hondo in seattle

Maybe, though I don't personally care. The individual awards are nice but what we all want, including Allen and Cook, is playoff success.

Bills 30 Pats 20

Good points - we're not far apart. Every game, I text a friend of mine something to the effect of "Our D sucks!!!" Then on Monday, I look at some numbers. Our yards allowed is above average. Points allowed is average. Our record is 4-0. So "sucks" might be a strong descriptor. But a team with SB aspirations ought to field a Top Five defense and we certainly aren't doing that. And like you, I think Beane, McD, and Babich all share some blame. Certainly getting back the walking wounded and suspended will help. But I don't know if that's enough to get us to the promised land.

Sensible argument, though personally I'm probably not ready just yet to ditch the Zubaz and table jumping. The nonsensical wackiness of it all kind of appeals to me. But I think if & when we do move on, it's because we've found something better. Long ago, Hugh Prather wrote, "If I do not go in a good direction, I go in a bad direction. I do not stand still." I think table jumping might fall in the "bad direction" category. But we can't/won't just walk away from table jumping, or Zubaz. I think these oddities need to be replaced with a good direction - new traditions that inspire us in some way and get the attention that some fans crave.

Since we've already made these our things, why drop them now? I despised table jumping at first because it made Bills fans look like drunken morons. But now I love the odd uniqueness of it. I hated Zubaz at first, too, and now I own a pair because it's the Billsy thing to do. I don't want the Bills to devolve into every other fanbase. IMHO, all the things that set us apart, including btw the immense charity giving, should be sustained and embraced.

Historically, teams starting 1-3 have about a 14% chance of making the playoffs. A team starting 1-4 has about a 6% chance. Though we have to consider that seasons are a game longer now, and Baltimore is more talented than the typical 1-3 (or 1-4) team. The Ravens are a tough matchup for the Bills and I'd prefer not to see them come January.

Josh Allen, Matt Milano, Dion Dawkins.

I agree with almost all of this. But I don't think he'll get 900 yards on his 50 catches. I don't see him averaging 18 ypc.

Do you think our front would appear more aggressive if it were more talented? In other words, is this a Beane failing or a McD failing? Or do you think Babich should call more blitzes, with the risks that involves? And considering we're giving up the fewest passing yards in the league, how much do we really need to worry about having an aggressive front four? It seems to me our main defensive problem is that we can't stop the run. And, for that, I blame both McD and Beane. McD likes to run nickel or dime something like 70 or 80% of the time. He's making a tactical decision to defend the pass first and makes defending the run a secondary priority. On top of that, missed assignments and tackles have been problems. Beane hasn't been getting us a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball. It doesn't help that our two of our three best players - Milano and Oliver - are hurt. But even with them we have exactly zero All-Pro quality defenders. McD's scheme would work better if he had better players.

Can I choose "None of the above?"

Change the last letter of his last name from 'y' to 'i' and he belongs in Buffalo.

Honest question... In what way is the McD defense "outmoded"? It seems to me, as a non-expert in Xs and Os, that we may employ Cover 2 and Cover 3 more than other teams, but other teams play Cover 2 and 3 as well. McD hasn't invented anything new defensively, nor does he cling to some defensive scheme that otherwise went extinct 20 years ago. We can run through a list of McD tendencies: more zone, more nickel, and fewer blitzes than some other teams. But the defensive playbook he uses, and the schemes he employs, are - as far as I know - pretty standard.

Here's how McD defenses have performed over the years... The Bills D's have normally been in the Top Ten and been ranked as high as #1. So why is this a subpar year? If I had to apportion blame, I'd do it as follows: 1. Beane. This is not one of our best rosters. 2. Injuries & Suspensions. We're missing guys - including arguably our two best players. 3. Babich & McD. There have been some questionable defensive calls. And sometimes players are missing assignments which suggests they haven't been coached up adequately. On the other hand, they play hard and - given the talent on the field - may be overperforming statistically.

Fair point. But the Bills are still 11th in D despite a banged-up, average roster. And by taking the path of least resistance, opponents are not keeping up. Running against us has proven to be a losing strategy. We're outgaining and outscoring our opponents. To some extent, this is by design. When I was a kid, a nickel or dime defense was called "pass prevent." This year, we've been running nickel and dime about 80% of the time. In other words, we're almost always in "pass prevent."

When I look at the defensive roster, and then look at the injury report, I'm not sure how much we can expect or demand from Babich. We're not fielding a bunch of studs and yet we're currently ranked 11th in overall yards/game, #1 in passing yards/game, #31 in rushing yards/game. Clearly the run defense needs to improve. But I'm amazed that McD and Babich have transformed these misfits into the league's best pass defense. It's almost like McD and Babich are telling other teams, "Go ahead and run on us. You won't score enough points to keep up with Josh." And so far they're right.

You're not wrong. But it seems to me great speeches are more of a Hollywood thing than anything else. I've seen a lot of other coaches give speeches and they're mostly uninspiring too. As a former soldier, I'm always interested in the speeches military leaders make in Hollywood movies. I received no big rah-rah speeches before I went into combat from anyone. Nor did I give one to my soldiers. We talked all the time. There was nothing left to say; they were fully prepared, mentally and physically. After our success (Desert Storm), again there were no big, eloquent victory speeches. Hollywood gets this stuff wrong. I think it's similar to football. McD and the other coaches talk with the players nearly every day, building relationships. A big halftime or postgame speech just isn't going to accomplish a lot.

Grade inflation? If Cook gets an "A" for 107 yards and a short trip to the endzone, how would you grade OJ when he ran for 273 yards and 2 TDs against the Lions? Never mind. I know: "A+"

Don't misunderstand... I think Josh deserves to be the MVP frontrunner. I also think he should have won MVP before last year. If there were a stat that could truly evaluate how valuable a player is to his team, Josh would score high. But there isn't - despite some claims from analytic sites that there is. It's cool that the NFL has an MVP award but the process for picking a winner is inevitably flawed.

I like the fake smile midway through his reply.

But why isn't the QB who's #1 in QBR, passer rating, TDs, or yards per game the leading MVP candidate. As you know, stats matter. But so does the eye test, context, hype, personality, and wins. It's a complicated, subjective evaluation with many considerations, not all of which are fair.

True enough, but one of the reasons rookies tend not to play a lot on SB contenders - besides the strength of the roster - is that every game matters. If I'm coaching a team contending for the playoffs and fighting for home-field advantage, I'm probably reluctant to put a rookie on the field who's going to make rookie mistakes. But if I'm coaching a team with little hope of playing in January, I'm going to give my rookies lots of playing time to gain experience that will hopefully make 2026 a better year.

Jerry Hughes, a first-rounder, only had 1 start and 1 sack in his first two years in the NFL. Not every football career follows the same trajectory.

Exactly. When the Ravens or Chiefs play a bad game, they lose. When we play a bad game, we win by 12. I'm NOT saying that we don't have things to improve. We do. The run D has been terrible; the pass D has moments; and the O can run hot and cold. But there are only two undefeated teams left. We have more to celebrate than criticize.

I used to think Brady called the best game he could every week to optimize our chances of winning. And that makes total sense. I think coaches like Reid try to win today's game but, at the same time, are looking to show certain tendencies, hide certain plays, and so on. In other words, put things on tape to get future opponents looking one way so he can move another. I'm starting to believe that maybe Brady has become more like Reid. Albert Incognito, Richie's annoying but oft-quoted brother.

My point was that Josh was more effective in play-action than most QBs. Therefore, you'd think we'd do more play-action than other teams, not less. Here's what I got from AI: Josh Allen’s Play-Action Performance (2024) Completion Percentage: 70.1% Yards per Attempt: 9.2 Touchdown Rate: 7.8% Passer Rating: 117.6 These numbers reflect his ability to leverage play-action for chunk gains and red zone efficiency. His passer rating on play-action was among the top five in the league. NFL Average Play-Action Stats (2024) Completion Percentage: 65.3% Yards per Attempt: 8.1 Touchdown Rate: 5.4% Passer Rating: 102.3