HappyDays

That is true but what really killed us against Baltimore was their OL and run scheme creating massive lanes for Henry to run through. Henry is special but he didn't need to be special against us. Hall or really any RB can just as easily coast through those truck-sized gaps. So hopefully our DTs, LBs, and safeties play much much better this weekend.

Interesting that Logue gets the call up over Phillips. Makes me think 1st string will be Sanders/DQ, and 2nd string Walker/Logue. Good opportunity for the rookies to show off their pass rush.

Sucks but we are entering the weak part of our schedule. We can live without him for 2-3 games. Banged Up Bills on Twitter is saying the mechanism of the injury (foot stepped on) likely means it isn't too severe and the timeframe to return shouldn't be too long.

He's not playing great but the pass protection and OL are doing him no favors. Every pass is rushed and no one is getting open quickly. Not a good combo for success. Green Bay's defense is for real.

Play for the FG, miss it, then give your opponent good field position to try for an even shorter FG. That's not how you steal a game that is slipping away from you.

Weird thing is he practiced in full yesterday and then spoke to the media after practice. Then ends up DNP wearing a walking boot on a walk through day... Did he hurt himself at home?

Cook practiced in full which is good news at least. Tre seems like he's trending to get back this week, or next week at the latest. Hopefully Oliver's boot and scooter is just precautionary and not a long term deal... but doesn't seem like the type of injury he'll be able to play through in 3 days.

Never seen a team have so many random injuries pop up after coming out of a game healthy. I just don't get it.

Sigh... what is going on with this team.

Bills 27 Jets 21 I expect the defense to rebound. Everyone in that room has to be mortified with their performance and it has to be better almost by default. On offense I believe with Allen playing like he did last week we can put up 30 on anybody. I'm a bit worried about Cook's hamstring, that's the only reason I'm only predicting 27.

Those players you mentioned haven't had issues with run fits before though. Certainly not to the disastrous level they did on Sunday. Milano has always been an elite cerebral player and it's not like he was getting beat up physically, he was overrunning his gaps or getting to his landmarks late. At a certain point the coaches have to be accountable for every single 2nd and 3rd level player having a worst game of their career type of performance. Getting beat by their cadence for example falls on coaching IMO. Week 1 you expect some rust but one team looked extremely prepared and one team looked like day one install of training camp. FWIW I chalk most of that up to Babich more than McDermott. McDermott hired him so he owns the final responsibility, but still Babich has to have his guys better prepared than that. As a head coach managing the game I thought McDermott was as good as I've ever seen him.

I didn't like that extension either. But to be fair to Bernard, Baltimore is the worst matchup for his skillset. He is not built to take on 400 lb pulling guards. His pass coverage is where I need to see improvement from last year to make that extension worth it. The more all-22 footage I've seen the more I blame (1) coaching because our players were not remotely prepared to play, and (2) Daquan Jones who is the only legit 1T on our roster and he couldn't shed a run block to save his life. We put Oliver at nose a few times and even he was more effective at that spot than DQ. We've built a small 2nd level which means we need the front to keep them clean... not give up wide open gaps with room for the RB and his pulling OL to escort him. The 2nd and 3rd level definitely misplayed a lot of their assignments but they were not put in favorable positions either. The way to beat Henry is make him hesitate just a bit in the backfield which requires penetration from the front. If he can just accelerate without breaking momentum that is a tough ask for almost any LB or safety.

And apparently that was the play he forced the fumble.

It definitely was not intentional but how funny that we won this game because Knox did a volleyball set into a basketball rebound from Coleman.

Last night was definitely not an indication of that. It's his first ever pro game, against the absolutely last offense you'd ask to welcome you to the NFL as a DT. In general I think fans are way too quick to want to make sweeping personnel changes based on this game. If it still looks the same in a few weeks yeah you look to make some changes. Personally though I think the defensive coaching staff needs to do a better job getting the guys they have prepared for the opponent. Ravens offense looked like a well oiled machine while our defense looked like day one install of training camp. The number of mental mistakes and missed responsibilities goes above and beyond the players IMO. We flat out were not ready on that side of the ball.

Actually after rewatching the endzone all-22 view I think it was Milano's gap. Williams is playing the edge I think. Milano runs right by the gap that Henry ends up going through, and you can see him almost panic as he realizes what he just did but by that point two big fat men are plowing into his back and pushing him out of the picture. Also as the ball is being snapped Bernard is still actively communicating with the defense so nobody was ready. Baltimore got us with their cadence on that play as they did a few times throughout the game, and that 1 second head start gave their OL time to get into position and threw our whole 2nd level into disarray. Hopefully they get these mental errors fixed soon. We were not just flat out physically dominated which is good, that means the problem is fixable with the current personnel. These guys just weren't ready to execute their responsibilities.

That and I also didn't like punting on 4th and 3 on our second drive. Yes we hadn't even gotten to midfield yet but you have to know what type of game you're in. We had run three rushing plays in a row, to me if you're going to do that then you have to go for it on 4th and short and give Allen a chance. Instead we punted, Baltimore ripped off an easy TD drive, and we were chasing that lost possession for the rest of the game. But overall I thought McDermott's game management was quite good. The end of both halves were managed and executed to perfection and he absolutely deserves credit for that.

The difference is Baltimore was just running their normal offense picking up chunks and long TDs almost at will. Lamar only had to make one special play. Most of their receptions were made with wide open space around the pass catcher. They were opening up truck-sized gaps in the run game. Meanwhile on our side our pass catchers were usually tackled right after the catch, if they were able to separate at all. Cook had very little space to work with in the run game. Allen had to pull a rabbit out of a hat like a dozen different times just to keep us in the game. So it was pretty obvious watching the game that their defense was performing much better than ours, Allen just happens to be a one man machine who can and did singlehandedly erase that gap.

Just watched that clip from the endzone all-22 view and if Oliver didn't push his man into the backfield, Henry was going to house that one from 70 yards out. Had a wide open gap with a blocker in front of him and nobody in the 2nd or 3rd level to even slow him down. Oliver played like a Hall of Famer in this one and we needed him to or else they would have put up 50.

I'm fine letting DBs put their hands on jerseys, mainly because I hate how easy they make it for WRs these days. If DBs can't make little grabs like that they have no chance to orient themselves against some of these freaks. I think the best officiating crews understand this. What they should be looking for are holds where the DB is restricting the WR's movement at his route break, or blatant tugs that are affecting the WR's ability to get to the catch point. I thought the officials in this one did a good job keeping their flags tucked away except for that one early bad call against Dorian Strong.

Hopkins had his arm fully extended pushing Benford away on his one handed TD catch. I don't mind them letting DBs play a bit. Missing a textbook OPI is the one call that frustrated me. You can kind of see it here if you slow it down 3 seconds in but it's even more clear on the all 22:

If it continues the way it did yesterday, yeah I do. Ben Johnson isn't tethered to him and he isn't going to waste his head coaching opportunity on a QB he didn't pick and doesn't believe in. Williams has time to prove me wrong but as of now I see way too many flaws that haven't gotten any better since week 1 last year.

I'd be interested to know your opinion on this TD run: Looks like someone totally misplayed their responsibility here. Rapp immediately puts his back to the play side anticipating a crosser, which takes him out of the play. Bernard is penetrating upfield and gets taken out of the play. Looks like Benford is going to play edge contain while Dorian Williams already has the edge. It's not immediately obvious to me who screwed up here but clearly someone was supposed to take that truck-sized gap that any RB in the league could have coasted through. The coaches need to get this stuff straightened out, and fast. The Jets are going to see this on tape and lick their chops. This is not a play where our guys got beat 1v1 and I suspect this sort of mistake was the bigger issue on Sunday than everybody losing their matchups.

You don't think projecting a player's evolution is part of the draft evaluation?