hondo in seattle

I'm a big believer in the human capacity to learn and grow. I previously mentioned it in another thread when defending Brady's Carolina's past. But he's been around football since he was a child. He's been a college game passing game coordinator and NFL OC before. That's a lot of learning and growing. And he still has failures like these past two games? Maybe he just doesn't have what it takes. I'm like Anakin. I was on the side of the Jedi but I've gone over to the Dark Side now. I started the season cautiously optimistic about Brady's offense. I'm now solidly pessimistic and regret arguing against the board's pessimists. Brady might put together another good game or two but, sadly, I currently don't expect our offense to be very successful this year.

Brady took a decent wideout, linked him up with one of the best QBs in the NFL, and transformed him into a nonentity. That takes some kind of skill.

I was never fully on the Brady train, but I'm decidedly off now. The past two weeks have been embarrassing. I get our wideouts aren't good. But Josh Allen is the QB. Our passing offense should never look this bad. I think McD is a good defensive coach. I mostly think he's a good head coach. But I'm irritated that he's whiffed on 3 of 4 OC choices.

If I was a defender on that play, I might maybe be thinking they're using Josh as a decoy. And I might maybe be thinking they're going to throw to Josh. But mostly what I'm thinking is that they're going to get the ball to Josh and he's going to throw. As others have said, this play design fools no one.

The quality of the announcers has little impact on my joy of watching the game. Mostly I watch Bills games. Sometimes the commentary is useful but mostly I'm just look at the scoreboard, down and distance, and the action on the field. If the Bills are winning, the commentary doesn't make it any better. If the Bills are losing, the commentary doesn't make it any worse. For non-Bills games, it does matter somewhat. I want the play-by-play guy to correctly call the play with an appropriate level of drama and enthusiasm. And the color commentary to notice & report things that I don't know. But the difference between a good NFL commentating team and a bad one, for me, so slight as to have little impact on my enjoyment of the game. It's all about the drama & struggle on the field.

As I casual observer who doesn't do All-22, I agree with #2!

Bills rebound in style Buffalo 31 Texans 17

True... But here's my logic. I want to score TDs, not FGs. And I want our D to stop TDs. DT? Not our biggest problem. Safety? DE? Both tempted me. WR? Bingo! To maximize Josh's productivity, I dream of seeing him behind a solid OL with open receivers streaking across the field. We've seen some nice pockets this year though the Ravens game was disappointing. We have NOT seen enough separation from the wideouts.

I think I heard someone say we run the 4-2-5 about 72% of the time either last year or this year so far. Most NFL teams last season used the nickel as their base. It's not unique to McD. Nor does McD employ it exclusively. We saw 4-3 for example for a drive or two against the Ravens. Neither the Bills nor any other team use it on every play.

I'm usually good with just one day of Fandom Seppuku when the Bills lose. Then I let my Stoic training take over, shrug my shoulders, and move on. But this one is different. We didn't lose. We got destroyed. We were both outplayed and outcoached and fully deserved the painful score than showed up on the scoreboard. And that causes me to worry about the strength of the team. I may be in Fandom Seppuku mode until the next win. Winning cures everything: depression, PTSD, ED, FS... But thanks for the upbeat post.

I did say I was looking only at the practical side. As for him being a POS. Here's what I know. She said he put his hands on her neck for 3-5 seconds, pulled her hair, and tried to shove her. Minor abrasions seemed to back up her version of events. Von said her accusations are "100% false." The police decided not to press charges. She later recanted: "No one assaulted anyone." I hate he said/she said stories because I'm not sure who to believe. The Duke Lacrosse team and Matt Araiza, for example, were screwed by false accusations that people found credible. Brian Banks spent time in prison when falsely accused of rape. I was once married to a woman who was angry at me over a dream she had (I'm not kidding). After yelling at me for a while, she started hitting and scratching herself. Both confused and concerned, I asked her what she was doing. She said she was going to call the police, say I assaulted her, and ruin my career. I was in the army at the time and the army has little patience for off-duty misbehavior by its officers. The moral of these stories: sometimes accusers lie. That's why this country used to believe in the concept of "innocent until proven guilty." Maybe we should go back to that.

Ignoring the serious ethical/human side of the story and looking at this from a purely practical perspective... Von was going to get injured this season anyway. The suspension replaces the injury. When he comes back, he'll be fully rested and healthy.

I think this is true. But Micah loves the Bills and may come back earlier if needed.

For me, there is no bright side until we get our next win.

This was the Mary Celeste. The whole crew/team disappeared without a trace.

I agree it's still the coaching. Coaching is largely why we won the first three games. Coaching is largely why we lost to the Ravens. I was at Arrowhead a couple of years ago when we crushed the Chiefs 38-20. That game didn't prove that McDermott was a genius nor that Reid was unfit to be a HC. It didn't prove anything at all. Neither did this game - though the performance, all around, does have me concerned.

Miller had 9 snaps. He's more of a third-down pass rushing specialist than a physical run stuffer. I think the Bills were rightly more worried about Henry's running than Lamar's passing. In any case, we didn't force the Ravens into many third down passing situations, Von's speciality. I probably wished Miller had played more just to see what could contribute. Nothing else was working.

Then again, if Coleman doesn't drop that ball, we're probably back to 10. Still a horrible performance by the OC and the entire offensive squad.

I know Levy loved this quote and I can see why. But here's the story. Sir Andrew Barton was a Scottish privateer and pirate. He didn't bleed for a while and then rise again as he promised. He bled for a while and then died of his wounds. Afterwards his enemies beheaded him for good measure. When you evoke Sir Barton, I'm afraid it spells doom for the Bills.

I stupidly changed my routine which had been to wear my 17 jersey and eat wings during the game. We were undefeated this season with that simple combo. I was worried about the Ravens so to add some extra juju, yesterday I also wore my Bills socks, Billz zubaz sweatpants, and my "Just One Before I Die" sweatshirt despite the warm temps here. There was something wrong in the magical alchemy of that combination. Or maybe the Gridiron Gods were displeased that I overcompensated for my lack of confidence. Next week: Josh Allen Jersey and Buffalo Wings. Nothing more. As McDermott says during every halftime interview: it's about the execution of the fundamentals.

I don't agree with the positive assessment of Coleman's performance. And btw I wasn't against the Coleman pick. But that drop was huge and inexcusable. This is a guy who's not a great separator but supposedly makes up for it with his catch radius and ability to make contested catches. He didn't make a comparatively easy catch that could have made a big difference. Great players make game-changing plays. He potentially had the chance to make one and literally dropped the ball. Disappointing. I hope he has better days ahead of him.

I've read articles, and listened to guru interviews, saying the Bills OL is elite, the receivers form a legit complementary team, our RB room is strong, our DL is strong, our backup LBs are playing exceptionally well for backups, our outside CB pair are among the best, our safeties are doing a credible Hyde & Poyer imitation, Brady is brilliant as is our defensive coaching staff, Von is on fire, and Josh is the leading MVP candidate. I was starting to believe some of that myself. But after last night's performance, I don't know what to believe. If memory serves, we have lost this bad since 2020. Pass O, Run O, Pass D, Run D, ST... all phases of the game were a failure.

As well as the missed tackles. And missed assignments. But the missed FG didn't matter in end.

Sadly, this reminds me of the 1990s Bills - best team of their era not to win a Super Bowl. In a sport that has an element of luck and no best of 3, 5, or 7 series, it's a shame that good teams that don't win the Lombardi also win no respect. But that's the reality. When we do win the trophy, I won't care if we 'earned' it or not by decisively 'proving' we're the best team in the NFL. I just want to win a SB.

That's an interesting stat I've never seen before. It could mean two things: 1. Jacob Gibbs is right and LeFleur is really good at designing plays that get the primary open. 2. Willis has been coached hard to get the ball out on schedule to the guy he's supposed to get it to. Or maybe a litte of both.