hondo in seattle

Listen to the fans! Bills fans being loud and crazy is not a new phenomenon. I remember this game. The Bills offense, dominant all year, struggled mightily against the Broncos and need a defensive TD to help win the game.

I understand, and share, the frustration. But let me ask you, is this squad good enough to reach the AFC Title game? It's a little simplistic to say we have Josh Allen so McD should get us a ring. The rest of the squad matters and it's not SB quality. I don't judge McD on how many trophies he raises up. I judge him against the roster Beane gives him and the injury report. I ask myself, Is McD overperforming or underperforming versus the guys he has on the field? I believe in most years he's given us more wins than we had a right to expect from the roster that Beane has given him. Nobody is talking about 'protecting' McD. Those of us who don't want him fired believe we're probably better off with McD at the helm than whatever replacement Terry would choose if McD was fired. Considering the roster weaknesses and injuries, McD would deserve a golden statue in Niagara Square if he coached us to victory in Santa Clara.

He's a helluva blocker. One of the best blocking TEs in the league. From what I've seen, his route running is unspectacular. If a LB or safety is assigned to him man-to-man, he likely won't get separation. But versus zone, he does seem to have an ability to find a soft spot. And, so far, his hands seem reliable. All in all, a great role player and excellent value for the 5th round.

All humor aside, the video does look encouraging.

I think it's kind of both. Beane is always kicking tires. He seems to be obsessed with depth. Considering how many injuries we seem to suffer, this is a good thing. But he knows he needs game changers and has had some whiffs both in the draft and free agency.

We did have some good receivers in those days! As for Blanda, young people think of Tom Brady as the poster child for NFL longevity. But old timers like us remember when George was both throwing and kicking the ball at the ripe old age 48!

I agree with your remarks about his burst and vision. He's not elusive like Barry Sanders, nor powerful like Earl Campbell, nor a freakishly elite athlete like OJ. But sometimes I'm amazed at the creases Cook sees, and how quickly he gets to them.

I agree. I respect the 2025 Pats. If the Bills beat them with good performances on both sides of the ball, I'll happily reevaluate the current state of the Bills. And, yeah, Philly looks beatable.

Brother Dollars, thanks for the kind words! I don't think Fergy passed for more than 3,000 yards his first 6 or 7 years with the Bills. But he played a long time and eventually had a couple of productive seasons. But in the beginning, it was all OJ, all the time. And since our D was usually poor, the entire game plan of the opponent was SLOW OJ DOWN. If they could do that, they'd win. Well, in 1974, we were invited to play on Monday Night Football (a big cultural phenomenon back then as you might recall) for the very first time. Our opponent would be the Oakland Raiders who were good enough to get several MNF games and had won them all. This was, btw, the first and only Bills home game I would see in person at the Ralph. OJ was off to a good start, though frustratingly he seemed close to breaking one but hadn't yet. And then he got hurt right before half if I recall correctly. The game was basically over. We couldn't win without OJ. But Fergy threw a 13-yard TD strike to Ahmad Rashad with 13 seconds left to win the game 21-20. As it unlikely as it seemed at the time, it was Fergy, not OJ, who was the hero of our first MNF victory. Although I'm glad to see Allen rising ahead of him on the passing yards list, Fergy will always hold a hallowed place in my old heart.

A man can dream, can't he? But my rational, pragmatic mind tells me that we're not winning out. We've been too inconsistent this season, and we're too banged up right now, to believe winning out is a realistic scenario. We started the season 4-0. But since the hospital beds filled up and Brady lost his juju, we've been a mediocre 5-4 team. I'm hoping for a 3-1 finish but, given the trend, 2-2 might be more likely.

Dollars, my good gentleman adventurer and fellow warrior poet, I'm appreciating what Cook is doing but you can't compare him to OJ for a few reasons. Let's start with the quarterback. Clearly the defenses we face today fear Allen far more than they fear Cook. So we see, for example, teams line up in a two high shell and then put a spy on Allen. Teams don't put spies on Cook. I'm sure they respect his talent but he's not their primary worry. OJ's usual QB was Joe Ferguson. Fergie eventually became a good QB but in his early years, his job was simply to give OJ the ball. For example, in 1973 when OJ ran for 2,000 yards, Ferguson passed for less than 1,000 despite starting every game. Defenses were fully, entirely keyed on OJ with spies matching his every move. And they still couldn't stop him. Now let's look at defenses. Nowadays, most teams use the 4-2 as their base defense. In the 1970's, the 4-2 was called a "pass prevent" defense and was only used, reluctantly, at the very end of halves. Most defenses then, including the "Purple People Eaters" and the "Dallas Doomsday Defense," used the 4-3 and were intensely focused on smothering running backs. LBs back then were not the quick, rangy guys of today with good coverage skills. They were freaking lunatic killers like Dick Butkus, Mike "Mad Dog" Curtis, Jack Ham, and Jack Lambert who hit you like a freight train and counted any day they hospitalized a back a good one. DEs were different, too. Forget today's sack artists with superior bend, spin moves, and ballet-like grace. The DEs of the 1970s were hulking giants who pounded the snot out of RBs and made them cry. Cook is a good back, and I like watching him work. But he wouldn't achieve the stats he's attaining now on the 1970s Bills versus 1970s run-first defenses.

"4 - Receivers - Two games in a row now where the receivers are almost non-existent." Considering how useless our wideouts are in Brady's offense, maybe we should run a 14 alignment.

I don't know if I'm ready to fire Beane but if I had to terminate one of the two: it would be Beane. Easy decision. Everybody worries about wasting Allen's prime. I give credit to Beane for drafting Allen, but the rest of the roster tends to be rather middling. We've never had a SB roster since Beane arrived so I'm not sure why so many call for McDermott's head on a platter. Yeah, McDermott's made mistakes and has flaws, but the fundamental issue is we need a better roster.

That play looked ugly until it wasn't. It's 4th down. We really, really need to convert but Allen faces pressure quickly and starts scrambling. #92 shadows him and Allen can't juke him. Suddenly Allen stops with his feet parallel and in that awkward position he throws to Shakir who's surrounded by Bengals in the endzone including #44 who's directly in front of Shakir allowing no apparent window whatsoever. I hated every moment of that play until Shakir caught the ball. I don't know how many QBs could have made that throw under those circumstances but it's not many.

Mine too. She complained that the neighbors could hear me yelling. But our neighbors are football (49ers, Raiders) fans, too. They know the deal. And I didn't need Next Gen Stats to tell me how much the game changed on that play.