BADOLBILZ

Star is having the best season of his NFL career. What's motivated him to get in shape and play this hard? The pay cut? The team shifting to more of an attacking style of 1 tech? The realization that he can't be around his wife 24/7 so he needs to make this football thing last a lot longer? Who is to say? Maybe if he keeps playing well and they get to SB week someone will ask him that question. What we do know is that he underwhelmed in his first two years in Buffalo and was subsequently issued a pay cut. For people who do not believe the former.......see the latter. This organization does not ask players to take pay cuts unless they aren't playing well enough to justify the base salary........which at that point wasn't that high because they had already paid him around $15M in signing and other bonuses. He's been impactful and very fun to watch this season and it's also been hilarious reading all the "he's the same as always" crazy talk takes here on TSW. When Star Lotulelei is featured even remotely favorably on "pass rush win rate" graphs or charts you can rest assured there has been a seismic shift in his play.

He was really good........I think they got what they could have reasonably expected from Mario.........but cost is a big factor, IMO.

Fitz was a free agent but he ruined "suck for Luck" 1.0 after the Bills were CLEARLY the worst team and roster in the NFL thru 8 weeks. Luck ended up opting to return to Stanford and Cam Newton would end up going #1 and soon win NFL MVP and take Carolina to a Super Bowl. Bills wouldn't have had a shot at either.........as they ended up drafting 3rd thanks to Fitzy getting on a heater. Fitz won just enough to totally ***** the franchise for another 7 years or so and not enough to even challenge for a playoff spot. So even though he was fun and a general good guy his signing actually set the franchise back.

Could be, but Whaley's record with lower profile FA signings was strong and McD was pulling info from a lot of people to find his players.(Personally, Hyde was my top free agent target for Buffalo and shouldn't have been lower profile, but he was). IMO, the 2017 draft was mostly intel he stole from Carolina with the help of Beane.........Tre White as a no brainer, he was IMO at the time the best CB prospect in the draft(over the more gifted Lattimore even) so if I could see that, any pro personnel guy should.........but I certainly don't believe that Dawkins and Milano go in Whaley's ledger (and Zay Jones was basically selected by McD's ***** WR coach hire Phil McGeoghan). But regarding Hyde.......the fact is that Beane's free agent and trade acquisitions were VERY sh*tty for the first 14 months or so................so I gotta' give Whaley and staff some pro personnel credit on the Hyde signing.

It made no sense so I FIFY. Hate to waste a good cat GIF.

1. Ted Washington.......he was the best defensive player in the NFL in 1997 IMO and he was the foundation of their great overall defense which became the identity of the team.....whether fans realized it at the time or not. Cutting him erased 15 years of organizational identity building and set the drought in motion. From 1994-2004 he was the most dominant run defender in the NFL. 2. Bryce Paup..........gotta' give it to Paup because of his NFLDPOY year...........one of the greatest seasons in Bills history. 3. Jordan Poyer.........he's been the better of two tremendous safeties........and the cheaper signing. 4. Micah Hyde..........the last Whaley gem(Babich gets Poyer credit)........sustained, consistent excellence gives him the nod over the next gem. 5 Lorenzo Alexander...........another Whaley gem........cheap signing and contended for NFLDPOY and great culture guy.(Zach Brown was the other cheap signing that offseason and he lead the NFL in tackles). 6. James Lofton..........cheap acquisition and outstanding........unfortunately he was only that guy for about 2 and a half seasons before trailing off rapidly. 7.(tie) Doug Flutie and Tyrod Taylor...........a lot of mileage and good offensive production from two super cheap signings. Two different levels of fan appreciation but both played their part in QB'ing teams to the playoffs.

That TFL got us out of our chairs. He's been inconsistent and often hesitant on his choices/routes to the ball in his first 3 seasons. The actual TFL numbers aren't that important........the lack of them last season in particular was just an indication of the inefficiencies in his game. His performance in the last couple weeks has been exceptional.

I was reminded of this very thing watching Carson Wentz being oblivious to the pass rush from his blindside against Baltimore. And they have a pretty good OL. After years of having so many QB's like that..........it's nice having a QB who doesn't regularly take surprise hits.

And he actually has a lot of room to improve as a pass rusher......but his run defense has been really exceptional........and he finishes plays, which adds up.

Not that they didn't do a decent job with him at Northern Iowa.......they have a first round LT prospect in Trevor Penning this season.........but I think the season spent with Joe Staley was time better spent than having played the covid season. The technique was night and day different.

I agree.......he will be 63 years old next season. Can't see any semi-contending team hiring him. He is liable to hire some ex-Raider on the radar of nobody in the coaching community. It will be hard to find someone who can either understand OR respect that haircut.........but the candidate will have to be able to do one or the other.

PSA Don't bother yourself over officiating. Ever. The game is much more enjoyable this way. If one imbalanced call costs them the game.......you can rest assured your team didn't play well enough to deserve to win but maybe just enough to hope to win. The Bills have been on an epic run of blowouts. The idea that games have to be mostly one score affairs is because mediocrity is where most teams in the league exist. Mediocre teams and coaches consistently negotiate themselves into close games. But there are things players can do to avoid getting calls against them. The Bills can be better at that. Not diving at a QB's legs on 3rd and long when you are up 2 scores in the second half like Ed Oliver did......not grabbing a sealed and harmless DE in clear view of an official like Dawkins did on the long Moss run that was negated. These are things that the player can control and become more savvy about. I actually think we are seeing smarter play now......the benefits gained from all the experience this team has together.........but there is still obvious room for improvement from some vets that should know better. Another really big game under the belt should help them with composure in subsequent ones as well. Officiating in any sport is mostly about anticipation of potential penalty points.......without it the game moves too fast to call(which is how the inconceivable PI/tackle in the Rams/Saints NFCCG got blown). So a player has to know what's being looked for. And like it or not, you have to take the approach that human nature is that officials will be a little more focused on infractions that might hurt the trailing team.

Yeah, the bar is high for the offense after last season. And when you are playing some bad defenses you basically want to see them cash in a few more of their opportunities. The first Bills field goal came right after a play where Allen and Sanders were just not on the same page resulting in an incomplete pass in the end zone on 3rd and 11 where Sanders was wide open if Allen throws it a couple of feet more to the inside. They later scored the final TD on a very similar window throw. Allen still misses some throws every game that I think he can grow into. He still has room to improve on timing and touch passes. In some cases, like those helium balloons he was tossing to the RB's last night, significant room. The question is will he get that uncanny command of his pitches like Brady/Brees while he still also has the elite physical traits to keep plays alive longer or gash defenses with his running ability. If those points intersect THAT will be peak Josh Allen.

In reality...........they held Henry to his lowest rushing output of the entire season and that play in question was a negligible gain. The run defense was dominant that night............they just turned the ball over and didn't play well in general offensively.

After years of losing Bills fans have become accustomed to Collinsworth giving props to the better team........which of course, usually wasn't the Bills. There were tons of examples of Bills ball-washing as well. He actually said that the game in Buffalo last year decided home field. The Chiefs were 14-1 and the Bills were 12-3 going into meaningless finales. Do the math. Don't hear anyone complaining about that though. He gave Buffalo plenty of props, deserved or otherwise. As for fans of other teams roasting him........do we have a thread on here every week about Collinsworth? The answer is no. That says it all. Fans only scrutinize this ***** if it's their team or some team they are rooting against. There are a lot of people rooting against the Chiefs now because they've had home field advantage for 3 straight playoffs and been to the last two SB's. That's the way it works.

5. Poorly located pass.......needs to be to the sideline.......against Diggs brother that ball is probably heading the other way. 7. Not a well thrown ball, so Diggs was going to have to leave his feet to make the grab...................we'd be pissed to have that call go against us with it being such a high degree of difficulty. Also gotta' see the all-22 but I think Knox was wide open on the post. If that was the best option on the field then the play was well defensed. This was a case of Allen forcing the ball to his stud WR despite good coverage, IMO. My bigger concern on some of these drives was running into LOADED boxes on some first downs. You gotta' audible out of those. There was one where KC had a blitz coming from the outside on both sides and they ran a slow developing handoff that got dropped for a loss. The Bills had success running early, and late, but in the middle portion of the game KC was stopping it and I thought the Bills weren't adapting.

First of all.........TWO threads about Collinsworth? Really? And when he commended Klein for drilling Mahomes close to the sideline was that anti-Bills too? It's comical watching people complain about officiating and perceived slights from talking heads. How valuable is the play-by-play? If you hate it, turn it off. Lotta' ingracious winners on the board this am.

A good deal of what KC did worked............they got killed by some deep shots that Allen just hadn't been making. It wasn't a great offensive performance by new Bills standards............they stalled in the third quarter and went 3 and out after two turnovers..........fortunately Hyde took the other one that took place in the competitive portion of the game to the house. If the defense isn't so effective we are talking about how the offense let them down in KC again. I enjoyed it though.........I love big play offense and hate the dink and dunk(it's a recipe for mistakes, ask KC).........I like the tighter formations and less receivers in routes to create separation for those big plays............but the Bills have a lot of room to improve on that side of the ball. On the flip side..........KC actually misses Sammy Watkins.........they are hurting for some decent route runners.

Nothing bonds fans to their product.....err, team........ like the perception of referee shenanigans and disrespect from talking heads. Top of the board for this thread! Anyone expecting the NFL to change how they present either just doesn't know how to make a buck.

He's definitely been steadily upping his game. Wasn't that long ago that all-around bad 3rd quarters were a regular thing........tonight they endured an hour break in a hot, sh*tty locker room on the road and they didn't come undone. Stacking positives is great to see.

We have a thread on TSW of Bills fans going to the opposing teams fan sites to gloat and enjoy their misery............you can pretend that SB success wouldn't go to Bills fans heads. It's out of touch, but you do you.

Well the question there is why wait until May to hire a different GM when you know who you wanted all along. That just rang of Billsy incompetence. There were some bad look moments. People want to dismiss that but it's ok to admit that the plan has had to be re-written on the fly. That's actually been the most consistent strength of this regime..........pivoting from bad decisions..........the growth mindset, they call it. If Allen hadn't turned it around in the second half of 2018.........I'm not sure Pegs sees them thru a 2019. It's easy to forget just how bad they looked that year. They were getting destroyed and playing some of the worst offense in the history of the NFL. If Allen busts.......the regime almost certainly fails. I know you don't follow the Pegula's other team, and I appreciate them keeping the teams in town, but trust me, they have no idea what they are doing in pro sports management yet.......let alone 3 years ago. I think they bottomed out with Ralph Krueger, finally. 😂

There were a number of factors that lead the turnaround but if you are just splitting it up between the two...... 90% QB 10% Culture But 10% is a lot.............it's just that it's a QB driven league. The tendency of some might be to disagree with that.........but we saw what culture without belief in the QB position lead to in 2017 where McDermott's defense came apart at the seems for the worst 3 game stretch in team history. We also saw how terrible they were in 2018 when Allen was going thru his growing pains. A Teddy Bridge kinda' solution wasn't going to keep that team culture work intact. Culture sans winning is not a thing.

He was also lauding the Bills and ceding victory to them in the 3rd quarter...........but all Bills fan hear are the negatives.😂 The only issue I had was them getting upset over the roughing call on Frank Clark. It was more of a roughing penalty than the one on Ed Oliver that sustained the Chiefs second half TD drive..........and the Clark roughing came right after a terrible holding call on Mitch Morse that would have otherwise been a first down. If you are going to feed the officiating blamers/shamers.........at least be consistent.