mjt328

Less than 12 months ago, this same Patriots team was a serious contender to land the number one pick in the draft. Less than 3 months ago, most of these experts looked at this Patriots roster and believed they would be hard-pressed for a Wild Card spot... while the Buffalo Bills were the heavy favorite to clinch the AFC East by Thanksgiving, and possibly go onto a Super Bowl win. Now these exact same media clowns want to stare into the camera, pound the table and confidently blabber this kind of nonsense. Nothing in their brains makes them stop and consider that other factors may be at play in the records. Nor will they take any self-reflection if their idiotic prediction falls flat. Nope, they will just trot out next week and pretend they were on the bandwagon for [insert current hot team] all along. Really Chris Simms... that's all it takes for you to crown Drake Maye > Josh Allen? Did you forget about the Bills running game, which is arguably the best in the entire NFL? Better in every single way, huh?

Neither side has told the complete story, but we do have lots of pieces that give us strong clues. Diggs was a model player for his first couple seasons on the team. No matter how much Vikings fans warned us, we wouldn't listen. We believed that Diggs had turned over a new leaf and matured. But something broke after the Bengals playoff loss in January 2023 (our third straight postseason exit with him on the team), and he threw a fit on the sideline. That was when the weird behavior started. Strange cryptic tweets and comments that seemed to poke jabs at the team and Josh Allen. Missing mandatory minicamp and creating a huge distraction. Money wasn't the problem. Usage wasn't the problem. He was at the top of the NFL in both when everything started falling apart. That's why I've always believed his frustrations just reached a boiling point, with the team unable to advance to the Super Bowl. In many ways, it's hard to blame Diggs for getting upset like that (I know that I have felt exactly the same after those playoff losses). But considering how pathetic his own production was in those games... maybe he should have done more looking in the mirror. On the Bills side, I think they decided after Joe Brady took the reigns at OC that Diggs wasn't really needed anymore... and wasn't worth the distractions. They were shifting to a more run-balanced, check-down/safe offense that refused to force the ball to a WR1. If Beane hadn't traded Diggs when he did, last year probably would have looked like the Eagles/AJ Brown situation this season. As I've said before... the problem wasn't trading away Diggs. His immature nonsense had run it's course. The problem was that we have tried replacing Diggs with players like Curtis Samuel, Keon Coleman and Josh Palmer. The closest we actually came was Amari Cooper, and I'm crossing my fingers that Brandin Cooks can turn out better than anyone is anticipating.

Every single season a couple QBs have a really good year, and suddenly they are better than Josh Allen. Right now it's Drake Maye. Last year, it was Jayden Daniels and Jared Goff. The year before, it was CJ Stroud, Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa. Before that it was Justin Herbert, Mac Jones, etc., etc. Anymore I just don't listen to the noise. Let them have their one-year wonders. No need to get in an argument, because the consistency wins out over time. Since 2020, Allen has been a Top 3 QB statistically every single year. He's been a strong MVP candidate every single year. Even the guys who are legitimately in an elite tier (Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow and yes Patrick Mahomes) have been unable to stay on that kind of level.

New England's schedule reads like a the Top 10 mock draft coming up this April. Regardless of their record, almost nobody outside of Boston MA is 100% sold on the Patriots yet. When you go from worst->first, there is going to be skepticism that it's a legitimate turn-around. When you play mostly bottom-feeder teams, there is going to be skepticism that it's real. When your second-year QB has a sudden breakout season, there is going to be skepticism if he's a one-year wonder. Fair or not, all that is going to hurt Drake Maye's chances with most MVP voters. With four games left, there is definitely time for that to change. The Patriots basically have two wins against somewhat quality teams this year. A 3-point victory over the Bills, after a penalty/turnover fest. And the Bucs, who fell apart after losing Mike Evans. How they perform against the Bills this Sunday is going to feed the narrative for the team and Maye. If they walk away with another win, a lot of people are going to start believing they are really a contender. If they lose, they are going to be seen as frauds going into the playoffs. Stafford has played great this year, and is the current frontrunner. I do think many voters want to see him get it, because it's the one thing in his career that he's never won. It's like the cherry on top to seal a Hall of Fame career. But the Rams also have the Seahawks nipping at their heels. It may be tough to give that award to a second-place QB with a great playcalling coach, two stud WRs, etc.

There is a full month left in the regular season. A lot can happen in four games. But a lot of weight is put into team record when stats aren't overwhelmingly in favor of one guy. Allen won't win unless the Bills win the AFC East. Stafford won't lose unless the Rams fall out of first place. Maye is the wild card if both of those teams end in second. Both are mathematically possible. And to happen, it would like coincide with Allen have a very strong finish and Stafford falling off.

The Bills going through an October slump has pretty much become the standard. Penalties. Turnovers. Poor Run D. Even Josh reverting to bad habits. Sometimes it stretches into November. And it doesn't seem to matter who the opponent is. Then suddenly it hits Thanksgiving and the team wakes up.

Very good point. Most teams with superstar QBs are going to be carried by their superstar QB. I would also argue that Buffalo has won as many (if not more) games this season because of James Cook, than because of Josh Allen. Also, Christian Benford should get equal credit for helping the Bills win that game (crazy pick six AND shutting down Jamar Chase).

I would call this roster very flawed. Not sure it's accurate to use the term "disaster" though. Previous seasons, I was worried about facing specific teams/players in the playoffs (Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals). This year, there isn't a single team that I'm really afraid of facing. Mostly AFC, but also the NFC. We are more than capable of beating every single one, even with the huge issues we've had over the course of the season. My biggest worry this year is consistency. Can we put together 4 straight quality games against good/very good teams once the postseason rolls around? I could easily see us smacking around the #1 seed Broncos and putting up 30 on their defense, and then somehow falling apart in a rematch with the Steelers. Nobody knows what version of the Bills is actually going to show up from week to week. I'm going to be watching several things very closely over the next four games to see whether the Bills have found some answers and turned the corner... or if we are going to continue seeing the up/down roller coaster for the remainder of the year. The run defense has been solid the last 8-10 quarters... pretty much since Terrel Bernard got hurt, and was replaced with Shaq Thompson. The Run D has easily been our biggest weakness this season. So keeping it at an average level would be a huge boost going forward. The passing offense has been very uneven at times, for many reasons. Josh Allen has been in a slump, but had possibly his best game of the year yesterday. Can he keep playing at that level the rest of the year? Dalton Kincaid being back healthy helps. Joe Brady's gameplans have been much better the last two games. Can Brandin Cooks give us a respectable threat on the outside? Can the pass rush get a boost from Joey Bosa and Ed Oliver returning down the stretch?

This coaching staff just doesn’t get it. Bills fans all across the world can see to stop playing our CBs ten yards off the ball against Burrow. Have been saying it since the 2022 playoff game.

How about that top pass defense? Eye Test > Stats/Metrics/Rankings

Derrick Henry is the nightmare RB matchup for Sean McDermott's defense. Joe Burrow is the nightmare QB matchup for McDermott's defense. To have a prayer against Burrow, the corners need to play press/man coverage and the D-Line needs to get quick pressure. Our defense has historically been mostly zone with an inconsistent pass rush.

My problem with Beane is mostly with talent evaluation. His method for building a roster seems more like putting a checkmark in a box, than actually targeting specific prospects that he is confident will be successful in the NFL. On draft day, he goes in with his top 3 position needs and a plan to address them with his top 3 picks. Just following the board that he and the scout team assembled. You never hear anything about them being truly convicted that a player will be great, or them being willing to make a significant trade to target a player they covet.

Fans are frustrated, because it seems like these kinds of things always happen to us. Not because Slay or Ingram are anything special. Anquan Boldin retired a week after signing with us. Vontae Davis retired at halftime. Antonio Brown forced Pittsburgh to back out of a trade to the Bills (although we probably dodged a bullet there). Roger Goodell pushed Michael Vick to the Eagles instead of us, back when we really needed a QB. A few years ago, JD McKissic agreed to a deal with Beane... then changed his mind at the last minute and went back to the Redskins, after all the other potential RB signings had already found homes. This forced us to use a draft pick on a running back (fortunately it worked out and we picked James Cook). This offseason, two of our top free agents (Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi) were signed to fill holes on the D-Line. And right after the ink was dry, the NFL suddenly announces that both would miss the first quarter of the season with drug suspensions. Why couldn't they have announced it before free agency, so teams had a heads-up? If Beane had been the one tampering, the Bills would have lost a draft pick. Because it's the Eagles, nothing will happen.

I've stated that I'm ready to move-on from Brandon Beane. But I'm not going to blame him for things that are out of his control. As revealed by many sources, it's against NFL rules for him to contact Slay or his agent before putting through the waiver wire claim. He had no way to know Slay would rather retire than play for an 8-4 perennial Super Bowl contender... outside of tampering and taking the risk of getting caught/punished by the league. We did things by the book, and end up losing a player (Ingram) for following the correct procedure. Meanwhile, (based on the information that has come out) the Eagles likely did tamper with Slay. They will never get officially caught or punished, and will almost certainly end up with him on their roster before the year's end anyway.

Dalton Kincaid somehow gets a mysterious knee injury while standing on the sidelines waiting for his hamstring to heal. AJ Epenesa apparently injured his foot in practice yesterday. Why are half our injuries this season happening outside of the actual games?

This year isn't going to be about the opponent we face. None of the teams in the AFC are elite juggernauts. I could see us beating any of them. But they all have something that can exploit us. Which means I could also see us losing to any of them. In my opinion, the key to this postseason is going to be consistency. It will require 4 straight quality performances against top level competition. Our best bet is getting all phases up to at least a solid/decent level, so that it's not a glaring weakness leading to our downfall. Then hopefully Josh Allen can break out of his slump and be the element that pushes us over the top. #1 - We can't go into the postseason relying completely on James Cook sparking the offense. At least one of our opponents is going to succeed in stopping the run, and at some point our WRs will need to get open and we will need to move the ball through the air. The offense needs back Dalton Kincaid and Josh Palmer fully healthy... and Brandin Cooks needs to become someone the defense needs to account for downfield (similar to what Amari Cooper provided last season). #2 - We can't go into the postseason with our rushing defense constantly getting run over. At some point we will inevitably face someone like Jonathan Taylor or Derrick Henry. There needs to be a realization that our normal plan on defense isn't working against the run. Less nickel and more 4-3. More Shaq Thompson and less Terrel Bernard. Doing this led to our best rush defense all season against Pittsburgh. Keep it going. #3 - We can't go into the postseason without getting pressure on the QB. This has been our weak point each of the last 5 years. Even if Patrick Mahomes misses, there are still passers who will exploit us if we give him too much time in the pocket. Joey Bosa and Ed Oliver need to return healthy, and some other guys need to step up.

Not nonsense. Those three games are significant. - Bills get AFC champion Chiefs. Patriots get Raiders, arguably the worst team in the league. - Bills get Texans, best defense in NFL. Patriots get Titans, only team probably worse than above. - Bills get Super Bowl champion Eagles. Patriots get 2-win Giants with rookie QB and interim HC. Also: - Bills got the Ravens at full strength. Patriots will get version with Lamar Jackson on one-leg. - Bills get Bengals at full strength. Patriots got them without Joe Burrow or Jamar Chase. The Patriots best win of the season was against us... probably the most lopsided penalty fest in the NFL this year. And they barely escaped with a 3-point victory. We will see about the rematch. It may be a longshot for us to come back and win the division. But if we win that game, the margin will be pretty close. Yes, the Bills blew a cake schedule this season. No excuses. But the Patriots have a HISTORICALLY weak slate of opponents. If the AFC East comes down to Week 18 or a tiebreaker, nobody can say these differences didn't play a factor.

This is somewhat true. The Bills-Patriots have exactly three games different on their schedules. Bills got Texans, Chiefs, Eagles. Patriots got Titans, Raiders, Giants. That's a pretty significant difference in opponent quality. Not to mention, they got the Bengals with both Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase out. We get to play them with both on the field. We also got the Ravens before all the injuries hit. At the end of the day, there are no excuses. The Patriots are going to win the AFC East, because (as you said) we blew it against some very inferior teams. Not because we had a more difficult schedule. Take care of business against the Falcons and Dolphins, and things look a lot different for the division. The Bills seem to be sleepwalking through the season, while the Patriots are focused and playing hard against every single opponent. The real question is... what happens in a month when the real bullets start flying? Everybody knows there is a different intensity that level when the postseason hits.

The Patriots schedule has been ridiculously easy. Raiders, Dolphins, Panthers, Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons, Jets, Giants. They also got the Bengals the week they were without Jamar Chase, and before Joe Burrow came back. We have struggled against teams we should have beaten, so no excuses... they deserve to win the AFC East. But it's hard not to believe the Patriots are headed for a big wakeup call in January. It will be interesting to see how our second game goes, along with the Ravens (if they get healthy down the stretch).

Both conferences are a total mess. But mostly the AFC. I have no idea what team would be considered the true favorite. The Broncos are currently sitting at the top. They have a good coach, a decent young QB and strong defense. No glaring weaknesses. But also nothing that would strike fear into your heart if forced to play them in the playoffs. They have barely scraped out wins against the worst of the worst teams in the NFL, and appear very beatable. Then you have the Patriots, Jaguars and Colts. All seem like well-coached, young teams with solid rosters who improved in the offseason. But it's hard not to get Vikings vibes. I can't help but see these teams as Wild Card contenders with extremely favorable schedules. Not teams who should be pushing for the #1 Seed. The Colts collapse already looks like it started around Week 9-10. The Chargers are middle of the pack everywhere, with a QB just outside of the elite group. Not scary at all. Houston has a tremendous defense and is just now making a late push. But the offense is very mediocre, and doesn't look like a unit that can string together a deep postseason run. Then of course you have the Bills, Chiefs, Ravens and Bengals. Huge favorites back in August. And even now, it's usually the elite QBs that find a way to rise above the pack in the postseason. But all three teams have severely flawed rosters outside of quarterback, have really bad injury issues to overcome, or are in a huge hole and may not make the playoffs at all.

Brady's ability to gameplan and adjust are very very very bad. He went into the Houston game with no plan to neutralize their pass rush, and then refused to make changes when they were clearly smoking us. Ironically, it was very bad luck for Pittsburgh to face us after such a poor showing with our pass blocking. Brady had more than a week to hear the relentless criticism about his blocking schemes. And without both starting OTs, he was left with no choice but to run James Cook into the ground yesterday. In other words, our spectacular failure on Thursday Night forced Brady into a strategy for success. My guess is that Brady will attempt to run the same exact gameplan against Cincinnati next week... for no other reason than it appears to be working. Will he tailor our offensive attack to target the Bengals weak points? Obviously he won't, because he never does. Will the Bengals (even as pathetic as their defense is) be prepared after seeing us run the same play 50 times on film? Probably.

The identity is pretty obvious. They are primarily a running team. Passing is mostly screens and check-downs. When that doesn't work, hope Josh Allen can save their behinds.

Using the eye-test, I'm still very skeptical about how this offense operates. They were struggling badly until the sack/fumble/touchdown completely changed the trajectory of the game. Still have zero evidence this team can pass the ball downfield when needed. And it's been that way almost the entire season. Joe Brady looks great when he can just call the same play 40+ times and the other team can't stop it. Not so great when his favorite 5 plays aren't working, and he actually needs to adjust mid-game. There are going to be teams upcoming who do a good job shutting down James Cook, and in those games we are going to struggle badly to score. Has the defense turned the corner? I'm a little more optimistic that we accidentally stumbled into a better run defense when Terrell Bernard got injured. My fear is that Sean McDermott is too stubborn to keep his captain on the bench, even though Shaq Thompson is clearly the better option.

Brady was criticized all week for his pathetic adjustments to Houston’s pass rush. The gameplan had to be what we saw, or he might have been the scapegoat firing tomorrow. The pass offense was still pretty bad all game, and I still question his ability to adjust mid-game or find solutions when the rushing attack isn’t working.

Most of us are worried about this season more than the future, and Thompson is the better option at MLB. I agree that next year we should look at moving Bernard outside to replace Milano. Probably his best fit all along.