BADOLBILZ

I wasn't a fan of the Basham pick...........but I also don't know what kind of guard Humphrey would have made. He's been a center forever........if you plug Humphrey in at center then Morse is off the field. He can't play guard. Not physical enough. So you likely still end up Boettger, Williams and Ford at the guards around a rookie center deploying an outside zone attack.........which probably still sucks. Beane has tied himself up in knots with numbers. Example: he traded Wyatt Teller because they got to camp and realized that Mr. "we need a tackle" Cody Ford was a shaky RT and might have to play guard. So they kept Boettger because he had worked hard to train as a backup at every position. Boettger has never played anything other than guard since. On the plus side.......we saw some old Greg Roman style inside zone running last night and suddenly the run blocking didn't look so bad. As bad as the OL has been this year............the coaching and techniques chosen have been just as bad.

What's to pick on? Beane could only pick 3 lineman in the first 3 rounds of the 2021 draft because he only had 1 pick in each round.........and in the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the previous two drafts he took 2 RB's and a really lousy offensive guard. They've also spent A LOT in free agency and re-signs on both lines. I think they had the highest amount of cap space dedicated to the offensive line in the NFL in 2020 and the most to the DL in 2021. It's not for lack of investment that they aren't very good at the LOS or productive enough at RB.

Astonishingly brutal loss for Hamilton. Blow the big second half lead when crowd is in celebration mode. Give up a stupid single on the kickoff to put them down 3 instead of 2. Drive the length of field.........Masoli misses wide open WR on short pass that would have won the game the game. Kick the McDermott........then lose in OT. 22 years and counting for TiCats.

Allen and Diggs(seemingly) getting injured is the best of what world? There is still a chance for them to win out and do well in the playoffs but I don't really see any of your 3 things as being accurate/relevant to that.

He got two yards after a catch. That was good but Tampa's receivers were stacking YAC yards all game. The Bills badly need a fast, elusive target in their WR corps that can make a play after the catch. BADLY. Allen played great but still ended up with less than 6 yards per pass attempt cuz these guys got no juice. Beasley, in particular is having a pathetic yards per reception season. Almost impossibly bad. Gabe isn't going to be that RAC guy.

Looks to me like he might have blown up that torn groin he had at the end of last year.

To me the 1994(miss the playoffs after dominating the AFC to end 1993) 1995(Bruce Flu) 1996(Kelly's ignominious end) and 1999(Flutie's horrible losses cost them home field) seasons were all worse than an early exit this year would be. Those teams were actually loaded with players who had been to SB's and the 1999 team should have WON the SB in a weak year for the NFL as a whole.

Yeah I want to see them be aggressive and creative on offense. I don't want to see them settling for field goals deep in the red zone...........from the AFCCG thru the first 3 losses this season that was one of the defining characteristics of a Bills loss.

To me losing the $3.6M is a big dead cap hit when you have no alternatives inside. You gotta' write Ford and Boettger off at this point. Not out of the realm of possibility that they cut Williams but with top end guards falling in the $15M-$19M aav.........and Nelson likely to re-set the market entirely..........if Williams has a chance at a bounce back I think they might be inclined to keep him. He's a mercurial player. Guy was an All Pro once.......could barely get work in the 2020 offseason........then plays at a Pro Bowl level in 2020. Now this year he's been a middling guard. LG is the most glaring issue. Boettger is impossibly bad in the run game and mediocre in pass pro. Feliciano is marginally better. Don't know if Doyle has any future at all.

I might be projecting the Roman experience too much..........but as I've said, that Wood/Glenn lead OL was seen as a disaster under Marrone..........this board was pretty distraught about the situation...........the only real talent upgrade they made was adding Incognito and upgrading the coaching. John Miller was not talented.........the Bills reached for him and the scheme made him look serviceable. And Jordan Mills was hated in Chicago........just considered a lousy player they had to start and despite all of the chances he got to wear on DE's he was never anything better than horrible in pass pro. And that offense dominated the run game and the Bills averaged over 6 plays of 20 yards or more per game in those 2 years. So IMO, getting one stud OG might make a world of difference. Daryl Williams will likely be back at the other guard..........they are in a bad dead money spot if they cut him. I can't see a complete switch out and it's probably not needed. But Mitch Morse needs a body guard inside.

Much rather pay the going rate for a guy like Norwell, Tomlinson or Scherff in FA than use a high pick on one. People will say they don't have a lot of cap space..........but they are going to clear out some bodies that will make some and if they sign a quality OG they can backload the deal. Can't afford to come into next season without a difference maker inside and they really need to be replenishing the key, HUGE money positions with those high picks.

My bad, it appears they played 43% nickel..........in a game where the offense threw the ball only 7% of the time......and barely beyond the LOS when they did. That kind of respect for the impact of the passing game would have been shocking not that long ago. Now, it's almost expected. But the gains in the run game still affect the psyche of many fans the way it would have 20 years ago.

Trouble in Jax just makes me wonder how this could help the Bills. Per NFL next gen stats Jags Andrew Norwell.......a pending UFA......... has the highest run block win rate of any left guard in the NFL this season.........and a good pass block win rate. The Jags have a ton of cap room but maybe the former Carolina Panther decides it's time to get out of Jax. If they could add one player in UFA this offseason, let it be a quality interior OL.

Tough re-match in the Grey Cup for Hamilton. This time around the Blue Bombers have the best O-fence and D-fence in the CFL. But by good fortune it's a home game and the TiCats really looked great in second half in stomping the Argos out in the East Final last week. QB Dane Evans was on fire. The talent isn't comparable of course but this is sorta' reminiscent of the second SB matchup between the Bills and Cowboys. First matchup, lotta' people thought the Bills could win and they played terribly and lost............second time, they were a big underdog but actually had a great game plan and held the lead at the half and could have won that game. Had it been a home game for the Bills though........ Would be TiCats first Grey Cup title since 1999.

Correct. I didn't watch the end, just saw the highlights of second half. Thought they were down by 6. But the fact is that dominating a team on the ground isn't a death blow to that team in the modern NFL. It's not a mistake or even a glaring sign of weakness that teams are allowing so many rushing yards. It's primarily because they don't want to get beaten by big plays in the passing game. That's been the theme of the entire NFL season. If Buffalo was terrified of the scoring impact of NE running at them all night.........they wouldn't have played 5 DB's most of the game.

Running the ball creates space in your passing game. It slows the pass rush for the QB and then the back 7 also has to respect their run responsibilities. I'm not a fan at all of spread offense football. But I am also not one who thinks you need a top 5 running game either. It's about scoring. The old Ron Jaworski saying still works "you score points in the passing game".

One of the things we are seeing though is that there are teams running for 200+ yards every week now and those teams aren't dominating the actual games. TN ran for 270 and LOST to NE. Minnesota ran for 242 and SHOULD have lost if Freiermuth can hold on to the very well thrown pass in the end zone last night. NE ran for a bunch versus Buffalo but should have lost that game but for far too many unforced errors by Buffalo as well. The reality is..........ground and pound isn't domination anymore. Rushing yards used to have a greater impact back in the day when it was harder for teams to score fast or come back from larger deficits. That's not the case now.

To clarify........you said he is GREAT when he is on the field. I never said anything about the Bills defensive ranking and the fact that they have played well despite his frequent absences is not the best proof of his greatness. You're off on a tangent here. Besides........having a #1 defense is about yardage allowed. So the key is to be a good pass defense because it's about twice as hard to gain yardage on the ground in the NFL as it is in the air. Take the "L".........calling him great wasn't an accurate statement by any means.

Fina pointed out some mistakes by the RB's in that game...........but EVERY position group makes SOME mistakes. Fina could have pointed out the same types of occasional mistakes in the secondary or the WR corps or the DL.......units that generally get good grades. The issue is that the OL CONSISTENTLY fails to execute their assignments properly. It all starts with them..........if they do their job consistently.....then the RB's can trust their blocking and it makes it easier to anticipate where the hole will be. What we too often are seeing are RB's being tentative because they ASSUME that the OL will blow their assignments. For good reason. Go back and watch the Breida fumble..........that's a mistake on him........but as he is being handed the ball two defenders are coming unblocked leaving Breida trying to figure out how to avoid a loss before he even gets the ball. Your running game can't function at a high level like that.

Breida has proven he can do it in SF. Singletary's numbers aren't bad. I believe Moss ran it a lot in college and at times looked more comfortable at it than Singletary last year. It's not just a speed and quickness thing. Most of the yardage is still inside. It's vision and instinct for the cutback. Shady McCoy was good at inside zone but bad at outside zone. Back in the Shanahan days in Denver they had a run where they had one late round pick or UDFA with poor speed and quickness numbers after another excel in the their outside zone style. But they had undersized but very athletic OL's.........like the 80's and 90's 49ers did. They were good at getting to DL knees and creating big cutback lanes.

False. He was out there Monday night. Was that great? He was out there against Tennessee. Great? Nope.

The Bills have been trying to run outside zone......like the 49ers run now.........but their guards aren't really good enough to make it work, IMO. I can see them tryna' swipe Laken Tomlinson from SF in free agency.

How was retirement?

MORE train horn. Every defensive down. The crowd needs all the prodding that they can get. I sit near the top of the lower bowl and even though everyone stands, most of them make zero noise. The place is at about 25% noise capacity this season.

I think Daboll wanted to be more of a man blocking run offense initially. But they decided mid-season last year that their passing offense was more streamlined using outside zone, which involves less complicated line calls. So they've changed plans since he got here. Problem is........that challenges Beane and the personnel department to have the right kinds of players in place. Still.......the problems have been greatly magnified by the entire OL..........SAVE for Morse.........playing worse than expected for various reasons (poor preparation, injury, covid ignorance etc..). Getting the OL prepared falls on Bobby Johnson so I'd be surprised if this season ends short of a SB and he isn't fired. If the offensive lineman aren't preparing well.......at the facility or in the offseason.........that still falls on the guy who is in charge of monitoring them year round. I've never understood what compelled McDermott to even take the chance of switching the Bills rush offense from the inside zone approach they used to great success in the Roman/Lynn seasons. Said it then.......that was a very dumb decision.......and it is costing them even now. They had an identity in that aspect of the game and they had players who could execute that style at a high level. Just a matter of keeping the cupboard stocked when you have a system that works.