fergie's ire

I agree...but I don't think the Bills coaching staff cares, and good for them. The Patriots used to do this where they would work on stuff in September as if it were pre-season. Often, they would lose a game early in the season and look bad in some close wins. Media and wishful opposing fans would trumpet the end of the Patriot era...and then they were great come December and January. McDermott said that he sat Codrington because he wanted to look at Samual and Strong. I think players are being sat who COULD play but want to heal them up. It's almost like load management. The focus is on winning in the playoffs not winning now. They're doing that and still undefeated? That's awesome. If they can keep it up until the bye, they will be in great shape.

Yes, I have been trying to find stats on blitz rates...this year vs last. Seems they are doing more, but for some reason fans don't seem to notice a difference. It might be because those blitzes are not getting home. I even remember someone on this board posting that he wishes Bills would blitz corners like other teams do. Well, I remember that Tre blitzed Tua...and whiffed. I also seem to remember that there were several corner blitzes that were effective vs the run against the Jets. The Bills are doing these things. It's just that they are bad at them and they are often out of position (particularly against Baltimore). The hope is that they will learn and get better throughout the year. The bye will help...as will getting players back. So WILL they get better? Hard to say and it might be really bad if they don't, but I don't think the Bills are playing it safe and doing the same old thing, which I appreciate.

Ahhh, beating George Seifert's record. I always remember George Seifert because as a kid I was a huge Cornell football fan. Seifert was fired as coach after two years with a record of 3-15. Who knew he would go on to such great things at the NFL level?

You could be right....except who is going to win that division? The Steelers? They looked good this past Sunday, but, before that, I had not been impressed even in their wins. And will Rodgers hold up? So if not the Ravens and Steeler, what? The Bengals look dreadful without Burrow. The Browns?

It may have been the execution, particularly Van Demark's, but to me this was a bad call. It's 4th and short and so the defense is mostly worried about Josh or Cook up the middle. That is where the surge is going to come from. So, if you want to run a trick play to catch them off guard, you want to run away from where the pressure is. The Moore touchdown against the Jets is a good example. I haven't rewatched it, but at the time it did not look like one player blew the play up but like there was a giant traffic jam right where Shakir received the ball.

Yeah, I'm always skeptical of easy/hard schedule talk in the NFL. Often teams nobody expects to be good have a great season and sometimes perceived good teams fall off, often because of injury. Cincinnati is a good example of the latter this year. Also, some teams are good at one point of the year and not so good at another. If we'd played LA at this time last year they would have been considered a bad team, but at the end of the year they were probably one of the four best. However, what I find interesting this year is that, so far at least, everything is breaking our way. I can see several teams that some people thought MIGHT be good (Bengals, Texans, Steelers, Patriots...even the Dolphins) and they all are trending worse. Do we see any team on our schedule that is trending better than we expected? (One game is not a trend, Carolina.) I don't see it. Things can change but so far the luck is on the Bills side.

Agreed. He is better at looking for them. He reads coverage better and looks to hit the short pass with easy yardage early in his progression. Phase one Josh would hold on to the ball forever looking for the deep shot. Phase two Josh would look for the deep pass but if it wasn't there would reluctantly take the checkdown. Now, in phase 3, if the defenses warrants it, he will look for the sure 5 to 7 yard gain first. I saw some All 22 analysis that showed that in the Dolphins game there were some receivers open deep but Josh never made it that far in his progression because he'd already seen he had the short pass. Now, if the defense takes away the short, I hope Josh will read it and go deep, and though it hasn't happened a lot, it has happened enough that it suggests he will. For example, there was the shot to Coleman (I think against Jets) down the sideline where Coleman had beaten his man deep, and would have been a deep pass but the defender grabbed him for DPI.

Agreed. In fact, if I understand the rule right, I think Allen was short. The announcers kept talking about where his knee hit, but the rule says he is down where he "begins his slide." I take it to mean that he is down the second he kicks his legs up in a sliding motion...before he lands. I also seem to remember the rule was changed because Peyton Manning did like a Kung Fu kick where he went flying like 4 yards in the air in a sliding motion before he landed because he knew that defenders couldn't hit him once he was sliding, but could gain a bunch of yards before his slide landed.

I've been having the same issue. Hate to see a division rival gain momentum, but Patriots have not looked very good, even in their win. That said, clearly the Steelers had Super Bowl expectations. I never thought those expectations were realistic...but still, seems like a team that if things come together could compete with the Bills in AFC so I'd rather see them taken out of the mix. It's kind of tie, but the tiebreaker is that I can't stand Rodgers...so I'm going Patriots on this one.

I remember last year when Poyer said Josh was the best and Tuanon went crazy. This year even Tua is pretty much like "No kidding. That guy's AWESOME! Wish we had a quarterback like him."

Question: In order to save time, would you allow people to only watch 2 games if one of them was the Browns 6-3 game?

Yes, the Dolphins have poor play and injuries on OL, but how about that defense? When the Patriots took a knee just before half, it was the first opponent's drive in their two games that did not end in points.

Some of the fins fans who are still delusional are hailing the return of the deep ball connection between Tua and Hill after the Patriots game. There WAS a long completion, but if you saw it, it was emblamatic of the kind of play in that game on both sides of the ball. Hill Patriot DBs bracketing him front and back. Tua threw up a ball that looked like a punt. The defender in front of Hill stayed in front and didn't make a play on the ball. The DB trailing completely lost the ball (and Hill) and just ran past him...leaving Hill open to catch the ball. It was one of the ugliest deep ball plays I've ever seen.

Interesting. Maybe they have mended fences or maybe it was just rumors. Still....feels both parties have moved on.

They lost to a Patriots team that lost to the Raiders and looked terrible. Let's not pretend it was the 07 Patriots.

No? There were lots of rumors that they did NOT part on good terms and the post game handshake seemed a bit frosty. See discussion:

They might be. Also, after watching the Bills game and checking in on the Dolphins game, I think it might be possible that 3 of the worst 6 teams might be in the AFC East.

"Glad to be joined by newest broadcast partner. Thanks for taking over for Kirk as my new color commentator, Peter." "Woof...woof woof woof. woof. woof woof." "Well put Peter, couldn't have summed this game up better myself."

The record is even more amazing when you realize the two loss were the heat game and the Charles Clay drop. Could easily be 14-0

I found it so annoying this past week that, after the Bills/Ravens game, the medias favorite talking point was that Rogers was back and the Jets are much improved. Coming into the season most thought the Jets suck. Rogers was sacked 4 times and needed a 60 year field goal to win. Might that mean that both teams suck?

The Steelers, with a pretty good defense, had the same problem in the playoffs last year.

Yeah, I think the narrative of a choke is a bit overblown, but also of it being a blowout up to that point. In a game where both teams are scoring on almost every drive, I think of it like tennis. Need to score a touchdown to hold serve. Bills were broken twice in the first half, but the field goal at the end to match the Ravens' earlier field goal really helped. That way, even when they scored right out of the half, the Bills were really down a break. Just needed one stop to tie. That's the reason the Bills 4th quarter punt was so deflating. They had NOT been able to break serve (much like the frustration Jessica Pegula felt in her semi-final) and it seemed they just weren't going to be able to. The punt was like another break. So, that was the first time the Bills were down more than one break...but then they broke the Ravens...and again...and again.

Are you young...or have you found some miracle cure for LSBFS? I must say, I still carry the infection. I was expecting something like a perfectly executed drive to set up a winning field goal...followed by a doink. Or a block...which almost happened.

**sigh** How many times are we going to have to go over this? It's a really simple and straight forward calculation: The NFL passer rating equation involves calculating four separate values (a, b, c, and d) based on completions, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions relative to attempts, and then applying the formula ((a + b + c + d) / 6) * 100, where each intermediate value is capped between 0 and 2.375. Step-by-step Calculation: Adjust values: If any of the calculated values (a, b, c, or d) is greater than 2.375, set it to 2.375. If any of the values is negative, set it to 0. Apply the final formula: Passer Rating = ((a + b + c + d) / 6) × 100 Calculate intermediate values: d = 2.375 - (Interceptions / Attempts) × 25 a = ((Completions / Attempts) - 0.3) × 5 b = ((Passing Yards / Attempts) - 3) × 0.25 c = (Touchdown Passes / Attempts) × 20 Apply the final formula: Passer Rating = ((a + b + c + d) / 6) × 100 Adjust values: If any of the calculated values (a, b, c, or d) is greater than 2.375, set it to 2.375. If any of the values is negative, set it to 0. (Thanks Google AI)

I would hope they play better...but would not expect a huge jump. I expect...and am not to worried about...some growing pains. The Bills did not get an entirely new coaching staff, so not an entire re-vamp. However, they did add several new coaches which suggests there is a change in philosophy. Despite the poor play, we saw some of that on Sunday. There was a play when Bills showed cover zero...but backed out. There was a Rousseau knocked down pass when he was standing at the line because it was a zone blitz. Their defense is more creative but they're still learning how to do it. They are doing so with a number of rookies playing and a second year safety. I think the Bishop blitz from 20 yards away was a sign of some of that confusion. He was bluffing playing 2 high but the Ravens snapped quickly and he was caught out of position. They are learning...but may take the entire regular season to learn and the offense will need to carry them. Think about how bad the Chiefs D was while they were learning Spags D in the regular season...and then was great in the playoffs. That's what I'm hoping. Also, I think what this style of D needs is a speed corner who can stick with a receiver in man and a swiss army knife edge rusher who they can move around. They drafted one (Max Hairston) and signed the other (Hoicht) but neither are playing.