Utah John

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.

I think this is the right point. The correct call should have been defensive holding, but instead the ref called DPI. It would have made sense to correct the call from DPI to DH but the rules don't allow that. Sort of a Catch-22. The replay rule changes on PI didn't include the possibility of switching the call if that was the right thing to do. I think that despite the unfairness of the outcome, the officials got it right according to the rules.

What would NOT have happened if Mahomes was drafted by the Bills? He would NOT have had the chance to sit his entire rookie year and watch a very skilled QB at work, teaching him the game. He would NOT have had the best supporting cast of O players in the league. He would NOT have been coached by Andy Reid. If he'd come to Buffalo, there's every chance he'd be cut by now as a draft bust who couldn't make a broken down jalopy win the Indy 500. McBeane understood all this, I think, and did what they though best over a period of years. They now have a good young QB in the second year of his rookie contract, instead of the third. The window to win with a young QB is short. Once they can get what the market will bear, the entire roster's salary situation goes to hell. A couple of really good starters will be traded, a lot of quality depth players won't be retained, a lot more rookies will take over. A solid, balanced team struggles to keep the wheels from falling off. The goal is not to have the MVP on your team. The goal is to have the Lombardi trophy in your city.

This is one of those plays where the Bills had a bad call against them, but it was their own fault that they lost. First of all they could have let the clock run down to two or three seconds before the kick where they took the lead, so that there would not have been any time remaining for the kickoff. Second the Bills players didn't cover their lanes AT ALL on the kickoff. All the coverage men on the right side collapsed into the middle, leaving their side of the field open. I've never gone back and checked but the Bills must have been doing this in previous games, for the Titans to have had any reason at all to put in this play. To me, this means the ST coach allowed the players to do something that created a vulnerability. Whether this was enough to get him fired is a judgement call. The no-goal against Dallas was similar. Yes, Brett Hull had his skate in the crease when he regained the puck and scored, and there was no rule allowing him to do that, so the goal should not have counted. However, just before Hull scored, one of the Sabres skated past him and tried to poke check the puck away, instead of checking Hull and knocking him away from the front of the net. Also, realistically, the Sabres were not going to win that game. They were exhausted and hadn't mounted a serious offensive threat in a long time. Dallas had these huge defensemen, so when the Sabres tired forwards skated into the Dallas end, the defense just knocked them down and took the puck away. The Sabres best chance in that game was a Stu Barnes shot that hit the crossbar.

Good coaches put good players in a position to succeed. Beane has gotten the players McD and Frazier want. Talk about complementary football -- it's wonderful to see it all working. A couple years ago we could have drafted Mahomes, and didn't do it. The payoff is White, Allen, and Edmunds. As good as Mahomes is, he would have struggled with the talent here the past two years. And he wouldn't have had the luxury of watching Smith his entire rookie year, learning the game without the pressure to carry the team. Mahomes is a great player in a great situation. I think Edmunds is the same. By the way, Frazier and McD are the unWrecks. Ryan came in, tossed out a very excellent defense, and tried to run his version with players who weren't suited. This more than anything is why I hate that man. The one thing we don't get a lot of in this D is sacks, that is until we played the Titans. The system is designed to put pressure on all parts of the opposing O, not just attacking the QB. Getting a lot of sacks means leaving holes elsewhere. The Bills D hates holes more than it loves sacks.

Absolutely not. I think Snyder is a disaster, and when I lived in DC I found the arrogance of the Skins fans annoying. But I am Wrecks hater and I never want to see that bozo working again.

Sometimes coordinators leave for the glory of being a HC and derail their careers for years. Mike Pettine was a really good DC for the Bills who left to become the HC of the hopeless Browns. He was fired of course because no one could win there, then. He's been back on the road as a DC ever since, doing a great job, but I don't know who might take another chance on him as HC. I've been worried more about Frazier leaving at the end of the year, than about the loss of any D player. Lorax might retire, but everyone else seems like they'll be around unless replaced by an upgrade. Daboll hasn't proven himself to be ready as a HC. And as an OC, his record here isn't very stellar. The O is a lot better than last year but that's partly due to better personnel. His schemes generally work and I think the Bills will really come into their own as the D continues to play lights out, and the O improves through the year. Some team might take a chance with him but I doubt it. I'd love to see him stick around and establish his system for several years. Look what the continuity of Frazier on D has resulted in. I'm pretty sure the Skins need a professional coach. Ixnay on Wrecks.

Practice squad, if the Bills have an open spot. Otherwise cut. There's no time to get a player in game shape, learn the complicated defense, and contribute on the field. If he progresses well on the PS and if there's a need for a LB, bring him up, but that's a long shot at this point. Dodson's real shot will come next year.

Most of the country doesn't see what Bills fans see, because without NFL Sunday Ticket or some streaming thing they can't. Here in Alaska the only Bills game on the regular channels was the game against the Patriots, which wasn't great advertising for the offense. QBs are the stars and Allen sucked that day. Great defenses are respected within the league but not sexy enough for the average fan. So, don't expect much more attention unless the record demands it. By the time Buffalo plays Dallas on T-day, they will have played 11 games and could easily be 8-3 or better. They play Dolphins twice, the Redskins, and the Broncos during that stretch, all of which they should win easily, and they also face the Eagles and Browns, which are much harder to predict. The Eagles game is in Orchard Park, and the Browns could be fighting each other by then. The Bills really could be 10-1 at that point.

There have been occasional Bills teams over the decades that started to play well and routed some teams, only to lose a couple of close ones. This year's team doesn't feel like that. They don't seem able to rout anyone, just to put together solid offensive games most of the time to go with outstanding defense, and they seem incredibly resilient. I would take 11-5 without routing anyone in a heartbeat. Much better than 9-7 with some fun-time routs but a couple of regrettable losses. BTW the Jets have an early schedule like the Bills did last year -- very difficult. Once a team gets beat a few times in the early games, it's hard to keep the edge and passion they need. The Jets have talent and will be a lot better next year.

I think the injury situation will pretty much determine what happens before the trade deadline. Suddenly the depth on the O line is gone, and I am worried about Milano, who is just playing great and will be hard to replace. The Bills could be shoppers and buyers.