HappyDays

After watching our CBs this year, watching this video is like a caveman seeing fire for the first time.

McDermott doesn't know either:

Yeah ideally of course I want the explosive passing offense that can run up the score and make the defense practically irrelevant. Unfortunately we don't have the personnel for that. From Joe Marino's substack: I really think we are better off just going back to basics. The offense has to run through Cook, even as a pass catcher he should be more involved. Kincaid should be the #1 target on forward passes, ideally while catching the defense in heavy personnel, and Shakir can still do his 3-4 quick screens per game. If Palmer can get loose once or twice a game that is where our deep shots will come from. Coleman's role needs to be heavily reduced. These aren't good answers but they're the best answers we have to get out of this slump.

Last year at this time we had just lost to Houston (very similar to this year where we had a 2 game losing streak). We played the Jets the following week, scraped out a win, and then traded for Cooper. So if we trade for a WR I'm guessing at this point it will be after the Carolina game.

The crazy thing is that the best thing for our offense might be bringing that pass rate down even more. We still run the ball with Cook better than we do anything else. They've tried opening up the pass game in the last two weeks - the PA rate has gone up, downfield throw percentage has gone up, etc. - and it just isn't working. I'm going to quote @GunnerBill by saying it's not the offense I prefer but it's the one we need to run right now. When Kincaid is healthy 12 personnel should be our base. I'd start making Palmer (when healthy) and Shakir the highest snap WRs in that formation. Pound the run until defenses go into their heavy personnel and then throw it over the LBs. Pepper in some targets to Palmer on favorable 1v1 looks outside to keep defenses honest. If we're not going to trade for a legit WR there's no sense in trying to change our whole approach. We should instead lean even further into what we do well and try to ride that as much as possible.

Yep KC's offense took people by surprise in 2022. Defenses were still playing them like they had Tyreek Hill. In 2023 defenses adjusted to take away the easy short field completions and suddenly their offense started to struggle. So since then they have invested a ton into their WR room, and now right when their defense has fallen off a bit they have a passing offense to make up for it. That's what a forward thinking organization does. Adjust on the fly to work with the pieces you have, but don't get complacent just because you're able to make those pieces work for a short time. The Bills on the contrary are stuck in neutral. Whatever worked last year, just do it again. It turns out simply running everything back was the wrong strategy, as many people on here predicted. KC every year takes on a new identity.

KC scored 22.2 PPG in 2023 (14th) and 23.1 PPG in 2024 (12th). That's nice for them that they can have an offense outside the top 10 and still compete for Super Bowls. The Bills very clearly are not built that way. We need to score 30 PPG bare minimum to have a chance.

Rapp is missing 25% of his tackles this season! It's bizarre because last year he only missed 3.6% of tackles. That kind of regression is inexplicable. I have no idea what's going on there but Rapp even at his best isn't such a good player that you should stay patient and hope he figures it out. He needs to be replaced ASAP. I'm fine with a replacement level player at safety, but Rapp has become a liability.

Funny enough if Hamlin was healthy I'd put him in over Rapp right now. Hamlin has his athletic limitations but he plays his assignment and hits his landmarks, which is more than Rapp is doing this season. He also wouldn't be missing 25% of his tackles like Rapp is.

Related to this, they need to start treating Ty Johnson as the player he is this year and not the player he was last year. The player that Allen called "the best 3rd down back in the league" is not there anymore. He's had a few drops, he hasn't always been on the same page as Allen, his vision and his contact balance both look worse to my eyes. I think it's time to see what Cook can do on 3rd downs. I know he can't block but get him out on routes and see how it goes. Joe makes the point in his podcast that if teams are going to have a spy mirroring Allen, that should give us automatic space in whatever area that spy is vacating. Cook is the best player we have to take advantage of that space.

There has been mind numbingly bad game management from both teams in the final 5 minutes of this game

So I guess Stroud is just bad now? Also watch the LT on this play for an easy laugh:

This is hilarious:

The weird thing is that the defensive identity and the offensive identity are opposites. On defense it's "prevent big plays, force the opponent to be efficient and mistake-free." On offense it's "be efficient and mistake-free, don't hunt big plays." In other words we've tried to build the exact style of offense that our defense is designed to force the opponent into. Very bizarre.