Mango

This was my take away as well. I am relatively OK with the insistence on keeping guys for ST. Although I think as the roster gets deeper, better players just create better special teams, so I do hope it sort of goes away at some point. But if you are going to do stuff like keep a Taiwan Jones and cut TE depth, you can't afford to be having blocked punts as a staff. Also, from a pure punting standpoint, through preseason, I don't know what we are getting in Haack for $1.5M per.

The only thing I disagree with you on is the DPI call. Wallace made contact with the WR who was trying to come back/track the ball. But Wallace never turned his head around to track it. Is it a bit of a ticky tacky call? Sure. But it wasn’t a flagrantly bad call. My biggest issue with it is, if that’s the way you’re going to call the game, call the entire game that way. The answer is actually Taiwan Jones and ST.

I thought Davis made a couple very tough catches today as well.

I have thought Dawkins is good and a good enough replacement for Cordy Glenn’s best few years here. I like Dawkins but he’s not in the top the conversation with guys at the top of the depth chart across the league.

So a lot of people around me in the stands thought that Sanders drop was at fault for the blocked punt. Two things: 1. Sanders should have caught that seem pass that resulted in a pint the next down. 2. I think a lot went wrong on that punt that resulted in a block. The previous play was totally irreverent. extra point: totally unrelated but very unpopular in my section. Levi Wallace HAS to turn his head around. The WR slowed up and looked for the ball. Wallace didn’t do anything particularly egregious other than play the WR and ran right into. Which is fine….if he’s try to make a play on the football.

Let’s go baby. It’s my Christmas

I saw a bunch of Bills fans on Allen this afternoon (grabbed wings at Gabes Gate)surrounding a guys truck with their Bills flags and decked out in jerseys. So there’s a good possibility. Ha! Seriously though, we’ve seen some threads this off-season about Allen breaking breaking every NFL record imaginable and a whole bunch of similar topics. Unfortunately we may be trending in that direction.

That’s an exaggeration for sure. As a guy who has about 30 bottles of hot sauce at home made with probably a dozen different peppers ranging from Serrano, to habanero, to pepper X (by far my favorite super hot pepper), and a bunch in between, I would most certainly disagree. Frank’s has its place, sort of the same as Cholula. I mean there are bad hot sauces and this, nor Frank’s, nor Cholula is bad by any standard. My big gripe with Frank’s isn’t that it tastes bad, but that it doesn’t have enough heat. The Diggs sauce does taste a TON like Frank’s, but has much better heat. Closer to the Franks extra hot, which I think is a good sauce and have it in my fridge. I did get the Bills “hot tailgate sauce” too. That tasted like watered down and less spicy Franks. I wouldn’t purchase again. But the Diggs sauce, plus a charity? Tasty and for a good cause. Go for it Bills fans not a bad one to keep around.

Left side of the bracket is way tougher than the right. Also, the Chargers, one of the smallest fan bases in the country. Moving to a new city, known for being terrible football fans…still beats NE! Love to see it!

I agree with Brady here. At first I thought “what’s the big deal”. But it’s been confusing watching the preseason and I can only half understand NFL concepts, let alone be an expert. It’s probably frustrating and something that will be overcome as we move forward. We have edge rushers wearing 11. It’s odd. I guess to Brady’s point, the advantage has been the offense for so long, this switches the advantage back to the defense, which is good.

I totally agree. Just trying to find a work around.

We are coming in from the Capital Region for the Hopener. One part of our group is driving in Sunday AM. What is the etiquette on hold a spot in any of the lots for one car? Never dealt with this before. Feels not cool, but also not trying to have our two groups a mile apart. I was hoping to get into Hammers early, set up the TV, get the Heineken Grand Prix and some breakfast going. I would have to imagine holding a spot their has got to be off limits, right? Really have not had to address this one before, but the second car has like 6 people. Pretty frustrating. Thanks in advance! Mods- Please move if this should be somewhere else

I am sure there is a relative line that people smarter than me could figure out. Negative is generally a really bad spot though. Ha! NEWS FLASH: Good teams score a lot more points/hold their opponents to a lot less points! Low margin victories are difficult to sustain over multiple games and/or seasons!

You're welcome to think +/- is garbage. It may or may not be. You might like vanilla ice cream the best, another OK opinion to have. But you can't use the BB history vs. Buffalo as an example. The fact that the Patriots beat us by 2+ possessions at a high rate is not really up for debate, or an opinion. In fact, they have a higher point differential against us over 20+ years than any team had over 16 weeks in 2020. You can shout "OPINION" all you want, but you would be wrong about it. I will bow out while you keep yelling at clouds.

I think it is sort of a pass/fail metric. If you want the odds of your season/post season success to increase you want to have a higher +/-. Don't be near the bottom or negative. I haven't taken enough time to dive into it, but I would imagine that rather than total +/-, differential from top of the pack, or other teams in the playoffs is a good indicator. You just want to be in good company.

You were quick to respond, I edited the typo pretty quickly as well. Long and short, 66% of the time BB beats the Bills by 2 scores. On average BB beats the Bills by 10.5 points. Sure "some" of those games are closer than other. Hell the Bills even wine "some" of those games, but historically over 20 years, BB beats the Bills by a margin that would rank them at the very top or very close to the very top of point differential in the league on any given year. You are welcome to have any opinion you would like, but it does not make it correct.

Right, I get what you said, and you are wrong. The Bills have lost to Bill Belichick by 2 possessions 24/43 times. Over half the time, the Bills lose by 2 scores. 7 of the 19 remaining games the Bills have actually won. That means of the 36 times Bill Belichick has beaten Buffalo, 24, or 66% of the time it is by two possessions. For reference, only 5 teams in the league last year had an average +/- of +7 or greater....

I don't think it is meaningless. I am also not a statistician, so in some regard a lot of statistics are over my/our collective heads. I think it is something to pay attention to and a reasonable talking point amongst fans on a message board. Also, you would never regularly bet on a team with an average point differential of +1.5 ppg to win 13 games (Buffalo before December 2020). I think people look at stats to be a guarantee for things to happen, but most of the time it is a probability. Like Josh Allen's career arch, or the Bills last season. It CAN happen, but not likely. When we talk about +/- here, there aren't a group of people saying the Bills won't be good, or they can't win a lot of games, rather they are making it hard on themselves and will have to beat the odds unless they can address/adjust some things. Your point about Bills vs. Pats is incredibly flawed. Bill Bellichick vs. the Bills as HC of the Patriots is +10.5. In just about every year in NFL history that would be one of the three highest, if not THE highest +/- in the league, and that is the average against us. It shows that we historically get a public beatdown when we go up against BB. (BB is +6.6 against McD) Point differential is meaningless at a single game view. But over a season, or multiple season, it is a good starting point for conversation and things to be addressed. Source on Bill Belichick vs. Buffalo: https://www.footballdb.com/teams/nfl/new-england-patriots/teamvsteam?opp=4

This is a good point. One thing to note, until the Bills huge last quarter of the season, they were among the worst 3Q scoring teams in the NFL. This has been true under McD since 2017. The Bills have been one of the best 4th quarter scoring teams in the NFL in 2019 and 2020. Even without the big final month in 2020. Defensive points allowed by quarter have been a mixed bag over the last 4 seasons for Buffalo. Last year Buffalo allowed some of the most points in the 3rd quarter as well...up until the final month again, where they were able to move from 28t to 21st. https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stats/ 3rd quarter woes have become a pattern for us the last few years for whatever reason. If we can fix that, I think we become pretty dangerous as last years final month showed. And the entire point differentia probably takes an uptick. To note, in the playoffs we were +3, +14,and -7 in the 3rd quarter.

First, let me say I agree with you. I also think it would have been smart for the league to put language around mandates and FDA approval so that they could address this in season if need be. I think the problem with this from a league standpoint is having an available vaccine and an opt out may end up having way more opt outs. Just from a Bills perspective we could have lost Beasley, Milano, Davis, and Poyer (based on Rachel Bush). The league does not want to risk that kind of star power as well as product on the field.

Would not be shocked if clicks, or % increase in clicks is part of their metrics to get paid. Miami is bigger than Buffalo, which probably equals more viewership, which may get him more money.

For some reason I thought the league rule was 6 max. I could be wrong on that. 8 is a lot.

I have never been to GB. I just spent the last bit trying to help you out via the google, but it is tough. I am sure you can get the game on since GB plays later. But it is GB. Imagine trying to get the GB game on at Danny's by the stadium or even Coles on Elmwood at 1pm with a Bills 4pm kickoff. You can and you will get it. But you will there is a chance they boot the game entirely when the pregame starts. Your best bet is to find the biggest baddest sports bar you can that maybe has a big video wall and most TV's not near the stadium.

There can be a whole lot of why, but I think ultimately it is a concern. Teams with low or negative point differentials rarely have good runs in the playoffs. One thing to note is, outside of the final 3 games of the season, the Bills point differential was +2.9 points per game/+38 on the season. The schedule was harder for sure. But the Bills also had some struggles on defense that they didn't have in 2019 where our differential was higher. Buffalo had a negative differential in 17 and 18.

I believe I was one of those posters who had some concern about point differential. I think it could still be a concern. We need better production from the defense on a consistent basis. I think the DL will be somewhat improved. Unsure if they will take the leap we hope. I think the back 7 need to do a better job at holding their own. Specifically CB depth and LB's. Winning a lot of games with a poor differential is tough, especially over multiple seasons. EDIT: Mid October last year I had a post on it. Not often do teams make the playoffs with a negative point differential. More often than not, they lose early and lose big in the playoffs. Something to keep an eye on.