Last Guy on the Bench

Bad example. The break the wheel rant (which was beautiful) was not a prediction. It was an exhortation. A prayer. He says "I hope you do." He says, "Say it with me." I think it was 80% sincere and 20% (good) theater. I'll take that ratio.

I have seen him do that too. But so what? Saying another team is better or pointing out weaknesses does not mean he doesn't like the Bills or doesn't want them to do well. Nor does it mean he is insincere when he talks about their strengths and what he likes about them. Everyone on this board does that. I've been a die-hard fan for 45 years and I can definitely list several teams that I think are better than the Bills right now, as any thinking person could. Doesn't mean I don't root for them. Doesn't mean that I don't think they can take any of those "better" teams down if their considerable strengths are on full display. And it's just an assessment. I could be wrong. Maybe the Bills are secretly the best team in football? Lord I hope that's true. Anyway, I think Kyle will feel genuine joy if the Bills go on a good run in the playoffs. But he will also try to be honest about what he sees, and he will also take joy in other teams/games/moments. He's an NFL commentator after all, not a Bills commentator. I think he's been the best thing on the Murph and Tasker show all year.

This man is on his way to becoming my favorite Bill, not just on the current team, but of all time. Legend.

Ha ha. Me too. I watched it at a bar in Baltimore. I was wearing my Bills boxers. When they won, I jumped up on a table and dropped my jeans and started dancing around in my underwear. Not a pretty sight, I'm sure. I will now take the opportunity to apologize to anyone who was there. But it was true love, and has stayed so to this day. What can you do?

That was Reich. 1989

Right now he's gotta be in the discussion for Coach of the Year. In the conversation: Harbaugh, Shanahan, Payton, Tomlin if he wins a few more with those QBs, Belichick - even though he seems like old news, the D is historic right now and though Brady seems pretty mediocre they've still only lost once. The fact that most people underestimate the actual talent on the Bills and assumed the Bills were going to be terrible should play in McDs favor. I think if he beats either the Ravens or the Patriots (granted that's a huge if) and ends up with 11 or 12 wins, he'll be coach of the year. He may get it even if he loses to both, though in that case, I would guess Harbaugh wins it, assuming the Ravens don't lose more than one other game.

Agree on both points. The smart decision on that 3rd and 4 is to run it there, and I hope (with a caveat) that he does that in the future. It would have been super easy for him to miss that pass or for Foster to drop it. The caveat is that I kind of love a QB who doesn't think that way. It's part of not playing scared and having confidence. Sometimes that confidence will burn you, but I'd rather watch "Josh Thinks-He-Can-Do-Anything" than "Josh Always-Takes-The-Safe-Play" (who doesn't actually seem to exist, thank the gods). And your second point about that Beasley pass out of the end zone - for me that pass is up there with the sluggo TD pass to Brown against the Dolphins for Josh's most Holy S*** throw of the season. Phenomenal.

Ha ha - I think you're right. I find myself feeling much more optimistic with Josh and this team on 3rd and long than on 2nd and short sometimes. Very strange.

I've been enjoying the defensive play as much as the next guy. But I keep having the feeling that the offense is actually much closer to good (and getting closer all the time) than it appears, and the defense is more vulnerable. If you look at the teams we've played, it will lower your confidence in the defense a little bit. By yards, we have played 8 of the worst 10 offenses in the league, with only the Browns and Pats (16 and 17) even respectable. The average offensive ranking of our ten opponents is 25th! We've played 10 teams so the worst the average could be would be 27th (if you had the actual 10 worst teams on the schedule). By yardage, we've played close to the worst collection of offenses you could play. Meanwhile, the average defensive ranking of the teams we've played is 17th. Only three are in the bottom 10 on defense (Giants, Bengals, Dolphins). They aren't the best defensive teams (except the Pats #2 and the Broncos and surprisingly the Jets tied for #8), but they average out to average. Granted, the Bills' own performance affects both of these rankings, but only 1/11 for everyone but the Dolphins, so it doesn't affect them that much at this point in the season. I don't think the Bills offense has really looked outgunned against anyone, except maybe Philly (we even out-gained the Pats by 150 yards despite Josh being in a panic most of the game). And they seem to be improving. I wonder if when all is said and done, at least by next year, the strength of this team might actually be offense? Meanwhile, the defense is about to face the #1 (Dallas) and #2 (Baltimore) offenses in the league. So I guess we'll find out how good they are. Unfortunately, the upcoming defenses are also going to be tougher, NE 2, Dallas 6, Pitt 7, Baltimore 14, so let's hope the Bills' offense continues to come together. We are about to learn a lot about this team. I hope we like what we learn.

I hear you. But that Pats game was different. The Bills also out-gained the Pats by 150 yards, just like they did the Jets. I would say in the Jets game, the Bills outplayed the Jets, even including the turnovers. Didn't feel like much of a theft. More like the Bills almost gave the game away to the Jets, despite their superiority, then they took it back. I do think, though, that Darnold was probably affected by the mono he didn't know he had yet. When he's healthy and in the groove, the Jets and the Bills are a pretty even match in my opinion. The Bills have really only been out-played from the line of scrimmage once this year. They have have been out-gained three times. In the first Dolphins game, they were out-gained 381-305, but a lot of those Dolphins' yards came late, if I recall. Cleveland nipped them by 24 yards. The one game where they really got beat from the line of scrimmage was Philly: 253-371. They have generally been significantly out-gaining their opponents, including yesterday's ridiculous 300 yard margin over the Broncos.

That's true given the turnovers and field goal misses. But it's also a little misleading. You can say, well if the Jets make a field goal, or if Darnold plays a little better . . . But you can also say, well if a deflected pass or fumble bounces differently . . . The Bills did out-gain the Jets by 150 yards, which was an earned reason that they were able to pull out the squeaker, even with their turnovers.

I wondered. Didn't Josh then point to his eyes while looking at Beasley? I feel like I remember that. If so, maybe he was telling Beasley to look sooner, or maybe he was saying it was his own fault somehow? Not sure.

Unreal. The offense tosses up four interceptions, and somehow the defense holds the Pats to 224 yards! (We had 375.) Brady averaged 3.85 yards/attempt on 39 passes!!!!!! It's a brutal loss in some ways, given that we outgained them by 150 yards. And our offense still has a long way to go (more experience individually and together, a few new players down the road). But if the Bills keep playing defense like that we are going to win a truckload of games, even with a hot and cold, mistake-prone offense. It was a joy to watch them.

Yeah, I wondered about that. That DB could close pretty quickly while the ball is in the air, and he'd meet Brown well before the sticks. Of course, it still might have made sense to give Brown a shot to shake one guy and make the few extra yards needed, since there was no other defender in the picture. But still, that is not a guaranteed first down at all if the DB comes up and makes a good tackle. Josh wanted more.

Huh. I watched the game in Cape Town, thousands of miles away, and I just couldn't get into it the way I normally do. When they went down in the second half I couldn't get myself that worked up about whether they would lose or win. And I NEVER feel like that. Happy they won, and there were some fun plays, but I can't remember ever feeling so foggy about what was actually a pretty good game, let alone the home opener for an undefeated Bills team. Strange energy.

I don't know about that. I went to lots of games in those days, including playoffs. But still, by far the loudest I every heard the stadium was at the Dallas Monday Night game in 2007. My Dad's hearing was literally never the same after that.

Legend.

I am beside myself. I am so jacked for this version of the Bills! I am sooooo thirsty for a compelling win today, and am hoping we win going away. And yet, I truly believe that if they lose I won't crater, because I think we are in for a good year either way. Plus, I actually like/enjoy this Darnold-led Jets team, apart from their tool of a coach. So I'm hoping that both these young upstart teams set a tone for the season which will banish the *Pats to oblivion where they belong. Bring it! Go Bills!

Great article. This finally made me buy a subscription to The Athletic.

Just from his highlight reel, though I guess that was most of his catches last year: Hands look great. But man is he a lumberer. It's a bit painful watching him try to make any kind of cut or move. He also seems to get hit HARD. He doesn't go down right away, but the first hit seems to cave him in and he sort of flails around and stumbles, usually going to ground pretty soon. Doesn't seem to deliver many blows the other way. (Again, maybe a blocking cutup would show him as a punisher - don't know, but I doubt it.) He doesn't really feel like an NFL athlete to me. Except for those hands. Which may be enough with old rocket arm Josh. I predict practice squad.

Been watching a lot of this kid and getting really excited. Three things I love: 1) He has this awesome Aikido way of breaking tackles. He regularly sort of goes in the direction of the force of the tackle. He lets the defender push him, or spin him, or knock him back. The defender is expecting resistance, and he doesn't get it on the vector he was expecting, and all of a sudden he is off balance, stumbling, grabbing at a sleeve or an ankle, and Singletary hits the jets and is out of his grasp. I keep seeing this and it's fascinating. Maybe other RBs do this too? I've never really noticed it. Once in a while Singletary will just pop someone, but mostly he absorbs the hit and lets it redirect him. He's so quick he adjusts to the new angle way faster than the defender can. The funniest is when a defender hits him square from the front and Singletary moves backward a step or two and the defender falls on his knees or even face. 2) Has a great feel for when to run around in the backfield looking for an escape, trying to reverse fields (he doesn't do this all that often, but when he does, it often works) and when to just slice through the muck for a few yards. He seems very decisive about which of these two options to pursue when he's bottled up, and usually seems to get it right. 3) After every TD he just tosses the ball immediately to the nearest ref. Classic Marv Levy "Act like you've been there before." Love this kid. Can't wait to see him in action with the big boys.

Yeah - it is a shame for the poor player. What I really empathize with is that complete sense of helplessness those fans are feeling. When you are stuck with an owner/GM/coach that is driving you crazy and there is nothing you can do about it, you feel like an enraged five-year-old. Of course, the whole thing also illustrates how ludicrous it is that so many of us take this parlor game so seriously (me definitely included - I take a four-day holiday from work every Draft).

Sorry if this has been posted, but I haven't seen it. Hilarious compilation of Giants fans going out of their skulls at the Daniel Jones pick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQrgk-BoLc&feature=youtu.be Feels very familiar to me from many Bills drafts, though not this one.

Guess I'm in the minority, but I would do it. Love that guy. People put way too much stock in first rounders. Half of them aren't that great. (More than half of ours, historically.) I get the argument that you'd be trading two for one for a guy who also might not be that great, but if you believe in him, do it. We need a few superstars. Take a big swing now and then for the right guy. I think Williams might be that guy. And obviously if they made a trade like this they would agree.

It's also weird that he seems to equate Beasley with Brown. The whole point of Beasley is that he's a quick slot guy, not a guy that needs a 7 step drop and tons of time to get open. Unless I'm missing something. So the two main additions at WR serve very different functions. Seems like part of a plan to get more flexibility into the offense. I'm sure Beane would love to add a reliable big guy too. The offseason is far from over.