Dont Stop Billeiving

Great to hear...anytime they even suspect a neck/spinal injury, they're going to strap the player to a stretcher and do what they did to play it safe. His tackle looked rather normal, but right away, the way Williams was lying there looked scary. The fact that he's already out of the hospital is fantastic.

Haha hopefully nothing that costs the team penalties or suspension-wise, but yeah I'd love to see Edelman get tagged by Bradham or A Williams coming across the middle. And I like to see the refs let them play and not be too strict, but in terms of the pick plays and pushoffs that the Pats love, you'd like to think that they will call a couple of those. Thanks Yolo, much appreciated. I'll try to do one for the Dolphins this week and try to review both of their games. Watched part of their game against Washington and thought they looked flat. Suh didn't have the impact I thought he might either. Thanks for the comments guys. Takes a bit of time, but I'll try to continue on with these each week throughout the season. Go Bills!

I wrote up an All-22 piece on here last night on the Pats week 1 game...check it out if you're interested. Pats got a few great performances from Brady, Gronk, and Edelman, but the rest of the roster looked very mediocre. Provided detailed thoughts on several of their players.

It's a bit late in the week so I hope no one else has done this already, but I went through the Pats-Steelers All-22 on my NFL GamePass as a means of scouting our opponent for tomorrow and came up with the following observations (broken down into three parts: 1. Individual Player Notes 2. Team Notes/Coaching/Game Plan 3. Overall Thoughts/Conclusion). Note: no idea how to make GIFs or anything like that so apologies. Any thoughts or ideas to improve my analysis would be much appreciated. Hoping to make this a weekly project if people enjoy it. New England vs Pittsburgh Recap Player Notes- Pats* Jamie Collins: rough game…swallowed up on several run plays and got burned by Heath Miller in coverage on a few occasions. Thought he was being touted as a rising star, but not impressed with his play in this game. Still maybe the best LB they’ve got, stays back in coverage a lot and flashed his athleticism at times. Tom Brady: Amendola beats 1 on 1 coverage down right sideline. Brady had all the time in the world and overthrows him. Missed a few other deep throws to Edelman as well, hasn't been accurate on any throws more than 15 yards downfield. A holding and PF called on Nate Solder...seems like he may have been benched for a bit as well. Probably considered their best player on the O-line. Dont'a Hightower: gets a nice sack on a delayed blitz right up the middle. Pittsburgh center barely gets a mitt on him…Hightower generally looks slow and whiffed on a couple tackles badly, but did look better than he has in past seasons. Jerod Mayo: might as well have taken the night off, never saw him make a play once or heard his name called. Julian Edelman: Consistently getting open/trash talking non-stop and the Pitt corners don’t seem to want anything to do with him…he’s jawing in someone’s face after every catch. Pats run a nice reverse to Edelman, makes a DB miss and get a 1st down. Just open on every play and strutting around the place, he might be my least favorite Patriot not named Brady. Dion Lewis (the guy whose name isn't worth knowing): looks halfway decent. However, had a Bryce Brown-like “how do you fumble on the 1 yard line?” moment in the 4th quarter. Of course in this case, Gronk recovers it and the Pats score a TD two plays later. Lewis also drops a wide open pass in the flat on the next drive. Didn't have the best game, but looked fairly quick and shifty. Scott Chandler: gets a 1 yard TD grab in the 3rd quarter…made the play, but looked as awkward and un-athletic as ever in doing so. Only got separation due to a blatant pick play by Gronk. Patrick Chung: Haven’t heard his name more than a couple times. Committed PI in the end zone on a big 3rd down play for the Steelers that led to a score. Gronk: best player on the field for either side in this contest. For whatever reason, the Steelers, with the entire offseason to game plan, decided to let him float around unmarked and he made them pay. Basically left wide open on a seam route by a LB, winds up getting about 50 easy yards. However, he constantly pushes off and never seems to get called for it. Hopefully the refs tomorrow will call this a bit tighter. Jabaal Sheard: Thought the Pats bringing him on in FA was one of the best and most underrated moves of the off-season. However, only heard his name called once on his sack in the 4th. Didn't see him make much of an impact in run defense either. Player Notes- Steelers (including this as it reflects on the Pats offense/defense and how well/poorly they matched up against these players) DeAngelo Williams: 18 yd run on the first play of the game…no one even touched him until he was 10-12 yards downfield. Did not look particularly fast or elusive though. Josh Scobee: Missed his first two kicks badly…Pittsburgh drove downfield at will on their first drive until a botched trick play and a penalty stalled it. Lost a lot of potential momentum here. Gave the Pats good field position on both occasions. Sack by Bud Dupree forces Pats to punt…Antonio Brown inexplicably fair catches it at the Pitt 4 yard line. One of many errors that the Steelers committed in this game. Antonio Brown out-muscles Malcolm Butler for a very risky pass that probably should have been picked, gets the 1st. Not impressed with Butler so far…Butler absolutely torched again on a deep ball to Brown at the end of the 1st half, a good three steps behind him. Brown later gets open on another 20+ yard catch and run in the 3rd, Butler again trailing him by a good few steps. Rinse and repeat. Ryan Shazier: knifes up the middle and tackles Brandon Bolden for a 3-4 yd loss. Terrible blocking by Pats interior O-line. Darius Heyward-Bey: burns Bradley Fletcher badly on a deep ball…unlucky to not get credit for a TD catch later on as his toe was slightly out of bounds in the end zone. Ben Roethlisberger: got a ton of yards, but I didn't think he looked very sharp in this game…bad throws on key third downs. Good safety blitz by Will Allen in the 3rd. No one picks him up, sacks Brady. A similar play with Aaron Williams or Robey right up the middle could be successful. Play Calling/ Coaching/ Game Plan Pats* First offensive play for the Pats…Steelers give Edelman a 10 yard cushion, he catches a 7 yard hook and gets an easy first down. Second and third plays, same thing to Dion Lewis, Steelers giving them way too much respect. We cannot make the same mistake. Brady getting the ball out within a couple seconds…no Pitt defenders are getting anywhere close to him. Pats didn't blitz very often, but when they did, they got nowhere close to Big Ben most of the time. Pats entire D-line getting pushed back a couple yards on several plays throughout. Pats with a lot of bubble screens and passes under 5 yards…our CBs should be ready to jump routes just like against the Colts. Hitting 5-6 yd square routes to Edelman on almost every 3rd down with a lot of success. DeAngelo Williams got a lot of yards, but didn’t look very fast or elusive in doing so…not sure he’s very good, maybe says a lot more about how poor the Pats run defense is. Dom Easley being out hurts them as well. Ninkovich and Chandler Jones didn’t set the edge well on several plays. Pat’s goal line usage for the 4 TE spread could be dangerous. Pitt had no idea how to adapt to cover it. Also, they use a ton of illegal pick plays as WGR has spoken about all week. Steelers Stupid penalties hurting Pittsburgh on many of their drives. Pitt not getting into the Pats backfield at all, the D-line might be one of the worstin the league. Not one guy that would scare you as an offense…Pats O-line doing a surprisingly good job despite have three rookies at C and G. Running up the middle with a lot of success. Pitt’s D-line finally starts to dominate the Pats interior O-line in the 4th. Mulltiple TFLs and increased pressure on Brady. Two missed tackles on Gronk’s first TD…terrible coverage as Pitt was fooled by the Pats hurry-up offense. Literally, the ball was snapped and no defender was within 15 yards of Gronk. Another 5 missed tackles on a Dion Lewis run in the 3rd. Announcers seemed to know right away that the Pats had yelled/simulated the snap count when drawing the Steelers offsides at the one yard line late in the game. Roethlisberger was furious, probably cost them a TD. A dirty play, Bills need to be prepared for that. Pitt’s playcalling on both offense and defense was simplistic and very ineffective. Seemed to leave Gronk and Edelman wide open and cover everyone else. Conclusion The most important factor in this game was how badly the Steelers got out-coached especially their inability to match up with Gronk. They took Amendola and other Pats players out of the game, but repeatedly failed to cover or even mark Gronk and Edelman. On offense, the Steelers moved the ball fairly effectively, but missed kicks and committed self-inflicted penalties at inopportune times. The Pats took advantage of a few key match ups and delivered some strong individual performances by Brady, Gronk, and Edelman. However, their interior O-line looked very weak and their defense played poorly against both the run and the pass. Malcolm Butler is probably not the 4th CB on most teams let alone the top CB and he was taken to the woodshed by Antonio Brown over and over. Pats have some key injuries (Dom Easley, Dane Fletcher, Brandon LaFell, etc.) and a roster that has arguably declined in talent over the last few years. I would argue that they only have 4 true great players/difference makers in Brady, Gronk, Edelman, and McCourty and not much beyond that. We all know the difference an elite QB makes and how that can really cover up a team's weaknesses, but I believe our more balanced roster and the insane home field advantage the team should receive tomorrow will result in a hard-fought Bills victory. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Can't wait for gametime tomorrow, let's go Bills!

Agreed...love stuff like this especially as someone who lives far away and can't get to many games. Good idea.

I've never seen this before...when did this air? It really sums it all up, doesn't it?

Not concerned about this at all, this has gotten a little overblown after only one game. We have a lot of weapons now and only one ball, every player will probably have a week like this. It's a great problem to have and one that we aren't used to. We did give up a lot to get him and I think it can be debated whether it was too much (IMO I liked the move/gamble and it helps a bit that Cleveland absolutely botched the picks we gave them), but he's a freak athlete, a great WR, and a better person. Production hasn't met the super high expectations that we have put on the kid yet, but if Taylor keeps going as he has and gives better than our QB play of the last decade, Sammy will get his numbers and significantly help this team. On a final note, fantastic block by him on Karlos Williams' TD run...he doesn't score there if Sammy doesn't own the CB like that. He makes a lot of plays and draws a lot of attention from our other players that doesn't show up on the score sheet.

As many people have already said, the on-field results obviously mean more. That said, it is nice to get a bit of positive national attention in the media. I've had several friends from all over the country who aren't Bills fans reach out this week to talk about our game vs the Colts. Hopefully we can keep the W's coming and give the talking heads some more to discuss.

Interesting idea...I think I like it. It does minimize our pass rush though and give Brady more time. I'd be in favor of a combination of Manny Lawson/Aaron Williams covering Gronk too. We didn't have A Williams last year at home. Think both of those guys have the size/speed combo to match up... My friend and I were talking about this the other day.

Brilliant!

Ideas like this are exactly what I was looking for when I started the thread...great sign.

Just amazing hahaha...well done They look like such a happy family, don't they? Rooting for the Pats must be tough...

Trying to ruin my thread before it even got started haha...it's all in good fun. I've never brought a sign to a game before, but I think it's a small part of the game day experience and there are some funny/clever ones every so often. College GameDay is especially good for those.

What a week to be a Bills fan! Can't wait to watch the game on Sunday and to see the atmosphere at the Ralph after an incredible display by the fans in Week 1. Several reporters have commented on how the lower bowl stood for the whole game and that the press box was essentially shaking from the crowd noise. With the Cheatriots* in town, I think we're all expecting it will be an even more hostile environment (hoping that they will receive an A-Rod like reception at every stadium from now on). Rex better be cranking that music up at practice! For those of you lucky enough to be going to the game, I'm curious to see what signs/chants people will be coming up with. There's so much material especially since DeflateGate, it's almost not fair at this point. Looking forward to some clever ones shown on the broadcast and to our 12th Man outdoing even last week. Go Bills! I'm sure this made the rounds before I joined, but it always makes me laugh...

I like our chances against them anyways, but if Suh is suspended in Week 3, then we're just playing their 2014 defense minus Delmas and Dion Jordan as well. Aside from Wake, Vernon, and Grimes, they wouldn't have a single player that would scare you on D. I never understood all the credit and hype Miami got for signing Suh. They had several large holes on their team and used almost their entire cap space to sign one player. Suh is an incredible player and he will obviously make a big impact for them, but was it worth letting other significant players leave in FA and/or not picking up other players they could have had? We shall see...

Think this might be our biggest win since beating the Pats at home in 2011. Win last year versus the Packers comes to mind as well, but I think this game means more. In addition, both of those previous wins could be explained away as flukes (an opinion that Mike Schopp shared the other day to my surprise). We did benefit from a couple tipped ball INTs and some mistakes by the other team (ex. the Jordy Nelson drop) in those games, but I don't agree with that view as I thought our defense really dominated in both contests. Unlike those two games, we dominated start to finish and never gave the Colts any excuse to feel as though they gave away the game. Did all of that with a new QB, several new skill players (many of whom are still nursing injuries), and a new coaching staff. Played physical, punishing football and got big contributions from several role players (Karlos Williams, Mario Butler, Randall Johnson, etc.). Took down a huge contender in the AFC and made the Week 2 match up with the Pats that much more exciting. Where do you think this win ranks in the last 5 years? 10 years? Or since the infamous playoff drought began? What a game and a huge result for us...can't wait for the rest of this season and for more victories to discuss with you all.

Exactly...well-said

Agree with this completely. Cassel was steady/safe, but the offense stalled and put up zero points with him at the helm in the preseason. But EJ flashed the potential we were promised, moved the sticks, didn't turn it over, and made NFL-level throws while playing for his Bills and possibly NFL career. Cassel may have gotten a raw deal in terms of playing time, but that's life and I think we got our best case scenario with Tyrod as QB1 and EJ as QB2.

Hahaha very good Assuming this was a sarcastic comment/joke, since Fred's already on their roster and Harvin's definitely the last guy of ours they'd want, but man...can you imagine this defense plus Chancellor crushing WRs coming across the middle? Graham moves to CB opposite Gilmore and we have A.Williams and Chancellor at the safety spots....potential for best defense of all-time there

I read the Buffalo News somewhat frequently and although I've heard the complaints about Tim Graham, I generally think he's a decent sportswriter who breaks from the 'norm' and sometimes provides a different angle to his stories. That said, for every 9 good pieces he writes, the tenth is typically along the lines of this latest 'Whaley gone rogue' story. Most of the time, it doesn't matter in the long run, but in this case, the national media picked up on the story and as a result, Peter King writes a column titled 'Bad Vibes in Buffalo.' Graham has his sources and someone in the Bills organization clearly has it out for Whaley (disagreements will happen in the front office, but going to a reporter with this false story is a whole other level), but I think Graham sensationalized the situation a bit and now Buffalo is in the news for the wrong reasons. Bad job by him on this one. In the grand scheme of things, it won't stick in people's minds for long, but it's too bad we're getting more attention for this than the awesome off season we've had.

Was excited to see the Bills pick up Cierre Wood last week. Thought he flashed on a couple of occasions during the game against Cleveland despite being on the roster for less than 24 hours. This guy was a 2 year starter at Notre Dame and put up solid numbers despite a young O-line and inexperienced QB play. Took a lot of reps away from Theo Riddick (Detroit Lions) and Jonas Gray (Patriots), both of whom are quality NFL RBs IMO. Wood reminds me a bit of a poor man's LeSean McCoy...has breakaway speed, very shifty, smaller stature, can catch the ball out of the backfield. I'm in no way suggesting that he will ever be as good as McCoy (it's worth noting that he went undrafted), but I think he has talent and is light years ahead of the other replacement RBs, Bronson Hill and Ricky Seale. Check out his highlight reel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UImhLgzLuNI We are obviously stacked at the RB position so a roster spot is out of the question. But as long as he's still eligible, I think he is worthy of a spot on our practice squad. Let me know what you think.

Is this real life???

That's interesting, is that 100% certain? I haven't heard that before and it usually seems like the draft classes tend to stick together. EJ's definitely made Woods' job a bit more difficult though over the past couple years so there's that. These Bills seem like a pretty close knit team relative to some others, but I'm sure some players dislike certain teammates and things like that. Anyways I love Woods. Underrated player for us, plays with an edge, but usually doesn't let it boil over. Training camp scuffles always seem to happen around this week every year (ex. Eric Wood kicking Bryan Johnson's a** last year), can't wait to see these guys hit the Panthers on Friday. Just one practice, but sounds like Cassel had a strong day today...hopefully he's starting to put it all together

Haha love all the replies so far, thanks for reaching out. I work for Citi as a financial analyst specifically in trade surveillance, I'm on a three year work visa so kind of long term...after a couple years, I could see being in London or Berlin for a short while, but then back to the USA to "settle down." My family still lives in Buffalo so I will hopefully be back for a game at some point soon. Not married, but my girlfriend is from Dublin which is a big part of the reason I'm over here. Haha yeah arrested/deported...I've got an Irish lass of my own, but nothing wrong with saying hello! Lot of gorgeous women with killer accents over here... Thanks, definitely seems like it. Can't wait to talk with everyone...do you live overseas as well? That's awesome that you have dual citizenship...I'm part Irish, but I wasn't eligible. Would have made my life so much easier in trying to get over here...work visa took 4 months and cost a fortune (luckily I was sponsored though). Never been to Portugal, but I've heard amazing things. Great music/nightlife scene, definitely on my to do list now that I'm here... I'm actually in Belfast (so technically the UK), it's really an up and coming city very similar to Buffalo and my company's moving a ton of jobs here. Great bars, food, and people here and a low cost of living...really hating the weather so far though, people are saying it's the worst summer in a decade. Glad to hear that abt Gamepass...know what you mean, I've already had a couple nights up til 4 am watching soccer or basketball in the States and then into work 4 hours later...bad news. Did you live over here or just traveling around? I'll keep this in mind! Very true, no Irishman has ever even heard of hyperbole haha Definitely, that's a great area. Were you in the First Ward or close to it? Love some good corned beef myself, but interestingly enough, people in Ireland don't eat corned beef on St. Patrick's Day like we all do. Apparently, it all started when the Irish immigrated to America and could only afford the lesser quality cuts of meat. They soaked them in brine and other stuff to make it taste better and there you go, corned beef. Your Irish fun fact for the day.

Hi All, Happy to finally be posting on here after years of countless lunch breaks, airport layovers, etc. spent reading this site. I grew up in Buffalo, graduated from UB, and worked there for three years, but recently transferred to Ireland a few months ago for work. Although there are a lot more NFL fans here than I expected, it's definitely more difficult to follow the team from over here so I'm looking forward to being an active member on the site and discussing all things Bills with you guys. A few random thoughts before I sign off: 1. I just bought the International NFL Game Pass package yesterday and it's awesome for anyone else who lives abroad. Cost around $180 USD for the year which is steep, but watching the coaches film and condensed games from last season are already making it worth it. Can't wait for RedZone and Game Rewind on Sundays too. 2. Haven't heard the financial terms on Robey's extension yet, but think that's a great signing for us. He was a beast in Pettine's defense and I think he's shown the motor and ball hawking ability to make up for being undersized. 3. Think this defense could realistically be #1 in the league this year. All the major players back plus Darby who sounds like a steal so far (can't teach speed) and arguably better coaching/scheme could add up to even more frustration for opposing teams this fall. Like everyone else, very concerned about the QB competition (or lack thereof), but I think our D will keep us in every game and McCoy and the skill players will make the QB's job much easier than Orton and Manuel had it last year. Looking forward to talking with you all, go Bills!