hondo in seattle

I haven't delved deeply into this but my guess is that a guy talking about "eigen values" is not some kid playing on the internet. It seems like a legit attempt even if flawed. Sounds like the metric will be fine-tuned... "The overall model will have a makeover in the offseason that will hopefully increase the accuracy and stability of the results moving forward."

Yep, he's not good. He only set the NCAA record for punt average in a season (52.2 yards) once. And he only won the Ray Guy award as the best punter in the nation once. If he was any good at all, he would have won the Ray Guy award 3 or 4 times. And just like every other kid drafted in the NFL, he was falsely accused of gang rape in a case that received national scrutiny. Nothing remarkable about this young man at all. Not sure why his name is ever mentioned. Just a perfectly ordinary dude like anyone else on the street.

I just learned today who Nick Wright is. There are billions of people in the world with opinions and Nick is one of the many working in the media. And he doesn't like Josh or the Bills. I'm with you. I don't why his opinion matters. I don't care what 8 billion people think of Josh. I only care if we win the SB.

Beane helped transform a moribund franchise into a perennial contender. I'm extraordinarily grateful. What he hasn't done yet is create a championship team. While it's certainly not true that the best team/roster always wins the SB, it's also true that Beane has not given McD the best roster. Typically, when we lose in the playoffs, we lose to teams that are better and/or healthier. Who knows, we may make an improbable run this year. I'd love to see it. But I think our best chance of winning the Super Bowl involves Beane making some position groups better. A little luck would be nice, too. Beane has done a great job building our depth, but it would be great not to need it. Next year when we have injuries, I hope they're not to our star players.

Steelers keep it a one-score game... Bills 24 Steelers 17

Game plans and advantages depend on how crappy the weather turns out to be. If the weather is just a little crappy, Josh's strong arm can still get the ball downfield. This would be a huge advantage for us that we would need to exploit. But if the weather is so crappy that even Josh can't make accurate downfield throws, then both teams will run a lot and the Steelers are more of a running team than we are. Seriously crappy weather is an equalizer.

I hope NE undergoes the typical rebuilding process. Bring in a new GM and HC with much hope and fanfare. It doesn't work out. Rinse and repeat.

I had a dream that a UB professor invented a time machine and went back to the 90s and offered Reed and Lofton $4 million/year contracts to come play for the 2024 Bills. Beane was so happy with the deals, he sent the inventor further back in time to offer $1 million contracts to Bobby Chandler and Elbert Dubenion. Gabe was replaced on the cheap. In the real world, I don't think Gabe's a quality #2 but that doesn't mean necessarily that he's not the best available option for the price. It'll be another interesting offseason.

I don't want the Dolphins to think they are ready to compete with the Bills in the AFCE. We've beat them twice. Now I want them to lose in the first round while we make a run. I want it to be obvious to everyone in Miami, Buffalo, and across the NFL that the Bills are still the class of the AFC East. I want that psychological inferiority to infect every Fin when they play the Bills next year. I'm rooting for KC.

When you're a Bills fan, you learn to worry. Your team wins when you expect it to lose. It loses when you expect it to win. If teams could collectively suffer mental diseases, the Bills would be diagnosed with Dissociate Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). You never know which Bills team will show up. I remember when the Bills spanked the Raiders 51-3 in the AFCCG. I was convinced the team was peaking at just the right time. I'll never take another game for granted again.

It seems every year there's a HC hiring that surprises me. I'm not discounting the possibility.

Watching him play, I assumed McD activated Miller and gave him playing time because it (1) made Von happy, and (2) helped him get back into playing shape.

When it comes to points scored, it depends on your frame of reference. We had some big offensive games under Dorsey, including 3 of our 4 first opponents. The O went flat after that. I don't miss Dorsey. I just don't know if Brady is The Guy. I'd like to see us find a better OC than Brady but I recognize that the best offensive minds already have OC and HC jobs. If we do keep Brady as OC next year, I hope we surround him with great minds. The best position coaches are guys who teach and motivate their players to consistently execute at a high level. They're not necessarily good X-and-O guys. I think we mostly have good position coaches (minus the fact we currently lack a QB coach). But we also need good scheme guys on staff - coaches who excel at the tactics of NFL football - to help Brady dissect tape and game plan. At least that's how it seems to me, a simple fan without any behind-closed-doors knowledge.

You think so? What has he done? I guess it depends on our playoff run. But his 1/2 season experience as an OC without moving the needle much on total yards gained or points scored doesn't seem enough to make him the belle of the ball.

It would probably be awkward, but I hope McD finds an OC better than Brady and Brady reverts to being the QB coach.

This is the stat that matters. But it is interesting how the Bills don't get blown out. I'm not sure what that means. Some of those close losses should have been wins, so that's bad. But none of the close losses turn into big losses which suggests the Bills never give up and keep on fighting, which is good.

Do we? The Dallas game was a thing of beauty: Cook hitting nice holes with burst and vision. But against the Fins, for example, both backs averaged less than 3 yards per carry. Josh's plunges and scrambles were our run game. Bad weather hurts passing teams. We're a passing team.

I don't agree with the personal attacks on brethren mafia. But I do agree that Brady hasn't been an obvious improvement as OC. It's been good to see more players involved in the offense. But our overall production remains about the same.

I agree. I sincerely doubt if Sherfield will have a big game like that. But I do believe that Sherfield's typical game as a #2 won't be worse than Gabe's typical game.

For those who say the D won the game, I don't disagree. But, if you're old enough, think back to how the Giants beat us in the Super Bowl. They held our high-flying offense to 19 points mostly by controlling time of possession and not letting us have the ball. We scored a point per minute of possession that game. That's good production. We just didn't possess the ball very much because our defense kept allowing their offense to convert on third down. Yesterday, the Fins only held the ball for 21 minutes. While the turnovers certainly hurt us, our offense gained 26 first downs and 473 yards. Our offense contributed more than the 14 points they scored. Their drives kept Miami's boy-genius-led, high-scoring offense off the field.

After watching the two picks and the missed deep ball to Diggs, I felt like Josh was having a really bad day and never quite shook that feeling till the 4th quarter. But that angry 3rd down run made me reassess his game. Here's his stat line. He completed 79% of his passes for 359 yards. (And the passing stats would look even better if Cook hadn't dropped that TD). He was also our leading rusher (15/67), outgaining Fournette and Cook combined. Both of the backs averaged less than 3 yards a carry. Josh was effectively both our passing attack and our running attack. Most importantly, Allen fought like a warrior. Some of the comments Fin message boards are interesting. One Fins fan called Allen a "lion." Another said he was a "f@cking baller." There were many other remarks along those lines. Yeah, the TOs sucked. But let's appreciate that we have a lion, not a lamb. Agree!

We've got to give both Beane and McD credit for this. Beane doesn't draft and sign prima donnas. He goes after team-first ballers willing to commit to 'the process.' And McD seems to have a talent for creating a culture where guys work well together, communicate, and play hard for each other.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I don't find Collinsworth unbearable. He's opinionated. Color guys are supposed to have opinions. In any case, I don't care. His opinions on the Bills are sometimes negative and wrong. Again, I don't care. Like all color guys, once in a while he makes an insightful or interesting point. For that, I'm grateful. I tune out the rest. But, yeah, he seemed more positive about the Bills and their fans than usual.

The star player on each level of our defense is hurt: Miller, Milano, and White. They may have more starters injured but we might have more quality lost due to injury.

I'm interested in what other teams think about us. And I think they tell us - in a roundabout way. The expression damn-with-faint-praise comes to mind when I read what they say about our offense. I think opponents truly respect how well coached our defense is and how well they play together and how they don't make many mental errors. Reading what opponents say about our offense, I get a different picture. They respect Allen, of course, and some of our other players. But our scheme doesn't challenge them. I have no idea what my opening post count is, nor could I care less.