AKC

I heard Simon was stirring up the pot and since the greatest post ever on this Board was in response to his literary skills I figured I might take a look. How are the Bills doing? 😏 Hope things are going good with you and the balance.

Playing the long game, Tomlin sees an advantage to a playoff matchup against us this postseason if his players are focused on being more physical. Leader of our D isn’t a physical guy. Surprising how many game day analysts including Sunday night have called Tremaine physical. That’s hardly his game. He’s long and laterally fast, but I don’t recall him ever knocking the snot out of a running back. Not too many years ago we had a couple LBs with different games. Tremaine is much more London Fletcher than he is Takeo Spikes. He isn’t getting in the runners grill to knock him out, he’s instead trying to bring him down without a big collision. I love his skills but it’s poor homework to call him physical. Was the team more physical Sunday than Pitt? Maybe, but not by a large margin IMO. My guess is Tomlin looking at the likelihood of seeing us again and shaming his guys a bit for the rematch.

Josh continues throwing to targets who have let him down in games. He does not seem to have any of the “punish receivers who drop passes” reaction that’s not uncommon in this league among passers, even the better passers. Last night he continued feeding Gabriel Davis and Dawson Knox after they’d let passes go that should have been brought down. The flip side of the coin is Diggs who preaches to all of them to catch the ball before doing anything else. Not that Diggs doesn’t have a couple drops this season but he’s exponentially more reliable than Knox. Glad he was successful lobbying for the ball at halftime last night!

It’s like the calculation on STs of whether to send your KO out of the end zone to avoid a return but sacrifice the chance of a turnover or penalty. I’m not suggesting they’ll leave the field wide open for him but I‘ll be surprised if they don’t make it look like there’s room to run when possible. A spy or defender can stack himself and hide from view for periods of time on most plays.

Of those elements of Allen’s game where there have not been improvement this season, ball protection in the pocket and on the run are the most pronounced. I have no doubt Pats* practices this week included a large dose of showing lanes on passing downs to entice Allen to run and then having 11 players going for the strip. He’s the easiest QB to strip on the run that I can ever recall in our uni. Josh just doesn’t have the awareness running backs get trained in because he has too many other things to work on in practice and the offseason and that’s exacerbated by his unwillingness to slide. I’d like to see him leave the running Sunday to our RBs. Belichick will also have them working for strips on every Singletary touch. That could be to our benefit if Devin turns that into a lot of broken tackles. Belichick will bet the other side of that proposition. Also our changeup in Moss could really have a big game for the same reason. He’s a tough tackle anyway and if they don’t focus 100% on bringing him right down he could burn them for some big gains. I like our chances a lot if turnovers don’t kill us.

While there were some cringeworthy decisions to throw the ball yesterday this play was the other end of the scale for me. We've spent decades watching notable opponent QBs throwing that ball and drawing flags while our own QBs would have looked to go to someone who didn't have a defender draped on his chest. Without the throw there's no PI flag. We've had that flag thrown on us over and over during the drought and costing us plenty of games- thanks Josh for proceeding with the play the elite at your position are comfortable throwing and expectant of the reward you earned.

Brady can’t play anywhere else where they will feed him the defensive play call through his helmet receiver and Belichick can’t afford to bring any new QB into that system without fear of exposure for all these years of exploiting Roger's incompetence. Stakes are too high for both of them. Brady isn’t going anywhere.

It's a tale of questionable decisionmaking that goes on even after he's done the honorable thing by hanging himself. I noticed in episode 3 the service for him was held at Fagass Funeral Home. Seems like someone might have considered other options?

Apparently these are learned behaviors in Boston*! More Boston* Sports Cheating

My guess is if he plays ball in the 2020 season it's in NE* or nowhere. There clearly continues to be a signal stealing program in place in NE* and Brady has been an insider on that from the beginning. He is the recipient, however they are relaying info during the game, of the data they're obtaining in contravention of league rules. I doubt that Bellichick wants to risk corrupting an additional QB so it leaves Brady just the one place to play with that obvious advantage and Bellichick to modify at least the data delivery system if Brady moves on. It might be worth arguing one other option but I get the idea he doesn't want to follow McDaniels and it will of course take years for McDaniels to assemble to type of data theft program/library and delivery system the Pats* use. That timeline won't work for Brady. The other thing I see is that Brady doesn't really want to play football anymore- he just wants to throw passes and avoid any type of contact. Jim Everett must be losing it over the haranguing he took for one collapse in the pocket while there must be a highlight reel of 2019 Brady swoons to avoid football contact. I may have seen 6 of their games this year and I'd bet there are at least 10 times he went Marcia in those. I'm surprised I haven't seen a compilation of those embarrassments to manhood and the many tough guys who played the position over the years.

Mo Sanu was catching over 83% of passes thrown his direction and gaining 7.45 yards per target with Ryan throwing him the ball the first 7 games of the season. With Tommie Boy his numbers fell to a 51.9% catch rate and only 4.19 yards per target. It's difficult for me to blame that plunge over the falls on the receiver.

Had a year in Houston back in the Oiler days. While the Astrodome was a piss-poor sports theater they had competitive teams and all the fame rituals that we associate with regional stars applied. No one bigger than Earl Campbell who kept asking me to play racquetball with him- I had never played it in my life and his thighs were bigger around than my chest so I figured that was a bad call. Tough bringing in another franchise when you had a loved one preceding it. I had some great times with Earl and his FB Tim Wilson. We finish the Texans season tomorrow, not the Oilers!

I so appreciate you using words that come easy for your kind! I fixed the balance for you since math is clearly not your strength! When we add in Gilmore* grabbing Parker's collar as Parker launches for another of the passes we have- by your own math- 5 of the passes your disappointing overpriced FA had no chance at the ball at all because he just doesn't have those kind of ball skills against good receivers. The other passes you don't reference, so you are clearly conceding the fact that Gilmore* wasn't anywhere near an "INT opp". So I'll wait (forever!) for you to provide a list of : Passes to Parker on 29DEC2019 that Clutch Gilmore* would in your words "get picked Or inc because they are under thrown or to far" (nice English skills too Baked Bean!) I'll wait for your list. Looking forward to total number of tosses to Parker that would “3 out of 4" times normally have been picked off! As for your Boston Love, I was at Schaefer Stadium in 1981 and I met all 12 Patriots fans who attended the game. Maybe you know Duncan or Red? Maybe Muffy? FYI there were at least 500 Bills fans! Your fan base is one of the weakest in the league and will recoil to its filthy, tiny, base of apologist cheating faeces, if my watch is correct, in about 2 weeks. That will end up "Beating" in real time the arraignment of your disgusting owner for paying for sex with ugly ancient nail trimmers. Shower time!

That's simply nonsense. Since you're a Pats* fan you probably haven't been watching football for long but no life-long fan of the game watching the domination of Parker over Gilmore* yesterday would suggest anything so silly and so provably false. Parker whips on Gilmore all day long 29 Dec 2019 The funniest thing is that "Clutch" Gilmore*, the nickname he earned from clutching receivers jerseys, really only "stops" one pass yesterday. Its on a 3rd and 5. And how does he "make the play"? He grabs Parker's collar and literally pulls him down away from the ball! The announcers didn't catch it but anyone can see from the clip there's no way Parker's body reverses course after he leaps without the "assist" from Grabby Gilmore*! Gilmore*'s a decent CB coached up to grab jerseys and accept that the zebra's won't throw a flag his way more than once or at most twice a game. Parker did a fine job keeping Gilmore* from clutching him early in his routes and except that outrageous missed PI on the 3rd down play Parker's numbers against Gilmore* were 7 catches on 8 targets. And on the other incomplete pass that looks from the network film like it sailed over Parker's head I'm willing to bet that once we see the film from the other side of the field we'll all be able to clearly see Clutch with a handful of Parker's jersey keeping him from blowing past Gilmore*. So take your laughable "Gilmore was there..." (He was nowhere near any but two or arguably three of the balls to Parker) and "half of those get picked" (you can't pick off anything if you're nowhere near the ball) and focus on some sport that people from New England have watched for generations and might know something about. Hockey or Basketball would be good places to start- everyone knows no one born near Boston knows anything about Baseball!

Something else Baldinger could have added is that after forcing the checkdown Oliver turns downfield to improve his angle and force a new perimeter for the receiver. He doesn’t lose his discpline and go straight to the ball but instead helps to secure a best case/more limited field for our D on the RAC.

Dave Mondillo 18 Year Long Employee of Patriots*/Kraft Mondillo, the "suspended" (or maybe not) producer of the signal stealing video in Cleveland, is not an independent contractor. In fact, contrary to the statements made by Belichick and the Pats* he has been the producer of Belichick's weekly segment working directly with him. Mondillo according to this source is one of the voices in the clip Glazer released. It does not appear there is any even provable lie that Belichick and the Pats* don't think they can feed the media. The damage done by this organization to good coaches in football across the country who teach integrity and respect of the rules is massive. The narrative pushed by the Pats* that "everyone does it" is a libel on every decent coach at every level of the game who teach honest play. It is fitting that Belichick's press conference included his snark about how they "don't push it as far as they used to". Someone might want to remind him that he and his team have been penalized and fined historic amounts for the way they "pushed it", or in other words cheated and corrupted the game of football.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/09/security-had-to-save-brittany-matthews-patrick-mahomes-girlfriend-from-patriots-fans/ Decades of empty stadiums following the declaration of Rosie Ruiz that "Boston doesn't care how you win". Nice job Boston!

With a high snap yesterday that "pass" was up in McKenzie's faceguard. Since we pull the OC on those a defender sitting on the play could fire through the A gaps and knock the ball up for grabs. We seem to have a little more air on our exchange than I see with KC for instance. Probably be a good idea to start working to reduce the arc on that since it's clearly an ongoing weapon and stage setter for other plays.

Although important elements of it are in development, methinks our TE corps may become very good as the season progresses. I will make sure that my Happy Hour set this afternoon includes a Yuengling product! You don't go out looking for a job dressed like that, do ya? On a weekday?

I figure if Simon can get far enough away from the oxygen tank to dust off his PS2 keyboard I can find a little time to chime in! Good to see you here too- KTDog told me you'd had some time down and I'm very happy to know you're on your feet. GG must be the most durable among us- he doesn't seem to get too frustrated with the trollhood and poorly mannered fans personally disparaging our team! Things are great out in my land- far away from the crowds and spending almost every day taking in the wonders of California's Central Coast after 35 years in SoCal. A long strange trip starting in Wellsville way back before our Bills were born!

Alternatively the calculation could have been that #1 having Singletary on the roster was going to limit McCoys touches and #2 they seem to be building some goodwill as a player friendly organization and letting Shady find a spot more ideal for him would be consistent with that reputation. I haven’t seen a single negative thing from him about his time in Buff, leading me to believe Beane managed that very well. Bottom line is money could have been a lesser factor to them. I’m not sure Shady would have been content waiting for the rookie to be limited by injury or performance issues.

Thanks for reading the whole post. It's not an excuse for anyone but instead a recognition that the dice roll the coaching staff took in a year when we had more OL work than maybe anyone in the game was to exacerbate that by creating some playing field for all the QBs to play with both of the OC candidates and other OLine combinations. In years past there would have been more time to make something like that work but the awful CBA currently in place doesn't even give stable teams much time to sort out OL changes. The owners and Players Association should be moving to backtrack on the practice limits in some manner in the interest of product quality including decreasing injuries and allowing players who want to work more with their team and coaches to do so, not to mention starting seasons with better overall OL play so we don't end up with 39 INTs thrown as we did this year.

You better take another look..... I see the silver lining for this season that even with the OL talent drop which is really not in dispute, the other elements re: practice time and the decision to go ahead with a QB competition when it was NOT contemporarily wise mean A) the line should show some visible steps in improvement right away and B) Allen got to play with the guys he will lead onto the field Sunday and had he been left out of the competition that would not be the case.

The Effect: McDermott and his staff took the 2018 preseason and juggled multiple QB/OC/OL combos in an attempt to create an environment where all 3 QBs would get some balanced shot at showing their own readiness. The result entering the regular season was that there is no cohesion along our OLine. In today’s NFL many teams do limited experimentation with their #1 OL during the preseason, trying to give some time to work in a new FA or younger player but wholesale change is rare. We just didn’t have the luxury with the loss of two of our top 3 starters and the strategy of evaluating the auditioning Linemen including most importantly at OC. The Bodine/Groy switches all preseason will remain for at least few more games the root cause of flying flags on offense. The 2018 Bills OL is a mix of moving parts and with our questions at QB overriding cohesion at OL we were left entering the regular season opener at about the quality of OLine cohesion most teams were at entering their preseason game 1. The Cause: The current CBA has limited the time and intensity of practice and player/coach time to a degree that hurts some units more than others. OLine is arguably the most affected by the limits agreed to in the CBA since there are 5-7 parts (including TEs) that need to work together in some ways like a choreographed dance troupe. The preseason limits on contact and practice days are crippling for teams trying to repair major changes in their OLine from one season to another. Our QB Competition and line juggling to play a large part in our situation this year, but the CBA practice limits hurt everybody on both sides of the CBA and damage the quality of the product on the field for every team in the league. The Cure: The League and the NFL Players Union pick their wins and losses in the CBA for their respective sides- on the one side the owners and the other side the players. Both sides make some dubious choices- for instance the owners feel those 4 preseason games are a big win. The Players Union pitches the limited practice to the players as a win, but it’s really no win for any but some star players and even then mostly those in skill position roles. The much larger body of players, and especially those on units like the OL, would be exceedingly better off if they had more time with their coaches and unit teammates. It’s probably safe to assume most of those fighting for line spots would much rather have added opportunity to practice yet that opportunity is taken away by a stupid concession that owners make to the Players Union in the CBA. The fix seems simple- allow players to individually negotiate any practice limits in their own contracts instead of having them decided by the NFL and the Players Union in the CBA. Sure the marquis RBs and WRs would seek less practice time but most of the NFL Hoi Polloi would surely join all the serious QBs in seeking as much time as possible with their teams and units. Now that I’ve solved that problem I want to mention Big Bob asked me if I’d stop by here since he’ll be at Hammer’s Sunday for the TBD Opener Tailgate for the first time in a long time. You all be gentle with the Big Guy, he got awful soft during his “stay” out here on the West Coast ? I should also mention the upside if it's not obvious- as a result of the decision to try to offer a QB competition Josh Allen got better reps this preseason than he otherwise might have. God luck Sunday kid!