fergie's ire

Apparently, it's now the third.

It looked to me like the biggest issue with Mahomes was on 3rd and long. They would also find a way to convert those in the past. Now, he looks hesitant. It's as if he turns into Tyrod Taylor and will hold the ball and only throw to guys who are wide open.

He's here. He's there. He's every bloody-where.

I was thinking Wake Forest....scoring 70pts with 17 minutes of possession.

I'd like to see him catch Marino on Sunday.

High school English teachers will always tell you that a double negative equals a positive, but that is not entirely accurate. Sometimes it is used to designate a neutral. Are you comfortable? I'm not UNcomfortable (meaning I am neither comfortable nor uncomfortable). This kind of double negative construction is not uncommon in academic writing, for example. So, I think he is saying he doesn't feel like he is being pushed out...that they want to get rid of him...even if he doesn't feel they are entirely sold on him and want to keep him long term. Probably a pretty accurate read, actually.

With a broken hand.

I see this game and the Cowboys/Pats games as really similar. In both, the superior team failed numerous times to get touchdowns in the red zone, allowing the lesser team to stay in it. Then, at the end, the Cowboys made bad decisions (and won) and the Bills made good decisions (and lost). It happens. In the Pittsburgh game I was so annoyed because on 4th and 1 it was as if they said, "We have Josh Allen and so if we sneak him it'll work 98% of the time.....so let's throw it four yards backwards...they'll NEVER expect that." We had a play that works most of the time, they ran it and the line got blown up and Josh slipped....it happens.

Oh no, I fell for a counterfeit matriculate? I hadn't noticed.

And there it is...

I know it's a night game, but still....Shouldn't there be a call for matriculation by about now?

That disciplinarian "I am smarter and tougher than anyone else" act works for a while but then wears thin. Reports are that that is what eventually wore thin with Brady. Bellichick had Brady to back him up (for most of the run) and they won. But with that kind of coach things tend to snowball when a team starts losing. It's hard to listen to a coach who screams at you because he knows better than everyone else, when his record is 1-5. That's always been the problem with the Belichick coaching tree.

Then you can also have the situation where the starter goes down and then you have the starting QB as your holder. Either you have to take precious snaps away from your starter or from practicing holding. While quarterbacking is most important, if holding isn't practiced enough the guy could botch a hold and cost his team a playoff game. You said it was Parcells who said this, right? And have quarterbacks done this since Romo? I think that might have been the end right there.

I wonder if the person who made the original tweet searched a database and entered 4 weeks as a parameter....not considering the possibility of a bye.

Yeah, Dabo should be banned from watching film of the Mularkey years.

It's okay...One day at a time....but you may want to stay out of TE discussion threads.

Looks like they're cleaning up.

You DO realize that by saying you haven't spoke of him you have now spoken of him and need to re-start that clock. Good luck.

The Patriots with Brady would often do this thing where they would try to figure things out in the first 4 or 5 games...almost like a pre-season. They would look beatable and have some struggles...but by November they would have everything clicking and would become a juggernaut. It feels like the Bills are doing something similar...not seeing the same 4 and 5 wide we were seeing last year and it's almost like Josh is learning a new offense. Most have noticed that it looks choppy and his completion percentage is down. (And yet, thanks to the talent of Josh and others we still manage to have the top scoring offense while not looking as smooth as last year...which is a nice bonus) However, I suspect that soon he will have this new offense humming. Once he does, I suspect that this won't be the new offense...It won't replace what we did last year, but we will be able to switch based on conditions/opponent. If that happens, this team is going to be really scary.

Yeah, that's the part that gets me. Asking a source to look at an article to make sure he has been quoted fairly is common practice...but to say "Mr. Editor" as if Allen gets final say on the article, even if done jokingly, seems odd.

The one thing that makes me question whether he will be back is the bye week. Hamstrings are notorious for re-occurring and they might decide it would make sense to rest him this week which would give it three weeks off to heal (four weeks between games) and so he would be fully recovered. But maybe it was a slight enough pull that they feel it is already 100%.

I seem to remember a lot of runs to the outside. I suspect he might find a 6'7" defensive player of the week standing there this year.

He did have happy feet...or was at least rushing...and that's the reason the narrative that the interception was all because Hill dropped it really bothers me. I have seen Mahomes calmly float the ball out in front of Hill so he can grab in stride while keeping his eyes down field. However, on this play Mahomes seemed to rush throwing it and threw it on a line and hard, I think before Hill was really ready for it. Also, though they were playing deep, Hyde and someone else (Edmunds maybe?) were closing fast on Hill and I think he felt rushed to grab it before getting lit up. Yes, it is a ball he SHOULD catch but it was not an unforced error to use the tennis terminology. That's what pressure does and it's what we lacked in last year's game.

I remember playing touch football in high school. I was on defense and one of my friends was a receiver. He was standing in the end zone and looks back towads the QB and says, "What am I doing. He can't throw the ball this far." All of us on defense went, "Yeah...he can't" and moved up about 10 yards....and then the QB threw the ball over our heads to my friend standing in the end zone. That's what it looked like on this play...like "Yeah...he can't throw it this far on the run.....OH NO!!!"

Yeah, I don't know if they were resting him, but certainly seemed to be doing less with him. Against Miami, for example, he would drop in coverage they would blitz from several different places...I think even stunted him a bit. Seems more vanilla the last few weeks. However, I think Rousseau was selected to make Mahomes less comfortable the way he can peel off and get in a quarterback's way when he rolls out...so I think they really want to do more to unleash him next week.