Bleeding Bills Blue

They were 7-8-1 last year. They beat NE if the holder doesn't drop the ball on a game winning FG. They missed 2 FGs against Seattle - including a 24 yarder in overtime to win. They also missed 2 XPs and a FG in a 3 point loss to miami. 1 of the XPs was returned for a 2pt conversion - all in a 3 point last second loss. That's the difference between 10-6 and 7-8-1...

Either way - anything can happen. there are only a couple guarantees ... a Tom brady led patriots team will win 12-16 games this year. And the browns will stink.

Turnovers tend to fluctuate from year to year. % of fumbles recovered tends to fluctuate. Some years every pass that gets deflected lands in jairus byrds hands, and other years they all end up on the turf.

Atlanta scored 339 points in 2015, and 560 in 2016. Which team are they? Carolina scored 500 points in 2015, and 369 in 2016. Which team are they? Cincy... 12-4 in 2015, 6-9-1 in 2016. Jets 10-6 in 2015, 5-11 in 2016. Is all of this because they "played a harder schedule"?

I think the idea is... you can't use a teams previous season's success as a measurement for the difficulty of your schedule this year. There are obvious exceptions (NE is the big one, CLE on the other end of the spectrum). Tons of roster turnover, injuries, and good/bad luck can drastically alter a teams success.

Belichick's gotta be in there. I know he doesn't call them anymore, but he did win 2 with Parcells as the game-day caller. But hes had a top-10 defense like... the majority of his time in NE.

We had 3 200 yard rushers. We were a confused unit, that couldn't tackle, or rush the passer consistently. Tackling, and rushing the passer would make the secondary look better. But if they are bad, it will still be a rough year. Hopefully a scheme change and better coaching/play design will result in more stops on running plays, more 3rd and longs, and more 3 and outs.

1-6 when they scored fewer than 20 points per game. Also 1-6 when they had 1 or fewer takeaways on defense. Great defense - but they're without Ware so Ray is a full-time starter and they lose depth. They were remarkably healthy a year ago, i think only CJ Andersons injury having a large effect on them. They play KC, SD, and OAK twice. None of them are cupcakes. They play the NFC and AFC easts. Outside of the Jets, all those teams can compete with a team like Denver. Then they play CIN and IND in their other games. Also not cupcakes. If they remain healthy, and QBs develop, they are probably a playoff team with a top 5 defense. If the defense suffers a few injuries, and they struggle to stop the run as they did a year ago, they are under 8 wins.

I think missing camp definitely hurt him. Not to mention he had a shoulder injury, so he couldnt lift for several months. He didn't seem to have the bend or strength to push the tackles and set the edge, so i wonder if that was part of it.

I will say this - the wifi at the stadium was absolutely incredible. I was shocked how fast it was. I could watch highlights from other games and check scores with no speed issues.

You can't have two units that have multiple melt-down games and expect to be in the playoffs. We were 0-5 when we had a bad game running the ball (sub 100 yards) - that should be a major concern for Tyrod. He needs to be better in games when we can't run. There is no denying that fact. We were also 0-3 when we gave up 200+ rushing (big surprise. We also had 7 weeks with no takeaways. Lost 5 of those, and the 2 wins were against JAX and CLE. 4-8 when we had 1 or fewer takeaway.

Those teams were in the top 5 in turnover diff.... They either dont turn it over much - GB, or ATL - Or have a huge number of takeaways - KC and OAK. Miami... i dunno luck? They were bad by like every metric. Jets, Rams, Chargers, 49ers... they probably should have lost all of those games. Buffalo wasn't great in turnover diff because we didn't take the ball away very much. Running the ball is important. It keeps the chains moving, sets up play action, and is a classic, beat the man in front of you scenario.

To me it comes down to close games... We need to start winning close games.

With the limited number of practices with and without pads, i imagine belichick demands all-out effort consistently.

I'm too young to have attended. But at this stage of my life, I wouldn't leave a bills home playoff game for any reason whatsoever.

They have good pieces if either of the QBs can prove to be competent. Sanders, Thomas, solid running game.

NFL stadiums require a ton of parking... If the bills move downtown it would be a nightmare for infrastructure purposes. If I had to guess I'd say - maybe Conway park for the stadium location. Or rip out the perry projects? Or both? You'd be able to use much of the existing parking from the hockey stadium, and could build a couple large lots to maybe maintain some of the tailgating tradition.

Teams definitely fluctuate from year to year. Carolina was 15-1 in 2015, and 6-10 last year. Yes they gutted the defense, but they also scored like 150 fewer points. Miami had a -17 point differential, and finished 10-6. Turnovers tend to fluctuate from year to year as well (NE is a notable exception, you basically get fired if you fumble). 13 teams committed fewer than 20 turnovers last year. 9 made the playoffs. Keep your turnovers down, you tend to keep yourself in games. KC and Oakland both were at +16 last year to lead the league, a small regression there towards the mean and neither teams record is as good.

Last year - we were to lose to the patriots twice, arizona, cinn, seattle, oakland, pittsburgh. In the end we got swept by NYJ and MIA which ended up costing us the playoffs. We won 3 of the 7 we were supposed to lose, and almost beat seattle. If we played better on defense against the jets and dolphins, we were in the playoffs.

I went with Safety. TE is also a bit of a concern in an offense that likes to run the ball, but i think we'll see Dimarco a fair amount motioning out as a 2nd TE.

He also doesn't have a large catch radius, or use his body well to shield defenders. He definitely plays small.

To be fair - the d-line was the best group on that disaster of a team. And the tackling and just general physicality was very poor from our d-line last year. Hopefully he can get more out of guys like lawson and dareus.

Did he do something to get cut (this time...)? Or was he just a victim of numbers? Jeffery, Smith, Matthews, Agholor, now hollins... All of those guys cost more to cut than keep (or are part of future plans more than DGB)... while you actually save money by cutting DGB. If he isn't a teams ace, then he was just going to get cut anyway.

I dunno - you aren't able to tackle in practice anymore.. so probably pretty difficult.

This is why we should try and carry some over. We will want to extend Sammy if he has a good year. May want to be a bit more active in Free agency again after sitting out the past few years.