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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.

I think the concussion protocol is imperfect and needs refining but is better than the days when coaches/trainers gave concussed players smelling salts and sent them back in the game with a pat on the back. A work in progress.

This is exactly my list of game balls.

I just had to look this up. "The University of Georgia had a standout linebacker named Robert “Happy" D*cks, who later became a physician — specifically a neurosurgeon... He was an All-SEC linebacker and played in the 1969 Sugar Bowl against Arkansas..." His unusual name led to one of the most famous sports headlines ever written: "DOGS TO PLAY C*CKS WITH D*CKS OUT" referring to the Georgia Bulldogs vs. South Carolina Gamecocks without Happy in the lineup. The original headline lacked the asterisks since the usage was legit, not profane.

Considering we are, frustratingly, a better running team than a passing team, a good blizzard could be an advantage.

It seems a little weird for a head coach with SB aspirations to choose two first time coordinators to run his offense and defense. And, yeah, hopefully they learning as they go and continuing improving. But look at KC in comparison: HC: Reid. A creative offensive guru, his track record speaks for itself. DC: Spags. Some say Spags, a former head coach, is the best DC in the league. Romo says he needs to be in the coordinator HOF (if there was one). OC: Nagy. Nagy, the NFL Coach of the Year in 2018, is known for creativity and QB development skills. Reid/Spags/Nagy might be the most talented, intelligent coaching triumvirate in the league. I like McD as a head coach but I don't think McDermott/Babich/Brady is in the same tier. Hopefully, they'll get there.

I see your point, but I do think coaches play a role in tackling and gap integrity. Somebody on the Bills mentioned that the Bills D recently changed the standard from 'practicing until they got it right' to 'practicing until they couldn't get it wrong.' This is what made Vince Lombardi great. He wasn't brilliant at Xs and Os but he coached his guys up until they executed his limited playbook flawlessly. And that's been a strength of the McD defense in the past: superior communication and execution. It hasn't been a strength this year, though it seems to be improving. I acknowledge, though, that there are players who, no matter how much or well you coach them, will screw up come gametime.

I agree with the basic premise. The injuries have been hard to overcome. Some of the injured players, to be honest, are barely missed. But guys like Oliver and Bosa are different because their backups don't come close to them. I also think that the roster wasn't all that great to begin with. So losing key guys becomes especially problematic. But I believe as well that there have been games when the offensive game plan was just plain bad. Brady doesn't seem to know how to scheme a downfield passing game (and, yes, I do cut him some slack given the WRs he has to work with). And some of his play designs seem unimaginative and his play calls predictable. On the defense side, I have some complaints about the coaching, too. Some games we stayed mostly in 4-2 despite being gashed on the ground. It seemed like moving to 4-3 with Shaq on the field would have been a better decision. And other games we just didn't tackle well or maintain gap integrity - which means our players haven't been coached up well enough to execute at a high enough level. I'm not ready to tar and feather Beane or our coaches just yet. But I'm not giving them any medals either. Still, I like @T master's positivity - it's a refreshing and much-needed counterbalance to some of the over-the-top criticisms on the board.

The title is a little misleading. We don't lead in either Pass Blocking or Pass Play Efficiency. I guess you could argue that we lead in the combination of those two. But that doesn't matter. Good passpro should help you earn a good EPA but by itself doesn't mean a lot.

I don't agree with every detail, but I do agree with the general point: Beane's drafts, FA evaluations, and cap management have been problematic. The fact we don't have a SB quality roster falls squarely on his shoulders. Then again, so does the fact we have Josh Allen who makes us instantly competitive. This isn't a popular opinion, but I've long thought that the reason the Bills keep going to the playoffs is because of McD (a good, not great, coach) and Josh. The rest of the team is a random mix of good and not-so-good players. The reason we keep bowing out in the playoffs before the SB is that both the coaching staff and roster, overall, just aren't good enough. McD doesn't have elite coordinators - his fault. And McD doesn't have an elite roster - Beane's fault. Between the two, I think Beane is more to 'blame' than McD.

3-4? From McD? From a defense that has little to no experience with the 3-4? Personally, I don't think so. @oldmanfan, I think you're more creative (i.e. "crazy") than McD. I mostly expect the typical nickel though with more blitzing than usual.

Our Bills have Dissociative Identity Disorder. How do you know which team will show up on any given game day? I wouldn't be surprised by any result - except for winning out.

Andre Reed, who I do think hangs with the team from time to time, said something similar about needing a few players who aren't afraid to confront other players and hold them accountable.

I get what you're saying but the Bills offense only scored 19 points. It was enough. It was a win. And it was fun to see, especially when the hallmark of Pittsburgh football is physicality. We shoved the ball down their throats. But getting 19 points from a Josh Allen led offense doesn't scream 'masterful' to me personally. Still, watching the performance of both sides of the ball in the second half - after the doubt and frustration of the first half - brought joy to my heart.

Before the Steeler game, I was: 7-2 when wearing my Josh jersey along with Bills sweatpants. 3-0 when wearing all that plus my Bills socks. 0-1 when wearing my Kelly jersey. 0-1 when wearing my Kyle Williams jersey. So I went all in with Allen jersey, Bills sweats, and Bills socks. And it worked!

That running game was great to see. But let's not rush into conclusions. Why did we run the ball so much? Why did we not throw down the field? Part of the answer to these two questions is that the run game was working. But the other part was that Brady didn't trust the OL to protect Allen. Allen wasn't sacked today because (1) he didn't throw very often, and (2) most of his passed came out quick. The Pitt DL is better at pressuring QBs than stopping runners. So Brady didn't give them a chance to pressure Josh by calling short, timing passes. It's what he should have done in the Texans game. The shame is that the Steeler secondary isn't great and we didn't/couldn't take advantage of that because we don't have great wideouts and don't trust our OL (with the two starting tackles out) to protect Allen. Fortunately, we didn't have to pass downfield because our OL was pushing guys around on running plays. Props to Van Demark and Anderson but I wouldn't want Brown or Dawkins to be out long term.

It seems to me Heyward quoted Allen saying, "I needed to do something to get you off of me." Not "Off my game."

I don't think you can teach a team to win by losing on purpose. And I'm just morally, ethically, and philosophically opposed to intentionally losing.

@FireChans, I don't disagree. Beane has failed to give Josh & Brady a good receiving corps. Yet, I do think it's odd that receivers continue to have production drops playing for Brady despite Josh being under center (Diggs, Samuel, Palmer, etc.). I'm also tired of hearing commentators (Cossel, Orlovsky, etc.) talk about how basic our passing concepts are. And I'm tired of Joshing scanning the field and finding no one to throw to because Brady can't scheme guys open. I'm not saying Brady's a bum. We've scored a lot of points with him as OC and I acknowledge that. He seems to have a knack for scheming a run game. But he also has Josh the Magic Alchemist turning crap pass plays into gold. Scheming a downfield passing game is not Brady's forte which is a shame because we have a generational QB who's incredible talents are being wasted to an extent.

It's true that our defense is worse than our offense. Maybe we talk so much about Brady because it's more fun to watch and discuss offense. Or maybe it's because our defense isn't very talented and is riddle by injuries while our offense has a freakish, once-in-a-generation QB who's being misused.

You're right but a variety of people who know more about football (Cosell, Romo, Orlovsky, etc.) than I do have mentioned that our passing concepts are rather simple and/or unimaginative. Andre Reed said their passing concepts back in the 90s were "vanilla" because they had the talent to make simple concepts work. Brady doesn't have the luxury of talented wideouts. So he should be working overtime to figure out how to scheme guys open. And doesn't it strike you as odd that pretty much every receiver sees their production go down when they start playing for Brady (Diggs, Palmer, Samuel, Moore, etc.)? When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But not Brady, he made durian juice.

Neither was last week's yet we saw it anyway.

Every receiver who comes to Brady's Buffalo seed their production go down. Does this mean Cooks will average less than the 16.5 yards/game that he's been racking up so far this season?

Never sure who's going to show up: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. But I only pick against the Bills when I feel strongly about a bad matchup. This week, I don't know what to expect so I'm going with a Bills win... Bills 24 Steelers 21