hondo in seattle

His .174 winning percentage wouldn't even get him into Buffalo's Bottom Four, sad to say.

Bills 28 Birds 27

Since my wife is Filipina, maybe I should try that! Doing wings every gameday for 10+ years is getting old. To avoid monotony, I don't do just Buffalo Wings. I do Korean, Thai, Brazilian, Parm, etc. and sometimes just make up my own recipes. Recently I did Gochujang-Sofrito wings which were awesome, though I don't know how much good mojo wings bring when they're not Buffalo Wings made with Frank's.

I don't know what my source was either - just some article that showed up in my news feed. Some of the other data you share makes me feel a bit better about Tre. I'm cautiously backing away from the cliff now. Thanks. Though I'm still not seeing the Tre of old. Update: I just found the article, "Bills Veteran Already Looks Finished One Month Into 2025 Season." https://buffalowdown.com/bills-veteran-already-looks-finished-one-month-into-2025-season-01k6xtdyhq92

I'm not very good at math so I need someone to help me with this. I've sincerely always believed that 71 is bigger than 58. So why is Cook ranked 6th instead of 1st? Also, this defines "Open" as 2-5 yards of separation. What if you have 6 yards of separation? Is that not also open?

Sierra, you're an intelligent poster and I usually agree with you. But not here. According to one source, opposing QBs have a 121.9 quarterback rating when targeting whoever Tre is covering. If I'm a QB and I need a third-down conversion, I'm throwing to Tre's guy. Maybe Tre's dealing with something and will improve as the season progresses? I doubt if that's the case, but as a Bills fan, I can only fill my days with hope.

The average team has two receivers in the top 64. We have 3, almost 4... Everybody eats.

Good answer and I struggle with some of the same questions and uncertainties. I worry about the ticking of the Allen clock. I also worry about the truth behind the saying, "Good is the enemy of great." I think Beane is a good GM. I think McD is a good HC. But maybe we need someone who's more than 'good' to get us a Lombardi? I just don't know how many of those guys are available. Ultimately, when we're close - playoffs every year - I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I want to take the good we have, refine it, and make it Lombardi quality. I want Beane to plus-up his FO and McD to plus-up his coaching staff. I do fear the possibility of Beane and McD remaining in place for the next ten years and never delivering the goods. Would I rethink my position then? For sure. But right now, if I'm Pegs, I'm encouraging/pressuring them to make progress but I'm not yet replacing them. Whatever happens, I hope we both get to see Josh raise a trophy at the end of a season.

"Everyone eats" is about making lemonade with lemons. It's what you default to when you don't have a dawg. But it's also the motto of a culture that stresses teamwork and team success over individual accomplishments. In that sense, I love it.

Out of curiosity, do you think we have the best roster in the AFC? If not, why would you fire your coach if we don't reach the SB? Have we ever had the best roster in the AFC? And I mean the guys who suited up, not guys on IR or suspended. You and I probably evaluate the talent on the team differently because since McD arrived, I've never thought Beane gave him a Lombardi-quality squad to work with. If we want McD to win a SB, we're asking him to overperform with what he's been given.

According to everyone's favorite website, PFF, White has a 61.1 grade for the season. He's ranked 78th out of 167 cornerbacks. Not a bad rank - for a backup. His grade for the Pats game was a miserable 47.8. Really hoping Max heals soon and proves himself more than worthy of a 1st round pick. I have fond memories of a younger Tre, with Hyde and Poyer, giving us one of the best defensive backfields in football. Yikes, those days are gone.

I understand your argument completely. Since Brady, in particular, this offense has scored a lot of points. But when I see Josh scanning the field with nowhere to throw, or when I examine our stats - I think a more brilliant coordinator would get even more points from this offense. I also, btw, appreciate that (1) Brady doesn't have the most elite WR corps, (2) tends to take what the defense gives him which makes sense, and (3) has given us an offense that produces a lot of points but - normally - not a lot of TOs. And that last point is a pretty neat trick. For all these reasons, I don't want Brady fired. Yet I believe our downfield passing attack is suboptimal. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think if Andy Reid or Sean Payton were hired as our passing game coordinator, we'd score more points. Hiring them is unrealistic, of course, but there are probably a few lesser names who could help Brady dial up a more potent passing attack than what we currently have for those days we need one. And because our defense isn't good, those days are going to happen.

Kincaid and Shakir are above average in yards of separation, and we know what Shakir can do with the ball in his hands. Still, I wouldn't call either the third triplet - the modern equivalent of Andre Reed. Here's an interesting, surprising separation stat. According to NextGen Stats, Stefon Diggs' average separation is 2.9 yards. Keon is also 2.9 yards.

Clearly, when someone says, "One always thinks the grass is greener on the other side, but most of the time it’s brown" they're making an observation based on experience. It's not measurable. There are no stats. But it is an opinion that many would agree with, and something to consider before moving on from Beane and McD. The future is unknowable, but my best guess is that if Pegs moved on from Beane and McD he'd probably replace them with guys who would turn out to be not as good. I'd rather (1) have Beane hire some new/better scouts so he can build a better roster, and (2) McD hire a passing game coordinator to help Brady scheme & call a better downfield passing game. When you have a team that sucks, you blow it up. When you have a good team, you keep fine-tuning it until it's the best.

I remember when GMs and coaches believed in the concept of triplets. Obviously, no team can have All-Pros everywhere. But if you wanted your offense to work, you needed to get a superior QB, WR, and RB. It's hard to defend an offense that has all of that. Back in the 90s, we had Kelly, Reed, and Thurm. Dallas had Aikman, Michael Irving, and Emmit Smith when they beat us in two Super Bowls. Today we have Allen, Cook, and ? As much as I like Cook, he's not in the Thurman-Smith class. And none of our wideouts come close to Michael Irvin or Andre Reed. Josh is why we win when we win. Not having enough weapons besides Josh is why we lose when we lose. (Not to mention a subpar defense).

One of the best kickers of the 1950s was Lou "the Toe" Groza, who was an All-Pro Tackle. He once kicked a 53-yard FG - setting the professional football record. He also kicked 23 FGs in a season, destroying the previous mark. In those days, "kicker" wasn't a position. It was something a player did as an additional duty. The best guy was picked from a pool of volunteers that may have included guards, LBers, QBs, whoever. The first big revolution in kicking was in 1965 when the Bills signed Pete Gogolak, who was a full-time kicker - in fact, the first soccer-style kicker in the pros. His 28 FGs in 1965 was an AFL record and he once kicked a 54-yarder. I'm sure the broke-in balls help but kickers have been getting better incrementally over the years with better conditioning, technique, cleats, groomed or artificial fields, and windless domed stadiums.

I know of an abandoned football field. I'd like to collect all the Cold Front jerseys, take them to that field, pile them up in a pyre, and burn them as an offering to the Gridiron Gods. And never see them again.

I did everything wrong... I wore my 17 jersey for every win this year and nearly every win last season. And then for the Patriots game, I wore my Kelly jersey. It seemed to me that the offense and defense weren't optimized, and something needed to change. I made the wrong change. Worse, I have a tradition going back many, many years of always eating wings on game day. But my wife made Chinese hot pot for a late lunch/early dinner here on the West Coast. Well, I ate a lot and wasn't hungry during the game, so I didn't cook the wings. I'm sincerely sorry for contributing to the bad juju. Think about it... All the things we did wrong detailed in this thread and we still only lost by 3. If we collectively hadn't screwed up, we would have ended the Cold Front contest with a 'W.'

I gotta admit that this is an interesting comparison. The numbers are pretty darn close. But I'll add this about our guy. He's quiet for parts of games when Cook is carrying the load or Brady is making dumbass calls. And one of the reasons Cook is carrying the load is because teams are defending Josh first with 2-high shells and - often - a spy. Yet despite teams being manically focused on stopping him, when Josh has to make a play to win a game, he does. Some of the announcers like to say he puts on his Superman cape when he needs to. He has the ability to will a team to victory. The stats don't capture that.

As someone who regrets missing the hippie era by just a tad, my philosophy is: Build bridges, not walls, Make love, not war. Kissing ass is better than kicking ass - except of course in war and football.

@PatsFanNH, for what it's worth, I appreciate you taking part in our discussion of the game. It's nice to get another perspective, especially when I haven't watched a Pats game yet this year.

I agree with almost all of this. But I'm not convinced we can't throw downfield. When we needed to throw downfield in the 4th against the Ravens, we did so with spectacular results. It's also worth noting that we play against a lot of nickel with two deep safeties. Opponents are more-or-less letting us beat them with Cook's 4 & 5-yard carries, but they're determined not to let us dice them up with Josh's deep throws. Having said all that, we don't have elite wideouts and I'm not sure the downfield passing game is Brady's forte. So maybe there's some truth to what you said. But Brady is good at taking what defenses give him and puts a lot of points on the board.

Yeah, if you look at the Bills regular season performance over the past few years, you'd expect that the team would have gone to at least one Super Bowl. Whether it's luck, coaching, injuries, or something less... it's maddening. But as someone who's lived through 2-win seasons, I'm enjoying the ride.

I agree Kurt's overly critical. And, yet, I think it would be great if Kurt and Josh watched tape together in the offseason. Perfection can never be achieved but it ought to be pursued.

Bills #2 offense (ypg) #11 defense (ypg) TO: +3 Pats #14 offense #16 defense TO: -3 I don't think the Pats can score enough running the ball to keep up with the Bills' offense. So can Drake Maye pass well enough against Bills (currently ranked #1 in pass D) to win the game? The older, traditional stats point to a Bills victory. The Bills have the better offense and are more likely to win the turnover battle.