BADOLBILZ

The NFL's premier special teams player Matthew Slater is playing on a 2 year $5.3M contract. Tyler Matakevich got a 2 year $7.1M contract from the Bills. If Tremaine Edmunds gets 25% more $ on a new deal than Darius Leonard would I need to show the contract of every off-ball LB in the league to illustrate how "overpaid" that is?

The point I was making was regard to the nature of empty backfield/5 receiver pattern football producing low yards per play(dink and dunk).............so I guess you were just straw-manning me with the idea that it never should be used. I never said that. Despite the Bills defense not manufacturing a take away..........there is one take away from this game that we should try to remember............sometimes you can identify problems with your offensive approach during the preseason games. They ran the sh*t out of empty backfield during the games and then came out and did it in the opener. The offense Sunday had a very Mike Martz/Marc Bulger 2003 and beyond feel to it.........QB with minimal protection, under intense pressure.........coordinator and QB still trying to force their way thru what the defense isn't giving them. Fortunately for Bills fans Daboll isn't the HC.........I will be surprised if McD let's Daboll go Martzy for nearly an entire game like that again.

Yeah, I didn't listen to Tasker.......he's generally all over the place with his takes but not wrong about that. I pointed out that aspect of their "empty backfield" gameplan in the preseason game against GB.........in that game Allen bailed them out on 3rd and 20 on their first drive with a ridiculous TD throw to Davis. Forced the Pack into a man coverage situation. But that was a precarious down and distance to have ended up in for the Bills starters against GB backup defenders. Expecting to have time to throw deep when running empty backfield sets against a good defense was quite the combination of arrogance/stupidity from the Bills. Instead of defiantly trying to beat a coverage that invites you to do things you find difficult.........the sensible thing to do is to force them out of the coverage.

Yeah.......the Vikings squeezed every ounce they could get out of Beane for Diggs..........but let's be honest that pick was in the single digits wrt % of the value of the package they dealt for Stefon. Disingenuous to try to sell "Teller was traded for Diggs".

Yes as you know there were a handful of people in the lower bowl (above the concourse level) who were being really D-baggish about unapologetically standing up right at the snap and just causing people to miss the play and/or a line two people wide to have to stand up for 20 rows when everyone else in the section was seated. Well there was a highly visible issue in 133 where two dudes just refused to sit down despite being the only ones standing.......and wouldn't listen to the usher so security yanked them........... when other obnoxious standers saw the dudes getting carted out they sat their asses down without any urging and stayed there. If everyone is standing, fine. If you are the only one.......read the room.

Yeah one pass play out of 00 for every 10-11 quarters of play is probably too insignificant to note. But while 00 is "5 wide".........00 is of course not the only personnel set they've run empty backfield from and send 5 players out into the pattern. In fact it's most certainly the LEAST frequent. We saw the results of putting a Devin Singletary outside the numbers in the passing game yesterday........less than nothing.......it's like playing with 10 players on the field. Not "quite" as bad as Kevin Gilbride running Sam Gash out to the X receiver position...........but not much different. And hey, Daboll even ran an homage play(literally) to 2004 Gilbride with that "4th and stupid" 8 yard lateral. Yeah, we got a good taste of empty backfield football in the Gilbride/Bledsoe days. While receivers are better now.........the matchup advantages created by "empty" really are not. LB's can cover better now. Safeties are smaller and more like CB's. And CB's get paid top dollar and the position draws quality players. Turning the pattern into a stew of those players negates the talents of guys like Diggs and Beasley.

Yeah you disagreed with the dink and dunk portion of the argument...........your reasoning was the perceived matchup advantages created in coverage. I overheard Jeremy White on the radio today say something about Beasley lamenting the lack of room to operate yesterday.........which would be very consistent with one of my very key points regarding the limiting nature of running 5 wide.........congesting the field makes it easier for the defense to cover as a unit.

With as much "dedicated" and well-above-average-paid special teams personnel as the Bills employ.........critical mistakes really aren't easy to excuse.

You just want to bring up things you don't want to talk about today, don't you? Don't worry about officiating.........ever...........I am sure you are aware of my opinion on this as I've made it clear many times..........worrying about negative result officiating is for losers. If you want to complain about officiating complain about not being a team that does things that make the opponent catch flags. For instance.......for every whine about the PI calls yesterday.........unmentioned is the fact that teams know that they can get the Bills DB's heads turned around on certain routes and create situations where they seem to not be looking back for the ball allowing a prepared receiver to sell a PI call.

I'd put the scene commensurate to the 51-3 AFC Championship game versus Raiders in January 1991. Most raucous environment from start (until punt block) since that, IMO. That won't continue........might be able to get there again if they reach the AFCCG but the crowd won't be like that again in-season.

You don't care about Edmunds quality of play............and I don't care about complaining about officiating impacting the game like you did wrt the White non-interception. Both sides of the ball have 60-80 snaps to make a play............one officials call doesn't absolve one side of the ball of not accomplishing things over 60-80 snaps. I expected a close game..........but realistically this Bills team should have tuned up the Steelers by a number far exceeding the spread. One team had a vengeful, determined attitude and focus and battled thru a tough environment to play in..........the other seemed to be mentally caught between playing not to lose and trying not to look bad winning........officiating didn't decide *****.

Oh I blame the offense...........the discussion point was Edmunds lack of big plays thru 3+ seasons and why. If you are going to respond, read the posts that precede it or stay under your rock. Oh I don't care about that point so it doesn't matter that the Steelers created 4 or 5 turnover opportunities with their defense and ST's despite the Bills offense playing in favorable communicating situations for 4 quarters. 😉

I assumed Allen was still working on this. Instead he and Palmer just talked about improving on "in breaking" routes.........which are sure tightass throws when defenses are squatting on you and the field is congested with 7 pass defenders. The guy has one of the very strongest arms the game has ever seen..........being good at the deep ball should be a HUGE priority.

You can't win turnover differential with a ZERO in your column. But good to see we have a turnover differential truther on the board...........takes wrong people to make for debate.

I agree on the Allen throw. I had flashbacks to Sanders running wide open in the SB against the Chiefs and Jimmy G overthrowing him. I have been critical of Allen for those deep throws from the jump. He's gotta' put more air under it.........but when you're receiving corps is on the smaller side and doesn't have that extra gear to go get an other throw like the Bills WR corps is........he has to be reasonably accurate and that starts with better trajectory. But is the idea that Edmunds doesn't make big plays even debatable anymore? Turnovers are such a critical function of good defense.........there is *some* randomness in high numbers of turnovers but they are generally a function of good pressure/coverage/awareness..........so when you generate zero in an environment like that it's unacceptable.

Can I make it ANY CLEARER.........turnovers. The most decisive stat in the game..........and they lost that battle. The defense produced none despite the opposing offense playing in the roar of a jet engine for most of the game. Man there are some dense people on this board. When defensive coaches preach about "tips and overthrows" what they are saying is remain alert and attentive to the football until the whistle is blown. The Bills defense has gotten into a habit of not doing that. Edmunds has NEVER done it. It adds up..........people who still at this point think that it's a statistical anomaly that he doesn't make big plays are just being absurd.

Yeah Buffalo dominated them statistically but by the same token the Bills defense got a MAJOR assist from the crowd. It was deafening at times. On a neutral field the Steelers have much more success moving the football, IMO. It was a terrible waste of a huge homefield advantage.

C'mon dude.........they allowed 24 pressures.........there wasn't much time to throw the ball downfield. Daboll's solution to teams squatting on their empty backfield stuff is to hope that they can either dink and dunk their way efficiently thru it with perfect execution or make a very low % completion throw. I pointed this out when the Packers backups got the Bills first string offense into 3rd and 20 two weeks ago and Allen had to make an other-worldly throw to Davis for the TD to prevent being stopped by scrubs. Empty backfield football is dink and dunk football............you can say it has a place........but that place is as a change of pace not as half of your ***** snaps.

It was yards per play. When you bring defenders into the box you create more space for your receivers downfield. More space = RAC opportunities..........instead of every catch being followed by an immediate and violent tackle for no additional yardage. They have spent a fortune on veteran WR's who specialize at getting separation..........boxing them in with 5 options in the pattern and flooding the field with pass defenders and getting them beaten to a pulp on short passes is not the best use of the $ and draft pick compensation expended on Diggs, Beasley and Sanders.

I watched it live and I watched the replay from the reverse angle seconds later. There is always an excuse with Edmunds...........and never a big, game changing play. The Bills defense in general needs to be a bit more frenetic........when they were sharp and opportunistic early in 2017 under McDermott that was the style that made them better than the sum of their parts.

3. Tremaine still doesn't play thru the whistle.........he let up on a play where the ball was tipped and the delayed reaction cost him a much better chance of intercepting the ball. He always seems caught off guard when opportunity knocks. The big plays are what they need to start getting from him.

He meant Bo Levi Wallace. Think he might be a CFL fan. Or SMU.

As I responded to Happless...........they can solve it by using a RB in the backfield and/or extra blockers. Josh Allen likes to hold the football............3 pass rushers will get to him in an empty backfield set from time to time if he holds the football the way he does when he has 11 or 12 personnel on the field on the field. You wanna' move the football in 5 wide you gotta' be willing and able to dink and dunk............holding the ball for 4 seconds before throwing isn't congruent with that style.

They ran more 11 than anything and were very productive at it but if I recall correctly they were most explosive in the pass game out of 12 personnel. Time (to throw) and space(to get open). The concept works the same way with the running game............when you overload the line of scrimmage with blockers you really don't make yourself more effective running the football........there is a tipping point where you over-congest the LOS, give your RB nowhere to run and make it so unlikely that you will pass that it allows the defense to sell out for the run. Empty backfield is that point in the passing game.

@Chandler#81 @CSBill @Sammy Watkins' Rib Y'all still disagree about the empty backfield/5 wide approach turning your offense into dink-and-dunk? @GunnerBill said he disagreed to an extent because in theory the Bills would have a matchup advantage against the extra DB's.........but as evidenced today the reality is that the lack of time to throw and the congestion of the field consistently negates the perceived "on paper" individual matchup edge.