Utah John

McD was right, of course. Whaley did some good things but many more bad things. The Marcel Dareus situation was a disaster almost the entire time. The contract he got screwed up the Bills' cap situation. Watkins has been hurt a lot, but I don't blame Whaley for that. I blame Whaley for paying so much for a WR when we didn't have the QB to go with him. The biggest problem is that all the early to mid-round picks who should be the starters or experienced depth players, were not good enough, or couldn't be retained because the cap was screwed up (for example Robert Woods, whom I'd love to have back now -- we wasted a second on Zay Jones who wasn't as good, instead of resigning Woods, but we couldn't afford him). This is the main reason the Bills aren't a player or two away from being ready for the SB. The Bills depth is getting better but is still not adequate. Look what happened to the D when Milano got hurt. Look what happened to the run defense when Harrison Williams got hurt. Beane did a good job bringing in better players for the O line, but they're better than some bad players, not really great. (I do like Morse and Feliciano.) Beane is trying to build a dynasty. We're at least a year away. Next year's schedule has us playing the AFC West and NFC West, so there will be many long flights, and the Bills have seldom looked good playing on the West Coast. The year after that, 2021, things get sane. Allen should be near his ceiling at that point and there will be 25 players on the team who aren't here now. Beane seems to have a good plan in mind and is working patiently to get there.

In his last year here, Gilmore's play declined. He was always a good cover guy but he was clearly avoiding contact in order to cash in on his next contract. I don't know if Wrecks had much to do with that. To keep him the Bills would have had to pay a fortune in a guaranteed contract to a guy who wasn't doing as well as possible. There's just no way the Bills would come up with that money. To the list of good CBs we've let go, don't forget Ronald Darby. A very good CB who we didn't get much for, who's doing very well in Philly, under Schwartz.

Regarding next year's schedule, it will be harder because we play the NFC West and the AFC West. All that traveling is tough, and the Bills have historically been ineffective on the west coast. According to https://fbschedules.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/ we'll be at home for the Chiefs, Chargers, Rams, Seahawks, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, and a team from the AFC North. We'll travel to the 49ers, Cardinals, Broncos, Raiders, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, and a team from the AFC South. Considering the Bills will almost certainly finish #2 in the AFC East this year, those two unnamed teams will be very good. Some of those teams are going to be very tough, others are good now but trending down. If it weren't for the travel, I'd say we should still be OK. But the travel is going to make a difference. I think 2019 is the year to make the playoffs and maybe win a game. 2020 will be a struggle. 2021 looks a lot better.

I'm fine with no trade that costs too much and gains too little. The Jets wanted a second round pick for Robbie Anderson, for heaven's sake.

The key to the game is Milano. The Bills D is built to be a solid unit, and missing Milano creates a weak link in the chain. Other players will try to help the backup player and when that happens the whole machine falls apart. I am very worried about their TEs dominating the game.

Honestly, do you think a 12-4 season that doesn't end up in the Super Bowl is going to get Beane fired? Beane is running this franchise not to be a one and done flash. He wants to create a long-term, winning team. He does not expect to win it all this year although obviously he would take it if it happened. He's thinking about 3 and 4 years from now, when next spring's draft picks are the core of the 2023 team. This is the process they're always talking about. Draft picks are important from a cap management standpoint. Teams use draft picks as relatively cheap labor for a few years. The players who prove themselves get retained, and those who are marginal performers are replaced with the next batch. Even the players who get cut get to come on board and make a lot more than most people make for a few years, so it's not like these are retail store managers who get burned and turned.

That's really cute. But velocity is just speed AND direction combined. In physics, if you exert a force on a moving body, and it changes direction, you've accelerated it by changing its velocity even if the speed doesn't change.

Beating crap teams >>>>>>> losing to crap teams. The spirit of Al Davis lives on. Davis was right, by the way. The Patriots are destroying other teams, except for the Bills. They are not having their intestinal fortitude checked on a regular basis. In the only close game they had, against the Bills, they were choking a bit, not familiar with how to respond to a tight situation. The Bills have had nothing but close games, so they're used to the pressure. Personally I would be delighted to have the Bills win a couple by a wide margin. The games this year have been exciting but really stressful. I might not survive the year at this rate.

My view on him is that he's OK but is vastly overpaid. However, he's on the team, he knows the defensive plans, and we'll be happy we have him if any other DTs get injured.

Williams >> Lotulelei

If the Bills were losing I'd say this was all about distracting the fans. Since they're actually winning I have to assume someone thinks this is a good idea. Well, if they have to have one bad idea, I'm glad it's the uniforms and nothing really important.

How nice for Daryl Johnston that he can get back to WNY.

Absolutely. We have the cap space this year and should use it. We need to lock him up. That means something completely different talking about White than talking about Trump, of course.

Darnold played well in the game before playing the Pats. He was bad against the Pats. Sounds like a young QB having ups and downs, with the downs against a really good D. I have to say that Darnold on his good days is better than I've ever seen Allen on his good days. Both of them have really good talent and I can't predict which of them has a higher eventual ceiling. Allen is on a much better team and will probably do better than Darnold right now because of that.

So if the QB sees ghosts on the field, does the D get a penalty for too many men?

I think Allen needs to improve and is improving. I also think he'd be playing a lot differently if the Bills didn't have a strong defense. As it is, he needs more not to cause a loss than he needs to cause a win. That's a terrible sentence but there's truth there. We've seen that when he takes chances, sometimes they don't work out, and when they don't work out, the mistakes always hurt us, really bad. So the past two games he hasn't taken chances. On the long balls, he's being conservative by throwing it deep instead of just trying to drop it in. If he misses too long, it's incomplete. If he misses too short, bad things could happen. The NFL players and coaches talk about complementary football, and this is that.

The QB and WR have to both understand what the key read is. So, probably part of the problem is that they weren't making the same read. Probably another part of the problem is the defense wasn't just standing around, watching. They react to the play as they're coached to do, probably to confuse either the QB or WR.

It looks like the internal dynamics of the Bills are shining on this issue. The Bills O needs Devin Singletary, and he's been close to being OK for a few weeks now. Instead of bringing him back before they were sure he was completely healed, they gave him more time. The O struggled against the Titans' D, and Singletary could have really helped. The Bills could have lost that game, which would have made their entire season a lot shakier. But the Bills did the right thing. Taron Johnson played through an injury last year until the Bills were out of playoff contention, and then went on IR for surgery. I don't think the Bills forced him to play with the injury. Players around the league will see all that, that the Bills didn't screw around with Singletary's career and even took a chance on losing a key game by letting him heal. Also that a player chose to play with pain for McDermott, as long as it made sense to do it.

By avoiding playing as much as possible. Check out news stories about him and the Saints. They describe his signing as a complete disaster for their organization.

I keep thinking about Jairus Byrd and how he manipulated the Bills, and totally screwed the Saints, over that foot injury that no one else could see. Byrd's goal was to make a lot of money and walk away a healthy, wealthy young man. He probably liked playing football but recognized the dangers. He worked the system. Perhaps Glenn is doing the same thing.

So the Bills are one of three teams (along with SF and NE) to allow less than 5 yards by the other team. The Bills are sixth overall despite one of the lowest figures for an offense. Since we're all assuming the defense will keep playing at a high level, and the offense will improve through the season, this is really reason for optimism.

Butch Byrd, Booker Edgerson, and George Saimes (can't remember who the other safety was) -- the backfield was pretty good too.

The Jets D is good. The Pats D is much better. The Jets O might be somewhat better than the Pats, which keeps going I guess out of force of habit. Brady's arm is not getting it done most of the time, they have no WRs or TEs, they have good RBs and a good O line. Mostly they have Brady's eyes and brain which are enough. The Jets always play the Pats tough. It's possible they could win. But at the end of the day, Gase.

Ordinarily I would say the Bills reverting to past form, finding new heartbreaking ways to lose, would be the biggest threat to them making the playoffs. However this team really feels different. They are playing really tough, smart, disciplined football 95% of the time, which is good enough to win almost every time. All four of their wins were games that previous Bills teams would have found a way to lose. All of them. Instead they kept their heads on straight, backed each other up, and did their jobs, mostly. As much as it's good that Bills fans Bill-ieve I think what's going on is that the PLAYERS Bill-ieve. For the first time since the 1999 season, I think the team goes out on the field each week, expecting to win, whatever it takes. And why wouldn't they, with that defense. Whoo.

Going back a few decades, the shovel pass has been popular for a while and then mostly disappeared. What the Bills and others are doing now is different than the older shovel passes, which generally involved the QB flipping the ball forward, sort of alike throwing a frisbee, five yards or so to a back or receiver who had been hidden in the mix and then popped out. The Bills plays are much quicker and much shorter, a lot more like handoffs. I like the play as a way to attack a defense, but I think the stats and the rules are out of whack. I don't think this play should be counted as a pass for the QB stats. Yes, the QB releases the ball forward. Big deal. It travels a yard or less through the air. It should be counted as a rushing play since the ball carrier is really doing all the work. Also the rule says a forward pass that's dropped is just an incompletion, instead of a fumble. The fact that the ball travels a foot or so through the air doesn't make a significant difference. If the receiver drops the ball from a handoff, it's a fumble, and this is essentially the same move.