AKC

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.

I'd like to just add to your points that it was all made possible only by virtue of the Pegula's combined discipline. How many investors in a new field would overcome what it took for the Pegulas to allow the consolidation of power at their head coaching position after the disaster they had just experienced with Rex Ryan? Most people in their situation would have erred on the side of caution instead of allowing their new coaching hire to become an influencer at the GM position but it was their steady decision-making that made the Beane hire happen. It's now paying those big dividends as you have outlined.

Trend: Sean McDermott and Andy Reid are 1 and 1 against each other with the winner in both cases being the visiting team.

FWIW a friend of mine was over for a while yesterday and we watched both the Lamar Jackson and Mahome's collisions. He's a doctor who regularly treats concussions. The gist was that both were concussions but Jackson's was the more common where the brain bounces off the occipital and bangs the front of the skull whereas Mahomes was a temporal concussion where the brain shake was side to side. He said Mahomes inability to get up was consistent and that the symptoms for the two different impact injuries are also to some degree unique.

That’s right, they are asking the simple question of whether Jackson would be better with Diggs on his team and the answer is obvious. But the compound question includes whether Diggs would be better with Jackson as his QB and that answer also is obvious. Bottom line is Diggs is a better WR with Allen throwing the ball and Allen is a better QB with Diggs catching it. That reciprocal dynamic would not exist with many of the other starting QBs in the league and that goes double for Lamar at this point in his career.

Did their sideline reporter just say “Gronk looking confused”?

With all due respect to the fine work Ken Dorsey has done with Josh, the product Chad Hall puts on the field every week is remarkable. Hall is the epitomal overachieving Process grinder, going from a very limited career in the NFL pulling in less than half of his targets to taking an assemblage of diverse talents at WR and seemingly making each more complete at their craft. Our WRs are pumped up, humble and ready to help team first every week. Our receivers go hard to get the ball while most around the league expect the ball to find them. Watching Smoke channel Gabriel Davis on the sidelines last night exemplified Chad’s accomplishments in OP. Brown came to us as a FA with some very good skills but his work on the perimeter was a weakness. Hall should be a guy making a move up the ladder if Daboll becomes a Head Coach. Maybe an Asst. OC title while he keeps the WR job too?

Top round is in the oven. Making weck roles in a couple hours. Raven tastes like cormorant so we’ll leave that to hardier souls than us. Couldn’t be happier that Baltimore D has been playing the 2019 game over and over getting their confidence up. A few surprises coming up for our opponent who lost to a team we beat twice and had the luxury of playing the NFC Easy. Game on!

Edmunds was more effective against the run this year when he was playing at the LOS. His length advantage isn’t sacrificed against that TE short pass offense when he’s along the line either. It won’t be a surprise to see him up and holding one of the edges regularly against the Ravens. For the most part it seems our tackling issues have been against physical runners and not against finesse runners like Jackson who rely on elusiveness versus power. The Ravens may be almost tailor made for setting our D up for a good outing against the run.

The first half story was how badly we got worked on ST yet walked the tunnel for orange sections with the lead. I’m inclined to believe the QB runs today were at least as much to force the next defense(s) we see to be ready so perhaps BD got a little ahead of himself, but the only thing that matters is the advance to next week.

I'm pretty sure the next beer run in Rich Stadium is mine Mr. S! How long has it been- maybe 20 years? I took a couple decades off to hold together an old Super Bowl Bill's Backers Club from Los Angeles to see it through the "quiet years". A strong 800 member group with about 500 at the Bill's Bar on openers/big games. We only have so much time to spend on our Bill's passion! Our management is bought into Epenesa- his real opp to shine will be Saturday and as you point out his edge skills in the run game make him the fit for the start Saturday. Playoffs are when all defenses get better- we shall see if anyone has an answer for our star QB!

You got me on the literal meaning of turning it off! Accurately that actually meant when the game broadcast ended.