BADOLBILZ

You must have been at a different game than I was..........the Bills defense forced 1 punt in the first 7 Bengals drives. The only reasons the score wasn't worse was a reversed TD(turned FG) and time running out on another hot-knife-thru-butter last second Bengals drive in the first half. The Bills defense was thoroughly dominated. Once the Bills got down two TD's there was no chance for the offense to patiently dig out of it. It didn't just "seem" that way. The Bills tried to grind their way back into it.......their 2 long scoring drives consumed a full quarter of the entire game. They were immediately answered with 2 long scoring drives by the Bengals that ate up 26 plays and 12 minutes of TOP. I know people want to re-imagine how it went..........because it was a terrible performance.........but once they got down 2 TD's they could not get the stops necessary to put up the 3 more scores than Cinci to win the game.

And yet the Bills running game was better than the Bengals in 2022. What separates the teams wrt personnel is talent in the WR corps. Their passing game overwhelmed the Bills in both matchups........but in two different ways. The first time they tore them up over the top.........the second time they used their skill and size to get open quick and dominate in slippery conditions. Nothing has come quick for the Bills in the passing game this year.........they had WR5-WR7 talents in the slot all season.........and Gabe Davis would be WR4 on the Bengals and is a low % target and not a RAC WR. The Bills pass offense had been off schedule almost exclusively since the bye. The decline in the Bills WR corps since 2020 is a huge reason why. Getting caught up in rushing stats when the game was effectively over at 14-0........primarily because the Bills defense played a dreadful game and couldn't get off the field and allow the Bills offense to exercise patience...........is pointless commentary on the Bills offense, IMO.

Riddick is just another "meh" talking head. The Bills got beat by one of the league's worst running offenses. In the NFL of today, when you have an elite QB if the pass isn't setting up the run then you aren't doing it right.

It may be that he was never going to be a better player outside and on the edge...........where he could think less and react more...........but he has fallen FAR short of his measurables/potential at MLB.

Just 2 forced fumbles.........and they were both early in his rookie season. Probably the craziest statistical anomaly wrt Edmunds is that he has played 69 consecutive regular season games without forcing a fumble. That has to be a record amount of snaps played by an NFL MLB without causing a fumble.

Yeah, he's that guy that has the instincts Edmunds does not have. His feel for where receivers are in coverage really stood out to me when I watched him. That allows him to make plays on the ball in the air. And yeah he isn't the sideline to sideline type like Edmunds but the better instincts in the run game might allow the Bills to have wider splits on the DL and funnel the run toward the middle..........something they've always been hesitant to do with Edmunds.

Interestingly, the far less talented but far more instinctive Preston Brown lead the NFL in tackles in McDermott's defense in 2017. We aren't talking about Edmunds as the indispensable equivalent of Jim Leonhard in Rex's defense here...........he's not the cerebral tie without which success hasn't been possible.

As @BarleyNY said.........he's almost totally ineffective as a blitzer. In 2020 he had 72 blitz attempts and ZERO pressures. He didn't generate a single pressure on any of his 18 blitz attempts this season either. With his length and speed you would think he would be great at it........instead he's been as ineffective as it gets.

The standing buffalo and the banana slug were thrown away for very good reasons and should never be thrown back.

Urlacher was a safety in college......hadn't played LB entering the NFL.......and then had 8 sacks and 16 TFL as a rookie MLB. In 5 seasons Edmunds has a TOTAL of 6.5 sacks and 32 TFL. There were very high expectations for Edmunds coming into the NFL and Urlacher was one of his comps.........but he's just not been a playmaker.

Yeah his stock started moving drastically with draft mockers relatively early in that season before the draft..........which I didn't understand but I would never select a RT or G only type in round 1 as a matter of principle. He and Basham(and Shaq in 2016 and Chris Kelsay long before) were all players I feared the Bills might draft in round 1. Round 2 has been a sink-hole for value in Bills history..........a high % of the good second round picks in Bills history came in drafts where they didn't have a 1st round pick. Guys like Thurman Thomas a Sam Cowart. Which has largely supported my opinion that Bills GM's have devoted so much emotion into first selection in the many months leading up to the draft that they often play round 2 like it's house money on the table.

There are names who get sold as high picks a year or more ahead of the draft and then draftniks can't come off of them even when it's relatively clear they shouldn't be. Beane took 3 of them in Ford, Basham and Epenesa. Shaq Lawson had been one of those guys pre-McBeane era. Oliver was considered the real deal by all.

I get that people have indecision about which comes first. My argument is for another WR1A or B to allow Diggs to play in the slot. It's just one player they need to make their WR corps elite..........where they may need 3 or even 4 to make their OL "very good". And there are more franchise QB's than there are "very good" OL's in the NFL today. The OL the Bengals fielded Sunday was awful in terms of individual talent and past performance.........and they tore up the Bills highly ranked defense with quick passing and playmakers. Fielding an OL like Philly, SF or KC is worthy of being aspirational but IMO is quite unlikely to happen as soon as 2023, IMO.

As time went on it was inevitable that people would start to see the shyster, self-preserving side of Beane. I am sure Duke Tobin would point out that Beane has made liberal and careless use of cap space to build the Bills and not gotten to a SB yet. I do think Beane is intelligent enough to eventually earn the reputation he was given much too soon..........and I agree with him that he is a better GM than when he started(he was pretty lousy in 2017 and UFA 2018). In general.........people should take his end of season PC's for what they are worth.........every year he says not too expect too much and then if he does something he looks like a hero. He's been lucky that Terry and Kim have been so willing to let him spend future money to cover up a lot of dubious decisions and a lack of value finds during his regime. Now it's time for his accrued experience(much of it about what NOT to do)........ to start paying dividends and find the team some value in the offseason.

The officials clearly had a mandate to allow a lot more physicality in the secondary this season. I thought the Bills decision to go with Elam in round 1 was a clear, shortsighted over-investment for a zone based defense.......until I saw how physical the officials were allowing DB's to play once the season started. Allowing illegal contact/holding/PI makes man coverage a much safer option. It's been an under-discussed point about this season. Sauce Gardner in particular had an All Pro type season doing things that would have had him flagged relentlessly in 2020.

They are f*cked with regard to their heavy investment in Oliver paying any dividends beyond 2023. I was hoping he would have a good season so they could trade him for a late 2nd or 3rd round pick. They might have to eat part of his salary(via signing bonus) to get a 4th after the season he just had. The upside is the same as it was with Edmunds coming into 2023.........maybe he has a breakout year while playing for a contract. Edmunds didn't reach his full potential by any means but he did notably improve.........maybe Ed will go full "walk year" and have the best season of his career.

Yeah I suspect Von Miller will be back early next season........and the reality that most athletes return faster than Tre did will be restored as a norm in the mindset of most Bills fans. While Beane fluffed Tre's rehab to the media DURING the comeback........I think the implication after the fact...."Von's been thru this before"....... is that they think White could have handled it better. I didn't see White's logic in putting on a bunch of muscle in his upper body to carry around on a surgically repaired knee. When you play a speed and quickness position you need to shed weight as you age to keep that.

IMO Edmunds is the most likely re-sign because they can give him a long enough deal that would allow them to have a low cap hit assigned to him in 2023. Personally.........I think it's time to move on and not adjust everyone's roles around Edmunds strengths and weaknesses..........but they don't seem to mind his lack of instincts and/or believe that the game is still coming to him. He has room for massive improvement wrt feeling coverage behind him and making plays on the football in the air and after the catch.........as well as blitz and pass rush technique/feel in general. If he ever put those together with what he has now he'd be a DPOY candidate(as was expected in this defense). While I am dubious.......there are the rare Demario Davis types out there who have proven that sometimes a player can make great strides at MLB mid-career..........even if most are already at their best much sooner.

The biggest single player improvement this offense can make for 2023 is to add an excellent outside WR who can allow Diggs to be in the slot.......and preferably that player is versatile enough to play there some too. The Bills definitely need OL help more than any position group but that isn't a quick fix if you don't have the ability to pick apart defenses with a quick game.

This play was brutal..........and at the same time not the least bit surprising. When they get to the divisional round they are going to face teams that can execute at a high level. I know a lot of folks on here didn't follow the NFL playoffs extremely closely during the drought years..........but this is like the Steelers zone defenses that Brady would pick apart in the playoffs year after year despite Pitt seeming to have a personnel edge on both sides of the ball. If they won't make schematic changes for THIS level of opponent at least do it to keep the AFC East honest.........when Zach Wilson has a career day against you and Skylar Thompson keeps the Dolphins in the game late you might want to broaden your horizons defensively.

Yeah Cinci fans will want to deny it to opposing fans of other teams..........but most know........the Bengals ownership will go the equivalent of "cash to cap" with the payroll when those star salaries start reaching $30M-$50M aav and that will limit them a bit. We know that because the Wilson family and Brown family were two peas in a pod........and Ralph would have done the same thing if he were alive and still had his faculties. When they franchised Jessie Bates that also indicated it was still business as usual. It's easy to eat up cap space taking big 1 year cap hits. The new owners in the NFL can run cash laps around a lot of the legacy teams whose wealth is almost entirely dependent on their football team........it's just a reality. That's not to say they will decline but their "actual" available resources will come back to the pack.........just like the Bills have, despite more accommodating ownership, because of a number of bad UFA decisions in years past. And then you have to continue to draft and develop and hire good people. KC we know for certain will do that. Cinci might but their sample size is small. Buffalo? Beane has his work cut out for him but nobody else to blame if he can't start squeezing more value from his cap room and draft picks.

I can tell you even as a fan in the stadium I was gassed yesterday. I'm not a young man prone to letting disappointment get me down so I caffeined up and still screamed my head off every play on D. But I didn't want to. That Damar incident took the wind out of the sails on this season for me. This game is supposed to be a distraction and when every week at the stadium is another story about someone or some people who got f*cked up by a tragedy it's just not fun. And it if ain't fun.........it's hard to get energized. Having high expectations sometimes takes you out of the moment..........but having lived thru the 4 SB years and those hard climbs back up the mountain.........those were a piece of cake emotionally compared to this season.

The difference IMO is maybe that the Steelers had reached a SB with Bill Cowher and sustained their competitive ways for a very, very long time with just a blip year between Kordell and Roethlisberger. Cowher went over a decade between SB appearances. I agree that Cowher and Schottenheimer situations are VERY similar though..........the Steelers just stuck with him and kept pounding at the door and eventually caught some breaks and won a SB. The Chargers cut bait and switched to Norv Turner and his lack of attention to detail(like Wade) helped eventually drag the team down. I think we reflect poorly on Rivers but early in his careers River was really, really good. Josh is more like Big Ben in style of course but Big Ben stepped into a top 5 NFL organization. Josh has had to build this from the ground up with McD.

And WOULDN'T

I don't see the Packers comp.........they were dominant and their HC called his own plays. The Bills comp right now is more like the 2006-2009 San Diego Chargers. The Chargers dominated the AFC West........were often cited as having the best roster in the NFL and got lot's of love from Vegas just like these Bills........pundits usually said things like "Philip Rivers is going to win a SB in the next few years" which are very familiar to Bills fans with JA17............their defensive minded HC was all about process and loving each other..........and even if they were a favorite they usually made an early, unceremonious exit in the divisional round. Don't shoot the messenger...........but the reality is that this team isn't memorable like the 90's Packers.........at this point they are just Chargers of that era and the Chiefs and Bengals are the Patriots and Colts of that era.