hondo in seattle

I confess... Last year I read/heard stories about how the Dolphins were the following the Bills blueprint and that Flores was South Florida's McDermott: a team-first, follow-the-process, culture builder. When the fins finished 10-6 last year - doubling their win total of the year before, I believed those stories. Silly me. Btw, as a reminder, the only time McD didn't get the Bills into the playoffs was 2018 when the we had the lowest active cap spending - and arguably the weakest roster - in the NFL. Just earning 6 wins that season was a solid bit of coaching.

I get who the sponsor is but it's still kind of weird: old Bills players driving through car washes with some young lady in the backseat.

I think they want to beat all their opponents and play more-or-less equally hard each game. I think that's one of the things that McD does well. He keeps the intensity high each week. The game may be a blow out (cross my fingers) but it won't be because the Bills hate the Titans more than the Chiefs and play harder.

Because pick plays are a matter of interpretation, the D just needs to assume they're legal and be prepared to defense them.

Nice write up. Is there a Reader's Digest version?

I personally live my life according to the "Wall Street Journal Test." I ask myself: If what I'm about to do gets exposed in the Wall Street Journal, will I be embarrassed? If the answer is yes, I don't do it. Obviously, I wouldn't want my bedroom activities to be reported by a media outlet. But other than that, I'm good with everything I do coming out in the open. There aren't any texts or emails I'd be afraid to have published. If you hack my life, I won't get fired. Not even close. I'm sure many, many other people can say the same. You're right. We live in an imperfect country with imperfect people and an imperfect justice system. None of that gives me any sympathy for Gruden.

So what do you want? Big Ben may have been a rapist but he was never even criminally charged, let alone convicted. Do you want the NFL to punish every player who gets accused of something? And the NFL did not discipline Gruden. He resigned. Maybe he was forced to resign by Mark Davis. I don't know. But his departure was inevitable. Gruden couldn't effectively lead his players with all this stuff coming out. Personally, I've lost all respect for Chuckie. He got what he deserved. I wish Big Ben and all the other a-holes in the NFL get what they deserve, too. But, sometimes, it just doesn't work out that way.

Gruden was cooked by his own unkind words. He lost credibility with his black and gay athletes with his remarks. Hell, after reading what he wrote, I wouldn't want to play for him and I'm white and straight. You might be right about how the emails got released, though. Hard to know.

Look, I respect all of America's good cops. Chauvin wasn't one of them. He killed a man, brought shame on the uniform, and deserves his time in jail. The big difference is Chauvin was caught on video. OJ's criminal act doesn't have any witnesses at all. One of the tenets of American justice is known as Blackstone's Ratio: "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer" And that's why OJ's free. Because he just might have been innocent.

I spent time in high school locker rooms a few decades ago. Maybe you would have been right back then. But not any more. Not according to Aaron Rodgers: "I know that there's opinions similar to that, but I feel they're few and far between. The player and the coach of today is a more empathetic, advanced, progressive, loving, connected type of person." www.nfl.com/news/aaron-rodgers-no-place-in-the-game-for-opinions-jon-gruden-expressed-in-emails

I'm not so sure about that. OJ was my only hero growing up so I followed the trial obsessively. There were problems with what looked to be planted/tampered evidence and the forensics in general. The LA police - and Mark Fuhrman in particular - had credibility issues. Barry Scheck did a masterful job seeding doubt about the forensic evidence and Johnny Cochran brought race up at the right times and delivered the memorable line about the glove: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit." All in all, I felt OJ was guilty but wasn't sure I could vote to convict. The defense - especially, in my mind, Scheck - planted seeds of doubt. I've never read the book, OJ is Innocent and I Can Prove It, but many who have became convinced that Jason Simpson (OJ's troubled son) was the actual killer. No murder weapon, no witnesses, faulty forensics... the prosecution didn't have the strongest of cases.

I agree his name should come down, despite his amazing talent. I can't imagine what the family members of his victims feel when they see OJ honored like that. Then again, many readers of "OJ is Innocent and I Can Prove It" harbor doubts about OJ's actual guilt.

I went back and watched his college tape when we drafted him. I thought he was big, gangly, athletic - but not particularly strong. That worried me. I thought he'd need a year just to get tougher and more muscular. But I really thought the argument that he was getting clean up sacks was overblown. The kid was making plays in college, often using his length/wingspan to his advantage. So far with the Bills, though, he seems strong enough to handle himself against NFL competition. Maybe he spent a lot of time in the gym during his Covid off year. Whatever happened, for me, his effectiveness as a rookie has been a very pleasant surprise. Congrats Groot!

Gotta say, I like ELO more...

I remember when Dan Fouts was pretty regularly throwing for 300+ yards when that was still considered a big deal. For a couple years, he was the most feared/dangerous QB in the NFL and his Passer Rating didn't necessarily reflect that.

The Bills had the highest scoring offense in 1975. Fergie was the QB. And I wouldn't expect Fergie to be rated as a Top 5 passer. The RB, of course, was OJ and the Juice had a lot to do with the offense's production. But this is different. The 2021 Bills are built around Josh Allen and Josh is getting his team into the endzone. Isn't that, ultimately, what a QB is supposed to do? And, so far, no one has done it better. I'm no statistician and really don't know how to build a better rating system than Passer Rating or QBR. But D.L. Hot-Flamethrower mentions ELO has Allen at #1. Maybe they're looking at stats that better correlate to scoring. GoBills808 notes that Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt (ANY/A) is the stat that best correlates to winning. If true, then that stat should be the heart and soul of any QB ranking system.

Good article. I was at the game and noticed the Bills were doing something different on offense. But with my eyes mostly following the ball, I didn't completely understand what I was seeing. This article explained a lot.

An interesting comment from a good breakdown of our offense that Yolo posted: "Through weeks 1-4, the Bills were in 11 personnel (one back, one tight end) or 10 personnel (one back, no tight ends) on 76 percent of their offensive snaps, a league-high... The Bills were (and are) signaling everything. They know they’re throwing the ball. The defense knows they’re throwing the ball. And the Bills don’t care. Try to stop us." This is kind of what I meant when I said the Bills have a QB-centric offense. Despite defenses knowing the Bills are a Pass First & Second offense, the Allen-led Bills lead the league in scoring. I say that qualifies Allen as a top five QB - certainly better than average. www.readoptional.substack.com/p/bills-josh-allen-daboll-offense-scheme

Temptations or Edwin Starr (related to Bart Starr)? I find that interesting. Maybe ELO is better. QB ratings ought to be predictive. And they shouldn't be predictive of future QB ratings. They should have some kind of correlation to scoring because that's the whole point. Offenses need to score. Allen's lower QB score isn't predictive of 30+ point games. Yet that's what the Bills are producing. The folks rating Allen as average, how do they explain the high point output? Moss and Singletary? Our great offensive line? It doesn't matter if the wideouts are good if the average QB can't get them the ball. Regardless of Allen's inefficiencies, he's leading the team to the end zone where other QBs are not. Here's the thing about Josh: he might look ineffective on one drive but then lead the team to TDs on the next two. Another QB may complete a higher percentage of passes but not lead his team to any TDs at all on the same three drives. Which QB do you want? Which gives you the better chance of winning? Which has the better rating?

What's interesting about this is that I don't think we have a dominant offensive line. I think Josh has tremendous pocket presence and athleticism, and tends to make good decisions (step up/sideways, throw the ball away, run).

I noticed that Allen is currently ranked #6 in QBR and #14 in Passer Rating. I've never been a huge fan of either but now, more than ever, I question how they rank QBs. Allen is the offensive centerpiece of the highest scoring team in the NFL. Yet he's not a top five QB? Maybe not top 10? Maybe just average? I get it. His completion percentage isn't what it should be. And there's been some really good QB play this year so other guys get ranked higher. Still, the goal of any QB is top put points on the board. Allen does that better than anyone. It's worth mentioning that the Bills don't run a balanced offense. It's a QB-centric offense. When we do run, it's either because the D is selling out to stop the pass and/or to remind the D we actually have RBs who we hand the brick to now and then. Or we're letting Josh run the ball. At the beginning and end of the day, this offense is about Josh Allen. And despite being the driving force of the most prolific offense in the NFL this season, the ranking systems don't rate Allen as a top tier QB. Somehow the rating systems should evaluate how well a QB moves his team down the field and into the end zone (or FG position). Completion percentage doesn't tell the whole store. Nor yardage totals. Nor yards per attempt. Nor TD and INT percentages. If Passer Rating and QBR don't in some way measure points produced by a QB, what good are they? Because that's what a coach - or fan - really wants to know. How well does a QB lead his team to paydirt? Allen is currently the best at that. And the rating systems should reflect that.

I said 13-4 at the beginning of the season. I'm sticking with that. The O has been disappointing in a weird way. Sometimes it looks inefficient. Yet Josh and the boys score in bundles. The D has been better than expected. I thought they'd bounce back some after an off year last year. But I didn't expect them to be #1 at this point. #1 scoring offense, #1 scoring defense... heady stuff. I get why others are projecting more than 13 wins. But I'm an old, snake-bitten, wide-right, four-Super-Bowl-watching, drought survivor. I don't want to expect too much only to be disappointed.

"The emails, which span from 2010 until 2018, when the coach signed a 10-year deal with Las Vegas after years as a "Monday Night Football" analyst, include Gruden calling Goodell a "f-----" and "clueless anti-football p----," criticizing Goodell for allegedly pressuring then-Rams coach Jeff Fisher to draft "queers," and messages to Allen that featured photos of topless Washington Football Team cheerleaders."

A little long-winded but well-written. Liked the way you kept up with the dragon metaphor. I left the game when the Bills went up 38-20. There was no good excuse. But the kid had school today and the wife wasn't feeling well. Traffic wasn't too bad since many left earlier and many others would stay till the end. The Chiefs fans I interacted with, btw, were very gracious despite the circumstances. In fact, most KC fans I know were predicting a Bills victory. They felt our D could slow down their O but their D would fail to slow down our O. Good assessment.

I always liked his physicality & athleticism. But his hands of stone made me think he would never be the guy we needed at TE. I might have been wrong and will gladly sign the form.