TheBrownBear

Barkley and CMC are really the only two that can do everything and make guys miss for explosive plays. None of the other guys (Swift, Ronald Jones, Marlon Mack, etc.) are marked upgrades over what we already have.

Good, but not great. In our two games against bonafide NFL offenses, we've given up an average of 27 points. We need an elite guy on the front four to take it to the next level.

Jones proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is not the guy for the Giants.

Jacksonville.

Sad. His career as "King Henry" is over for all intents and purposes. Foot injuries seem to linger and reoccur, he's 27, and he's already got a ton of mileage on him. He may come back, but he will never be as good as he is now and he will continue to get injured.

How is this even a question? We ran the ball on 3rd down, only up 9, with more than a minute left on the clock. It was a pretty conservative call. It wasn't as if we pulled some BS trick play or something. And I've witnessed enough nightmare endings to know that a 9 point lead isn't 100% safe in that situation. Also, Dolphins fans should be glad we lengthened the score. Might help them get Flores canned a little quicker.

Aaron Donald or whoever is the most dominant defensive lineman in football right now. If not that, a home run hitting running back or wide receiver. Actually, A.J. Brown would look very good in a Bills jersey. Moulds clone.

We are the 6th ranked rushing offense (yards per game) in the league. I wouldn't call that an achilles heel at this point. Our biggest issue to date has been redzone execution. Once we fix that, we will be burying teams (more than we are already).

Yeah, I don't get it. I think some fans just feel threatened by other good young QBs.

Dang. They only got 7 games out of the dude.

Yes. Let's remove a really good player who is having a great season and replace him with a lesser player because we lost a game where we scored 31 points. Going to be a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG 10 days here.

Definitely agree with the OP. When we punted that ball away I turned to my wife and said, "well, we are going to lose this game." We had been moving the ball well all night, I was certain we'd go down and make it an 11 point lead to ice the game. It was just an unfocused, almost mentally lazy, series from Josh. Don't get me wrong, he is an AMAZING young quarterback, but he is still YOUNG and prone to the occasional mistake. I have no doubt he'll learn from this experience and up his mental game the next time he's in a similar situation, just like he has every other time he's hit a speedbump in his career.

I think it's as simple as us having a ton of bodies available on the defensive line, these guys all showing out equally or close to it in practice, and McDermott feeling that these dudes earned some run and wanted to see if it might even take the defense to the next level. Also makes sense rolling with the veteran types in a game where lane discipline and run defense are a high priority. Obviously, it doesn't seem to have worked out given Henry's production and the loss, but who knows, we might have been even worse up front with Epenesa and Basham?

I just can't agree with this. This seems like a hot take based solely on Monday's second half. We beat two "physical" "take it to you" running teams in the playoffs last year in the Colts and the Ravens. We lost to the speed and "finesse" Chiefs.

I almost think we (Daboll and McD) are taking a Belichickian approach of using the first half of the season to develop and experiment with different packages and approaches. We are absolutely trying to work the traditional RB run game more often in the red zone and so far that hasn't been working out. Hopefully, that improves or at least sets up some important plays later in the season or in the playoffs. Last year we were great because we just spread everyone out and Josh could "just be Josh". Obviously, I wish we would have done that on the final play on Monday night. I was thinking something like the chest pass to Knox in the Indy playoff game.

Yes. McDermott had some influence on that draft, but Beane wasn't hired until months later.

Great post as always, Shaw. I think you can match their physicality while also playing to your strengths (execution in the short passing game, taking what the D is giving you, etc.), and we did that for much of the first half. We just needed to execute better in the redzone. Anyway. I'd rather learn whatever lesson can be gleaned from Monday night during week 6, than in mid-January.

Oliver is fine and seems to be improving incrementally. It often takes interior defensive lineman a couple of years to really hit their stride. Ford, on the other hand, seems to be a certified bust at this point. Let's take a look at all of the major contributors to our current stud team drafted by Beane: Allen, Edmunds, Taron Johnson, Neal, Knox, Singletary, Oliver, Bass, Gabe Davis, Moss, Spencer Brown and Rousseau. And we've gotten contributions from Dane Jackson, Darryl Johnson, Jaquan Johnson, Harrison Phillips. Guys like Epenesa, Basham and Sweeney also show promise.

They've been productive given their physical limitations and lack of touches. I don't think they're great, obviously, but they've given us okay production for 3rd round draft picks. People love to hate on Devin, but he's averaging over 5 ypc, and Moss does a good job of grinding out tough yards. Go back and watch these games, they aren't getting much of anything blocking wise up front.

Looking at Power Rankings and other articles today, it seems the Bills weren't downgraded by the national media much at all based on last night's loss. Most see it for what it was - a competitive road game against another contender that we had a chance to steal in the last minute. Pretty sure everyone outside of this board (and other hardcore Bills fans) still view us as one of the top 3-4 teams to bring home the Lombardi Trophy.

Tre and the entire secondary, including Levi, have been awesome this year. I'm not about to bury any of them for one bad half of football in which we were getting zero pass rush.

Dump Obada and sign this guy. Immediate upgrade at edge rusher.

Glass half empty - we've now dropped two winnable games to fellow AFC playoff contenders. Glass half full - we're healthy, we have a top-5 QB, a very good young head coach, arguably the best/most-balanced overall roster in the league, have a 2 game lead in the AFCE and an unbelievably soft schedule for the rest of the season.

Levy is just unbelievably annoying. I never really noticed it until last night when he was calling the game. I usually don't give much thought to the announcing team, but man, Collinsworth and these guys on back-to-back weeks was too much. I need the bye week as much as the players at this point.

Every team has issues all year long that pop up and that they work on week-to-week to improve, while the opponent learns to counterpunch them. It's not just the Bills. I wouldn't say we got clearly outplayed last night. We had areas where we struggled, sure, but we outgained them by 50 yards, won the T.O.P. battle by 5 minutes, and were a couple of inches away from a walk off win on enemy soil. Titans had some big plays break their way (kickoff penalty, 76 yard td run, PI/helmet catch, etc.). It happens. Especially against playoff teams on the road. The Patriots won 6 Super Bowls and they didn't go undefeated in any of those years as far as I can recall.