fergie's ire

Yes, he will grow but I already think he is extremely impactful. People kept reading about how awesome he looked, so they expect excitement. I think they expect him to take Davis's role and be running go routes and 90 yard touchdowns. That's not his role. Right after the draft he was compared to Beasley, that is the role they hope he can fill. He can be someone with sure hands who can get open and find seems in zones. He did that several times yesterday, particularly early on. Comparing yards to other receivers does not make sense. He is someone you can count on to convert a 3rd down or stay on schedule by catching 6 or 7 yard passes.

Ummmm, have you SEEN what happens if Oldmanfan doesn't show up on Sunday morning? Me neither, but I would NOT want to find out.

Agreed. And another "splash" play that doesn't get credited to him on the stat sheet is the Hyde interception. The interception was Hyde's but Tua overthrew the receiver and it went to Hyde because of Bernard's position. The guy has been amazing. What a steal to get this guy in the 3rd round, eh?

I thought it was funny that Aikman commented that it takes a team with great linebackers to stop the Dolphins and, like the 49ers, the Bills have great linebackers. All I kept hearing pre-season was that the Bills' biggest weakness is linebacker.

What's EJ Gaines doing these days?

Virgil, I seem to remember after the Jets game that you said something like it would take you a while to feel better about this team. So, I have to ask. Has it been a while?

I believe I remember someone posting that Josh had an 80% completion percentage against the Jets well into the game before he wigged out and started chucking the ball around. If that's true, then if Josh had been patient and continued doing what he was doing he would have had an 80%+ percentage in 3 out of his 4 games and won the other one by over 30 points. Yikes. But he's not accurate and will always be a sub-60% completion guy.

Do you think that's what they're telling Tyreek right now? He had an almost identical stat line 3 for 58. "No, no, Tyreek...it's okay, that's GOOD for a #2 receiver."

Benford came back in. Johnson looked to be a cramp.

At first I read this as "peeing chicken" and thought, "What kind of weird antics did YOU get up to last night?"

Do you remember how we looked vs how Miami looked going into the first time we played last year? Do you remember how Dallas looked going into the game last week? We know very little about how good any of these teams are yet. I'm not sure what to expect on Sunday....or any given Sunday, for that matter.

That's great that Oliver has so many pressures, but it's also interesting to see Jonathan Allen near the top of that list and think that he did not give the Bills a lot of trouble. Another sign of the great job this line is doing and that they are getting better (given how they struggled against Williams).

Since? I would include those Rivers years as well. They may have made the playoffs a couple of times, but almost always underperform. Every year it seems like I hear THIS year the Chargers are going to challenge...but then they don't. I seem to remember one year they had something like a 3 game division lead with 4 to play and lost it. Just the Chargers being Chargery.

Wasn't the same kind of storm taking aim at the Baltimore game last year? Someone has to stop scheduling these late sept/early oct mid atlantic games.

I'll bite your legs off!!

It's always a bit silly to judge the strength of schedule before the season because you just don't know how things are going to change. All the talk this year has been about how much tougher our schedule is this year than last. However, before the season last year all the talk was about how tough the schedule was, particularly the beginning of the season when we played powers like the Rams and Titans. That said, it's equally tough to judge how hard the schedule will be in season. Early in the year the Dolphins looked great but the Jets looked terrible. Then the Jets went on a bit of a run with great defensive play. So, it's also not only who you play but when you play them. The Bengals look terrible right now but they might be great, and desperate, when we play them.

I DO understand the concern based on Monday's performance. It seems eerily similar to problems Josh and the Bills have had throughout his career. It also seemed like things were working in the first half. They didn't score a ton, but against that kind of defense (and lame offense) it's a sound strategy to gain a few yards, play field position, and get touchdowns or field goals when a situation presents itself. Josh just appeared incapable of being patient with that plan. That said, I think it is particularly hard to play a good defense in the first game in this day and age. Practice time is reduced, and playing time in pre-season is greatly reduced. They just aren't used to seeing and reading defenses. If there is one player I think might eventually rival Brady as a reader of defenses/decision maker, it's Joe Brady. He always seems to make the right decision. He threw for what, 80 yards? The first few games of the regular season are the new pre-season so there is hope that Josh will be a better, or at least more consistent, reader of defenses this year.

How so? In 21 regular season there were 3 games in the 40s and 4 games in the teens or lower (including a 6 point game and a 10 point game). In 22 there was one game in the 40s and only two games in the teens or lower (and it was 17 and 19 points). 22 seems more consistent.

As an artificial turf, I would think it'd be okay. Some of those rubber pellets coming up last night but as long as someone didn't do something like run a snow sweeper over it, I would think it'd be largely unaffected.

Took a quick look at a Bears forum. There seems to be some serious buyer's remorse. Here is one example: "Is Edmunds not good in coverage? I'm watching the highlights and he's been out of place NUMEROUS times. Cover 2, Cover 3, Cover 0 it doesn't matter. Edmunds takes false steps and gets himself out of position. He also gets turned around. He literally looks completely lost at times. I know one of the knocks on him was that he only had 1 great year. So far, I'm not impressed. He looks lost. This is just one example." Out of position? Looks lost? Whodda thunk it?

It's not the details of their playing styles. To me, Kirk and Rivers both have great stats and great ability...but when you look at their record it's meh. Always seem to win less than they should. Yes, part of that is team and coaching...but there also seems to be something missing that is hard to pinpoint.

He reminds me of Kirk Cousins....or Phillip Rivers.

KinKong?

Agreed. This is how it's done:

Sounds reasonable....until you consider I'm a geezer who's never been on the Twitter. But this is looking very YOLO-esque. Thank you. Now....if we can just get somebody to pin it.