NoSaint

All good, and won’t claim super expertise- just through the years we’ve seen this conversation a few times every year. It’s definitely not the egregious and intentionally dangerous violation that we all watch for... but I do think that it’s pretty darn close to letter of the rule. There’s always some grey area that day to day, ref to ref, or just depending on angle that will effect whether the flag flies but I always use the rule of thumb “is the catch completed yet? Did the helmets appear to hit in the main contact? Could the corner hit the receiver anywhere else?” If the corner fails all three, it’s just going to be a flag 9 times out of 10

You included a ton of volume but... was the receiver defenseless? Probably very near the edge, but was catching the ball and only one foot down when the hit occurred. Fractions of a second later he’s established as a runner but wasn’t yet. was Tre able to avoid it? receiver didnt make any drastic and unexpected movements. The hit could’ve been chest level, hip, knee (knee being way riskier than the hit we saw but thems the rules)... it didn’t have to be head. was it incidental? maybe. But when you get to this Point you are pretty far down the path. If you hit a receiver in the act of making a catch and your helmets touch in any way while you are driving into them... you’ll OFTEN see the flag and it’s been that way for years. This wasnt the catastrophic decapitating hit that was incredibly reckless. This did, generally, check all the defenses receiver h2h boxes though. Enough that a flag shouldn’t shock after years of the rule being emphasized. I can see room for disagreement or it being iffy but don’t buy that it’s a completely ludicrous call

To be fair to their stat... the second half saw the bills 3 and out on 3 out of 5 (60%) so its not like that actually had a major swing on this....

Yeeesh. Feel for the guy. Hopefully he gets some help soon. I kept trying to grab a quick quote to give the thread better context of what was going on but there were just a too many incidents this week alone.

I feel like I’ve addressed this very directly several times. yes. Yes you can tackle him. You can hit him incredibly hard even. But if your helmet hits his helmet in that span of completing the catch it’s likely a flag.

But as noted this isn’t the new helmet rule this is the defenseless receiver rule. Its possible docs right and it was a weird angle looking like helmets hit but when a receiver is making a catch you’ve got to go a little Lower typically. You can hit him as hard as you want there but if helmets touch it’ll be a flag the overwhelming majority of times The guys looking at a ball with his hands out and feet off the ground. He still has one foot up as the hit arrives. He’s very limited in being able to protect himself from injury in that spot. An established runner is totally different. It wasn’t as horrific as some hits but as flags go it was generally in line with calls the last several years

Generally, yes, but there’s a bit of a sweet spot with bonus already paid and limited guarantees. if for the right price (saaaay maybe a 4)we can get a 2 year rental... it might make sense to give allen a weapon and take pressure off a rookie WR next year

Thank you on the coach/talent thing. It’s the most frustrating argument in this as we could have hired a variety of options at coach or GM. There’s a decent sized cross section that seems to think the choices that ownership and this regime made were totally forced on them and we couldn’t have looked different today with different choices. I wasn’t a big mahomes guy as much as a “it’s ok to question things” guy. It’s an interesting story line.

If we had our qb last year we wouldn’t need two picks to get a qb and something else this year i do agree its waaaay too early to write the book on either guy.

Yup. And he was still bringing a foot down so he was defenseless by the rule book. Hit him in the chest, hip, knee or ankle- good. Hit him a half second later- good. Helmet hitting helmet while he’s completing the catch- flag. For a long time now. If folks want to argue it’s a bad rule - go for it... but it’s important to understand the actual call and it wasn’t outrageous in the context of the last 5 years.

This is strange even by your standards

Well, I don’t swing wildly week to week. Ive expected this team to be a roller coaster and win some games they shouldn’t but lose ones they shouldn’t either. Winning one game doesn’t mean the last couple weeks/months suddenly disappear. We will see how the season goes but wouldn’t be shocked if cone January it’s a tough choice because of showings like we saw on both sides of the spectrum thus far.

Only one foot had gotten to the ground and helmets hit. It’s a tough play for the defender but you have to go low there because if heads collide the flags coming.

Has been the case for years. A guy raising his hands to catch a ball he is looking at can’t really defend himself. If helmets hit in that situation, expect a flag. As the tweet says- not the new rule here.

Yup. That one may be a highlight that’s rare in part because only some can do it, but also because you’ve got to be smarter than doing it unless it’s late in a playoff game. That’s not to knock him too hard. No harm no foul and that’s what you hope for in the “learning moments.” Low cost, and occasional reward even.

Play calling is important but I’m positive Frazier did a ton this week that contributed to the performance

Sne married buffalorush, I’m guessing she’s used to being disappointed in New and spectacular ways

It’s a tough crossroad in his career to deal with a season ender. Would’ve been huge to have a full season of development as a starter under his belt.

Yup. It’ll be a wildly inconsistent season but hopefully he learns what he can and can’t do at this level. Some weeks we will love him and others he will drive us mad. Just got to keep trending the right direction over the long haul.

Well, it seems you see some bills gear.

You should definitely continue to take pictures of people and post them online telling us how weird they are

He would have had to go incredibly far out of his way with giving leverage to a fringe player to not allow us to collect.

Yes, but what’s nice is his arm gives him a chance to do that. In fact, it means he doesn’t even have to do it as well as those with marginal arm talent.

John, how can you call anyone out like that and then follow it up with your own glowingly positive review? Surely you see the irony? Theres always going to be a “breakthrough thermometer to hide the fever” aspect to a fan board. Hopefully said fever is curable and not deadly for allen. He has shown a few flashes of both the best and worst. We just need to see the ratio keep improving.

The cba restricts what players can be punished for. This is a slightly ambiguous instance of whether or not a player can be punished.