BisonMan

All I heard Sunday was how Tomlin was the coach of the year and a few "Sean McDermott is doing a great job too". I guess McD went into Pittsburgh and stole a win and Tomlin's award on the same night...just like a Renegade Go Bills and congrats to Coach McDermott.

I usually don’t listen to the players when they introduce themselves on SNF...but it was the Bills! Tre White introduced himself as “Tre White...Tre White Goalie Academy” Two weeks in a row that Tre made me laugh after grabbing the film sheet against the Ravens and pretending to read it between plays. For those not familiar with the Tre White Goalie Academy:

Who said he was swapping? ?

"No, we're not homosexuals. But, we're willing to learn"

By all means, let's equate Game 5 of the NBA Finals with a meaningless late season NFL game on a losing team. Also, let's equate a player responsible for an entire teams success (Jordan) with a player having a season with career low performance numbers and who has played very little role in the team's success (or failure) this season. If he was a top-flight QB playing in the Super Bowl, I'm pretty sure the team doctors and team management would take that into account before TELLING a player to stay home. Again, Bell wanted to play. The team said no.

Yes, like keeping him from touching a ball that other players then touch and contract the flu. Oh wait, that's his job. I have an idea, let's leave the medical decisions that affect 53 players that average well over $1M a year in salary to the medical professionals. If you want to criticize the Jets for not re-evaluating his health or for being too cautious with the flu, be my guest. It sounds like Bell was doing what the team told him to do.

The team was worried about him infecting others on the team with the flu. It was likely on the recommendation by the team doctors. I personally tell my employees to stay home until well after they are over the flu to avoid making a small problem much bigger.

He was told he couldn't play or be with the team BY THE TEAM. He said he felt fine and wanted to play. It was the team's decision. Bowling is wholesome activity by all NFL standards.

This is one of the biggest non-stories of the year. First, it's been reported that Bell asked to play but the team told him he couldn't travel with the club or stay at the team hotel because he was recovering from the flu. It was a team precautionary decision not to have him play even though he wanted to. Second, who gives a crap what an inactive player does on a Saturday night before the game he's not playing in? Is he supposed to sit at home when he feels fine? It's not like he was out drinking at a nightclub and shot somebody. Is there something less innocuous than bowling you can think of? "Le'Veon Bell spotted at a McDonald's at 1am the night before a Jets game." He's not Barrett Robbins. Plus, the dude threw a game over 250! Mad props.

I’m sending you my massive Jeff Tuel jersey to wear along with a wet Bills logo blanket. Enjoy. ?

All red is required one game a month, right? ?

This ^ ,,,again! Our DEs have to maintain the edge. On so many of LJ's runs against the 49ers he never had to beat the DE because he crashed on Ingram. I agree that this is mind-blowing, especially because the NFL has seen this exact thing before with Roman and a mobile QB (HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED). I think the Bills should seriously consider moving Ed Oliver to DE for this game opposite Hughes. Trent Murphy and Shaq Lawson don't seem to me to have the speed or quickness to get lateral to cut off Jackson. Oliver does. If he and Hughes could remain disciplined, Jackson's running can be limited and they'll like get some hits on him at the "mesh point" during the option. On option plays, they DEs should be entirely targeting the QB and let the RB be handled by our MLB and DTs (maybe go 4-2-5 and keep a hard hitting safety in near the LOS too). My 2 cents.

Ed-O is up to 5 sacks now with 5 games to go. Can he match Aaron Donald’s rookie mark of 9 this year? He seems to be coming on strong after McD dropped his snaps for a wake up call.

I’m pretty confident the audibles were sent down from Daboll. I was watching the play clock when they were in the hurry-up and almost without exception, Josh would change the play at about the 15 second mark. That tells me Dabs was calling it down right up to when he could no longer tell Josh the play call. It’s an excellent change in strategy for the Bills and it should work against teams with traditional pre-snap sets. I fear this technique won’t work against the Pats, who routinely disguise defensive schemes with an “amoeba” formation so you can’t tell who’s coming and who’s dropping back in coverage. Josh will have to read and react post-snap on those plays has his mental maturity will be tested. In the meantime, just beat Baltimore and put the fear of god into the rest of the AFC!

Nobody likes a short week before going on the road. The Bills have to travel to Dallas for Thursday but, I think, that may be a good thing. Dallas is a good team, but also a "normal" team. By that, I mean that Dallas' offensive and defensive schemes are not out of the ordinary. Neither team will put in much in the way of new exotic schemes/formations because they just don't have the time. The Bills' defensive scheme should serve them well as it isn't considered exotic or adjusted much game to game. But really, I'm looking beyond Dallas because the next team we face is very exotic. No other team has an offense like the Ravens. This takes time to prepare for and to scheme against. Those extra few days of prep after Thursday will give the Bills' defense an advantage that other teams didn't have against the Ravens. This could lead to an upset. #fingerscrossed We see this in college football where teams like my alma mater (Georgia Tech) had an exotic run-based offense (triple option) that helps them win or outperform during the regular season against "better" teams. But, once the schedule stretches out late in the season and for bowl games, they get slaughtered because teams are prepared. Let's hope those extra days help the Bills' defense against the Ravens' college offense.

Just imagine what would happen if a team announced it was looking for a “Christian Conservative” as a head coach. The league would blow a gasket and the team would be immediately sued for discriminatory hiring practices. I’m pretty uncomfortable with people equating religious adherence (be it Christian or any other) with particularly good character quality. I know a lot of atheists who are very strong character people that don’t require religious beliefs to be good leaders. I also know a lot of conservative Christians who are openly racist and really horrible people. It’s great that religions often stress strong character in their teachings but too many (particularly in the Southern US) preach that faith is all that matters and your personal character is secondary at best. I’ve also read and heard from NFL players that they were discriminated against during their careers because they were atheists. Chris Kluwe comes to mind, who sued the Vikings over his release after a conflict over his atheism with his ST coach. The NFL is predominantly made up of Christian players. They hold Christian prayer circles at the end of games. Anybody ever work in a company that has those? No other league does that. Unfortunately, Whitlock may be correct in that NFL players are more likely to “buy in” to an outwardly Christian coach because they are all from Evangelical backgrounds...and that’s a bad thing for any business. My 2 cents.

Raising disfunction to 11!

I think this will be a tough game for the Bills but one they should win. The game plan will be very different than against the Redskins. The Browns have a GREAT pash rush and for those complaining about too few play-action plays, I think you’ll see a lot of them against the Browns to slow down the pass rush. Given the Browns’ DEs, I think we’ll see a healthy dose of Gore and Singletary runs between the tackles. Defensively, Chubb is the whole game to me. If the Bills can stop him without loading the box with 8, it will force Mayfield to win the game with an inferior O-line protecting him. I see Landry getting a lot more targets than Beckham because he runs more shallow crossing routes and the Bills may have Tre dedicated to Beckham all day. And can we get some freakin’ INTs from our defense? Do they know they are allowed to catch passes?

Better and faster decisions is all I need to see from JA. He needs to recognize where to throw the ball sooner and get it out of his hands. Many (most?) of his fumbles were caused by holding he ball too long because he didn’t read and recognize the coverage soon enough to find the open receiver. I don’t care about total yards, completion percentages or INTs provided he’s making the right decisions fast enough. Everything with him is driven by his decision-making. Read and react sooner and he’ll fumble less, throw fewer picks, throw “on platform” more with greater accuracy and....complete the long ball! The good news is, I think he’ll get there. The signs of improvement are there but they’re coming slowly.

I've actually had the experience of being a patient of a Redskins' doctor. First, doctors to NFL teams are not exclusive to the teams. They are typically well-respected doctors from the community with their own practices. Mine was the one of the top orthopedic surgeons in Northern Virginia. How do I know this? Well... For a number of years, I had shoulder issues from playing tennis. My local ortho had taken x-rays and tried to treat my pain with anti-inflamitories. After a few years of that on and off, I asked for a cortisone shot. "No way, that could make your situation worse". Well...okay. Yikes. She had me get an MRI. I'm thinking, "Why didn't we do this two years ago?" In looking at the MRI report, she told me that my shoulder was very "messed up" and that it was likely too complex an issue for her. She referred me to the "top orthopedic surgeon" in the area. Next stop, the head doctor for the Redskins. I give him the MRI report and he says, "No, I need to see the film". We get the film. He spends 3 minutes looking at it and says, "Hmm, that's what I thought. The guy who read your film didn't take into account that you were 45. You have the regular shoulder of a guy your age. It's just inflamed." Five minutes later he gives me a cortisone shot and prescribes physical therapy. Goodbye shoulder problems. BTW, he no longer works with the Redskins. Suffice it to say that NFL doctors are often the best in their fields but they are not oncologists. Most doctors in my experience see problems as always something to do with their area of expertise. If they wield a hammer, every medical issue is a nail by default. However, my guess is that the Skins' doctor said "It's likely a benign mole" (or something) but your should see a dermatologist. Williams didn't ("who needs a zit doctor"). The Redskins have filed a request for an independent review of their treatment of Williams. That tells me that they likely did warn him is some way and he ignored it and wants to blame the team. Too bad doctors keep records.... My 2 cents.

I do think Bills’ fans overrate Barkley based on a single game. However, there is no way a lot of those QBs on the list, many who have never played in an NFL game, are better than Barkley. In reading that list, I’d put him above at least half of the names on that list. Bridgewater is likely the best but with such small or non-existent sample sizes, Barkley would have to be in the top 10, IMHO.

These guys will have ridden by the stadium at halftime:

Apparently, according to the USA Today: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/09/25/nfl-backup-qb-rankings-teams-jets-cowboys-giants/2360551001/ Pouring it on, they list Tyrod as the 3rd best backup in the league!

Damn, I knew that couldn't be original. I thought it might be Colorado but I didn't see references to them using it. Marshall might take offense but I doubt they could conflate "Thundering Herd" with "The Herd" in a copyright conflict.

No, "Bills Mafia" has too many bad connotations in the media, not least of which is that the "mafia" is a criminal organization. How about "The Herd". It's team specific. We won't pay royalties to Texas A&M. Logo wear would be cool. It has the added bonus of being a double entendre ("herd" is "heard") in that our opponents hear us! My 2 cents. EdW