RunTheBall

Ray Davis is done. He decided he wanted to be a different type of back than he was last year for whatever reason and dropped a good amount of weight in the off season. Who the F knows why, the team certainly didn’t tell him to do that. So now he’s a bit lighter, didn’t gain any speed, doesn’t have the juice to be a north and south runner anymore, and he’s playing himself off the team. What a disaster. If he’d just worked on doing more of what he did last year he’d be a great 2nd option but he is ass. I’d include him in any trade if another team wanted him and seriously think about activating Gore for a couple games from the PS and see what he can do.

So there are people on this board who have a problem with McD calling plays when the D looked the best it has so far? Holy sht people. I couldn’t care less who calls the plays as long as the D is playing well. Get a grip.

A W is a W and man did we need this 40 burger. I’m not going to complain about Brady when you put up 40 points. Seeing the defense show signs of life was great. The addition of Hoecht, Ogunjobi, Hairston, Hancock and Poyer paid off big time. Poyer is a steadying influence out there and I loved the platooning with Hancock who saved a TD and that series ended up in a Carolina TO. McD is calling the defense. Babich has been demoted. He will talk about it being a collaboration but McD has taken over. Good for now. We will see if Bobby can get it back over time The linebackers looked better without Bernard out there. Hopefully he gets his mojo back. Williams made some solid plays after looking like ass, and Shaq Thompson is our best LB right now. I’m so sick of our main guys being injured all the time. Glass Oliver joins Glass Milano, and Glass Bernard as being highly paid players who can’t stay on the field. He popped that bicep tendon. He’s done for the year, might be able to make it back deep in the playoffs. Just ridiculous. Allen is off but that’s ok for now. We’ve gotta be able to win games when Josh doesn’t have an MVP game. I’m not concerned yet, I think he’s going to get his head back on straight. But I don’t like seeing him make crap decisions and missing wide open guys when they actually separate. IDK the reason but he’s carried this team enough over the years that they can carry him while he gets back to form. We need to trade for a WR and a DT immediately. I’d say Shaheed and Harrison Philips are reasonable targets that are doable. I’d love Olave but he’s not coming. Our WR group is not good enough to get it done when the playoffs come.

I know most of TBD was hoping for a trade up to get him in the draft. I don’t watch a lot of Jags but from what I’ve watched, this guy has been underwhelming. Granted, I’ve got a limted data set but he just meh?

I agree with Cosell 100%. We don’t need the deep ball as much as we need more consistent intermediate shots. That’s Josh’s bread and butter where he can use his arm strength and zip it in tight windows. Frankly, Josh sucks at the deep ball unless he can throw it on a rope. Brady has turned our alien into a dink and dunk master and while there’s nothing wrong with taking what the defense gives you, with the correct scheming that doesn’t have to always be behind the LOS or a bubble screen.

1. The opinions expressed are my own and not that of my employer 2. You take said opinions way too seriously 3. It’s just a game Focker!

So some interesting tid bits from that presser - Rapp is being benched, probably for Poyer but maybe they start giving Hancock some run. Strong is done for the season if not his career. They know exactly what is going on but aren’t saying. My guess is after he tweaked his neck they did an MRI and it scared the sht out of them. Probably a multi-level disc issue and the only question is what’s the risk to his health if he continues to play whether or not surgery is currently indicated. Hairston is going to get some run sooner rather than later. Sean knows what’s up with Tre. Ogunjobi and Hoecht are 100% playing this Sunday, the subterfuge is laughable. I’d like to see a lot less Keon Coleman and a lot more passing out of heavier sets. Listening to a few pods this past week and I can’t believe how much they are forcing it to Coleman. It’s not friggin Stephon Diggs out there, it’s a disappointing 2nd round player that they are playing out of position and they keep trying to make it happen. In no universe should he have 50 more targets than the next targeted receiver on this team. Brady needs to wake the F up. The penalties need to stop. That’s a McD issue. Killing us pre-snap and on defense.

Lots of games to be played yet. I’m not too concerned about Carolina, I’m looking more long term and expect this defense to fail again in the playoffs if we make it. Too many guys have regressed, and I don’t think Hecht and Ogunjobi are going to blow the doors off anyone. Sure, I expect the D to play better but I have zero confidence in them for an elimination game. I hope Bernard is hurt because he is playing like ass right now. I hope that’s an explanation because he isn’t even in year 1 of that extension. Rapp is god awful and shouldn’t be out there. Benford is playing like a bottom third CB and Tre is toast. Groot looks like he woke up and Oliver will go back to his habit of showing up every 4 or 5 games and we will blame it on the high ankle sprain. Glass Milano is good for a 1/2 a football game now every 3-4 games. I’m hoping with Hoecht out there the scheme is going to change up a bit and uses his versatility. When you can’t stop the run and can’t stop the pass, you aren’t a good defense.

Keon hasn’t been done any favors by this regime. He’s not an X receiver. They are trying to put a square peg in a round hole. The guy has 2 routes, neither of which he runs well because he’s out of position. Get Olave or Rasheed to be a true X, split time with Coleman in the slot with Shakir, have Palmer as your #2 and we’ve got a solid receiving core. My fear is that they think the Ghost of Gabe Davis is going to be the answer at receiver and another year goes down the drain.

Brady has been a disaster for 2 straight games. It’s coaching malpractice not to have a plan to beat the blitz against a team you KNOW is going to blitz over half the time. It’s absolutely mind boggling not to have simple hot reads for Josh. James Cook should have been KILLING Atlanta on the blitz. When is the last time you saw a running back screen??? 6 years ago? The answer isn’t those stupid WR bubble screens, they rarely work but we will throw them 8x a game. No draw plays to Cook? No quick slants to the anticipated blitzing side? I mean this is Football 101 and Brady is failing spectacularly. It doesn’t help that Josh played like complete ASS against Atlanta and had the deer in the headlights look all a game long. Thought we buried that version of Josh 2 years ago.

Mark Kelso as long as he wears the Kazoo helmet

I’m certainly not sold on Babich but I don’t know if he has the talent to make this defense work. Does anyone have a good explanation why the following players have all regressed? Benford has definitely taken a step back, Johnson is a shell of his former self, Rapp wasn’t great to begin with and now he’s absolute ASS, Bernard is making no plays except the 1 pick and is out of position so much more than usual. Trey was already washed so he didn’t take a step back. Milano is glass as usual but Williams doesn’t look any better than last season. I’d say the D-line is playing pretty well now that Groot is showing up again, Oliver is back, and Walker is making strides. So except for Bishop who’s not great but he’s about where I thought he would be, almost every player in the back 7 is playing worse. Why? Is it the scheme? Did they try and tweak things and its too complicated now so the players don’t know where the hell to be? Or are these guys just regressing for no reason other than getting paid? I have no idea.

Holy god do you guys remember how bad Edmunds was in the playoffs? Mahomes ABUSED him every time we played KC. The guy had elite traits and ZERO instincts as a LB. They wanted to run him out of Chicago his first 2 years. The Cover 1 myth that he was affecting the passing game so much yet had zero stats to show for it lingered for years. He’s not a bad dude, just not a good LB and he fleeced Chicago with that contract.

I hear you. I hope we catch lightning in a bottle twice. That’s why I don’t think an in season change is the way to go. Give them the season and see if they can turn it around. For me, it’s gotta be a Super Bowl appearance though. I have no confidence this defensive philosophy combined with lack of talent will get it done though and the only way that changes is with a regime change.

6 weeks is enough to get a good feel for the team and this team is in trouble. Josh hasn’t played well the last couple weeks, he’s got that glazed look he gets and has lost some fire. What that exposes is just how awful we are when 17 doesn’t play at an MVP level. We are bottom half of the league. Once again, all the weight/pressure is on his shoulders and he’s cracking. Happy feet, bad decisions, forcing the ball, deer in the headlights look. No bueno. Something has to change over the bye week. I’m at the point where if this regime doesn’t make the Super Bowl, I think we should clean house top to bottom at the end of the season. Get some new minds in there while Josh still has the second half of his career in front of him. The league has caught up to our defense to the point it’s laughable how bad they are. Offensively the years of neglect combined with Brady being in over his head have come home to roost. Super Bowl or Bust! Otherwise clean house. Go Bills!

The only people who think this Atlanta game is a must win are those Bills fans who think divisions and seeds are won in October. I absolutely want to win and do not want to give the division lead to the Pats*. Mostly that’s because I haven’t heard a THING from those bandwagon asshats in 5 years and all off a sudden Pats* fans are popping out of the woodwork. I even got sht from a dude at my local pizza shop an hour ago. I said Woah dude, slow your roll I haven’t heard a peep out of you in 5 years so STFU. It’s how we finish not how we start. Too many of us are looking for the Bills to relieve our anxiety by having a 3 game lead in the division in October. NE is playing well. I hate them, I hate their fans, I hate that Maye looks like a really good QB and meathead Vrabel has them playing well. I hate all things Patriots so much that I’d sacrifice my left nut if they never made the playoffs in my remaining years. But, having some pressure on our guys isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Feeling a little heat will keep them from complacency. I think McD has done a good job over the years keeping them focused but having a team that already beat you breathing down your neck can be a motivator in itself. F the Pats*, F their bandwagon fans, F Vrabel and his douchebag face. Run the ball against Atlanta’s light front and Go Bills!

Atlanta’s run D is suspect, so with Brady’s recent game plans I would expect him to break out the 4 and 5 wide passing scheme with Ty Johnson as the featured back. I’m still pissed about his NE game plan. The best coaches plan to attack a teams weaknesses and Brady needs to do a lot more of that instead of his “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” scheme. Hey, how about instead of 15 different formations, you actually throw from under center or run out of shotgun once in a while. It’s ridiculous how predictable he’s become. Yeah, it was just one game but it was a big one that could have set us up for the rest of the year. That’s a helluva time to sht the bed. I’d like to see a team specific gameplan that emphasizes the run, then throws out of heavy run formations. Once the run is established the play action game should be 30-40% of the pass plays. As usually, if we don’t turn the ball over we will win. Diggs isn’t on the other sideline so hopefully Josh will have his head on straight.

A big problem with our defense is that a number of guys we were counting on to play at the same level as last year have regressed. Bernard has regressed, Benford has regressed, Johnson has regressed, Rapp holy hell is he playing like ass, Glass Milano doing his usual, Williams looked like he took a step back, Groot didn’t show up first 4 games (bone bruise, yeah ok), White is washed, Ed gets hurt yet again. As for positives, I’d say Bishop is coming along, Walker looks like he’s coming along, Bosa is playing well, Jones is playing well, and Shaq Thompson should start next to Bernard. Doesn’t matter how many resources you pour into the D, if over half your starters aren’t available or are playing worse than last year, we’ve got a problem. The only hope we have is that as guys heal and the PED guys come back, we slowly round into form towards the end of the season and look like a different defense than we do now.

IDK what to think about getting Max back involved. It’s not very hard to put him out there to play man right away, but if that’s all you do it’s a clear tip off of what type of defense we are playing. Not that I think we disguise anything as good as we did when Poyer and Hyde were here anyway. Between Rapp doing wind sprints to the tunnel every snap and Bishop just starting to round into form, our safeties give it away pretty regularly.

Idk wtf Brady was thinking. Instead of attacking NE weaknesses, he lined up and said “This is what we are doing, try and stop it” and NE did. Just awful gameplan all around. It doesn’t take a Film Bro to see Pats* weakness was coverage LB and safeties, yet except for Kincaid we didnt attack the middle constantly. Instead, he kept trying to win against solid man corners with WRs who’ve proven they can’t beat solid man coverage. Just ridiculous. There should have been a ton of screens/wheels/slants to RBs out of the backfield when we forced in them into heavy personel. Instead, we ran like 80% of the time. The tendency to run from under center and throw from shotgun was egregious and arrogant. He also got away from the run game way too quick. NE had a good scheme to stop what we like to do, but instead of trying a different scheme he just gave up.

Burrow isn’t coming back. He ripped the tendon off the bone of his big toe. That toe is kind of important for balance and pushing off. And if they rush him back, he will be gimping around behind the sieve offensive line and probably get re-injured. He’s Glass Joe for a reason.

We have too many guys in the secondary who are washed. Tre is done, Johnson is a shell of his former self so far, Benford is underperforming, Rapp is god awful, guy has no feel or spacial awareness. At the snap he basically makes a b-line to the tunnel to make sure everything is in front of him. Bishop is the only one starting to round into form and thats not saying much. The whole D is underperforming. Maybe when Oliver comes back, the PED guys show, and now that Groot has shown up, and Walker is looking better each week, we will start to improve in the second half of the season. But something has to change. This is not a Super Bowl caliber defense at this point. Not even close. Lots of football to play though.

And the fact that Brady not only gave up on the run, but didn’t throw more than 1 pass to James out of the backfield (2 high killer) is coaching malpractice.

I’d like Josh to get over his Diggs hang up. He was pressing last night and making stupid decisions. He was directly responsible for 17-21 points not going on the board for us. 1) A very easy read to give Ty Johnson the ball on the read option for a likely TD. He pre determined he was keeping the ball himself. 2) Bailed out of a huge clean pocket for no reason and missed a WIDE OPEN Samuel downfield for an easy TD 3) That interception was a horrific decision and I got the feeling he was fed up and was going to rip one in there. Was Josh the main problem? Nope. Turnovers and offensive penalties were the main issue. Even with Josh’s bad decisions we’d have won easily without the TOs and constant penalties. I see too many defects with this defense to think we are going to be Super Bowl bound. I stated in an earlier thread I’d wait until the reinforcements showed up, and I’m still trying to cling to that, but it’s tough. 1) At least Groot made an appearance for once 2) Rapp is horrible, slow, and a liability 3) Milano is good but made of glass 4) Thompson needs to start 5) Tre is washed 6) Johnson looks washed 7) DTs suck until Ed comes back, Jones was ok. Those are too many issues to fix in one season. I hope I’m wrong, maybe this was just that stinker game we play every year and they are going to get much better as the season progresses. They did have a solid pass rush in the first half but the second half that evaporated and Maye just shredded the D constantly rolling to his right.

Milano being active is huge, NE throw a lot to their RBs and he’s our best coverage LB. Looking forward to getting a look at Jackson. Gonna see a lot of zone nickel tonight as Maye likes to run but we don’t need to spy. McBabich should be able to confuse Maye, so just be reasonable against the run, don’t turn it over, and we win. Go Bills!