hondo in seattle

I'm not surprised that Allen's better with medium passes. We have better wideouts this season and Allen's been working hard on this. I'm not completely surprised with the turnovers. I expected more growing pains. I am surprised with the anemic deep game. The Bills have guys who can run and Allen has a cannon for an arm. I expected more accuracy and productivity than what we've seen so far. I admit, I'm worried.

I thought passpro was poor in the Pats game - though the Pats blitzed a lot and I'm not sure how Next Gen Stats graded out the five offensive linemen in those situations. Someone else may be assigned the blame when the D blitzes. I think passpro has been average-ish thus far this season. And I'm happy with the progress versus 2018.

1990. I witnessed some of the wins leading up to our first SB experience didn't suffer the pain of watching that SB - I was deployed in Saudi for Operation Desert Storm. Great to watch the Bills offense that season move the ball almost at will. 1973. I loved watching OJ play. His skill was preternatural. Going to a Bills game was like visiting the Sistine Chapel - you would gape in awe - except that Bills games were a lot more exciting of course! 1989. A fun team: Jerry Butler, Joe Cribs, the "Bermuda Triangle"... Breaking the Fin Streak gave me a sense that good times were coming. 1991. Another great offense and SB run. 1975. Another great year by OJ as the Bills led the league in scoring, producing 30 points per game (which was awesome in that era).

deja vu all over again

My musical tastes are pretty eclectic: from Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix & Buddy Guy to Kitaro, Ricky Lee Jones and Les Mis (10th Anniversary). But I've never intentionally listened to a Shakira or JLo song in my life. That said, I think these are fine choices for the SB. Neither is a big enough headliner anymore to be center stage at the biggest party in the world, but together they make a formidable act. I personally don't watch the halftime show for the quality of the music. It's more for the spectacle of it all. Halftime shows tend to be a good family bonding moment. Not everyone in my family likes football, but we all watch the halftime show and talk about it afterwards.

A... so far. The Bills are 3-0. The offense and defense both look well-coached and prepared. They play hard. They play together. McD isn't a genetic scientist so I don't blame him when the talent on the other side is greater than - and outperforms - the talent on our side. So far he seems to be getting about the most you can get from this particular roster.

Lee Smith is a solid blocker and a great mentor to the younger players. Definitely a process guy. He's just not a productive pass catcher. I'm glad he's on the team but we need a TE that creates problems for defenses.

Beating the Pats is a monumental task. Their O is good. Their D is good. They've owned us. To win this game will take more than a good game plan. It will require some Bills players to play better than they've played this season so far. And it will require some execution errors from the Pats. But here are my general thoughts... Offense. We've got to force the excellent NE defense to defend the entire field. We have to take take shots deep shots. We've got to throw crossing routes over the middle and take shots at the perimeter shots. We need Gore going up the middle and Motor running outside. We have the potential to run a multifaceted offense and need to live up to that potential on Sunday. A one-dimensional offense won't score enough to keep pace with a Pats team averaging 35 points per game. Allen and company need to bring their 'A' game. Defense. Brady may be the GOAT. It's hard to pressure him because he gets the ball out so quick - 2.45 seconds on average - but if you don't pressure him, he'll pick you apart. 2.45 seconds isn't long enough for an offensive linemen to beat his man so we've got to attack Brady with exotic blitzes. We've got to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Brady - but not on every play. We've got to blitz enough to get him nervous but we can't continually give him the opportunities downfield that comes with blitzing. Our blitzes need to be smart and aggressive - so he thinks about them every play even if they only happen 1 play in 3.

The Bills Bills D sometimes looks dominant and our offense has played efficiently at times. If we put it all together - and the Pats make some mistakes - we'll win. While I have hope, I think Jauronimo is crazy.

Buffalo's Dominant Defense CATEGORY STAT RANK Drives/Gm 11.8 29th Avg Starting FP 69.4 31st Pts/Drive 1.51 3rd Yds/Drive 24.8 1st TD% 17.1% 3rd TO% 16.1% T-2nd Score% 28.1% 3rd Three-and-Out% 36.2% 1st There isn't one stat that defines a defense. But the defensive stat I've always thought best measures defensive success is yards/drive. And we're ranked #1 there. That's exciting.

I wonder if Daboll and McD were a little gun shy because we turned the ball over 4 times against the Jets on relatively low risk plays. With a solid lead and confidence in the D, they may have decided to be conservative in their risk-reward analysis.

Personally, I don't think we need to start a new thread every time a national media guy has something good or bad to say about the Bills. Maybe others think differently. But I only want to see new threads based on national media if they offer something new and/or insightful. As Virg said, this is "basic generalist BS" - and thus doesn't interest me. The Bills will have detractors until they start beating quality teams with some consistency. Who cares? The Bills have had a good D since last year. It remains to be seen if the O is any good. As a fan who has watched this team closely, I'm encouraged by the signs of progress. Allen looks better. The OL looks better. The receiving corps looks better. Singletary might be good. But, although I'm more optimistic than he is, Middlehurst-Schwartz is correct when he observes that the sample size is still small. All we can do is keeping watching games, hope for the best, and cheer our team on!

I don't really care. Several media guys had us in the mid-twenties. Now they're moving us up - acknowledging they were wrong. Most of the guys who do power rankings don't truly study all 32 teams.

I'm pretty ambivalent because I don't like either epithet. "12th Man" isn't original. "Mafia" has negative associations. But since the "12th Man" moniker isn't used anymore and Bills fans are widely called the "Bills Mafia" now, I get BB's point.

I live out in the forest where options are limited. I stream Bills games on Sunday Ticket with a download speed of 7.9. Picture quality comes and goes. Sometimes beautifully HD. But I also suffer moments when the action is so blurry I can't tell what's happening.

The O is a little better than I'd thought they'd be at this point. The D is a little worse. We're 2-0. I'll take it.

I'll confess something. I lived overseas for a while in my youth. When I did, I visited red light districts. It was a victimless crime. I got what I wanted, the girl got what she wanted, everyone was happy. But the more I learned - from reading and from the young ladies themselves - the more I understood how I was feeding a corrupt, immoral system. I had to stop. Human trafficking is evil.

Interesting that the Bills and Pats are #1 and #2 in both the 2-1 formation and 2-0 formation. It's only one game but it doesn't seem that the Daboll apple fell too far from the Belichick tree.

Either the Jets are bad or... the Bills are good. Choose one.

I attribute some turnovers to basic football ineptitude. Other times when I see a turnover, I think, "Stuff happens." Our turnovers yesterday were mostly stuff. A normally good center muffs a snap - maybe because he's been on concussion protocol and hasn't developed a good rapport with the QB yet. A good WR deflects a ball he should have caught, resulting in a pick. Another pass gets deflected at the line of scrimmage. A normally good OL gets beat and the QB gets hit, resulting in a lost fumble. Stuff happens. Good teams overcome the stuff - and the Bills did. Like John, in between the stuff I was admiring the Allen's improvements. Last year, Allen had trouble with progressions, decision-making, and accuracy on short-to-medium passes. He looks like a different - better - QB this year. He demonstrated proficiency in areas where he was once weak. This win wasn't pretty. There will probably be a few more ugly games. But I think there will also be some games this season where Allen lights it up.

I'll put on my Fred Jackson jersey right after I shower. I'll encourage the family to all don their Bills gear. Then I'll cook my version of Buffalo wings (Frank's with gochuchang) as I watch the pregame shows. Then I'll plop down in my favorite chair - which will be draped with a Bills blanket - in front of the tv. And then I'll get loud - my neighbors aren't close so I'll be able to cheer as wildly as I want every time the Bills score!

... I'm scouring the internet for playoff tickets! I remember reading somewhere that Beasley's skill set would be wasted on the Bills because Allen can't complete underneath passes. According to this critic, Josh lacks both anticipation and accuracy. Beasley catching 100+ balls would embarrass Allen's naysayers.

On paper, it doesn't look like we have a lot of big play guys on offense. There are question marks around our wideouts. None of our TEs is a proven big play guy. Our RBs include an old man, a perennial back up, and a small, slow rook. And our QB's accuracy is a works-in-progress. Our OL consists entirely of "lunch pail" guys. This doesn't look like the roster of a high-flying offense. But it doesn't have to be. If our D is as good as we think it is, we'll be in good shape if our O can just average something like 24 points/game. If Allen steps up this year, that's do-able. The big plays will come off his arm.

Camp Casey, 1988. Spent the prior evening down range in TDC. I did have some adventures in Osan on another occasion though. You?

Sadly, I remember Bruce's fall vividly. Not his finest moment. Once when I was a young lieutenant in Korea, I did something similar. Up most of the night doing unspeakable things. Next day we were listening to some lecture in the motor pool and I fell asleep standing up. I awakened as a I was falling and desperately grabbed onto the guy next to me - who happened to be a major. He was not even slightly amused when I dragged him down with me. "Lieutenant, what the hell are you doing?!?!" Wasn't much I could say in the way of an explanation.