Bleeding Bills Blue

I'm not saying you need to release brown. I'm just saying - don't gut an entire unit and elevate young players who haven't earned their time. Murphys already gone, Butler is definitely overpaid. Zimmer is already getting time, and epenesa is/was starting to (not sure on his injury in the cards game). But hughes? He's legit one of the players playing well on the defense. And while addison hasn't exactly lit it up, he's leading the team in sacks and TFLs. Jeffersons stats are relatively in line with what he's done in his career so far. You can't just "get young" if it results in getting bad.

Are we in cap trouble? We don't even know what the cap is for next year. And if its as low as some suspect, we aren't in nearly as bad a spot as other teams. Also - if cap is super low, free agents will get massively underpaid - especially non-cap casualties since picks will be even more of a premium. If space is needed - you can release: John Brown - 8ish million savings Butler - almost 7 million savings Smith - 2 1/4 savings Losing those 3 players would save almost 20 million.

They played a cupcake schedule last year - I don't think phillips was going to help stop the run (he was always out of position), and Shaq always struggled with scrambling QBs (Buffalo has played - Murray, Mahomes, Tannehill, Wilson, Newton, even fitz). Spain was not a good run blocker - and they didn't let him walk. He was outplayed and lost his job. Seemed to like what they saw from that group with morse out - but i think he starts out of the bye because they sucked again against zona. I think the defense as a whole has taken a step backward - but i don't think that its as drastic a step.

Are we trying to make the defense bad?

He's under contract for about the same 9.5 million for 2021. I don't see letting the longest tenured player leave when he's been productive this season.

List of some of the QBs buffalo played in 2019: Duck Hodges Dwayne Haskins Brandon Allen Eli Manning Andy Dalton Marcus Mariota Sam Darnold x2 Fitzpatrick x2 2018 I find tricky to evaluate since they did so absolutely terrible on offense. Like - the defense has good yardage numbers - but they somehow got blown out in a game where they gave up less than 200 yards. Poor rushing defense and no particular need to throw a ton into the defense.

Using Expected points from Pro football reference - buffalo has played 5 of the top 7 offenses through week 10. Tennessee - 5-1 when they get a takeaway. They've only turned it over 4 times all year. They lost last week on special teams blunders, and had a backup punter. Usually the punt unit is solid. KC - No explanation needed. Seattle - Crazy good pass game, seem to have hit the skids recently. Arizona - best rushing attack in the NFL. Most yards in the NFL, with a game in hand on buffalo. Vegas - Good all around unit. Don't turn it over, move the sticks, good run game. Buffalo lost 3 of these games (almost 2), but they really shot themselves in the foot against Tenn, which you can't do if you want to beat them. I think they can possibly beat them in a rematch using some of what they did against wilson and murray. I think their rushing attack is a bit overrated.

and probably missed the tackle... just saying RPOs kill this team in general. Forces the LBs off the LOS and into coverage, and runs against our dline shred the defense. Read options always a challenge when the QB has better foot speed than the players he's reading.

I dunno that foot speeds whats killing the run game. I know the rankings for the last 2 years show a solid running team, but them (and this team for that matter) are propped up with a scrambling QB. Without Allens scrambles this is probably among the worst rushing attacks in the NFL - and that's with a game against NE where the backs put up about 160 yards. Whatever they saw from Boettger made them consider wanting to keep him in the lineup, but they didn't do nearly as well in this one. Singletary averaged 5.1 a carry last year, and moss definitely has more burst than gore did. The blocking hasn't been as good, and it has probably affected RB's timing and vision. So basically everythings outta whack and nothings really working.

Butler was supposed to rotate at 3T with oliver. Now he's basically playing nose tackle because he's the biggest. Jefferson was supposed to be moved around a fair bit but mostly to be out there on passing downs with oliver. They're doing this some, but he's also had to rotate at NT because phillips isn't performing - same with zimmer. Nobody on the team is capable of performing there at this point. Klein was supposed to be the 3rd LB playing against rushing teams on early downs. He's ended up playing a fair amount of snaps this year - probably more than he was supposed to. Norman has been hurt legit all year. Camp, came back, got hurt again, came back, got covid - like yes that hasn't worked out but you can't forecast that many injuries.

The one touchback probably should've been downed. He kicked it to the right side - coverage was there - they just couldn't find the ball for whatever reason.

Definitely agree. For all the talk about how great the defense was - we ignore the fact that they played last years dolphins and jets twice, the redskins with haskins, the broncos with brandon allen, the bengals, and the steelers with duck hodges. And this year they've played - KC, Tenn, Sea, LAR, LV, zona - all within the top like 10 of offensive DVOA. What I mean to be saying is - they aren't the worst defense in the world. They were also probably never as good as last years numbers suggest.

Green bay got blown out by Tampa, and Tampa got blown out by New Orleans, and New Orleans lost to Green bay and needed OT to beat the chargers and bears... You don't always play your best game, the key is winning a few when you don't play well.

On defense this past week it felt like the levee broke and the FG stops they had in the first half opened right up. Jackson going down gave them a target to pick on there in the 3rd as well. 3rd quarter First drive - Stalled with a couple incompletions where i think he threw it away. 2nd drive - short field TD 3rd drive - nice tackle short of sticks followed by terrible punt 4th drive - killer offsetting penalty followed by the pick deep to peterson I'm not entirely sure it was all playcalling or coaching. Allen thought he could fit a ball in that he couldnt - receivers couldn't get open in man coverage - and arizona tackled well. Two critical mistakes though with the INT and the poor punt. I'm sure on the first drive there will be open players he didn't see too.

I mean - they try to make it a game where there's as much stakes as possible that is least affected by the rest of the schedule. Like Baltimore making the playoffs when i dunno LV loses would be kinda lame to have that in primetime. There's always something, but i could see it being this.

Between spain getting benched and now this... Team went from Spain-Morse-Ford to Boettger-Feliciano-Winters. Is this ideal?

Why not just - hold every receiver so they can't get downfield and run the clock out. They'll get 5 yards and an untimed hail mary.

Still think Miami is the team that loses to the jets. Just makes too much sense. Denver needs to run the ball, and get back to basics. Stop turning it over, and start getting after it on defense. I know they suffered some injuries etc, but that team lacks any identity. They're currently the team that has the QB who dances funny. Eat something! It wasn't even a playoff game, there's still more football to be played.

Right - if buffalo/miami is for the division it could be a good choice. Rams/Cardinals could be another. If both those divisions are locked up? Could honestly be Wash/Philly if the giants fade with dallas.

I feel like if buffalo plays miami for the division week 17 - buffalo will win. I'm still thinking the jets beat them in NY. Somehow football just has those stories that just kinda work out. Miami's rolling. Adam gase comes in and just screws it all up for miami one last time.

Reminds me of the 2018 bears vs. the 2019 bears. They were still a good defense in 2019, they just didn't score 6 TDs and lead the nfl in takeaways. They were 1-5 in 2019 in games where they didnt record a takeaway. The 2018 bears could run the ball a bit better than they have the last 2 years which also helps. But turnovers aren't a sustainable winning model. At the end of the day though - you want an offense that.. in a tie game, or down 3 or whatever - you feel like you can score and win. Those are the teams that win playoff games.

I've found his single cut runs on outside zone to be more effective - when they block it remotely well and they aren't getting hit 4 yards behind the LOS.

Unless singletary does it to a defensive tackle... Arent you allowed to block in the back within the tackle box?

I'd probably have edmunds spy murray. Especially in a situation where the vacated area would be the middle of the field when they have no timeouts.

You can't lunge for him. That was probably coached and drilled down all week. Disciplined rush lanes, rush depth. Just stay in front of him and others will follow. If he just takes the angle there murray's eyes aren't down field, he's probably throwing it away to guarantee the hail mary.