Boatdrinks

Well, Knox is a pretty good run blocker not a suspect one. He was also the 96th player selected in 2019 and didn’t catch many passes in college as he wasn’t featured that way. Zay Jones caught a ton of passes in college and was the 44th player selected in the 2017 draft. 52 slots lower of draft position will buy you a little bit of “ rope” with the fans. Essentially , Jones had already proven he had good hands in college but forgot how to catch when he got to Buffalo. He was pretty much a head case.

Knox was drafted to be the future, where Kroft was signed to be the current starter. Kroft missed a ton of time and has basically been invisible, pressing Knox into service. He might develop, but he’s a couple years away. A playmaking vet TE should be on the FA shopping list, as well as a WR. The defense is championship caliber now, so they need plug and play weapons for the offense. There isn’t time for a drafted WR to develop. They should still draft offense to keep the cupboard stocked , but FA dollars need to be allocated to vets while Allen is still cheap.

When facing a top defense with talented secondaries, the Bills skill position guys fail to scare anyone. Brown is fast, but not physical. The TE is a rookie that has shown flashes at times, but drops the ball regularly. They still don’t know how to set up / run a screen effectively. Allen will struggle vs this type of defense ( not all teams have the skill to run it effectively though) without improved offensive players. If the problems continue with better players, then I’ll be worried.

They should have been preparing for it for weeks now, as it’s the one thing they’ve consistently struggled against. I’d expect them to be well versed in screens, cover zero blitz beaters by this point.

I noticed that Lamar was leaving his mouth guard out when he was going to hand the ball off , at least a few times. Players probably noticed this; haven’t rewatched to see if it was consistent .

THIS BELONGS IN THE Vs. PIT THREAD

Not surprising, it’s a bad matchup for the Bills. If the Bills beat the blitz a few times yesterday and come out with a win, they’re favored by at least 3 over PIT.

Yes, they do.

The point is that other coaches are now challenging them , as they are now being overturned. You have to discount earlier in the season when it was obvious that the league did not want these calls overturned regardless of the obvious video evidence. That 5% rate is artificially low. It’s worthy of debate in a game where yards were extremely hard to come by.

Okay. Not sure why the overreaction, but I’m not offended by your response . Knowledge is power, though.

Nope, there have been others. Two yesterday in the early games. Ex NFL official John Parry alluded to this happening in the NY post a few weeks ago. That very weekend, it started. Not a coincidence and if a fan knows this , the Bills HC certainly should.

Of course the narrative is that Peters made a great play on the ball to win the game. The eye in the sky doesn’t lie. Looks like a drop by Brown and a very accurate throw by Allen.

I wouldn’t be surprised.

Did SF run the same play that Daboll called on Thanksgiving at DAL yesterday? Sure looked like it.

I’d expect a close game, with the Bills having a pretty good chance to get out with a win. Not a bad matchup for what the Bills do.

Yes, some OCs are great at scripting the first couple of drives and Daboll is not one of them. He’s pretty mediocre overall, coming up with a gem every now and then like Vs MIN or vs DAL ( both in domes, oddly enough). Maybe that means we want to play HOU in the playoffs.

McDermott should have challenged the non call for DPI. Jets and Browns each had one overturned yesterday, with the Jets call deciding the game. It was definitely worth a possible lost timeout, as these calls have been getting overturned lately. The league was concerned about how fans would react if they suddenly started overturning them in the playoffs, so challenges have been won last few weeks. McD has to be on top of this development and throw that challenge flag. The timeout didn’t matter. Then you haven’t been paying attention the last few weeks, starting with the non call in New Orleans( ironically enough) vs CAR .

The Bills will probably need to beat the Jets to secure their spot, but that’s a team they should beat every time regardless of the Jets motivation level. If they don’t win that game, then they are frauds as far as being a playoff caliber team.

It’s the biggest because it’s the next game, that’s about it.

Yep, spot challenges are rarely overturned. BB has to know this. Anyway, the missed TD for the Pats* just balanced out all the uncalled grounding by Brady and the ridiculous amount of uncalled offensive holding by the Pats* that is so prevalent in every game they play.

The officials were only following the league’s directive. The NFL didn’t want PI calls overturned except as a failsafe for the playoffs. A few weeks ago, some high profile ex officials said their was some growing concern about fan reaction in the playoffs if they suddenly started overturning these calls. Not surprisingly , the calls have now started being overturned at a higher rate.

It’s a factor, but I don’t think the Bills D Vs the PIT offense is a matchup that has a lot of Bills fans concerned.

Just a statistical curiosity at this point, more than anything. A lot of it has to do with the offensive matchups vs quality DBs, single coverage and overload pressures. Dallas has talent, but they don’t run a scheme similar to the Ravens or Pats. PHL game was oddball due to extreme wind and a strange gameplan by Daboll in those conditions. There’s not much mystery to this really, it’s about matchups and scheme.

Yeah, that was eye opening , especially vs that defensive scheme. Bills lack playmakers and great design , adjustments on the fly to get guys open. All I heard about before the game was how BB scheme was going to take away Hill and Kelce, forcing KC to beat them with one hand behind their back.

Daboll’s game plan was crap. The 49 ers exploited the Ravens on the edges with speed on the ground and with WR screens etc, and Daboll didn’t flow the blueprint. This team still looks like a screen is a foreign concept. He called several series of run, run, pass and had no answers for overload pressure. He followed up a great plan vs DAL with a terrible one for the Ravens.