AKC

Simpson was gracefully powerful with extra gears- he wouldn’t even appear to be accelerating but he would be putting space between himself and defenders. A top 5 back all-time IMO. Thurman had a supernatural ability to sense and utilize other players- and not just his own teammates- as blockers. His feet shuffled more than they chopped and he was an excellent back in his era. He just didn’t have the physical gifts of OJ., he was more of an instinct/intangibles back who was otherworldly at picking angles/position/speed.

Hopefully Wednesday or Thursday we don’t start hearing about a stomach bug, especially along the OL where there was a lot of close quarters breathing with the Boys D. It seems Parsons has been fighting it for over a week?

I thought McDaniels completely failed in having this team ready to get punched in the face, which seemed like the only real chance Vrabel had. And that's how I saw it play out. Considering the Titans gave the Fish 21 points between their offense and ST, the Fish weren't really in this game at all and their Offense earned nothing. The Fish weren't going to beat the Titans last night but the Titans sure gave it a good try. Miami was awful- Tua lived all the way down to the most skeptical opinions of his limitations; that he can perfect the repetitions of a video game console but he has no chance if he is asked to play football. There is real reason for Fish fan meltdown and if Tyreek Hill's ankle continues to get worse the AFC East is in play.

I am trying to find the film of Mahomes demanding they "let us play" after this play a week ago: Mahomes Not A Late Hit Flag

Since the scaletipper for the league has for some time been nonfootball issues, Mahomes may simply have been trying to emphasize how happy ignoring an obvious penalty would have made the biggest celebrity in the stadium.

It’s a common football dilemma. McDermott is the Dak Prescott of NFL coaching. Some weeks you believe and others not so much but there are plenty of fair arguments to go around.

As many have pointed out, the Sharp column could cut more ways than simply Sharp’s opinion of McDermott killing off the Offense. Seems like he let his opinion run the story even when the stats had other interpretations. Dorsey has been the agent of horrible playcalling while he also failed at adopting his concepts completely to a talent level at QB Dorsey may not get to work with again. Allen has his handicaps, the biggest being his short range touch that will never allow him to have a deadly screen/short game like some of his peers, but at the same time his ability to extend plays and laser throwing through tight lanes are best in the league. Allen wants to see himself as a Peyton Manning scanning the field and making decisions on the fly but that’s not ever going to be his strength and his OC must control that. There are a number of ways to limit that, not the least of which is to call more plays under center, where statistically Allen is at his best. Seeing us on the 1 yard line in the red zone with Allen in shotgun over this despicable stretch of ball this season showed me Dorsey does not have the understanding to work with Josh Allen. Dorsey earned his firing in the worst way. The frustration with McDermott that may end up being his undoing is his inability to improve on his worst impulses. It’s surprising from a martial arts guy- those are disciplines where you do not move forward in your art until you have learned to overcome your weakest skill. Maybe he just can’t get enough reps in a sport with only 17 chances every season? Instead of getting better at his disastrous end of game coaching McDermott can’t keep from falling all over himself. Between that and the indications he may be losing the players he is definitely skating on the swift edge of the river. I’d been thinking for the past few weeks if he didn’t get to 11 wins this year the owners would move on. There will be lots of former coaches chomping at the bit to come in, but the pain of the roster makeover might be as brutal as the horrible product we are putting out there these last 6 games. Good time to be a drinker if you’re on our side.

Your posts apparently are not arriving at OBD in a timely manner.

Watching the Miami postgame was interesting. Tua went first with a bunch of “communication problems” excuses followed by McDaniels talking about players not being where they were supposed to be. I realize it’s just week 4 but if the whipping you just took is based upon your offense being too complicated, you appear to be forecasting a lot more bad weather.

It appears Jones did land on the perfect roster. His response to questions about that play was “things can get really physical out there…”. Among my coconspirators in life the idea that the purposeful handling of another guys junk was some type of “physical activity” wouldn’t find any takers, but then again I would have turned in a scumbag neighbor like Whitey Bulger but I know many Pats fans in LA who were pissed at the guy that gave him up.

Replaced by a player who is more mobile and more physical for 17 million a year less. Looking for the downside, maybe "doesn't know the D as well" or "doesn't have the same impact in children's shadow theater". I'm good with the tradeoff.

Dorsey did the right thing letting Spencer Brown hit Crosby again and again with runs to that side early. It should be the formula whenever Brown is going up against a good pass rusher. Crosby is good against the run too but it really took him out of his rushing game by getting worked regularly by a bigger player. We have tools to punish opponents and on O we really benefit when we use them. Hopefully we keep getting more each game from our TEs who can make secondaries pay for deep zone coverages.

Top of my wish list for tomorrow is for our running game to be heavily focused on the right side allowing Spencer Brown to punish Crosby early and often. It’s a sport about punishment and if you’re not punishing them……

I don't even have to create the graph on the rising spend on interior DLine, front offices in the league have done my job for me 😉

If you look at the disadvantages of shotgun, it helps the D identify pass protections and in the run game the RB and Oline lose the element of surprise in attacking the LOS. Also the QB can’t hide the ball. Under center there are more things the O can do and the D has to remain aware of a larger playbook, which is diminished out of the gun. If your QB is great at reading the initial movements of the D there is an advantage in shotgun that may be exploited, but that advantage is regularly diminished if the QB isn’t making an immediate decision and throwing the ball. In our situation having the QB with the tendency to not just favor the pass but extending plays to throw long you can at least put him in the more natural position to run the ball by forcing him to line up under center some of the time. It’s becoming a discipline issue for us. If you leave Josh in the gun he is going to err towards using his arm. If you start him on the LOS it should be easier for him to accept and execute a called running play.

Dorsey has a responsibility to convince his QB to believe in the gameplan. Seems he rarely gets a buy in from Josh. My reaction watching the game was “why isn’t Dorsey getting Josh under center where he won’t freelance as much” but that would mean your practices leading into the game included a decent number of plays under center. The reality is surely that during practice the past week Dorsey had Josh in shotgun for most or all of the Jets plan. And that’s for sure on Dorsey- you need to harness in the QB you get him up to the LOS.

Clean Air and Caucasians, dude!

I enjoyed the construction of your post and the effort. You clearly understand something that's elusive for a lot of fans of the NFL in the modern era- successful teams today have a strategy that isolates positions where a big ticket expenditure can be acceptable, versus the old school reaction of filling ugly holes in your roster with big spends that will keep you from being a more complete team in your strategic image. NFL GMs have nearly completely figured out that the big RB money dump doesn't work. A contemporary contender like the Bills should continue following their strategy instead of going Imelda Marcos and following the Rams model of stepping outside their strategy to buy up all the shiny shoes they're sure everyone else is idolizing.

I expect Belichick to exploit Brady's greatest weakness by putting obstacles in front of his feet to keep him from stepping into the pocket. When Brady is forced to throw without stepping up not only does his passing proficiency drop but he is more likely to get hit, even if it's after the throw. And no one in the league hates getting hit more than TB*.

The dynamic I’d add though is in the case of Belichick/Brady they are far more joined than other coach/QB duo. In the league’s freak out to hide the extent of the Spygate cheating they covered up the fact that Brady was a full-in participant. The NE* use of the coaches radio signal beyond the playcall and instead during the play, confirmed when Flutie as a Pat* disclosed it to a former ESPN sideline reporter, required of course the participation of Brady. That part of the cheating, hidden from the public, was used to give Brady info on the defense play call in real time. The kind of thing worth at least a score per game. In Super Bowls the Pats* won by 3 points. The NFL was left with vacating the wins or covering it up. They chose the latter. But the two principals will always be perfect examples of the willingness to corrupt the morality of competition and decency to achieve that which they had not been able to achieve honestly.

I would never have guessed that when I got to Alfred in 76. My regular hangout was Gentleman Jim’s and State had a large bar I think they called the Campus Pub.

I can appreciate that ADD could make the message board experience more challenging but a study of the contributors here might help a lot. Most of us are simply fans but occasionally we are lucky enough to get opinions from people in the Bills organization or others like Simon who have gotten paychecks for playing the game. Seems to me the chance to come away with a greater understanding is most promising from that latter set of posters?

Star remains a fan lightning rod but it seems he gives the staff to use their shiny new toys to best potential. After I think the third hit on Brissett they had a nice shot of his face which seemed to say "this is going to be a looooonnnngggg afternoon"! I agree with you we will need a more liberal application of Moss going forward if we want to open up the long toss for Sanders. One other element is that McKenzie/threat of McKenzie pulls the deep safety far enough off the play to allow that crease Singletary exploits.

That’s where I’ve been on Edmunds for a long time. Our staff coached him out of his college habit of jumping into the offensive line before dxing plays but whatever whoopass he might otherwise have possessed left with that. I’d send him a bag of broken glass to chew on before games but the USPS wouldn’t like it. Frazier certainly got a lot out of their read on the Fish blocking scheme that left us 8 or 9 free outside rushers before they adjusted. It won’t be surprising to see more teams sacrifice returns on punts in favor of sending extra bodies for the block. Not only does it seem to take forever for us to get the punt in the air but our P has an “unusually” low contact point on his kicks.

We only had 8 RB rushing TDs in 2020. If he suits up on any game days this season he may very well get some playing time in short yardage packages.