Logic

Seeing New England go 0-4 at home to start the season is

The Browns would have been better off with Allen or Jackson, and likely would have been better off with Darnold, too. Baker's career is going in the wrong direction. He's certainly not a guy I'd want to hand a big contract to.

The madness continues. More empty sets. The Browns are beating THEMSELVES. Fools.

I'm struggling to understand the Browns' line of thinking with this gameplan. They are 1st in the league in every rushing category, and the Cardinals are very bad at stopping the run. So the Browns decide to.....come out in empty sets and call a pass-heavy offensive gameplan? Doesn't make any sense to me. Yes, I know that Chubb is out with an injury. I don't care. Kareem Hunt is more than capable. Dance with what brung ya.

Played a few online matches today. Knox made noticeably more plays and is quite the weapon now. As for Josh, well…his rating MUST be due to some bias on the ratings guy’s part, because 89 is preposterously low for a guy doing what Josh is doing. No matter. Despite what the OVR number is, he’s beastly in Madden. Basically unstoppable.

I can accept people making silly troll comments for attention… But taking the name of the great Bo Didley in vain?! That, good sir….that I cannot abide.

My co worker, who is not a fan of either team, insists it’ll be Bills-Cards in the Super Bowl this year. I would love that matchup. I have all the faith in the world that we’d avenge the Hail Mary and bring home the Lombardi in that scenario.

I feel that two things are true about Madden at the same time: On the one hand: The game is lagging behind where it should be on this generation of consoles. EA's football games have been on a downward trend ever since they got the exclusive NFL license. That exclusive license is the worst thing to ever happen to football video games. Without any competition, EA has just been coasting for years. NFL games on the fourth or fifth generation of consoles should be vastly better in all respects than what Madden is now. On the other hand: Video game football is still amazing right now. I grew up playing Tecmo Bowl, NFL Gameday, Madden on Sega Genesis. If you'd have shown Madden 22 to the kid version of me playing those games all those years ago, my jaw would be on the floor. Video game fans will always, always find something to complain about. I'm not saying there's nothing to complain about in the modern Madden games -- there's plenty. I'm just saying that it's STILL a pretty amazing game compared to what these games used to be. Both things are true, in my opinion. Yes, Madden 22 should be vastly better, and I wish 2K Sports still made football games. But also: I still find Madden to be a hell of a lot of fun, and I think fans are a bit too quick to find reasons to complain. At any rate, I don't really have a choice in any of it, because Madden is the only game in town. Since I want to play video game football, I really don't have a choice. So like with most things, I choose to concentrate on the positive about it and just enjoy it. This year, by the way, is the easiest time I've ever had whooping ass online. This Bills team is monstrous.

The way that the defensive back seven move and flow in these zone coverages is a thing of beauty. It's the result of excellent coaching, smart players who study hard, and a secondary and linebacking unit that's now had several seasons playing together. When it's functioning at the top of its game, as it was against the Chiefs, the Bills' secondary is almost impossible to beat. They understand spacing, they understand their job (doing their one eleventh, har har), they're unselfish, they don't freelance, and they execute the plays exactly as Frazier and McDermott draw them up. The final piece of the puzzle that allows these zone defenses to work is a front four that can apply pressure to the quarterback. Even the best coverage can be beaten if the quarterback has all day to throw. The ability of the Bills front four to regularly affect the QB this year as opposed to last year is making a huge difference. Watch those All-22 clips and try to imagine being the quarterback throwing into that defense. Where would you go with the ball? There are no good answers. As exciting and explosive and fun to watch as the Bills offense is, I'm actually having even more fun watching the defense this year. Eleven players functioning as one unit, with a shared hive mind. An absolute thing of beauty.

Maybe others feel differently, but I don't really think he has a great voice for broadcasting. Every time he calls a big play, his voice goes up into a squeaky, pre-pubescent octave that is just not pleasant to listen to. I'm all for the Bills finding a new "voice of the team" as we enter this new era.

The Bills have not made any roster changes this season, to the best of my knowledge. No swapping practice squad players in and out, no calling up players one week and demoting them the next....nothing. This tells me they are quite happy with their roster. Given that they are number 1 in scoring defense, number 1 in scoring offense, number 1 in takeaways, and number 1 in point differential....I don't see any reason why they should change a single thing.

Nah. I agree. He does not have a voice for radio.

Yeah, it's gonna be egregious. Outplays Mahomes by a wide margin on a national stage -- still exits the game with an 88. Mahomes, meanwhile, throws two picks and misses a bunch of passes, but will still be ranked 99. Meanwhile, the EA ratings guy, Andre Weingarten, made his Twitter account private, so that you can't even Tweet at him to tell him what a dink he is.

It really sucks that the Manning-cast isn't happening for this game. It would be really cool to hear what Peyton and Eli have to say about Daboll's offense and Josh. Oh well.

Indeed. Playing Zach Wilson twice, the Jaguars offense, Tua or Brissett, Jameis Winston....the turnovers might just keep coming.

What an incredible read. Thanks so much for sharing it. Exactly what I hoped would happened, happened: The Bills DID spend all offseason trying to figure out a unique way to beat the Chiefs this year. They DID create a one of a kind, unicorn offensive gameplan. They DID stay pretty simple and true to form through the first four weeks, only to roll out the special stuff against KC. I knew from watching the game that Allen deserved an A+. I did not, however, realize quite the extent to which Daboll deserved an A+, too. What an excellent gameplan. What excellent execution. Between the way the Bills out-schemed and out-physicaled the Chiefs on defense and the way they out-schemed and out-executed the Chiefs on offense, that win was about as thorough and awesome and stylistically excellent as you could hope for. Mahomes had his second worst game ever, Allen shined on a national stage, and the Bills took the reins of the AFC firmly into their hands. p.s. The Bills scheme change-up on offense is so interesting, and Collinsworth/Michaels didn't say a peep about it as it was happening. Would it kill the NFL to employ some analysts intelligent and well researched enough to recognize this stuff and relay it to the home audience as it's happening?!

I watched back through the highlights and yes, it appears they did. This is why I'm just an idiot on a message board and not an NFL analyst. 😆

I mean...I wouldn't say that's necessarily the case. I guess it depends on the definition of "stop". I'm not sure how/where to find the stats for rushing yards gained when Kumerow is in the game specifically, but I'm not so sure the Bills offense is regularly ripping of big chunk plays when Kumerow is in the lineup.

Yeah, I figure as much, which I alluded to in the post. Still...Sometimes I wonder about the realistic value of running out of this predictable formation multiple times over multiple games just to set up one big "tendency breaker" play. I mean, I guess if they use it in a big spot on a big game, then great, but....I don't know. At some point I wonder at what point it becomes diminishing returns.

To add to this list, The Handmaiden is one of the best things I've seen this decade

I kind of hate that when Kumerow comes on the field, it means run play 99% of the time. I've seen it again and again this year: Diggs and Sanders come off the field, Kumerow and Davis enter the game. Bills run the ball. If I, a dumb commoner in the stands, know that it's a run play, the opposing defense DAMNED SURE knows its a run play. Now sure, maybe they're intentionally putting it on film a bunch to set up play-action off of it down the line, but....still. If you're an opposing DC and you see Diggs come off the field and Kumerow come into the game, sell the farm to stop the run.

Between the unknown nature of whatever else the investigation into the WFT has found -- what's in the rest of these Bruce Allen e-mails? -- and the ongoing St Louis relocation lawsuit, the league potentially is about to have some very public, very ugly things to answer for. Little bit of a scary time for those in the league office.

Excellent! Thanks so much for sharing.