Thurman#1

They don't need a message from the coaches or anybody else. They got all the message they needed right on the field.

Rodgers lied to our face in front of microphones, he deserves to be piled on. He earned it.

Sanders is getting his reps, and he's better than Davis. But yeah, there are major problems with the offense.

We played crap. All game long. The officials weren't the reason we lost. We couldn't run, we couldn't pass, and we couldn't protect Allen. And he made mistakes. Fricking awful. The officials didn't have a good game today. But the real abomination on the field today was the Bills offense.

There are two guards above $14M/ year. Wouldn't be surprised to see Quenton Nelson get to that area but beyond him IMO it'll be a while before more than one or two get there.

RB in the first really is a bad idea in the modern NFL. I suppose if they think he's a top ten guy and he's fallen so far he sticks out like a sore thumb ... nope, if that happened I'd rather see them trade back and pick up some picks. We're likely to be needing a guard, a DL, CBs, early S replacements as our safeties age, a WR to replace Beasley and Sanders ... All of those positions make sense to pick later in the first round.

He didn't say Allen never had pressures, I believe. He was referring to whether the OL gave up pressures. There's a difference there. For example, if the backfield is empty and the TE goes out on a pass and the defense sends six against five OLs, and the OLs do their job, Allen will still have someone in his face even if the OLs all do a great job. And the OL was outnumbered a lot in that game. Joe is smart, and he knows what he's looking at. D+, not D-. Still, I also found that a bit surprising. I don't remember him much that game, but four targets and zero catches is on the face of it not very good. Hard to know without going through and watching the film as Joe did. He certainly hasn't usually given Sanders low grades this year. Just the opposite. Through Week 6 and the Titans he had him cumulatively the 10th best on the team.

It's not "because of" that. It's partially because of that. It's certainly a factor. But DVOA controls for that and they still have the Bills at #1 in Adjusted DVOA. So another reason for the fact that they're considered very very good, is that they're very very good. Will they probably have games where they have problems? Yeah, absolutely. Every defense does. Look at the '85 Bears. That was an insanely good defense and people forget it, but that year the Dolphins put up 38 points against them and the 2-14 Bucs put up 28. Look at the 2000 Ravens, also in the conversation for best of all time. The 7-9 Jags put up 36 on them. Before the nonsense starts, I'm not comparing this Bills defense to those two, but I am saying that every D has a bad game or two or three, even the really good ones.

Interesting.

In the Steelers game that we lost, Allen went 30/51 for 270 with one TD. Had two fumbles, though he only lost one. Can we be sure another guy getting open woudn't have helped, maybe putting us over the top? One TD would have made the difference in that game. Yeah, the OL was a major problem, but if they could have thrown a few quick hitters to Beckham with the CBs playing off, would that maybe have made a difference? Against the Titans our passing was better, but if it had been even better yet, couldn't that have made three points worth of difference, maybe? Jesus I feel like that damp rag Tucker Carlson, "I'm only asking questions." Sorry about that, but you asked the questions, and I think it's legit to say that your questions don't appear to me to have obviously negative answers, and that it's possible that he could indeed improve our passing offense if he came here and got open a lot. NOT that I expect this to happen. I don't. But I think it's slightly possible if things came together just right on money and availability and if Beane would be willing to bring him in.

It's not all character issues that are deal breakers for this group. It's certain kinds of character issues. They're keeping Beasley, they at least kicked the tires on Antonio Brown. It'd be interesting to know whether Beane feels Beckham's character issues are beyond what they could accept. My guess is that they are, that they don't want him. I'm not that sure of it, though. I don't think anyone can be.

Be interesting to see if he does get claimed off of waivers. I'd guess he won't but it's possible. If he doesn't, I'd guess we at least call and kick the tires. Don't think it would actually work out, though. I'm curious what the perspective on him is within the league. Do they put most of the blame for his ineffectiveness on Mayfield/the Browns? Do they think he still has most of his skills at 29? Do they think he's toxic or just high-maintenance? It'll be fun to watch.

Dorsey's there. I'm not yet convinced they see him as heir apparent, though it's certainly possible. I like Webb a lot as well, but he'll need a few years working his way up the coaching ladder before he's ready for a job that big. When he retires, I hope the Bills offer him an entry level shot. My guess is they go outside, but I could definitely see them going with Dorsey instead.

It's a smart and effective rule. The absolute worst result of following the Rooney Rule is that you have to give one extra interview. During which if you're smart, you can learn about the tactics of the last team, new plays, philosophies and the other members of the coaching staff of that team and even the players. And while I hear you that you're arguing that only the team loses if they ignore a guy because of the color of his skin, the guy who didn't get an interview is also hurt, in that he's not in the national conversation and doesn't get practice interviewing for the next interview in a situation where they're open to finding the best candidate regardless of skin color or anything but effectiveness. Josh Allen: "Thanks, Brian Daboll." Doing anything every time you hit a situation makes you predictable and easy to defense. Yeah, I'm with you in that I'd like to see that be the majority of our calls in that situation, no, it shouldn't be all of them. Make them defend the whole field.

These receivers are damn good. Top five group, certainly. Having said that, if they think he'll fit the locker room, and he's willing to come in for cheap enough that we think we can afford him, sure, bring in Beckham. I doubt those two conditions turn up aces, but if they want to do it, they've certainly earned my trust, as the great majority of their moves have turned out really well.

Of course top receivers see production drops - and rises - from year to year. Justin Jefferson's production is down significantly this year. Beckham has fallen off a cliff. RIdley is way down. DK Metcalf's production is way down, but it was down even before Wilson went out. Keenan Allen is down, Golladay is down, and yeah, you could say he's missed a couple of games but he's also down in YPG. Look at Deandre Hopkins. His best year was probably 2015 when he had 111 receptions for 1521 yards. The next year he had 78 receptions for 954 yards. 2019 104 receptions for 1165. Look at Julio Jones' best year, 2015, with 136 catches and 1871 yards. All down since then. Mike Evans' best year was 2016, with 96 catches for 1206 yards. The next year he went for 1001, last year for 1006. I'm pretty sure I could find a bunch of receivers beyond Cooper Kupp who are up this year also. This is how statistics work, because it's how the world works. Things go up and down.

No, of course not. It always cracks me up how people moan about this. Games are lost probably fifty times more often because of bad plays made by players than bad plays by refs.

I am not joking by any means. They had a really good roster for about two years early in his career there when they had Merriman in his first three years and Tomlinson there playing at a high level. After that, they were mostly an OK roster with a terrific QB.

No, it's not kind of choking if you can't complete a pass in 4 downs. That's a blanket statement, and as with most blanket statements, it's not correct. Depends on why the passes were incomplete. In this case, from the 44, Rivers completed a six yard pass to the 38 yard-line to start off, but McDermott had called time-out just before the play (though the officials later announced that the replay official had stopped play before McDermott did, returning Buffalo its time out), nullifying the play. If play hadn't been stopped, they'd have had second and four at the thirty-eight, and if they'd had two more incompletions, a 55 yard field goal shot on fourth down, for a chance at the win. But play had been stopped to give the refs a second chance to look at the play before which had been a fumble torn out by Milano and recovered by Buffalo but the refs had called Pascal, the receiver down before the fumble. After a long, long pause with the announcers and Steratore saying after many replays that it was a fumble, it was upheld as the play being over before the fumble. The ball was moved to the 46 after the delay. Rivers then completed the first down pass but it had been covered well and the receiver had to immediately get out of bounds for a yard loss. So you said, "if you can't complete a pass in 4 downs," but he did. Actually, he completed two. The one on first down and then another one. On second down they rushed to the line and he completed an eleven-yarder for a first down. But whoops, again time had been called by McDermott with the time-out they'd gotten back. Would've been a first down on the 36 yard-line, but McDermott stopped them as they tried to run a really quick play after the one-yard completion. On the second play on second down, Rivers had to throw it away, way out of bounds. Everyone was covered and he wasn't pressured but he realized he had to end the play quick. It was now third down with 0:08 remaining. That was good defense, and the fact that they had no time-outs, so he couldn't complete one that would end up being tackled in-bounds. On third down one of his receivers made a mistake, as there were two recievers very close to each other on the sideline, one at the 39 and the other at the 32, with Taron Johnson between them, effectively covering both. Rivers threw it really quickly putting it a bit long, where it was either going to be a sensational catch by the guy further downfield or it would go over him and out of bounds. It went over him. Fourth down and eleven with 0:04 seconds left. The only chance now a Hail Mary to the end zone. Not real good odds either way. The Bills still remembered the Hail Murray and they defended the Hail Mary. That was NOT a choke by Rivers, by any stretch. It was good defense and great time out calls by McDermott, helped out by a mistake by one of the Colt receivers on the third down. But Johnson had good coverage on the play anyway, and there were three Bills defenders within about 5 steps of the play. Should probably have been a Bills fumble recovery four plays earlier, to be honest.

Rivers raised those teams up. Rivers-led teams got farther than they should have based on their rosters. Yup. The question would be age, not talent.

Damn good. Top five. But it's still a bit early in the season.

That's the thing ... they're not. They're solid to good, but not great. You don't get a 5.1 YPC by being terrible, you simply don't, and they're both really really good pass blockers, which the Bills greatly value for the obvious reason. People seem to want a top five RB, and that's a misuse of resources. We're not going to run an RB enough to make it worth paying huge $ for one or using big draft capital on one. We need a guard, maybe a CB, much more than we need an RB. A lot more.

That's about how it looks to me too, though I'd have put Henry a lot higher before the injury. Maybe a spot or two higher for Allen as well. Last year, Allen was top two. This year he's only terrific.

I had not realized that the laws of mathematics had been changed such that 5.1 YPC (8th in the NFL this year) has somehow become equal to zilch and nada. It's neither him, nor the offensive line nor Daboll, it's the perception of people who think our RBs have done nothing. Fair enough that neither is elite nor anything close. But they're both solid backs.

Singletary's a damn good blocker. He has been since he got here. The reason he's not thought of here in that way is that Moss is even better, among the absolute best in the league. But Singletary is not far behind. I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that both of the RBs they brought in are excellent pass blockers.