Last Guy on the Bench
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Posts posted by Last Guy on the Bench
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2 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:
The whole day was off yesterday outside the last two minutes. I don't know what it was, everything was weird yesterday , and not just the tailgate. Last two minutes wa the only time that felt like a true Bills game
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.
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12 hours ago, thronethinker said:
12th Man really was a factor when Rich Stadium sat 83,000 people in the early 90's and you could completely get in the heads of visiting teams. Crowd noise was much louder then. Bills Mafia is more fitting today.
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.
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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!
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Great article. This finally made me buy a subscription to The Athletic.
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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.
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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.
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5 minutes ago, eball said:
That was awesome. In these situations I always feel sorry for the player, because it's not his fault -- but wow. The draft crowd at the stadium all booed the pick!
The Giants have become a joke.
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).
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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.beFeels very familiar to me from many Bills drafts, though not this one.
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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.
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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.
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7 hours ago, Kelly the Dog said:
Felser was mostly a columnist but you're talking about the best the city ever had who covered the Bills over 68 years, so that is tough to live up to. Dunne is a very, very good feature writer, not a columnist. Eric Turner is absolutely great at what he does, breaking down film and analytics, etc, but not a columnist.
But both of those are totally different jobs than Sully's. I don't want to stick up for him, but he was strictly a columnist and if you want to compare him, and his style and substance and entertainment value, IMO you have to compare him to other columnists.
It's like saying a drummer sucks because there are all kinds of other guitar players in similar bands who are better musicians.
I don't think this fully captures a columnist's job - or at least a good columnist's job.
Yes, a columnist is not reporter, and their job is "opinion" in some sense, but not in the sense of your drunk neighbor at the Bills' game or your irritating Uncle. Good columnists draw on non-obvious information to build a non-obvious window onto what they are writing about. They read stuff and synthesize it. They talk to people that others might not be able to talk to. Fresh opinions don't just drop out of the sky, even for very creative people (which Jerry is not). They take some kind of engagement. It doesn't seem like Jerry ever did anything but watch the games and go to the press conferences. You know who else does that? All of us (at least virtually). So it's no surprise that his columns were rarely surprising.
I think when people say he was lazy, they don't mean he should have been acting like a reporter. They mean he was intellectually lazy. Even geniuses need to prime the pump. It takes work to have an interesting take. Peter King, for example, is a columnist. He writes a million words a week of opinions, musings, autobiography, etc. But love him or hate him, he spends a lot of time reading, talking to other people, and going out and engaging with the NFL. I know he has access that Jerry could only dream of, and I wouldn't expect the Buff News to mirror a national publication. But you can do some of that, even if you're working in Boise.
Honestly, an average post from you, KTD, or from a bunch of other posters, has much more interesting opinion and analysis than any Sullivan column. And it has very little to do with how positive or negative someone is. You tend to be relatively sunny (except when it comes to Peterman). Badol is a curmudgeon, but always interesting. Both of you offer a fresh eye. Neither of you sounds like every other poster or radio idiot. There are lots of posters here who can knock off a tipsy post in their sleep that is better than Jerry's columns. Someone who is actually thinking about things and engaging with them can always find lots of interesting positive and negative things to say. The key word being 'interesting'.
Heck, even DC Tom, who never offers any actual football insight, and who is as surly as they come, is actually funny. I would read a column by him. But life's too short to read stuff by someone like Jerry.
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Wow. Rosen looks sharp. Throws a beautiful ball.
All of the top 4 QBs look pretty legit so far. It would be something if it stayed that way.
Still, I'll take our guy. Allen was at the bottom of my list for the draft, but he has sold me. I really enjoy watching him play. He may end up being a little messier than the other guys, but he looks like a baller, and he's super cool in the pocket. That has surprised me. And I love that sense you have with him that something big can happen at any time. I've missed that. That's what I liked about Mahomes too (whom I still like), but Allen seems cooler in the pocket.
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6 minutes ago, Ned Flanders said:
I've said this many times, that the reason ST distribution is "limited" by only going through DTV is because of the beer barons. We all know how much beer is in bed with the NFL, well, the bars, beer's big clients, have hounded the beer barons to lobby the NFL AGAINST easy distribution of ST because the bars' Sunday profits will suffer significantly. The beer barons have made this known to the NFL and ST, hence, has "limited" distribution on DTV.
The big issue now is streaming and DTV has repeatedly said they will not stream ST; they fear their traditional satellite product will quickly dry up...but the day is coming where streaming will be the norm.
Yeah, full standalone, unconditional streaming is definitely coming. Just have to be patient. Many similar sorts of arguments used to get thrown around about other premium TV like HBO, etc. Streaming was going to be too disruptive to their revenue model. But now you can get standalone HBO streaming, standalone Showtime streaming, a streaming cable package equivalent through Youtube, etc. I'm sure they NFL will follow suit. They do it abroad. And they are close with their non-live GamePass offering in the U.S. now.
I've been living abroad, so I've been able to get the full ticket streaming for $200 bucks straight from the NFL. But I'm back in the U.S. this fall. No way I'm getting in bed with DTV or any other TV provider. I'm just paying my $99 bucks for GamePass and watching the games after they air. Sucks not to see them live (except when I head out to a sports bar), but not worth it to me to put in that whole insane TV infrastructure. I'll just stay away from the news for a few hours and watch the Bills on Sunday evenings. Just pretend it's a night game.
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52 minutes ago, TheTruthHurts said:
Sorry that I like QBs that throw to open WR's rather than believe they can make a throw between 3 defenders. There is a time for that throw, that wasn't the time. It worked, which shows his talent. Had he pumped and then came back to Prohel it would have been much more impressive to me. But who cares what I think. I'm not sure why people keep commenting at me. It's a preseason game we won't remember in a few days.
I would have agreed with you on first looking at that play. But the Cover1 breakdown was illuminating. A) He wasn't reading Proehl's route by design (at least that's what the Cover1 guy thinks), and B) Proehl isn't actually open when Allen starts his throw - be breaks open after that when the safety cheats over to the outside - if the safety had followed him, Proehl he wouldn't have been open - but Allen's already made his decision before it's clear what the safety is going to do.
Bold decision. Great throw.
And for anyone saying he had several inaccurate throws in that game, I don't see them. The two that were way off were obviously miscommunications. They were so far off there is no way Allen was throwing to where the receiver ended up. Still might have been his fault, but from screwing up the play or misreading the defense, not from inaccuracy.
On the bombs NO QB hits those precisely even 50% of the time. Your best hope is that someone can get a long one close enough that you'll hit it now and then. He certainly did that.
I was amazed at how accurate Allen was in this game.
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If we played the Dolphins 16 times a year, Charles Clay would have 2,000 yards and 30 TDs. It's vastly entertaining watching them try to tackle him.
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2 hours ago, Batman1876 said:
Story- this one is talked about least and may play a big role in the divide regarding Allen. Before looking at his story lets look at the most common path to the draft that the 95% of QBs take. Early on they attend increasingly more prestigious QB camps, they transfer to go to an Elite High school and focus only on football and then are recruited to an elite program. in other words by the time most project QBs get to the NFL they have already had the best coaching available for 10-12 years. All that coaching has tapped their potential quite a bit. The result of this is projects who develop very little, because the 12 years of coaching they've already had has left little room for growth. Allen on the other hand did not attend elite QB camps, went to a D5 high school where he was a multi sport athlete, went to a JUCO and then a football program about as elite as the UB Bulls. In other words Allen hasn't had his talent tapped into by good coaching before. He is a well of untapped potential. Far from the kids who grow very little when they hit the NFL Allen should grow quite a bit. I think this untapped potential is what GMs were seeing that the internet scouts weren't.
So in the end he's still a project, he's still a risk. However when you look at the total situation there is more room for hope than there is with most project QBs. He has talent worth tapping into and for the first time he'll be getting the elite coaching to help him do just that.
Good post. I was definitely among the disappointed when his name was called, but there is a lot to like about the kid. And like many, the more I look, the more optimistic I feel (or at least can talk myself into feeling).
IF he's going to be good, I think your point three on story is key. No player falls into an entirely predictable, pre-set pattern. Every player has his own journey. But in Allen's case, the journey really is an outlier, making it even less predictable. No one would have said that Kurt Warner - going undrafted, cut in training camp, not from a big conference, kicking around the Arena League and NFL Europe - would be a hall of famer but there he is.
What gives me the most hope about Josh is the tenacity and will and love for football that has kept him going through being unrecruited out of high school, JUCO, the 1,000 emails, heading to the middle of nowhere based on one offer and glad to do it, etc. This kid is driven and disciplined. He was a late bloomer physically. He might be a late bloomer statistically on the field too.
Combine that with the fact that he is a PHREAK. I wish he had thrown for more yards and more completions, but man, his best throws are so much better than anyone else's best throws from a physical standpoint. He doesn't just have a big arm. He might have the best arm I've ever seen - and I've been watching football since the early 1970s.
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4 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:
We'll at least one was to Pat DiMarco, who let it glance of his stone hands. But please, carry on.
Sure. I'm not particularly anti-Peterman. Was just responding to the poster who said he hadn't thrown any passes in the Chargers game (I think he was mixing up which was the 5 int game.)
That being said, I think I agree with Kelly the Dog that a lot of his troubles seem to come from lack of arm strength. I was quite interested to watch him play, but I can't say I ended the year feeling at all optimistic that he was going to stick in the league.
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37 minutes ago, The Frankish Reich said:
No way he sits for a year unless somehow McCarron leads the Bills to an 8-2 start or something. I'm going to predict we see him no later than Game 9, probably a few games earlier. Today's CBA means 4 years of team control with a decision on a pricey 5th year option right after that - there's no redshirt years anymore.
That's where I land. I don't think he starts right away. But he will at some point, unless McCarron is really on a roll. Not holding my breath. Given our brutal road schedule early, probably the best plan is to let McCarron weather that storm, and then, if Josh is making good progress with the offense mentally, get him in there - somewhere in mid-season.
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27 minutes ago, Bills Fan of Maryland said:
You may be right, but he didn't throw a pass in the Chargers game. Were you thinking Saints? He never had a chance in that game with the OL. His mistakes were trying to make plays when there were none to be made. Bills were getting abused up front and Peterman paid the price.
He threw 14 passes in the Chargers game, 5 of them to the Chargers.
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I always take off Thursday-Monday. My own little paradise staycation. Load up on all the junk food I won't usually let myself buy. Queue up some good binge watching material for the down periods when I've consumed all the draft-related info I can find. It's a four day extravaganza of indulgence.
I look forward to it every year the way I used to look forward to Christmas when I was a kid. My wife usually just heads out for a mini vacation of her own. I can't blame her. Watching me sink down into the hedonistic depths over four days isn't pretty. Usually takes me a week of recovery to feel like I'm not still football-junk-food-computer-screen stoned.
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26 minutes ago, SWATeam said:
With our luck, all three will suck and the Kyle Lauletta led Pats* will dominate the division for the next decade.
Ha ha. That did cross my mind. Ongoing traumatic stress syndrome.
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5 minutes ago, PIZ said:
Wow. Not that I want the Jets or Phins to be good. But it would be pretty cool seeing Mayfield, Darnold, and Rosen fighting it out in the AFC East for the next ten years, while the Pats fade into oblivion.
I know it's unlikely that all three will pan out anyway. But it would give us the most interesting division for a little while at least.
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I can't even let myself contemplate this possibility. It is too exciting.
I understand that Darnold is a little sloppy and not as developed in some areas as some of the other guys.
But he is the one guy who screams franchise to me. I actually think he is the safest pick, not just the one with the highest ceiling. When I watch him play, I just have confidence in him. He sees things that other QBs tend not to - little windows and angles. He finds a way to make plays at the right moments. He's got that confidence and that kind of idiot savant geometry that all the best QBs have. And pressure doesn't seem to bother him - on or off the field. Can't believe he is so young.
If the Bills somehow manage to get him, it will be the happiest I've been as a Bills fan since the USFL closed up shop and Jim Kelly came to town. Seems too good to be true, though. I don't see how the Browns/Giants/Jets let this guy get past them (or trade down instead of taking him). Guess we'll see.
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WATCH to appreciate how money Allen is in critical situations
in The Stadium Wall Archives
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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.