Utah John

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.

1. Allen wasn't right all game. His footwork this season has been fine, but not against the Titans. He wasn't balanced, he was throwing flat footed a lot, he was throwing off his back foot, he sailed a couple of passes to open receivers. He even threw an honest to God interception, his first of the year, when he failed to see the defender. I don't have any idea what caused his problems this week, but I hope his coaching entourage can figure it out and straighten it out. 2. I hope this game was this year's Philadelphia game. The Bills put up a stinker against Philly last year, for no apparent reason. Then they got it figured out. 3. The Bills have been a tightly knit bunch all season, in love with each other. In this game they played like they'd been jilted. I know we won't ever hear the true story, but I suspect that White and maybe Brown just didn't want to play against the covid team, and so they bailed on their teammates. We won't know whether that's true or not, but the other players do, and they looked a lot like guys who suddenly are questioning the family values that they've built up. 4. Where again are the team leaders? Who is it who steps in and gets his teammates fired up, or reads the the riot act when they're not producing? Especially on D, there doesn't seem to be anyone. Edmunds might be playing hurt, and credit to him if he's doing that, but he's also playing badly. It seems like Hyde and Poyer are tight with each other but not the rest of the D. 5. Paging Ed Oliver. Phone call for Mr. Oliver. Has anyone seen Ed Oliver? 6. Not that it mattered, but Tannehill was WAY past the the line of scrimmage when he threw that late TD pass. Being a glutton for punishment, I rewound to the actual play, and it is as clear as day that Tannehill was well past. I don't know why all the replays omitted the line on the field showing where the line of scrimmage was.

I'm pretty sure it was on NBC. Paul Maguire and Joe Theismann were the color announcers, and Mike Patrick did the play by play.

I'm sorry, I realize I might have to turn in my 57 year old Bills fan card for saying this, but that was a legal play. The ball did not go forward. I caught the replay of that playoff game (the one where Wilson had Phillips play Rob Johnson instead of Doug Flutie) a few nights ago. Not only was it a legal play, but the Bills were to blame. The three Bills on the far right of the kickoff defense team all left their lanes and collapsed to the middle of the field when the ball went there. None of them stayed home where they could have easily disrupted the pass across the field and saved the day. I told a friend before that game that whichever team won would be going to the SB. I was right. Unfortunately it wasn't us. That game was a tremendous defensive battle. The Bills had a great defense. AND they had Moulds and Price, keeping Andre Reed on the bench. AND they had Antowain Smith keeping Thurman Thomas on the bench, until Thomas did play and then got hurt. They had a huge offensive line. And that defense...maybe the best the Bills ever had. The talent was all there. If the Bills had done their job on that play, and if Wilson had stayed out of the QB decision, the Bills would have won, and would have gone to the SB, and I think they would have won that game with that defense.

On the Jets, he has to choose between the lesser of two evils, not make a decision about what's actually better.

The Dolphins are going to be very, very good. The AFCE in a year or two will be a two-team race, Buffalo and Miami.

I actually think Darnold could be a good NFL QB, but obviously he needs a new situation.. Option A for the Jets is to trade Darnold, draft Lawrence, rinse and repeat. With no talent around Lawrence, just like around Darnold -- what was that definition of insanity again?? Option B is to trade the first overall pick to a team that needs a new QB and has a boatload of draft picks or good players to give in exchange, then rebuild the core of the team.

This really comes down to particulars. The Bills have quite a few players listed as questionable. Maybe the extra rest before the Titans game will let some of them return to play. It's unknowable who might get hurt vs Tennessee so from this standpoint this looks good. Not to mention that the Titans have a lot more players unavailable because they're still quarantined. You've still gotta play the game. Go Bills!