Utah John

You can take a fair catch on a kickoff. I don't think any time comes off the clock. But then what? Allen could probably reach the end zone from his 20, but the pass will be in the air a long time, long enough for three defenders to surround our receiver, and THAT never works.

Chill baby chill. These guys need to write about something. Personally, I feel some vindication. Based on how well the Dolphins pulled themselves together last year, after an absolutely horrendous start where they were accused of tanking for Tua, I was posting here a lot that the AFCE was going to become a two-team contest for the next few years, Buffalo and Miami. (And they got Tua after all.) The lazy media, the same guys who are now praising Miami to the skies, were all saying they were maybe the third best team in the AFCE, if they were lucky. The Bills are still the best unit in the division overall but the Dolphins have patched a lot of holes, and they have a lot of draft picks from their trades last year to keep patching. The Bills are more steady state, with a few new players added each year, making the salary cap more manageable. The Dolphins are going to be adding a slew of high draft pick players over the next year or two, and they'll all come due for new contracts at once. In the meantime, the Dolphins and Bills are going to be fighting it out, year after year, and that's fine. Anointing Tua the best QB in the AFCE after a couple of games is pretty silly.

Near the end of the movie "Jerry Maguire" when the Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr characters are expressing love and devotion for each other, another player (I think I remember this was Drew Bledsoe) asks his own agent why he never talks to him like that. I think the rest of the league will see this outpouring of support for Allen, and the players will take note. The Bills are finally competitive for the best FAs. As for the donations, I think this is Buffalo's way of saying to Allen, welcome home, we're glad you're here.

The biggest thing holding back the development of minority coaches is that they can't get on the path early in their careers. There has been a longstanding resistance to have black QB coaches, coaching a white QB. Sorry for saying that, but it's been true. QB coaches are usually the guys who move up to offensive coordinators and then HCs. You might think that with more black QBs in the league, that this problem would sort itself out. Well, it's not working. The NFL is trying to get things changed through the most valuable commodity they have: draft picks. There is an unavoidable political consideration driving this, but you can also look at it as basic fairness. The proportion of black HCs in far below the proportion of black players.

There does seem to be a tendency for teams to get to a certain level and stay there. For years the Bills were a 6-10 team that deviated up or down from there. Now they're a 10-6 team (could have been 11-5 if they'd played starters against the Jets), and looking like they'll be there again this year, despite tougher competition, more travel, and more injuries. I think the Bills' core is good enough to stay at this level. Straight's point about the Bengals is a fair one. We need to improve the roster to step up to the 13-3 level and to stay there.

Good analysis. Right now it looks like Tennessee has the best team in the AFC. If we're hoping to get to the SB and not just the playoffs, anything that hurts the Titans is a good thing.

We're 6-2, likely to make the playoffs. Let's have a reality check, flashback a few years, to remember how outlandish either of those two facts (well, one fact and one assumption) would have been. Let me put it this way: I am not disappointed with the Bills. I am looking forward to the rest of the season with optimism, and to next year with real hope. The defense hasn't been the same. Was it losing Kyle Williams and Lorax and Jordan Phillips and Shaq Lawson? Maybe. Just as likely it was losing Star, finding out that as expected Ed Oliver is too small to play the one-technique, and no one else being brought in to add beef to the line. Remember that last year's defense was not as good before Jordan Phillips and his large body were added to the mix. Also building a defense around a guy who can't stay on the field (Milano) and who's forced to play with a significant injury (Edmunds), and a key safety who's starting to lose a step (Hyde) isn't always going to work out. Beane has a very good batting average. He struck out this year on his new defensive players, let's be honest. Can he strike gold again this offseason, like when he brought in Hyde and Poyer? The offense is in good shape going forward. We need a couple of new linemen to add productive depth. With Feliciano back, and Ford's future as a guard established, and two tackles that can actually play, all we really need right now is Morse to recover. I think both Singletary and Moss are good enough that we don't need to invest at that position. And QB and WR are real strengths. If I'm worried about anything, it's the coaching. Daboll has shown he can drive fast if given a good car. Frazier though hasn't adapted to the loss of bulk on the D line and the loss of talent at LB and safety. I think maybe the league has figured out his defense.

Beane is not your guy if what you want is to go all in on one particular season, and to hell with what follows. Beane is your guy if what you want is to build a team that can contend for championships for a decade. The process means using discipline and care. I think some of Beane's decisions this year weren't as good as some in the past. Our D line is way too light, and even if Star had come back and avoided injuries, he still wouldn't be playing every down. Our backup LBs are poor, and our star starting LBs are both playing hurt. And Hyde and Poyer aren't as dominant as they were when they had a strong line and great LBs in front of them. There are quite a few former Bills, guys who just weren't good enough to make our squad, playing around the league. I'm not aware of Beane getting anything in return for them. Last year he stockpiled O linemen in the offseason, buying low, and then selling high during training camp, getting draft picks he used for trade sweeteners. This year, no ROI.

The difference is that today's decision was by a guy who's won dozens of Super Bowls (or so it seems, anyway), and not a guy who's 0-2 in the playoffs. Past success buys a lot of forgiveness. If you're gonna polish off that knob, I don't want to hear about it.

As much as I hate all the dominance by the Pats and BB, I have to respect them. They still have the core culture of winners, that's dragging their substandard players along to be at least competitive. There is just no way those guys should be that good, to be in a position to beat the Bills until someone on the Bills D finally made a play. Until the Cam fumble, I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn't watching highlights of some game from XX years ago, where once again we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Best comment: "Even if New England gets a top 10 pick BB will just trade it for a 5th round pick in 2025 and a 7th round pick in 2030."

The Bills are doing this consistently. They released Shady so he could sign with KC and get a ring, instead of trading him for an insulting 7th rounder. They recognized that Jordan Phillips and Shaq Lawson had earned a raise and could get more money somewhere else, so they applauded them on their way out. There are other former Bills playing and starting around the league, who couldn't earn a spot on this team, and I never hear of any of them having anything bad to say about this organization.

The Bills are 5-2. They can go 5-4 the rest of the way and get the 10 wins they need to be almost sure of a playoff slot. If they can't go 5-4 the rest of the way, they won't be competitive in the playoffs anyway. A win against the beat-up Pats would make it 6-2, and the need to go only 4-4 the rest of the way.

Moss is more elusive than you think. He hasn't had that many touches. He doesn't break the defender's ankles with moves -- instead he breaks their arms by moving past them with force. I became a big Moss fan while living in Salt Lake City and watching Utah football. I was delighted the Bills drafted him and I think he'll be an asset for a long time to come. The problem with the running game isn't Moss or Singletary. It's the line.

With only Kroft at TE, the running game is not likely to be effective, again. It will be up to the passing game to win. The offense really misses John Brown. What's much worse, though, is that Josh Allen seems to have forgotten all the good things he learned in the offseason about footwork. The past two games, he's been jumpy, off-balance, throwing off the wrong foot, and not even pointing his feet in the right direction. If he can fix his footwork issues, I think the Bills will be fine. If not, this season could crash and burn.

This is silly. NO will never let him go, we already have three top receivers (maybe four), our salary cap is in good shape, we need help much more at other positions -- need I go on?

It would be a two-fer. Trade for Williams to be the 1-tech, and he'd be better than anyone we have this year at 1-tech. Shift Oliver to 3-tech, where he belongs, and suddenly we get the guy we drafted playing the position we drafted him for. Our second round pick won't be very high in 2021 so I'd make the trade if it was available. We could have the interior D line set for three years to come. Worth it.

They're trying to make room for Wyatt Teller, who they figure is hanging around Cheektowaga waiting for a phone call.

The Bills O line and D line practice against each other, and they both look good in practice. But they're both too small, and against other teams, their lack of size is exposed. Ed Oliver needs a massive guy next to him, to free him to do what he is suited for. I think he could be a force that really helps the D, but without his buddy he's a too-light ineffective roster deadweight.

To quote an old commercial: Where's the beef?

You can't build an effective defense around key players who are always hurt. Milano can't be relied upon.

On a slippery field, the offensive skill position players have the advantage. They know when they're going to cut or stop, and the defender has to see that and react. Hard to do without good traction. I am pretty worried about Milano getting through the game without re-injuring his hamstring, while trying to cover KC receivers over the middle.

While this is true, the reason was that the Titans moved down the field so quickly and easily against our D.

I'd say it's more likely that Josh Allen will change the way young QBs are coached and developed. Allen didn't get so good overnight, just by being in the league a couple of years. He got so good through months of hard work in the offseasons.

The biggest problem for the Bills is that offensive holding isn't being called. Of course this helps our offense too, but time and again I saw a Bill defender just about ready to grab Tannahill, despite having someone's arm across his neck, and Tannahill then hitting an open receiver. Frankly I never notice when the Bills offense gets away with holding, but I'm sure they do too. For some reason the league seems to have mandated that scoring needs to be up, so holding calls are few and far between.