Utah John

Well you can't blame him for asking. But a call there after a no call on Josh's pass to Davis? Nah, can't do that.

Does that make 6 sacks?

Allen 20/23 -- One was a good throw to McKenzie that the DB stole (good play by the DB, not Josh's fault) -- one was a 3rd down pass to Davis where Davis was interfered with, without a call -- the last was a bad (late) throw or a bad decision by Crowder not to keep running to space. Not bad. Wait till he gets warmed up.

MOTOR

The only poetry I'm interested in right now is Allen to Diggs, or Singletary in the secondary. Good job, though.

As far as being fooled by defenses, the only people I'd listen to are professional coaches. They watch tape to see what defensive alignments show, and what the QB does in response, and then what the D does. They can decide after the fact whether the QB made a good decision, evaluating what the D was going to do. It is entirely possible that Josh sees a D, makes a call in response, and has it not work out to the point where there's a negative play or he has to ad lib something. Only someone who can accurately decide what all the parts of that process are can say whether the QB got fooled. No one being perfect, I'd imagine the QBs who do the best at decoding what a D will do, are the most experienced, the smartest, and the ones who study tape the most (and learn from it, not just watching). Josh seems to have great football IQ, to the point where even the slightest "tell" from any of the defensive players can give the story away. So whether he routinely gets fooled, I don't think any of us can say, but I don't think the writer can say either.

Yep, good point, that could be.

There was a point fairly late in last season where it seemed entirely possible, even if not likely, that the Pats would grab the AFCE crown away from the Bills. The Pats had come to Orchard Park and beaten the Bills physically. It was only when the Bills pulled it together, went to Foxborough, and beat the Pats that the Bills were able to reassert their dominance. If things had gone sideways in that game, the Bills might have missed the playoffs altogether. Belichick the GM is a disaster. Belichick the player developer is a failure. But Belichick the Xs and Os guy, the motivator, the tactician -- is still brilliant. Maybe Don Shula could take his team and beat you, or take YOUR team and beat you. Belichick can take toxic sludge and farts and either beat you or at least scare you. Of course then there was that playoff shellacking in the frigid cold, when the Pats gave up and kept looking longingly at the sidelines with the parkas and heaters. I don't care who was lined up against Buffalo that game -- the Bills were unstoppable. So I don't really want to crucify BB for that one, either. The best thing Kraft could do as the owner is sit BB down and tell him he can coach as long as he wants, but the team is going to have an actual GM, and BB is going to have to get used to it.

Kyle Williams and Lorax. Those two veterans, near the ends of their careers, instilled the winning attitude and culture. Josh, of course. He took the team on his back. And when the league saw what he and the team could do, the FA parade began. Without Josh, we'd still get the dregs FAs. Take away any other players, and the Bills are still excellent, just maybe in different ways. Take away any of those players, and the magic is still not happening.

Note that King referred to Nathaniel Hackett as a football savant. This is the same Nathaniel Hackett we nicknamed "Can't" Hackett when he was with the Bills. Of course he could have improved. As for his analysis of the Bills, it sounds great, but he's always been a Bills supporter, talking them up a notch or two higher than either anyone else did, or the product the Bills put on the field. So, caveat emptor.

We were up by a lot in the second half against the Rams, the last time we played them, and the Rams came back to take the lead late. Only a very dubious penalty against the Rams gave the Bills one last chance to win, and Josh to Kroft won the game. The Rams also got away with murder in the playoffs against the Saints, which was probably Brees only real chance to get to the SB. Point being, even the egregious calls even out over time. Except of course for Jerry Hughes, who was made an example of what happens when a player criticizes the refs.

As good as the Bills look to be, they are facing the Rams offense with two rookie cornerbacks. The only way to protect them is with a monster pass rush, and as a matter of fact that might very well happen. If the O line can contain Donald, the Bills should score score score. I never bet but if I did I'd give the points and take the Bills.

It's hard to understand how a guy with this much talent, dedication, and integrity was ever viewed as a prima dona in Minnesota.

The ONLY bright side for Landry is that this happened early in the season, so he'll have almost a full year to recuperate.

Sweeney is on the team because Howard did so badly this summer, and keeping Howard just because he got paid would have been like throwing good money after bad. But who knows if Sweeney will make to the end of the season. If there are multiple injuries in another position group, Sweeney will be cut to create a roster spot for a new player.

I don't think any teams wanted to trade a fair price for Garoppolo because of his huge contract cost. This deal actually makes it more likely that after a year, he can go find himself a starting job, or a shot at a starting job. It's better than getting cut and having to latch on wherever he could find a job. And getting paid only $6.5M to be a backup for a year oh boo hoo, I don't think anyone feels sorry for him.

Probably one of the Brett punters at Tennessee. The Titans won't keep both of them.

Sure. I'm not condemning Beane, who I think has done a great job. It's just one bad trade.

And we traded Wyatt Teller so we could keep Ford. That will rankle for years to come.

Coaches think about everything. They watch how all the blockers on KO and punt returns do things. If they even think there's a good chance that a blocker on a KO return can be maneuvered into committing a penalty, that's a factor in favor of not kicking into the end zone. If an opponent consistently doesn't return KO's past the 25, that's another reason to not kick it into the end zone.

His career was on the downslope as soon as he came down with mono. Or maybe it was the day he was drafted by the loser organization that couldn't put a team around him. At this point, he's way past the downslope. He's skied off the downslope, off of a cliff. His landing ain't gonna be pretty.

Players get a fair shot at making the Bills roster, but it's still a very tough challenge to get there, or stay there. If someone else can do the job even a little better, you're gone. And Haack, despite not being as bad last year as his talent and history suggest were his norm, just wasn't good enough last year. Haack punted twice in preseason, and both were good solid professional punts. He's a solid player, and some other team will grab him because he's better than they guy they currently have.

My favorite poster from the 90s was the Dean. Highly informative and sensible posts, and often funny too. There's a good community here. I think it would be possible for some people to disagree with others without quite so much snark.

That's six players who would have to displace returning vets to get a roster spot. Not counting the massive FA turnover on the D line and O line, since none of the six you mentioned are linemen, which six players from last year's strong team would you drop in favor of one of these rookies? Levi Wallace left as a FA so that opens up one job, and Cole Beasley was cut so that might open up a receiver position -- but we have receivers from the last couple of drafts already waiting in the wings. Araiza might beat out the incumbent punter, so that's at least one that's not a problem. My point is that it's going to be really hard to hold on to all six of these players AND to keep the core team together for what we all think is a SB year.

I move around a lot. Just left Fairbanks Alaska, now in Memphis. Not sure about the water level in the Mississippi, I'll have to check.