dpberr

It's been a mystery to me why NFL coaches and teams can't change "the" plan quickly, or from series to series. It appears very difficult to do. Once that game plan is installed for gameday, there's little deviation from it. It's a game. Not redirecting a cruise ship from north to south. You'd think if you're the head coach and you don't like how James Cook is being utilized, you *TELL* your OC to start using him the way you want to see him used. If you see your soft squishy zone defense being mauled by a QB, do something different. The Bills should know which quarterbacks can dissect a zone defense (like Matt Stafford). As someone alluded to above, I also don't know why OCs don't incorporate plays that worked before for Josh Allen. So what if they were from a different OC. It's not copyrighted.

Can't we get just one? 😀 I'd put Benford on the slower of the two. I don't need a star. Need a decent, perhaps good one that can stay on the field. I'll take guys with potential. I'll try Ingram, Kimber, etc.

I think a lot of this mess is fixable without mass firings and unloading a draft class of picks for talent. The Bills need some legitimate man defense corners and run a man defense. I don't think zone coverage fools your football-smart NFL quarterback anymore because they all see a ton of it in their college games, and the OCs at these colleges are not DIII level strategists. They know where the open pockets will be. It's easy to get the ball out and find the running lanes. Bills have to play man defense and get some personnel that can do it for long stretches of the game. White and Benford are getting penalized because they are literally hanging on for dear life out there keeping up with their assignments. Need quicker legs out there. I'd be trying out corners and trading for man corners.

What a mess.

Titans have owners who aren't all that interested in owning an NFL team. They just enjoy being rich. They listen to consultants like the bad Lions used to.

I thought the Rasul Douglas trade was fantastic for the Bills. A lot of these trades so far this year are either underperforming players or too often injured players that teams don't want to pay new contracts, so why not get something in return. A part of the equation is who's available. For example, IMO, Cincy trading for Joe Flacco didn't make a lot of sense. Read where they called almost everyone in the NFL, and for example, the Giants didn't want to part with Winston or Wilson. Now, it looks like that was the best they could do at this juncture. If the Bills look great at the deadline, would I trade a Dawson Knox or an Alec Andersen or a high pick for a player that really helps in the playoffs? Probably. You don't want a flame out season right before you open the new stadium. Need to get it done this year.

McDaniel is their most successful coach (outside interims) since Dave Wannstedt 20 years ago.

Game result aside, a poorly executed idea by the NFL, the Bills and Nike. A white out game on a warm October night, on the heels of the Penn State white out game, with jerseys few could read because of the color scheme. Do this in November or December, and it makes more sense. Nike has lost its mojo with design. Those hats with the little stamp look funny, and are also unreadable.

I'm not too bent out of shape over this loss, with the expecation there will be a rebound. However, let's not start Tre White (59/60 snaps last night) and Daquan Jones (44 out of 60) in ATL. I'd rather see younger guys like Logue and Mathis take the bulk of snaps and have Jones rested and in on 3rd downs and plays that really matter. At CB, White has zero quickness left, and Benford's quickness is limited. Put your quickest CBs out there. I don't think Stefon Diggs is that good. I think some of it was due to Tre White being so slow.

Mike Florio said it well last week - "the Bills play with their food, and let teams hang around." I don't understand why the Bills didn't do something about Maye's move to the right. Tre White shouldn't be starting games going forward. His body gave the Bills the starter minutes it could provide. It was always a small, finite number.

It's guaranteed money. $452 million.

I wouldn't rate the Eagles #1. No way. They have pushed nearly $500 million in contract expenses into the 2028-2030 seasons to fund today. The limitation is an owner's willingness, even capability, to spend that cash up front, and Lurie is risking the value of his franchise by doing it. (The Bills, I think, by comparison, are somewhere around $70 million.) The Eagles are counting on significantly higher viewership to drive the next media deal and a massive increase in salary cap space in 2029. They're borrowing heavily against future revenue to pay players now, banking on the expectation that future earnings will rise enough to balance it out. So far, the strategy has worked. However, if the cap doesn’t increase as much as projected, they will face Saints-like "end of days" financial trouble in 2028, 2029, and 2030.

I think Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll are bigger cheating masterminds than Tom Brady and Bill Belichick ever were. For all of the concern about Tom Brady, NFL fans have amnesia when it comes to the cheating conspiracy Harbaugh very likely oversaw at Michigan and Carroll's numerous recruiting violations at USC. Nobody seems worried what these dudes are up to? People are concerned about Tom Brady tampering with club personnel and players. He doesn't need to be an owner to do that.

He's a great athlete that has little in the way of football instincts. Playing time can help with that. Part of the problem in Buffalo is he barely played. I didn't fault him for his play in the championship game. I put that one on management.

Did anyone's telecast switch to Spanish?

I don't think Texas had any idea what was coming or from where with OSU's defense. Matt Patricia had the entire offseason to plan for this game, and being a new DC in the college ranks, there wasn't any film on his strategies. Texas got punched in the face, and never recovered.

I don't think his UNC stint will go all that well. Just like Deion is showing in Colorado, "star" coaching talent doesn't equal busloads of 5-star recruits. I think Belichick's motivation for doing this is all wrong (to prove he's still great after being rejected by NFL front offices), and he's made the mistake of filling out his coaching staff with his kids, Mike Lombardi's kid, and two ex-Browns assistants, one of whom hasn't worked in football for three years (Priefer) and one who's terrible at his job (OC Kitchens). You don't have a lot of great schematic genius there to overcome the gaps in talent.

I was a little surprised Dustin Hopkins was cut for a kicker who's rarely kicked outdoors. Had a rough 2024 (66.7%) but was 90% plus in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and is 84% overall for his career. Maybe that injury changed things. Szymt has done most of his kicking in domes in Syracuse and St. Louis (with the Battlehawks).

His job security is at 99.9%. A down season? Who cares. It won't be because of him. The only way he gets fired in the next three years is if there is a change in ownership. I'd put the chance of change in majority ownership higher than McDermott being fired by the Bills. The ownership situation is uncomfortably fragile.

You could try a soil drench. This particular product was my go-to when battling lanternflies a few years ago.

It's not important but he played for Doug Pederson too. He benched Hurts in the last game of the 2020 season that was likely the final straw that got Pederson fired.

I'd rank Mahomes #1, Hurts #2. Say what you want about Hurts but he gets the job done in the big moments. He's got two SB appearances in his five seasons of play with two different coaching staffs, and he played lights out in both of those games. I think Hurts being able to perform at a high level under two different head coaches and *multiple* offensive coordinators has him in the conversation for being the best quarterback in the NFL.

Heat. Michael Mann's Opus - A perfect movie IMO. Die Hard With a Vengeance. Best movie in the Die Hard series. To Live and Die in LA. Casting unknowns at the time added to the suspense, excellent story and movie making. Aliens. Best movie in the Aliens series, and expanded the Aliens universe. 2010. The more watchable of the two films in the series. Honorable Mention: Hard Target. It's stupid but every single actor in it chews the scenery. If there's such thing as peak Lance Henriksen, this is his movie.

What a delightful case study on the consequences of arrogance. Steelers can't tank a season and accept a lousy season, clear some bad contracts via trades, get some promising players some game time, and get into position to draft a franchise QB. Aaron Rodgers can't accept both his love of the game and his body announced their retirements after the conclusion of the 2023 season.

If he doesn't report to training camp on time, I suspect there goes the remote chance the Bills offer him another contract. IMO, I don't think the Bills have a desire to offer *any* running back a second multi-year "big" contract. I just don't think that's in their business model of allocating $$$ to positions, regardless of how good the running back is as a player.