starrymessenger

Josh has not had big pressure to deal with so far today. Give him time and he's dangerous. What's most impressive to me is his accuracy. This may be the sharpest I've seen him.

DB can have a hand on the WR as long as he does not alter his progress. TJ was great on that play.

Flat out outstanding coverage.

I give Coach credit for making this move, partly because it involves some assumption of risk. We don't know what his practices have been like but Duke doesn't have much if any game day live action experience with Allen.

I would not be saddened by Daboll's departure. But I would be concerned about the Bills ability to land a better replacement. Im not sure a lot of the conservative play calling we have seen is Daboll and I don't know that I would trust McD to contribute to making the best selection. You might have to exclude any creative candidate with a strong personality and a mind of his own, however talented/experienced he might be.

Speaking for myself, I'm with Bear Bryant. Act like you've been there before (and mean to be there again). But as long as he can make a play (which apparently Foster cannot) I would put up with some hotdogging. I don't consider that conduct detrimental, but maybe McD does.

JMO but at this point Foster over DW makes little sense. I get that STs are important but my take is that Williams would add more to this offence in particular (lacking a physical WR with good hands) than Foster adds to STs. Plus Williams plays with passion and football is that kind of game. As a presence on the football field Foster completely fades into impalpability by comparison. To me that right there is reason enuf to sit him if not release him outright. Coach is outsmarting himself here IMO. Can't get away from the notion that personalities might have something to do with it. If that is true it's more on Coach than the player. Williams would seem to have bought in and has kept his nose clean. I'm all for culture - except when it turns into dogma. Having said that Foster will probably rack up 100+yards and 2 TDs in Houston - but I'm not holding my breath.

Coach doesn't like him because he's a hotdog.

I agree. I was going to say that I could not remember ever having seen Yeldon break a tackle or run through a defender. That's why he never realized expectations. That's pretty much the Yeldon story. I'm ok with he and Williams seeing the field more. They are limited but they can make a play.

Pats were more physical. Bills tackling sucked. Hated the ultra conservative gameplan. Daboll or McCoach? Singletary has shown that he's capable (and potentially dangerous) receiving out of the backfield. On a positive note my sense of it is that this was another useful learning experience for Allen. He overthrew a few but he also connected on a few, two beautiful throws (smoke and Knox TDs). Not long ago he was overthrowing all of them. So he's starting to settle down I think. If we play NE again in the playoffs, a better effort on both sides of the ball, but within what the Bills are capable of, and I like their chances. If we are locked into the #5 seed I'd like to see Yeldon and Williams before it's over.

Thanks. I will check him out.

Not dressed anyway.

How about a big physical receiver with good hands in the red zone...nah. Daboll must go.

Daboll.

Lamar clearly deserves better marks as a passer than he was given credit for in the pre-draft process. Petrino and a handful of observers said so but the powers that be were not listening. Shame on them and kudos to the kid. Having said that he still has plenty to prove in the passing department. In the scheme he's running he is taking full advantage of good accuracy, ball placement, quick release and adequate arm strength. But everything, including the Raven's passing game, leverages off the run, including of course what he contributes to that personally. The test will be what happens when, as I believe is inevitable, he finally has to transition to a more fully developed conventional passing attack with more challenging throws and multiple downfield reads etc...I don't think that skill jumps out of his college tape, or such of it that I remember seeing. I'm sure Belly is thinking the way to beat him is still to force him to be less of a runner and more of a QB. I have no doubt that the next time the Pats and Ravens match up, Bill will be much better prepared. It is quite possible that the shelf life of the Raven's offence will start to expire fairly soon, like in the upcoming playoffs.

I'm hardly qualified to evaluate talent (except as a rank amateur, for what that's worth) but it looks to me that Duke doesn't dress largely because he does not fit in Daboll's offence. He prefers speedy smurfs, lots of them apparently, to a big possession receiver whose skillset relies more on physicality and good hands than it does on the ability to separate. Maybe that's entirely justified, idk. OTOH maybe if Anquan Boldin was on the roster he wouldn't get to dress either. Not saying Duke is Anquan, but Boldin's 40 time was 4.71, pretty much the same as Duke's. Boldin caught lots of balls in traffic when the D was in man and he was a good and smart enuf route runner to find the soft spots in coverage when facing zone. Is Daboll perhaps a little to dogmatic in adhering to his scheme? In the NFL the ability to adjust is generally necessary to avoid predictability.

Daboll really loves him some surfs. If Duke is no good so be it, but I hope the Bills don't opt for another diminutive receiver in the upcoming draft out of deference to Daboll's scheme. Like if Shenault is there in the second and we pass I think I'll wring my own neck.

I take nothing away from Lamar but this O he is running has a limited shelf life. It may well start to sour later this year in the playoffs when the game speeds up. If and when they next play the Pats I believe Belly will be ready. Ravens will more likely go as far as their D can take them. Comparisons of Lamar with Mahomes are very inaccurate IMO. Right now PM is capable of executing a fully diversified attack at a high level. Lamar is not, at least for now. Our D, which is disciplined and plays fast, was a good test, but McD and Frazier really are amongst the very best in the business when it comes to preparing/scheming for a specific opponent. Kudos to them.

Assuming you've got the arm strength, and JA does, the long ball is a touch pass. Touch (or the lack thereof) has been Josh's kryptonite as a passer. The encouraging thing is that he has improved his touch throws in the short passing game Eg to backs in the flats. Hope it's just a question of time.

Dont kid yourself. League will adjust, and when it does ...they will struggle. This is not an O you can run successfully indefinitely. Either it evolves (with Jackson) or it will eventually go the way of the dinosaur.

What they do they do well. But this is strictly a limited purpose offence. A half way decent TE goes down and they struggle.

Jets have a lot of problems, O-line being just one of them. They can't pressure the quarterback so they draft another DT, Q. Williams, ahead of Josh Allen (the pass rusher). Q winds up just replacing L. Williams, with his talent relegated to run stuffing. There are some good DTs in the next draft. They will likely wind up picking another one lol. Their secondary is in need of an overhaul almost as much as their O-line. I would have no confidence in Gase. Right now it's not looking good for Sam. I see his floor as being another Andy Dalton, with his ceiling as somewhat higher. But his HC is a bug eyed zombie. Oddly, I actually see Rosen in a better place. Unlike most rotten branches of the Belichick tree, Brian Flores strikes me as someone who might actually be quite good. We will see if they decide to go with Rosen or draft another QB. The AFCE has been a boring division for more than a decade now. I wouldn't mind seeing a more competitive landscape TBH. And I suspect it will be.

I get that the "business as usual" tone is what you expect to see from a professional athlete, but of course the game is huge not just for its post season implications but even more so because of its compelling interest for football fans and pundits everywhere as a fascinating match up. For reasons that we all know, the Ravens have the most electric and exciting offence in this year's NFL. It also is something of a scheme dependant novelty that in and of itself naturally attracts a lot of attention and challenges a lot of conventional thinking. Against that you have one of the very best defences in the game, arguably elite or close to, guided by a couple of the most capable defensive minds. The Raven's have an physical, ultra aggressive O. The Bills have an attacking, mostly single gap responsibility defensive alignment. Advantage Raven's? What adjustments to their front and pressure packages will McDermott and Frazier implement? Is the Raven's passing game good enuf to stand alone if they are held to short yardage on early downs and are forced to pass against the league's most efficient pass D? Would this be a recipe for turnovers? And of course you've got two of the most promising and exciting young QBs going head to head. What more could you ask for if you are in any sense a fan of the game itself and not just of a particular team? That's why this game will be played under the spotlight of intense national attention and is really not just another game. Im just hoping that it lives up to its billing (and that the Bills can pull off the upset of course). Its been a very long time since the Bills have gotten to perform on so prominent a stage.

You trade up if you need to to nab a legit franchise QB prospect. Always. Ravens did it too.

Pope gets all kinds of presents. Didn't Lyndon Johnson once give him a small statue of himself as President?