oldmanfan

Ok. For the several above: enough. Was the lateral dumb? Yes. Did it cost the team anything? No. Was the ball to DiMarco a problem with Allen , when if the receiver jumps a split second later it’s a completion? No. Does Allen really make two bad plays per one good play? No. Is Allen the only NFL player to celebrate a TD? No. Did the missed interceptions count for anything and does Watson get the same criticism when he threw one right at Neal? No. Is it the QB’s fault when the pass rush is on him within a second after the snap? No Was Allen perfect? No. So enough already. He made some bad plays to be sure. The fumble; has to learn to decide to run or pass and if run put the ball away and go. That cost us three points. The grounding just throw it away earlier so you don’t get in that position. He needs to calm down, use his teammates and not as his coach said try to do too much, as he did earlier in the year. He also was responsible for over 80% of the offensive output, got them down the field with just over a minute left to tie the game, and had them in place to win in OT if our line could actually block legally. But just because some of you self-appointed QB experts decided on draft day he wasn’t your guy (with one of you famously wanting to trade an entire draft for Winston of all things) you can’t accept reality. Enough already with your biases.

They weren’t open from what could be seen from replays.

You can go on and on about this, but the bottom line is DiMarco had inside position on both defenders and if he jumps a split second later it's a completion. The Texans dropped 8 guys, and we still had the ball in a guy’s hands to make a play.

The flavor of the day is you have to have some genius offensive mind as a HC. It will change again soon when a former DC wins the trophy.

Not really feeling different. Still really sad because he had the game in hand.

Problem with his coin toss technique is he has to make sure he kneels before the call or else the ref won't look at the coin.

This will be interesting. Can he get along with Jerry?

I think the 30-40% is pretty close, probably more towards the 40%. For young QBs the key thing is to get the game to slow down for them enough to play at a successful level. It definitely slowed down more for him this year. I saw evidence of him going through progressions more, his completion percentage increased, he did well running the ball. And perhaps the most important is his ability to perform late in games to bring the team back. I think that is the kind of unmeasurable quality you look for in a QB. Saying that, however, there is still much to be done. Josh has to get less excitable while keeping the positive aspects of his game intact. He needs to develop more of the cold blooded type mentality rather than what we saw on a number of occasions, as in the second half Saturday. He has to take the reckless decision making out of his game; while the lateral did not cost us anything Sunday it was still a really dumb thing to try and pull off. He has to improve on his pre-snap reads and adjusting to blitzes; figure out that a throw away is OK many times. And I think he needs to demand that the OC takes the reins off him and let him play. I don't know that you'll ever completely get the hero ball out of the kid. But ultimately he's a 23 year old kid in his second year in the league, who I think we can reasonably expect to continue improvement next year.

When the play happened, my attitude was that the guy clearly was giving himself up and that it would have been crazy to give us points there. But having read the rule now, and having listened to a lot of veteran NFL guys commenting on the play (in particular Tim Hasselbeck), I have to say we got hosed there. The rule is the rule, and you can't just circumvent the rule because you think it makes sense to do so. That is the path to football anarchy. Also, I have never before seen the replacement refs come onto the field to reverse a call like that. The ref on the field should have been the only guy to overturn, and that should only have been in consultation with the league guys in NYC. Do I think it cost us the win? Who knows - might have completely changed the psyche of the game in either direction. But with time for reflection it was nonsense.

From what I've read he pulled a guy's face mask. Hard to actually see it with all the players in the area. He doesn't do that, they get their unsportsmanlike and we're on like the 15 yard line. Hughes does this a lot; when is it reasonable to expect a veteran to act like a veteran? Lee Smith is similar; a vet but you can count on him committing dumb penalties at the worst time.

Hey Cody, we got your back. You’re a Bill and Bills fans support you.

Defense historically comes to the forefront in the playoffs. Not sure why people refuse to acknowledge that.

And won his first big game today.

Which shows guys improve with experience. Which is the point when folks overly criticize our second year QB.

I have never before seen officials run in from the sideline like that.

Little mistakes in playoff games cost you. One that has not been mentioned was the penalty on Hughes during the sideline scrum after Edmunds’ INT. The Texans got an unsportsmanlike call and if Hughes doesn’t screw up it puts us a lot closer to scoring a TD. The guy is a veteran, but you can almost set your watch by him either getting a dumb Offside or personal foul at the worst times. He had three sacks; great but your veterans have to be the ones to play smart, not dumb.

I agree and am glad we got this back onto a more civil platform.

So now you are making the decision what others are looking for in terms of improvement. You can’t sit here and say each of the three guys above improved but then say they aren’t examples of improvement. Brees improves his first two full seasons. So did Favre. You are making the fatal mistake many make when making a statistical argument: you have an answer you want to prove and you're trying to manipulate the data to justify your preconceived conclusion.

Looking at the graphs, the data discusses changes in the rankings; they do not from what I can tell assess whether or not they are positive or negative changes, nor did he provide any statistics to claim whether differences were real or not. I review a ton of scientific manuscripts for publications, and when they get rejected it is mostly because of faulty study design or data analysis. This study looks like it falls in that category. You claimed the only guy to improve from his first or second year was Brees. Just for the heck of it I picked a guy that some compare Allen to early in his career: Favre. And if you look at Favre second and third seasons he improved. Others have mentioned guys like Stafford and others. So to me you are way overstating your case. I also question why you chose the construct of just year 2 to year 3. Another good example of extending the time of analysis would be a guy you saw today: Cousins. Took him quite a while and some failures to finally win s big game. Sometimes you have to experience the lows to get to the highs. The random nature of the data showed in the study you cite after year 3 also suggests that. None of us know what Allen will or will not become. But if you’re trying to suggest that the Bills should move on from Allen now because he can’t get better next year or after, your data just doesn’t show that.

Yeah. Check his second vs. third year as a starter. He improved. Another nail in the coffin of that other thread.

Yep. Like around 19-20. I agree though we got too conservative. McD needs to come to grips with that in the offseason.

AJ Green. Not that I would make that selection

Pretending he is the only issue and incapable of improvement is what is foolish

Winning teams thus far in the playoffs in regulation: 19, 14, 20. Defense matters in the playoffs.

Show me data to prove your point then. But you won’t. So your opinion has no more or less value than anyone else.