2003Contenders

The biggest problem is the OL. When a team can get pressure by only rushing 4, it allows the other 7 to occupy coverage. With no threat of a running game, teams will continue to do this. For those complaining about Josh holding the ball too long, notice that his average completion was well short of 10 yards. So they were going with plenty of dump-offs. The problem is that the Jaguars did a good job swarming to the ball and preventing YAC. Our RBs just don't do a very good job of making tacklers miss - and Beasley seems to drop to the ground after every catch. Possibly to protect himself, given the sore ribs? An imperfect storm of bad coaching, terrible OL play, season-worst QB play (easy to understand given the circumstances -- but Josh has to at least do a better job not turning over the football), and frankly an inspired performance from the opponent. On that last note, while the Jags are certainly terrible (a better team with a competent offense would have blown the Bills out yesterday), they played about as well as they are capable of playing. Just goes to show that every team has talent and can't be taken lightly. The Bills now represent a "strong win" for an opponent, so we will continue to get their best shot. And a team with any ounce of pride can only listen to how much they suck and are home 2-TD dogs for so long. The Jags' coaching staff won the gamesmanship battle from the outset -- as they clearly nudged the officials before the game to watch the Bills for dirty play. Then the Jags set out to instigate the dirty play, while the Bills drew the majority of the penalties. The officiating was awful, but I won't go there because the Bills don't deserve that excuse for this overall poor performance. As much as the loss pains us all, I wonder if this will be better in the long term than a last second (for example) 13-9 victory may have been. The glaring reality of the loss SHOULD invoke immediate changes. I am not sure what else can be done at this point to fix the biggest problem (Offensive Line) -- but I hope that we never see C. Ford on the field again. Someone also needs to sit the two high-priced tackles down and say WTF? From the first game of the season both Dawkins and Williams have under-performed. Maybe getting Brown back at RT will help.

I suspect that the personnel for the Tennessee game was very game-plan specific. They were worried about Henry breaking loose and Tannehill running around -- so they employed a defense that had less to do with getting pressure on the QB and more to do with stopping the run. Sadly, the net result was that Tanney had all day long to survey the field, was patient, minimized mistakes, and found mid-range receivers. With little threat of a running game from Miami, I believe that the game plan defensively this week will revert back to what we saw pre-Tennessee, which probably means an active AJ. The key will be to beware of the screen game, which Miami can run well with Tua, Gaskin and Gesicki.

Yes, OP, I am sorry for the loss of your father. And as others have also posted similar losses, know that I grieve with you as well. I lost my beloved wife earlier this year, back in March. They say that time is the magical healer -- and that is true. It still hurts everyday, but my son and I are in a much better place than we were 7 months ago. When we married almost 20 years ago, she was a Washington fan. She converted to becoming a Bills fan for me -- and mostly had to endure all those hard times during the 17-year drought. She actually grew to love the Bills -- and was especially fond of Josh Allen. Her birthday is coming up this week, and I would like to think that the big game on Sunday night against KC was in honor of her. 🙂

So he gave Dawkins the best overall grade? IIRC Dion was beaten badly on a couple of rushes in the 1st quarter.

I would pass. He was not very good last year -- and this year was relegated to backup duty. Honestly, I like what we have (even behind Edmunds and Milano) better.

I saw the piece. It was Steve Young who chimed in a few minutes later about Josh Allen -- and he clarified that he would place Allen in a different category than Herbert or Mahomes because both of them were outstanding right away, whereas everyone knew that Allen came into the league so raw. Young said Josh has grown by leaps and bounds and that he will continue to do so -- essentially said that he has a limitless ceiling.

Wasn't it Bill Parcells who said "You are what your record says you are" when it comes to rankings. From that perspective, I would say that Arizona should be #1. I could make a case for the Bills being #2 though. They are the only team in the NFL that ranks in the top 10 in both offense as well as defense (#1 on defense). Figuring out the strength of schedule is a bit tricky -- but the Bills do have wins over three teams who have a combined 4 wins among them.

I am hopeful that the hammy was just a minor ding that the trainers and coaching staff felt was worthy of sitting Milano only because of the quality of opponent we were facing in Houston on Sunday. If, God forbid, Milano is unable to go against the Chiefs on Sunday, I will say that I do feel better than I did last year when Milano was sidelined and Klein was pushed into regular duty. I think the coaching staff figured out during the course of last season what Klein's real strengths/weaknesses were and developed strategies to best utilize him.

This is exactly on point. I would also add that Josh's skill set is transferable, meaning that he could be the starting QB on literally any team running any offense. Lamar's skill set requires a more specialized offensive system tailored for him.

The biggest key to me was watching how COMFORTABLE Josh looked. He never seemed to panic, was always under control, trusted his linemen -- and when protection did break down, reacted to it calmly with a little side-step here or there. I believe that this mindset also led to much better mechanics for him than we saw in the first couple of games.

Well, let's recall that McD DID go for it on 4th down multiple times in the Pittsburgh game. The Bills went 0-3 in those situations, which is more of a testimony to the poor play calling (especially on the pitch play) and execution than to McD lacking the stones to go for it. And, if the Bills convert on any one of those plays, then the outcome of that game may very well (and probably WOULD) have been different.

Maybe not deleting the position altogether -- but running a base run-n-shoot style offense may seem plausible. Which of the following receivers would you have preferred to see come off the field in favor of Hollister? Diggs Sanders Cole B. Davis And that does not even take into account McKenzie and Kumerow. For all the drops issues that Knox has, we all knew he wasn't really going anywhere. That meant a competition between Sweeney and Hollister for the other spot.

Raven fans are free to think as they will. Lamar is a very talented and dangerous QB, but he requires a specific system that caters to his unique skill set. Josh is a generational talent that would be able to flourish in literally any offensive scheme.

Not to nit-pick, but the Tyrod trade to Cleveland was for an early 3rd rounder, which was used to trade up with our second 1st round pick in 2018 to acquire T. Edmunds. The trade-up for Josh was very complex. Let me see if I can remember the sequence: 1. Traded with KC in 2017 to move down in the first and in return got KC's 2018 first rounder (plus more picks later in the draft). That 2018 first rounder turned out to be the 22nd overall pick. 2. After the 2017 season, traded Cordy Glenn to the Bengals and as part of that trade swapped 1st round picks. That moved us up from the #22 overall pick to #12. 3. The Bills had three 2nd round picks heading into 2018. I believe one of those was acquired from the Rams in exchange for Sammy Watkins the year before. I believe that the other came from the Eagles when we traded Darby to them. The other 2nd rounder was the Bills own 2nd round pick. 4. On draft day, the Bills traded up from that #12 pick acquired from Cinci (via KC) along with two of the 2nd round picks to move up to #7 overall to acquire Josh Allen. Many things had to happen in order for Allen to still be there at #7. For once, the Buffalo Bills lucked out!

I'm not sure even the most optimistic Bills fan would argue that the Buffalo OL is/was elite -- or even good. There is a reason why the front office went heavy on linemen in the draft. Stats wise, the pass blocking in 2020 was very good -- but how much of that was due to Allen's mobility? Run blocking we know was a major liability. I guess the point I am making is that even with the OL being what it was in 2020, the Bills still managed to sweep the division. Hopefully better health and better depth will play a role in marked improvement in 2021.

My favorite came on the game winning drive against the Rams. Pinned deep in their own territory with 3rd and 23 (I believe), under heavy pressure, Josh threw a scorcher between two defenders to Beasley right at the sticks to convert the 1st down.

All of this rehash about Dallas' 2nd half adjustments looks good now based on the outcome of the game -- but if things had gone differently, the Bills could have had a sizeable lead before Dallas ever touched the ball in the 2nd half. That may very well have put the Cowboys into more pass-happy mode, which undoubtedly would have been in Buffalo's best interest. I think the biggest issue was that despite game-planning properly and dominating the Cowboys in the first half, they were only up 13-6 at halftime. As much as I love Thurman he really was a big part of the reason we lost that game. His fumble in the first half when the Bills were moving the ball, gave the Cowboys 3 of their 6 points. An INT (I think by Nate Odoms) late in the 1st half, set the Bills up nicely to go up by more than one score; however, questionable play calling down inside the redzone led to settling for a FG before the half. That is probably what led to the pep in the Cowboys' step versus the lethargy that Buffalo displayed. When Thurman's fumble on the opening drive was returned for a TD, the game was effectively over -- even though the score was tied. The momentum was forever shifted -- and you could just see the "Uh oh. Here we go again" body language on the part of Bills players. It didn't help that Thurman wimped out, feigning a cramp, and stewed on the sidelines most of the rest of the game. I believe Marv said that his biggest regret as a head coach was allowing Thurman to sulk like that -- rather than motivating him. Oh well. Can't change the past...

Actually, what I heard was that they never expected Rousseau to be there at 30 and that Boogie was actually their target in the first round. When both were still available at 30, they investigated some options to trade down a bit -- expecting that one of them would still be available early in the 2nd. That's why they took the full allotted time to make the pick. When no decent trade option materialized, they pulled the trigger on Rousseau -- and were dumb-founded that Boogie was still on the board late in the 2nd round. It sounds like Boogie was in their plans all along -- and they would try to do whatever they could to get him (even tried trading up in the 2nd). Rousseau was just icing on the cake. I know all of these team spin the whole "I can't believe he was still there..." thing. But in the Bills case, it sounds like that was true for both of their first two picks.

Anyone remember about a decade ago when the Bills FO took all Texas players off their draft board? That was a Tom Modrak thing -- and how we wound up with Maybin.

In all seriousness, that is a better lineup than we had in Josh's rookie season -- especially late in the season when the RB corps was decimated.

I also think that Josh saw the CB getting "grabby" with Diggs and threw the pass expecting to get a DPI flag if it was not complete. I was pretty upset at the time that interference was not called -- but in hindsight, the officials were consistent about keeping the flags in their pocket and not over-officiating the game.

Going back to that 2018 draft class, there was a wide variance of opinion regarding who should be the top selection. Pure scouts and football guys loved Allen's off-the-charts physical attributes and limitless ceiling. Analytics guys favored Mayfield, who was undersized but posted eye-popping numbers and won a college championship. Darnold had played in a big-time program against quality opposition and posted stellar numbers his final year in school. Rosen was viewed as the most polished of all of them. (I ignore Lamar Jackson, because he was never in consideration for the first overall pick) Josh Allen had a number of red flags associated with him -- primarily because he was viewed as so raw coming out of Wyoming. While these views were all certainly well-founded, it is evident now that Josh has worked his way through them and matured at an accelerated rate. It's hard to believe that such a raw specimen as Josh Allen was literally forced into action in his first NFL game -- playing behind a horrific offense line with a crew of no-name receivers. Can you really argue that any of the other 1st round QBs (including Darnold) were in a less enviable situation? Now in his 3rd year, Josh Allen is a top 5 NFL QB by any measure. He is putting up Aaron Rodgers-in-his-prime stats (and lets remember that Rodgers didn't even start until year 4, had the benefit of sitting behind Brett Favre for 3 seasons and had an excellent supporting cast). Every receiver that has played with Allen -- Brown, Beasley and now Diggs -- If the 2018 draft were held again and all the teams knew then what they know now, Josh Allen would have been the first overall pick. Anyone who would argue any differently (Aikman, B. Jones, etc.) simply refuses to admit that they were wrong.

ESPN is such a mess these days -- everything is always a double-standard with them. Remember years ago when they brought in Rush Limbaugh to provide an alternative view -- then immediately fired him when he did exactly that. Yet clowns like Foxworth remain gainfully employed. I am not suggesting that ESPN fire him, just pointing out the hypocrisy of the network. Probably the best thing we can do as fans is ignore clowns like Foxworth and Jones, do not get tempted by their click-bait drivel, and tune out when they are on air. By being "provocative" and getting the responses they hope for, their behavior (and pockets) are being rewarded.

Actually, the Bills were coming off a 9-7 season and had a pretty good defense -- a great front 4 -- so there was plenty of interest at the time. Remember, Doug M. had opted out because he had that $4M safety-net and was "certain" that he was going to get the Jets job. I'm not sure that Gase would have been any worse than Rex, who came in and tore apart the one good part of the team. I wonder if Gase would have left the defense (run by Jim Schwartz) en tact? Word at the time is that this was the concept that Whaley had in mind at the time, when he wanted to hire Hue Jackson to be the head coach. Talk about a batch of losers to pick from: Rex, Gase, Hue... Yikes!

Excellent point. It was clear in the first half that Bosa was going to be a disruption and that Josh would not have the time to get the ball downfield. That probably explains the play that resulted in the INT -- Bosa was out on the field for that play (after having just served up a TFL on the previous play), and the Bills decided to be more aggressive knowing he was on the seideline. Too bad the protection broke down with the the blind-side blitzer.