sven233

Gonna have to score 40 tonight...... And even that might not be enough. Look.....there are talented players on this defense, but this scheme just isn't for them. It is terrible and outdated in today's league with super smart QBs and offensive coordinators.

This defense blows......

Wow.....great start, Groot....

Stay healthy. Play hard. Play smart. WIN! GO BILLS!!!!

One thing we haven't done nearly enough, especially last week when the Pats* were actually very susceptible to giving up plays, is get the backs involved more in the passing game. Lord knows it won't be through a screen pass since we haven't been successful with one of them since Chan was coaching, but there are other ways to do it. With Kincaid out, we are going to have to get creative and do some different things because I am just not sure how much our WRs are going to be able to get open. Until they prove they can do it consistently, teams are just not going to respect our WRs ability to beat them down the field.

I think we'll know by 4.....

With the way Rapp has played this year, I am open to any and all ideas. I know many thought Bishop would be the weak link back there, but he has actually been getting better each week he plays. It was never a question of whether he could do it physically, but rather with his "want to" and "desire" because he has all the physical tools you would want in a safety. And he's shown that he is going into the role. On the other hand, I think "Rapp has the "want to" and "desire" but for whatever reason, has physically fallen off a cliff. He wasn't the most athletic guy to begin with, but this year he looks like he is running with cement shoes on, taking bad angles, missing tackles, and still injuring our own guys. He's been a mess more often than not back there. So, I am open to any and all options back there. You want to try Hancock? Fine with me! Want to try Poyer? Sure, why not. He may have the exact same physical limitations when it comes to speed and angles, but I think he is a smarter, more instinctive player. Ideally you figure something out in the next couple games before the trade deadline, but knowing them, especially McDermott, he'll keep rolling Rapp out there because he likes his leadership.

While I agree with the premise of this, if you look at the advanced stats, Coleman thus far has left a lot to be desired in the contested catch rate area. Although it supposed to be a strong suit of his, and he does make some of those plays, if you look at the stats, he doesn't rank particularly high in those categories. So, when you are limited physically when it comes to speed, you better make up for it somewhere and, so far, he isn't anywhere near the top of the list when it comes to contested catch percentage or similar stats. Can he get better at that? Sure he can. He's young at only 22 and has only had 1 true offseason to put in the work. He can still get bigger and stronger than he is which should help those metrics. Hopefully he does because we could use that skill set.

I said it leading up to the draft. I said it the night of the draft. And I'll continue to say it now. The problem is not picking Worthy over Coleman. The problem is giving the Chiefs the one piece they were looking for. That said.....did I have Worthy rated higher than Coleman? Yes. Should we have picked him over Coleman? Yes. If everything fell the way it did on draft night, would Worthy be a Bill? No. Still have concerns about his size and ability to hold up over a full season. Also, it seems maybe there are some character concerns there as well, but we are not privy to all of that information. Regardless, I had different ideas of how to handle WR that night. Trading up a few spots for BTJ. Exploring a trade into the top 10 for one of the big 3. Exploring a trade for an established WR. But, if it all played out the way it did and none of those were viable options, Ladd McConkey would be on this team right now in this "Everybody Eats" system. The fact is, I had Coleman rated as a late 3rd or early 4th rounder. So, he wouldn't have even been on my radar. But when you are in the development of a system where getting the ball to the open guy is the only thing that matters, then you best believe I am drafting the guy that can get open on a regular basis. The argument against McConkey was that he was primarily a slot guy and we had Shakir. My argument is, if you aren't going to get a burner or someone to take the top off the defense and want to live in the short to intermediate areas of the field anyway, then you can never have too many slot guys like Shakir and McConkey! Just line them up wherever and let them get open and have Allen find them. Seriously, if your entire offensive system is going to be about guys getting open and catching the ball, we drafted the last WR we should have. But, it's all hindsight now. We're stuck with what we have. It's not that Coleman is a complete disaster as a player. He does have certain skills that you would like to have in your WR room. But it should be as a 3rd or 4th WR option, not as a WR logging a majority of your snaps. But at the end of the day, this is not about Coleman vs Worthy. It's about the decision to trade with KC in general and pick of the WR we did make for the system we were trying to install. Neither look like great decisions as of now.

The problem is, they have enough talent on that team if they are healthy to make a run, especially with the schedule they have coming up.

I know a lot of big games didn't turn out to be great, but the Ravens losing was nice to see. It's always nice to see the Cowboys lose as well. Go Lions!

I'm working, so I am a little bit out of the loop on details for games, but I noticed Diggs has no catches. Is he playing? Hurt?

Yup.....no doctor here either, but I am becoming very confident we will see him this year at some point. I have maintained for a while that with the Bye Week where it is that there was no chance of them opening the 21 day window to make a decision before the Bye about a return. Made no sense timing wise. So, with the Bye week coming up, that will give him a couple more weeks to keep working, and then they will see where he's at. I think they are slow playing this to make sure he comes back 100% when they do open that window and, from there, will use most of, if not all of those 21 day before they officially activate him. So, in my opinion, they will be shooting to have him in a game sometime in mid-late November (Bucs, Texans, Steelers)

I'm not sure what context these stats show. Air yards or just the results? Because there have been several short screens or check downs that our guys have busted for big plays. Doesn't necessarily mean we are pushing the ball down the field. Here's the thing.....I think the narrative itself of pushing the ball down the field is kind of overblown. What I want to see is more consistency in the intermediate areas of the field.....that 15-20 yard area and I want to see that consistency come from on-time plays within the structure of the offense. So many times, Allen scrambles, buys time until someone finally comes open. Seems like it is a rarity that Allen drops back, plants his feet, and fires a laser 15 to 25 yards down the field. You'd think if teams are playing to prevent you from getting over the top, there would be room to roam in these mid-level distances. But that's not happening with consistency. So, no....I don't need to be chucking the ball 40+ yards down the field on a regular basis, but it would be nice to see more success in the intermediate levels within the structure of the offense instead of relying on Shakir or Cook to bust one after the catch.

For the love of God...... Are there literally no other unsigned, always injured, LBs out there with actual talent out there?

Look....many of you know I have been as hard on Coleman as anyone. I had him rated as a late 3rd or 4th round talent and I never saw his ceiling as anything higher than a WR2 in this league even if he exceeded my expectations. And, to this point, my opinion hasn't changed. I will give him some credit, though. I have seen improvement in certain areas of his game. When he came out last year, his footwork was very sloppy. On a simple comeback route, he'd get to the top of his break and sometimes take 5 steps in order to stop and turn around. In this league, where CBs are so good, quick, and fast, that is a death sentence for getting open, especially for a guy that is not very fast to begin with. The same thing was happening on in cuts and out cuts....just too many steps to get into the break. This year, he has significantly been better in that area. His cuts are sharper and the footwork is better. But, the problem is, he still isn't the most fluid guy out there and because he is a bigger guy, things still take that half a beat longer than you'd like because he isn't the most explosive guy. And, unfortunately, that is why I still am very skeptical on him ever becoming an every down WR in this league. If he wants to take it to the next level, his physicality has to be taken to another level. While you can see him trying to do that, he just isn't there yet. A guy like him needs to play bully ball. He needs to be able to use his size and strength to subtly push guys off and create separation coming out of routes. And while je is stronger this year and has shown he can do that on a couple of plays, he is still struggling to create separation consistently. I said going into the season that if he wants to be great with his limited skill set, he needs to watch as much Anquan Boldin tape as possible. That is the WR he needs to try and become because no matter how much he tries or may want to, he's never going to be the guy running by people and making huge plays deep down the field. He doesn't have that physically. So, he needs to be able to create separation at the top of routes by "cheating" and not getting caught. He needs to be able to push off without making it obvious so he's called for it. He's not there yet. So, all that said, as you can tell, I'm still not high on the guy in terms of his ceiling. I think he is a fine player to have down your roster, but more as a 3-5 guy and not an every down player. He can help you in the redzone. He can help you on slants when CBs are playing off. And I do think he can become pretty good on stop and comeback routes if he keeps working because he does offer good size. But as a WR1 or WR2 eventually? I still don't see it. I hope he proves me wrong, but I just don't see it. We heard his name a lot in camp as making plays every day, but I think we are finding out that this was the result of him going up against our terrible defense every day and not real good NFL competition that he is facing in the regular season.

Man, the overreaction to this game is real. But it was always going to be especially if the Pats* won. I'm going to start and get this out of the way......I like Drake Maye. I think he's got everything you need to be a very good player in this league. He had a really nice game and made some very nice plays. BUT....can we hold off a bit crowning him and the Pats*? They put up 23 points against OUR defense.....you know the same defense that has been a sieve all season..... They had short fields off of 2 terrible turnovers that immediately led to 10 points. They were the beneficiaries of terrible officiating all night. They had Diggs who was wide open on virtually every play because our defense is so terrible. And on top of that, we were horrendous on offense and never really put any pressure on them to have to keep up with us in terms of points. It was a terrible night and we played the worst we have played since the Houston game. We literally played into their hand. It happens. And I hate to take anything away from Maye because I do like him. But Diggs was the reason they had the success they did. He made our secondary look foolish all night. He may not be what he once was, but make no mistake about it...if Diggs was on our team, he would still be our best WR by far. Just goes to show you the importance of having a "guy". Everybody eats is fine in concept until you need someone in a crucial situation to make a play. We don't have that "guy" and not having that "guy" was the difference in the ball game last night.

We were never going to win them all. The team is too flawed for that and tonight's game showed a lot of the holes we have. Everybody eats is fine until you need a guy to make a big play for you and we don't have that guy. Was hoping to see Palmer take some of that onus, but he's been a bust of a signing. Coleman is what he is.....a fine WR3 or WR4. But he's not the alpha dog we need in the clutch. Still can't get the passer on the ground when it matters. Still can't stop the run. Still can't cover on 3rd and long. We have older, broken down players playing important snaps for us. Rapp is terrible. Got out coached on both sides of the ball. And you can go on and on. That said, we are far from healthy and complete. Oliver not playing tonight was huge. Quite honestly, if he's healthy and plays. he's probably enough of a difference maker to win this game. Hoecht is going to be very important to us and we still haven't seen how we are going to use him. Hairston was supposed to be the guy opposite Benford by this point in the season and who knows if he will even contribute at all this season. The problem is, a lot of these issues can't be solved on the fly because we don't have any cap space. We are in desperate need of a WR. We need a better CB. And that's the minimum we need. Instead, we have to hope these young guys figure it out by the end of the season and get better all well hoping the other suspended and hurt guys come back and make a difference. The loss is one thing, but trying to make it so we are peaking at the end of the season is another.

Gotta just chuck it and hope for a PI. Took way too much time on that return.

Never a doubt that was going through....

Nobody ever misses a big kick against us.

They may as well have not even put a defense on the field for that play because there wasn't a player to be found. Anyone in the crowd would have scored on that one.

We are one of the worst tackling teams in the league.....

Rapp is not a good football player......

Just doesn't feel like our night. Way too much going wrong. Happens a couple times a year. It's unfortunate it's tonight against a division opponent on national TV, though.