Utah John

The Jets should fire their GM and coach every year, just before the draft. Consistency is the key to excellence.

We have good (or better) starters across the board. We're a little thin regarding depth at some positions. If we get a string of injuries at the same position, or if Allen gets hurt, I don't think it's possible we make the playoffs. Of course that's true for almost all the teams. My point is, anything can happen.

Ask me again in three weeks. The Rams were the first of four tough games. When I saw the schedule I was hoping for a 2-2 split of those four. That's still a realistic goal. Also, we were THIS CLOSE to being 1-2, if it weren't for late heroics by the offense, after the defense let Miami and LAR take the lead away. Both of those games could easily have been a loss. Unless the D starts playing better, 9-7 is only slightly pessimistic.

As long as agents get paid a percentage of the player's salary, there will be pressure on the player to squeeze every dime out of the team. And who can really fault either the player or the agent for that? But, if the team's best players as a group talk to each other and say they want to keep the team together because they love having each other as teammates, maybe they all can agree to forego enough money to keep the core around. The Bills are in a great spot now, but all those smart draft picks are going to be looking for more money in a big wave. White is just the leading edge. Allen is going to deserve a huge raise (I hope he is still playing great into the future), and Edmunds and Oliver could play themselves into a highly leveraged spot. I don't know how long Diggs has on his current contract but he will probably get a big raise too. If those guys are willing to take team-friendly contracts, that will help the Bills carry on with their approach of having very good players across the board, but not very many top guys who can demand top money.

What they saw was, he wasn't very good, at least not when he was drafted. Just like a horse breeder or trainer can look at a colt and size it up as a future racer, the Bills' FO put in the time to get to know him, and see how he responded to coaching and what his desire to improve was. The Bills didn't intend for Allen to play much or at all in his rookie year, so we got to see the raw JA on full display. What we're seeing now is a great player emerging.

Sometimes it seems the officials are there to carry out a script, like a movie or a play. The Bills were winning too easily, and the glamour LA team was embarrassed, so it was time to make the game a little more interesting.

Maybe put his name up twice, then make a big deal out of removing one.

LAR has two top notch players on defense, and no one else whose name I can even remember. The Bills' approach has been to get very good players across the board, with a few nearly at the top of the league for their position, and to win with teamwork and a cohesive plan. We're going to have to break that rule in a few years in order to pay Allen, Edmunds (see what I did there, shoe customers?), Diggs, and maybe Oliver. For now, though, having no really weak players out there is better than having a couple of great players and nine JAGs.

Who's this Josh Allen? At the halftime of the Chiefs-Ravens game, Chris Berman called him Jared Allen.

The Bills once again had a bad 15 minutes, but this time it started late in the 3rd quarter and extended to the middle or so of the 4th. The incorrect interception call definitely changed the momentum, but that sort of thing is gonna happen, and the Bills need to be able not to let things spiral away when it does. This time they were able to grab victory from the jaws of defeat (how many times have we seen other Bills teams do the opposite?), but they were fortunate to have built such a huge lead before the defense went catatonic for a while. I hope the coaches and the player leaders get the picture, and figure out a way to halt the slide a lot quicker than yesterday.

The Bills front office seems to be on a roll, getting good players in the later rounds and UDFAs, as well as hitting on pretty much all the top picks.

And then he gets wide open and catches a pass. No one's laughing. We're cheering.

And the good thing is, with all those other young WRs out there, no other team is likely to swoop in and grab Hodgins. Well, maybe Green Bay.

I don't know if Hyde is the problem or some other player, or the defensive calls, or the scheme that Frazier puts place -- but SOMETHING is wrong with the defense. Two weeks in a row, and we had to have a dramatic comeback when trailing after having a big lead. Maybe the entire league is struggling on defense. There were 13 starting QBs with QBR at 99.9 or above. That can't last. Maybe the offenses have taken some big steps and the DCs need a little time to figure out how to stop them. Whatever. 3-0. I'll take it. Go Bills!

Does anyone know what those stats convert to as a passer rating?

The problem wasn't that the offense was flat in the third quarter. The problem was that the defense was flat in the third quarter, and couldn't get off the field. The offense missed a couple of easy 3rd downs or it would have done much better. The defense got hurt over and over.

Tens of millions of fans saw Russell Wilson. Millions of fans saw Dak Prescott. Dozens and dozens of fans saw Josh Allen.

Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes are talking about having a little contest to see who can throw farther. Maybe Allen and Cam Newton can have a little contest about who's the tougher runner.

So our magic number is 14. It's good to have a magic number.

What I like best is that he's playing so well, but still has room to improve. This guy's ceiling is the Sistine Chapel.

It's tough for our players to get recognition around the country when no one ever sees them make plays or even hears their names. The Bills are all "team first" which is great, but they're only human after all. They want their parents and friends to see them praised.

He was a good player but not THAT good while with the Bills. These days, I don't think he'd start -- our current WRs are better, and can stretch the field better as well, since Brown and Diggs both have much better speed. And Beasley is great in the slot. And if he's getting that much money from somewhere else, then good for him, godspeed and all that.

After a few weeks of the season, it will be interesting if someone does a statistical analysis to see if having a limited number of fans in the stands provides an advantage to the home team. The study would have to control for how good the home team is in the first place, based on their road record. Otherwise it could be that really good teams are the ones that permit fans to attend, so we couldn't tell much about the benefit. I would guess that having 7K fans in a stadium built for 50K+ will be a small boost to the home team, but not nearly the same as a full stadium.

It looked to me that the goal posts, particularly the one on the right, were not perfectly vertical. They both bent to the right, looking at them from the field. Unless it's possible to ensure the goal posts are perfectly vertical, putting a camera (or laser beam) on the top won't really tell whether it was where it should be. Or, maybe, make the goal posts flexible and let them sway in the wind. Get inside the heads of those kickers, who will have to hit a moving target. Quarterbacks do it, so why not kickers? That would REALLY make extra points interesting.

The Jets have a great run defense and a great D line, which our O line couldn't get holes in. The problem starts with the line. The RBs never had a chance to get going. Our O line is average or a little better, but needs to get significantly better to let the rest of the O reach its potential.