Utah John

Beane's intention was to PS him. Obviously he preferred a chance to get on someone's 53.

I watched two evenly matched mediocre teams last night. I think the Bengals are good enough to ascend into the perpetual 7-9 (now 7-10) trap, good enough to give their fans delusions but not bad enough to get top draft picks. The Jags will not be far behind. Another year of bottom feeding and they too will ascend into that no-man's land. We know that place well, having lived there for so long. The Bengals only real hope is to try to improve gradually while the other teams in their division get old and slow, but both Cleveland and Baltimore are at least a year or two from falling off that cliff. Cincy in, say, 2023 or 2024 makes sense, if they can get some help on their O line.

I find that strangely NOT funny.

Lots of good young QBs right now, but it's still gonna be rough for the teams who haven't landed their guy yet. Some of those good young QBs are going to have to endure a few years of misery before winning. Zach Wilson for example will have to get beat up for four years with the Jets before getting to go to an NFL team.

Are you suggesting that Brady is going to be playing for 10 more years? Nice points. I'd be delighted if the Bengals get good enough to give the Browns and the Ravens a loss each. No telling who the Bills' competition for first seed will be, or whether we'll need help like that.

The Spike is in Promontory, Utah. I lived in Nebraska for 4 1/2 years and I loved it there. I've lived in 8 states and Omaha was the city that reminded me most of Buffalo. Really. But I also lived in Utah and I visited the national park where the spike is.

I'll go with Gabe Davis. He didn't get many targets or even snaps last week, and I figure that was done to let Josh and Sanders get on the same page. Davis needs to be getting reps too, and it might as well be against the Texans, before we have to face the Chiefs.

I thought maybe he was throwing to 88, who cut into the middle of the field instead of staying wide, where the pass went. But it's also possible he was throwing it to the underneath receiver, as you said.

Now, now, we really don't know how good a tackler Gilmore is. We never got a chance to see him actually try.

If it's any comfort to embarrassed Texans fans, I don't think the Bills will cover the spread. I think they could do so, easily, but why keep starters in just to run up the score? I think the Bills will be ahead 21-7 or so at halftime, with the lead growing in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter Trubisky and a parade of backups will be on the field getting some game experience and letting the starters stay ready for KC. When that happens, the Texans will come back, a little, and the score differential will shrink.

A guy like Shady was a top back for a few years, and was certainly a high-skill player for most of his career. His career stats MIGHT get him into the HOF but it's not a lock. I hope the voters take into account his exceptional abilities and performances. On the other hand, a guy like Frank Gore who stuck around forever, never being considered a top back in any year of his career, is probably getting in just based on longevity. Seems wrong to me.

There is a perfectly logical explanation for all the bad calls or non-calls. Whether we like to think about this or not, the refs could be doing this on purpose. -- First deep ball Allen threw to Diggs in the Miami game. The defender tackled Diggs before the ball arrived. No call. -- Last deep throw from Brady to a WR at the end of the Bucs-Cowboys game. The WR blatantly pushed off. No OPI. Pass caught, Bucs in FG range, FG made, Bucs win. There are at least 2-3 games a year where an egregious call or non-call is made with a ref RIGHT THERE WATCHING. Are they trying to shape the flow of the game? Are they trying to help a home team win? Or (God help the NFL) are they thinking about the point spread?

That throw to Diggs against the Broncos sort of proves my point. When Allen released the ball he was standing on his own 25 yard line. Diggs caught it at the other 15 yard line. 60 yards in the air. It was a very accurate throw but because it had an arc it also gave Diggs a little room to make adjustments, which made it look like the throw itself was the only reason for the accuracy. Diggs also had a lot to do with it. Anyway, 60 yards seems to be a good distance for Allen making deep throws.

Some of the greatest basketball centers couldn't shoot free throws well. None of their shot motions -- either a close-in pop or a set shot from 10 feet -- worked. Sometimes they tried backing up from the free throw line so they could take a shot that fit their bodies. Maybe Josh's problem is that he doesn't have optimal mechanics on what would be range-stretching deep throws for most QBs. When he throws a 40 yard pass, it's a laser, and that doesn't work for deep throws where he needs air under the ball so the receiver can track it and make adjustments. He has great touch on shorter passes but not on that range. Maybe he needs to let the receivers get farther downfield, and then unleash a 60-70 yard arc the receiver can run under. DBs won't believe they need to cover WRs that far.

The coaches are using Edmunds the way they think best. They aren't looking for splash plays from him. They want him to eat space and force action to places where they want it to go to. This defense is not 11 guys running around. It's one unit with 11 parts, and if it's working well the MLB has a lot to do with its success. Edmunds on another team might be given very different duties and perhaps would become a dominant force by himself. On this team, he's the glue that keeps everything working together.

I think McD did that to let his players realize they're good enough to pull that off. It's one thing to practice things, but to be in live situation like that with no margin for error, running several plays all working perfectly, lets the players look around at each other and say, damn, we really are good. There's no price tag for that kind of reinforcement.

Neither the Chiefs nor the Titans are playing as well this year as they did last year. But you could have said the same thing about the Bills a week or so ago. The NFL is a very tough league, obviously. HCs and coordinators are paid to figure out how to attack the other team, and no team is so completely stacked that there aren't opportunities for another good team to exploit. The current jumble is a sign that league policies are working to make a complete product attractive and interesting. Not like MLB where some teams in small cities need a miracle to be competitive. Baltimore has a good solid team but they don't seem to have the inner strength of character to show up every day. A team that can beat the Chiefs has no business being in a position where they need an obvious mistake by the officials to beat the weak Lions on a record-setting FG. (For those who don't know, just prior to the long FG, the Ravens had the play clock go to zero a full second or more before the snap. That FG would not have been good from 71 yards, which is where it should have been kicked from.)

Edmunds is a key part of the Bills' team defense. He is not not supposed to be making highlight plays on a regular basis. He's supposed to be taking a large portion of the field away from use by the offense, and he does that. Remember the old BASF commercials? We don't make (fill in the blank), we make (fill in the blank) better. Edmunds job is to do what he's doing which makes all the other players more effective. The Bills entire team is set up to work as complete units. We got used to Diggs making lots of catches last year but the offense is actually more lethal when more players are catching balls. The same principle applies with the defense. Some teams have MLBs that make a ton of tackles, but their overall defense doesn't work that well. I will take what I see from the Bills all day every day.

If the Bills are up 31-17 late in the fourth quarter, I hope Allen is planted firmly on the bench, and Trubisky is getting some snaps. Covering a spread like that is no reason to leave Allen exposed. Not that Houston has anyone who's a threat to Allen's well-being...but still.

The money from the sale of PSLs should be counted toward the percentage paid by the people (taxpayers, ticket buyers) and not the owners.

Thanks. I enjoyed the guy's POV. The Dolphins used to have a great LT, Laremy Tunsil. They fleeced the Texans, trading Tunsil for a lot of draft picks, but those draft picks are a benefit only if the players they use them on, pan out. Jackson is waste of a first rounder. Right now it's looking like the pathetic Texans and the pathetic Dolphins both lost in that trade.

This isn't right. A friend of a friend of Harding's thought he'd do something smart and have Kerrigan attacked. Harding had nothing to do with it and was not aware of the plan. And it really worked out badly for Harding. Kerrigan went to the Olympics, and Harding got permanently banned from figure skating.

So who's going to turn out better, Epenesa or Rousseau? Both look great so far. With Ed Oliver finally having figured things out, the D line looks the best it has in years. Last year's weak spot has become a position of strength.

Well I hope this is the correct view. It could be the wrong view, unfortunately, and we won't know until we see how Allen's performance changes through time. You can't look at two days of stock market changes and declare that the losses we just saw are a blip. What are the fundamental reasons for the drop? Looking closely at the fundamentals gives a much clearer picture of what's going on. For this the opposite of the zoomed out view is needed. Allen won't suddenly get over what ails him just by assuming he will. He more than anyone needs to look very closely at what's happening, and work hard to correct whatever flaws he finds. Based on past performance, that's exactly what will happen. But you know what they say about past performance. As I said, I hope your view is right.

It will be useful to track Allen's performance vs the strength of the opponent's pass rush. Pittsburgh obviously has a great D line, Miami doesn't, and Washington does. Let's see how this unfolds on Sunday. If the Bills passing game struggles against teams with great pass rushers, they need to find other ways to win. Daboll seems reluctant to switch up the Bill's offense, and who can blame him for not wanting to give up what could be its greatest strength, the passing game. But when other teams take away the route progressions the Bills use, it's necessary to go to alternatives. Something will be open and it's up to Allen and Daboll to find it.