Boatdrinks

I agree with your sentiment re: drops and what is officially deemed as such. The Bills WRs and TEs May not “ drop” more passes than the average team by a whole lot. What that doesn’t account for is the many, many passes caught by other teams players that were far from perfect throws. The Bills pass catchers rarely make these types of grabs, and others make them pretty routinely. If you watch a lot of NFL games, the Bills passing game seems lacking and depends on perfect throws to make plays.

This ^^. Unless his goal is to resemble a sex offender.

Lol...always like a Caddyshack reference And don’t forget a few key offseason FA additions to the offense. Valid point and concerns.

They usually did fine vs Steelers in Orchard Park, but at PIT ( especially in prime time ) rarely turned out well.

It’s still the Bills worst remaining opponent by a lot, and a team they should beat at home regardless of circumstance. If they can’t (and their playoff aspirations will very possibly come down to this game ) then any signs of being playoff caliber were just a mirage.

The Steelers head coach for this game was Chuck Knoll.

I think Joe B assumes a lot watching the slowed down all 22. There is pressure bearing down on the 4th down play that’s about to break through and force Josh out of the pocket. He wasn’t going to risk waiting for Beasley to make a move and having the ball batted down , getting hit etc. He decided to throw to Brown on the slant and Brown didn’t do much to get open. He still probably should have caught the ball as it hit him in the hands. A more physical WR makes that play a good percentage of the time. The Bills offense has very limited weapons in its arsenal when trying to beat a high caliber defensive unit like Baltimore. I didn’t like the play selection by Daboll in that final sequence. First and ten at the 18 with plenty of time and an opportunity to get another first down is a good situation. I want my OC to have an answer there, and he didn’t. The db was waiting on the slant, and the Bills don’t have superior athletes that can just make a play even when you know what’s coming.

Fair point. For example, the Bills had a five game home winning streak vs PIT from 1986 through 1999. These kind of things happen when teams don’t play each other regularly.

So you expect the team to win by doing things they haven’t done this season ? Namely taking the ball away and making plays on special teams. The functionality of the Bills offense will dictate the outcome of this one.

Lol, he won’t fall that far, but even if he did , no thanks.

After the CLE loss, I pretty much felt the Bills would need to pick up an unexpected win either vs DAL, BAL, or NE to get to 10-6. They did that , and I don’t feel any different now. I didn’t like their prospects at PIT to begin with, and a bit less with the flex and PIT finding their way post Rudolph. They got enough wins earlier that they don’t need it. Was always likely to include a win over Jets at home unless they knocked of NE or Baltimore.

Even in the unlikely event that the Bills finish 9-7 , I’d be shocked if the Bills drafted a QB and even more so if they moved on from McD. The offensive rebuild wasn’t complete this season, they’re still a couple players away from being a potent offense. I expect them to address it in FA and the draft

I’d say less than 5%.

To be fair, he qualified it with “ in regular season”.

I disagree. It’s on the linemen and RB or WR to “ sell “ the screen , not so much on Allen. All he has to do is look downfield while taking his drop. His throws are fine on the screen , it’s just usually set up so poorly that defenders are not fooled and already closing in on the RB or pass recipient. It takes a certain patience , and the OL can’t make it too obvious. They’re just not good at it, and that’s a huge liability to an offense as it takes away one antidote to relentless blitzing.

The D is not equal. The PIT D causes havoc for QBs, creates takeaways like crazy and scores TDs. The Bills D beats you with coverages, confusion and discipline. They cause punts, but not many takeaways. It’s really a bad matchup. The onus is on the Bills offense to score with few playmakers vs a pressure defense. The PIT D and physical offensive players allow them to scrape by with a caretaker QB. The Bills do have major issues going toe to toe with exactly the type of defense they’ll be facing this week. NFL is really all about matchups. Just a quirk of the schedule that they get several of these defenses in December.

Pretty sure the 53 man roster limit was a compromise because teams were simply stashing players on IR. It’s to limit the advantage a team might have if they’re lucky enough to be relatively injury free.

Should be 8:20 EST

Watching Brees in their game vs San Fran it’s incredible how much separation the WRs got in this game. While maybe not exactly the same issue with the Bills deep ball problem , it’s also noteworthy that these WRs go and get passes that are just in their general vicinity. I’ve yet to see a Bills WR or TE do this; in fact watching the Ravens game again it’s appalling how many times our WRs just stopped running routes when Josh was flushed out or under duress. Pretty awful effort all the way around. The Bills offense is playing with several empty chambers in the revolver.

I actually would prefer to play HOU or KC right now over TEN. They’re red hot and are more physical than finesse. KC came close to blowing the game up in Foxboro to a pretty lifeless Pats Offense. KC doesn’t have a great tradition of playoff success at Arrowhead either. They don’t look as good as they did last year.

If the Bills lose the next two and beat the Jets , they won’t be squeaking in. They’ll be in with a 10-6 record. It also won’t say much about their chances that we don’t already know. The Bills will have a good chance with their stout ( and portable) defense on the road in the wildcard round as they won’t be facing a Ravens/ Pats/ Steelers style ( or caliber) defense in all likelihood. After that, it will get a lot tougher if they pull the first round upset. It will take a superior coaching job on offense as well as another excellent defensive performance to win in the divisional round.

True, though in fairness the last time a good Bills team played at PIT was in the ‘90s.

There’s no particular rooting interest for Bills fans there, unless in the doomsday scenario of the Bills finishing 9-7.

I’m sure they practice these, and probably hit them.. in practice. In real game situations , it seems like something is always off with the timing or route or some other factor. The rush in his face is probably not replicated, and his WRs pretty much need a perfect ball. Until some variable changes, the6 should work on the other proven blitz beater; screens. Didn’t someone have a diagram/ tutorial on how to beat the cover zero with crossers or something ? Don’t remember which thread, but this has been an issue all season and is creeping up again as the playoffs approach and they play better defenses.

Pretty good assessment here, especially on Foster. That and suspect protection makes the timing tough on those deep shots. The Bills should practice running screens of all types tirelessly. They never seem to set them up well and don’t look like they know how to “sell” a screen to the D ; ie not tip them off that it’s coming. Seems like they could do that more effectively than hitting some lower % passes with precision in the face of a rush without physical ,athletic WRs that pretty much need a perfect ball.