Utah John

There are 2-3 first downs every game just sitting there, waiting -- no, begging -- for Josh to run up and take them. But Zoloft Josh is turning down those opportunities, and throwing into coverage instead. And the defenses know he isn't going to run. So they stick like glue to the receivers and ignore Josh. What he needs to do is start taking those running opportunities, to force the defense to respect that. THAT'S what's needed to get the receivers some space; except for Diggs they don't seem to be able to do it on their own.

FWIW, even if 99 wasn't caught punching Brown, the NFL will review the tapes and see what's what. Hefty fine if he really did punch Brown in the face -- also possibly busted fingers if he wasn't careful where he punched -- and a slight chance of a suspension. The message I learned after that brawl, when the Giants got 3 UCs and the Bills got 1 and they all offset, was that if there's a brawl, go for it, big time. Don't actually punch anyone, which if seen will get you ejected, but definitely gang up on a single opponent and bury the poor guy. As long as there's a single UC penalty on the other side, it's time for some NHL action. There were missed calls favoring both sides, all through the game. I think the final play was perfect -- just enough contact to disrupt the play, not enough to draw a flag, and plenty to put the Giants and their fans into a mental tailspin.

The question ought to be, if the Bills don't make the playoffs this year, should McDermott be fired? If they play as poorly going forward as they did the last two games, they're going to struggle to finish above .500. Losing White, Milano, and Jones hurts the defense but the defense is still playing better than the offense, which can't blame the lousy O line of yesteryear for their struggles. And Josh looks like he's playing well, protecting the ball, hitting open receivers, and running with success but only when necessary. So what's left? Gimme a D, gimme an O, gimme an R...

By this time every year, we realize that the preseason strength evaluations of the various teams and divisions, are all hit or miss. By the time we play a team later in the year, they could be better or worse (injuries) than they are now. Just play the games and don't worry about it. That's what we heard the Bills say about sport science, but I've never seen anything other than that. I'd like to know how many sports and how many games are the basis for their conclusions. Show us the data, please.

Fournette was still playing at a high level last season. Maybe the Bills suspect he's now fallen off the cliff, like Dalvin Cook appears to have done, but it's worth bringing Fournette in to kick the tires.

He meant melee.

True. The article I posted a link to only talked about how many sacks each team's defense was getting, not how many its offenses were giving up. For three out of six games, our offense was tremendous. For the other three, it was terrible. We had the same O line for all six. I think it comes down to defensive personnel and defensive schemes on the part of the opponent, and whether our OC is putting our guys into positions to succed.

Defenses are having more success getting QBs down. https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/sacks-per-game Compare 2022 with 2023. Almost every team is getting more sacks per game this year than they did last year.

So what's reasonable to think about the offensive struggles? The Bills looked so good against the Raiders, Commanders, and Dolphins. The Commanders and Dolphins both have good defenses and yet the Bills offense strafed them. The Bills go to London. They have only a couple of days to jerry-rig an offensive game plan, then head to the UK way too late and are up against a rested team that's had a full week to analyze the Bills' offense and figure out how to interfere with it. So the Bills offense is crap. The Bills travel back, and lose a day they would ordinarily have to prepare for the Giants. Their HC didn't have a week to prepare to play the Bills -- he's had a year and a half of thinking about it. Look at all the comments Daboll has made about the Bills -- complimentary to everyone except McDermott. There's something bad going on between them. Daboll really really wanted to win last night. He's been obsessed for a 18 months. Stuck in traffic, ponder how to confuse Josh. Sitting on the can, think about defensive line adjustments against the plays he crafted and then passed on to Dorsey. Mowing the lawn, figure out how to disguise DB alignments. Other teams take notice. Their DCs analyze what the Commanders and Dolphins did and why that didn't work, and they analyze what the Jags and Giants did and why that DID work. So strap it on, Dorsey. You need the full 50 gallon size bag of tricks -- the little grocery sack you've using won't cut it.

Sure, most of the time we do win big. But sometimes we get caught up in the moment and play down to the other team's level. I don't know why.

Daboll still has a very clear understanding of the Bills offense and clearly used that information. His former underling, currently his replacement, has added some new things but the basic structure is still what Daboll put in place. I'm less concerned about the Bills struggles last night than I am about whether other teams will analyze what Martindale did with Daboll's information. Dorsey is going to have to think up and install new components for the Bills offense, during the season and not during preseason or training camp when that work is usually done. I am not convinced he's up to that. The Bills dominant team in games 2-5 this year was beautiful but will be a distant memory by the December. One or two more serious injuries and the wheels will officially be off. The Bills better buckle up and win the games they are supposed to win, because any more cheap losses and they could fall out of a playoff position completely.

Does anyone know if Boogie Basham was active for the Giants in last night's game? I never heard his name mentioned.

Was it smart? Probably not. Will the rest of the Bills love him even more? You betcha. He's as tall as the linemen, though not as heavy, and he doesn't think anyone can push him or his teammates around.

The biggest blunder is one the Bills make a lot. It's called, playing down to your opponent's level. The Bills rise up to beat Miami convincingly, then seem to lose focus against weaker teams. In college, you can get away with this since even top teams have really bad teams on their schedule. In the pros, not so muich. Look at the Eagles and 49ers, who both lost to patched up teams with real problems. So the Bills aren't the only high-level team to have this problem, but it's the factor that separates the top teams from the rest of the good ones.

But who's gonna trade for him with that contract? Let's not forget Charles Clay. Better yet, let's.

ANY other Bills QB loses this game. Put Kelly into this offense and it doesn't work. Kelly had Thurman, Andre, James, Don, Keith, Kenneth, Pete. Josh has Diggs and a lot of other guys who are pretty good but no match for the early 90s Bills.

Great guy, not quite as great a player. I've seen him playing for the Vikings and he gets run over too much. Definitely not the second coming of Kyle Williams.

Maybe the people who stand up just want to stretch, or make sure they can get their bag out of the overhead. Both legitimate reasons. For starting new threads, not so much.

Oh great. The PJ's are back. Look, Bills, if you can't keep up with the laundry just tell us.

Let's try another experiment. We'll hold an NFL commissioner under water for 10 minutes and see what he says later.

Logan Thomas

About Elam -- Any thoughts that he stunk the place up on purpose, so the Bills can't get anything for him in a trade? Probably not. I think we all saw why he's been a healthy scratch.

The airlines have us convinced that we're supposed to fly at night to get to England or the Continent. It's stupid. The time difference is significant, but not that great. It's five hours difference between Buffalo and London, or four hours difference when the US goes to standard time in the fall instead of daylight savings time. In contrast, people accept a three hour difference from the west coast to the east coast all the time. Yes, it's an impact, but not too great. The problem is that everyone choose to fly red-eye to the UK, instead of doing it during the day. Have you ever flown red-eye from the west coast to the east coast? I did it several times back when I was working. You try to sleep on the plane but it's never enough, and you're in a daze the next day, trying to make it through to bedtime. I took those red-eyes only when I had no other option. Otherwise I'd just leave the west coast in the morning, fly through the day, and get to the east coast that afternoon. I would feel fine, with just a little problem getting to sleep that night on the east coast schedule. The next day, I was up and ready to go. Was it sports scientists (who exactly are THEY?) or the accountants who decided the Bills would fly at night? IMO they should have flown out on Thursday morning, arrived Thursday afternoon, and been completely fine by Sunday. If necessary they could have flown on Friday morning. Not everyone, just the guys Elam is covering. Scratch that. The guys Elam is watching.

There are WLBs and then there are WLBs. Milano flew all over the place, making plays with his speed, athleticism, and football IQ. The D line has been excellent, and it's true that Rousseau and Jones have been the best players there, although Oliver took advantage of being next to Jones to have his best season so far. If they're both out, and if Miller doesn't get back to being himself, we'll be watching QBs carve up our deleted LBs and secondary. And HE got hurt too today although he was able to come back. And it's not just one at each position. We were without our two best corners, our best LB, our best D tackle, and our best D end. And at one point Taron Johnson was out too, so make that our three best corners.

This whole thing is just ridiculous. First, playing on a field with that artificial turf. How many of the Bills injuries came about because of that turf? And, much less importantly, how many Bills slipped and couldn't make plays, leading to the loss? Considering age and severity of injury, it's possible that the Bills will never see Tre White or Matt Milano on the field again. Second it's ridiculous that one team could remain in London and be rested, and then face a team that just arrived. One of the premier teams in the league just got devastated, all so the NFL can make more money and try to spread its brand. It's tragic.