billsfan89

They hold back a lot of their best stuff for the playoffs and they try to win games with an offense that is good enough. I think they can get their offense on track to be "good enough" but their defense has always been durable and if that's not gonna carry them while their offense figures it out that is a larger more fundamental issue.

The Giants offense has only looked functional against the horrid Cowboys defense. KC's defense to me is their bigger issue. I think offensively they will get things together and be a consistently competent unit. I think they will add a RB via trade and maybe a WR if needed. But just looking at their defense and it is hard to see them making the additions they may need on offense and defense. I think we will get a better picture of who KC is after next week when they play the Ravens.

Also I would argue that even if KC's offensive issues are alleviated by Rice coming back and Worthy being healthy the larger issue for KC is that their defense while good might not be as elite as it once was thanks to Chris Jones declining slightly and an erosion of talent elsewhere. KC's offense can improve but if they are not gonna have an elite defense it's gonna be an issue.

Bills are 3-0 with a 2 game lead in the division and they just got a "mini-bye" to help with their injury issues. They head into a home game against one of the worst teams in the league on extra rest. They gotta get Ed and Milano healthy and get the PED Twins and Mad Max back. The few extra days off and the semi-early bye in week 7 should help with that. The Bills for now gotta just keep piling up the wins and knock on wood not get any major injuries. One week at a time...

The Eagles are a GM based “dynasty” (hard to say if 2 titles and 3 Conference Titles in 8 years makes one) Peterson wasn’t exactly a great coach either in their first Super Bowl. They remind me of the NJ Devils in hockey. They won 3 Stanley Cups and 4 Finals appearances from 1995-2003 but they had a different coach in each title. It was the GM that continually built a great roster.

Hard to say, week 1-2 are almost extended pre-season and Thursday games are funky. So I think the Bills will have to really get more games in to see what any trade deadline needs are. I think Safety remains a big concern but seems like the tandem has settled down after that terrible start. Once again not sure what’s happening on a more granular level there. Defensively in general Mad Max and the PED twins come back so there’s reinforcements coming. I think offensively WR could be an issue if Keon isn’t a bit more consistent but I can’t see any major moves there.

Fans don't always understand D-line play if guys aren't making splashy plays. I'm guilty of that sometimes. I think if a DT doesn't get sacks and TFL's and the team gives up some rushing yards over the middle people just assume the DT's didn't play well. Could be true some of the time but isn't always true either.

All fans are like this. I have a friend who is a 49ers fan and he seems pissed when they win...

Teams are trying to run the ball more to break the soft 2 zones. There's a big increase in teams running 2 tight ends this year. So it makes sense teams are running more 4-3

I remember the Fins not rushing to the line after that catch. I could be wrong but it wasn't like they attempted to do a quick snap to limit the time the coaches had to look at the replay.

Are you saying fans are reactionary and prisoners of the moment? That doesn't seem accurate to me...

Fair enough, I am just going by my eye test, Groot looked OK against the run and not much of a factor in the pass rush. All 22 and more detailed analysis could prove me wrong.

My only issue thus far with McD has been him going for 2 against the Ravens after the penalty on the PAT and not challenging that Hill Bobble very early in Miami. Those are mostly nitpicks. The Bills have played 3 very crisp well coached games thus far. Not much to complain about in terms of coaching decisions. I'm always willing to burn a borderline challenge early in the game. You get two challenges so if you lose a challenge you still have one in your pocket for later in the game and if you lose a time out it is a first half timeout. I would have challenged the bobble even if it stood it gives your defense a chance to reorient its self for a new set of downs if upheld. It's not the worst non-call I think coaches are just way too nervous to make challenges early.

I would have taken a return to his rookie year form but he's looked a notch above that thus far. Early returns on him are good. The Bills are going to need him and Keon to take a step up. We know Shakir is a very good slot WR and Palmer a competent but not spectacular outside WR. Shavers/Moore/Samuel (when he gets back) are nice secondary pieces, Knox and Hawes are also more supplemental weapons as are the RB's. But if this offense wants to be consistently elite against better defenses they need Kincaid to pick apart zones consistently over the middle and Keon to be a factor on the outside.

Don't put too much stock into a Thursday game.

I think people don't always think of that when making risk assessments on kick returns. Yeah you could pop a TD or a long return but you could also fumble or get a penalty and back yourself inside the 20. I think the Bills have to do a better job on the kicks and try to keep opponents around the 30.

Tua when his timing is right and the game is close to where they don't have to drop back every snap he's insanely hard to sack. Tua reads the plays well and has a super quick release.

Gilliam is a core ST player part of the reason the team carries him

I am not ready to write Tre off. It is one of the better WR tandems in the league and one of the fastest. But it seemed like Tre was picked on more so than Benford.

I think the coaching staff is playing the long game. I think the Jets game is ideally how they would like to have these games go. Dominant James Cook game, defense is shut down, Josh is needed only here or there and they build a 2 score lead at half and then put it away in Q3 building to a 3 score lead in Q4 and grind the game out (of course the Jets game went way better as they had a 3 score lead at the half and built a 4 score lead and went into garbage time in Q4). But the missed kick by Prater and the early TD by the Fins threw that script off. The Prater miss didn't give Miami awesome field position (I think they took over somewhere around their own 33). But only being down "one score" and getting a break pushed them to try to make it a game again. Of course the Bills took advantage of the Fins miscues later in the game scoring a TD after the roughing the punter and then making the INT on the Tua bad decision. The Bills even erased the holding penalty on the "grinding out" drive after the INT by taking the 2nd and 16 and converting into a first down in field goal range. The Bills made 2 very critical mistakes (the missed field goal and the holding on Kincaid) and they were able to erase one of those mistakes. The Fins made 2 very big mistakes and the Bills took advantage of both.

Neat concept UP Cook- He's showing why he is worth every penny. Kincaid- Continuing to look more like he did his rookie season Bernard- Looked more like his 2023-2024 self. He wasn't bad at all during the Jets game but this game he made a bigger impact outside of the massive INT. DOWN Groot- He had a solid game setting the edge against the Jets but looked invisible. Tre White- Got burnt a few times, not tragic but he certainly got picked on more. Keon- A couple of drops just not didn't have much of an impact on this game.

Fans have complained that KC always has "Their Best" stuff saved for the playoffs. Guess what when KC plays in the regular season they can't run all the bells and whistles of their offense to consistently run up the score on lesser teams earlier in the season. I hope the Bills are emulating this it also seems like the Bills are trying to stay healthy and avoid over exposing Josh and having to use him frequently. The coaching staff is playing the long game with how they are operating the offense and I think it is working. But I think fans just sometimes are prisoners of the moment.

I would be more concerned about letting a bad team "hang around" if this wasn't a Thursday game and a divisional game. Great teams grind out some wins esp in funkier time slots and in their own division. Now if the Bills have a tight game against NOLA at home on a Sunday I would be a little more worried. But this is the NFL most games are usually pretty tight. I was yelling at my TV begging for a challenge. Miami didn't even rush to snap the ball. Teams have two challenges I usually am conservative with challenges in the second half or on the second challenge. But there's no reason why they shouldn't have thrown their first challenge in the first half at that. It also being a Thursday game gave me a lot of pause. Thursday games are always just so funky...

Because fans like to complain...

The defense is currently missing 5 possibly key components. The PED Twins are still suspended. Hairston the teams first round pick at corner is on IR. And Ed and Milano were out on more week to week injuries. I'm not gonna say this team is "depleted' on defense. But there's some reinforcements coming. Every team is going to have guys missing but 5 key players (I would classify each of the 5 players missing as either higher end role players or starters) is not insignificant either. Overall I understand the concerns with the defense but I am just not there yet. Funky Thursday Divisional games are just not something I will put too much stock into.