he said that was the hardest one he took."

Um, no. Allowing 9 points wasn't what lost us the game. Not scoring more than 6 points ... that lost us the game. Holding any team to 9 points is a successful day for the defense. Scoring 6 points against any team is an unsuccessful day on offense. Wait, you're talking about Teef here? I mean, rational yes, but adult? Pretty clear he's coming off as the adult in this conversation, but I don't recall that as the norm.

Well, it's certainly possible to know whether you personally think it's a garbage call. But what that ref saw or especially maybe heard there? Nah. You just don't know.

May have backed into him, but he'd already started reaching for the flag. The flag was for what he said/did to Harvin/the sideline. Since we have no idea what was said (and the ref presumbly did) it's impossible to know whether it's a garbage call or not. You don't like the taunting rule? Fine, whatever. But it's a rule. The players need to learn how to deal with it. There are plenty of ref mistakes and bad calls around, though the number is dwarfed by the number of player mistakes and bad plays. But this isn't a huge deal.

Unfortuantely, it could be worse. Not all changes are good ones. And there just aren't a lot of decent guards out there. Bobby Hart was recently plucked from our practice squad. That tells you how bad the supply is right now.

Yeah, I can see why that talk about Smith cracked you up. I mean, he's averaging 3.2 YPC this year. He manages that on an average Yards before contact of 2.4. Yeah, clearly he's special right now. I don't really care who you give me. There are excellent arguments all three of those guys are playing considerably worse. And there are more. You're considerably under-rating Motor, so you're not seeing it.

Beasley is beaten up this year and was beaten up late in the season last year. Sanders looks great so far, but he's old enough that you wonder how he'll do late in the season. The older you get the more you wear down. IMO assuming we'll be fine with these WRs next year is assuming far too much at their age. You don't want to be replacing guys too late. And overall Daboll is a terrific play caller. Not that he's perfect and not that he does well every week, but nobody's perfect and nobody does well every week. I agree about the OL, though, in particular the interior., and even more specifically the guards.

Not at all sure where you're getting this, what it refers to or what all those numbers mean. But ProFootballReference has Singletary 15th in Yards After Contact / Attempt. And Moss 16th. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2021/rushing_advanced.htm And when you're getting hit early in the run as the Bills RBs are, your Yards After Contact will be decreased.

DeAndre Swift, Michael Carter, Darrel Williams. And that was not even slightly difficult.

Yeah. If you can't see that calling our RBs bottom 3 is a wild exaggeration, you are correct, you can't help him or anyone, including yourself. Our RBs aren't bottom 3, they simply aren't. They also aren't game breakers in any way. But they are talented, and they do have NFL starter standard speed and power. It really would be great if we could get an upgrade there, but the same is true of many positions on every team in the league. And it's very questionable whether RB should be our first priority to upgrade.

Very few reps, but yeah. There were a lot of forced changes of direction in the backfield. Worth remembering we had 3 OLs who were either replacements or playing out of position, but you still have to make things happen if you are starting. They did try, but this year due to COVID, they are in serious cap trouble. That meant they weren't able to spend much money at all on OLs. The Brown draft pick seems terrific. Losing him showed how valuable he has already become.

Yes we need a run game. The problems in the run game are more on the OL than the RBs. And there's a reason Gurley isn't on any roster. His last two years he managed 3.8 and 3.5 YPC. It wasn't all on him, but plenty was.

Do I think King Henry could ... Yeah, a lot better than the current guys. And that's not saying anything bad about Singletary or Moss. And no, it's not "all of our offensive woes." And it's hard to blame the OL when our #6 and #7 players were out there and Williams was playing out of position. But yeah, they weren't good. And yeah it had a major impact. As did Allen not playing well. Yes, fair enough. It would be great to get an upgrade, but it's not like teams can't play well on offense with guys like Singletary and Moss if used right and in the right situation.

That's certainly some of it. No question. Not all of it, though.

It really isn't. We really shouldn't. He certainly deserves his share of the blame. But there was an awful lot of it to go around, and putting it all on him is scapegoating.

Yes, it was on him. No, not strictly him. There was a lot of blame to go around. The whole offense was pretty bad. Giving your opinion seems to have come to be referred to as "being real." So yeah, you were doing that. You're certainly right that he had enough awful plays that he hurt us really badly, which you can't often say about him. But he wasn't the only one to have enough bad games to have a major bad effect on the game.

Utter nonsense. If anyone could coach a defense this good, all the defenses would run this scheme and be this good. They've got the right coach now. Nice job. It's not often we get two such ridiculous posts right in a row.