Logic

Thanks. There's a definite difference between over-reacting with stuff like "we'll never beat the Chiefs" or "contract was a mistake!" and simply pointing out that he's looked a bit off through two games. I watched the first game from the stands and the second from my couch, and it's seemed very clear to me that he hasn't had the same sharpness and accuracy that he displayed last season. I'd count roughly 8-10 plays so far where he just flat out missed a receiver that he wouldn't have missed last year. Yes, the line has failed him at times and yes, the playcalling has been puzzlingly bad at times. There have also been OTHER times, however, where Josh has a good playcall, has time, gets the open look he wants...and just misses his guy. It doesn't mean I think he can't overcome it and return to the same level of play as last season. It doesn't mean I'm off the Josh Allen bandwagon or that I think the Bills are doomed. It simply means that the reality that I'm seeing in person and on my TV is that Josh isn't throwing with the same accuracy and rhythm that he displayed last season. I still believe in him, I'm still optimistic....I'm just not gonna cover my eyes and say "la la la, there are no problems, Bills won!". Allen needs to improve.

It's weird how people aren't allowed to point out that our quarterback has been playing subpar football -- worse than last year, no doubt -- without people defensively jumping down their throat. Sure, the Bills still won today. Sure, his line isn't doing him any favors. Sure, he'll likely have better games this season. But it's okay to admit that Josh hasn't played very good football the last two weeks, and that if he doesn't improve -- REGARDLESS of what the o-line is doing -- it will be pretty worrisome. It doesn't make someone less of a Bills fan, it doesn't make them unappreciative of a win, and it doesn't make them a pessimist to call a spade a spade: Through two weeks, regardless of what other circumstances or excuses you want to throw out there, Josh HAS looked closer to the 2019 version than the 2020 version. It's not just stat sheet stuff. He's missing throws that he was NOT missing last year. He's getting away from some of those great mechanics improvements he made last year at inopportune times. Normalize being honest when the quarterback isn't playing well.

Don't forget the time he tried to explain Moss's play via Einstein, Archimedes, and the laws of physics mass in motion. At times he was funny, like a kooky old uncle. At other times, he was groan-worthy. Really bad. Thing that drove me really nuts was that he kept pronouncing Gesicki's name with soft G, like "Jesicki". HE HAS A PRONUNCIATION KEY IN FRONT OF HIM!!!

Thanks for this post. Respectfully, I never thought it meant much. I noticed the Chiefs are only a few spots "younger" than us. I think that good teams often have a balance of youngsters and veterans. I'm guessing that Hughes, Addison, Star, Klein, Hyde, Poyer, and Emmanuel Sanders are the ones driving the overall team age up. It would be one thing if we really WERE an older team across the board, but I don't think that's the case. The Bills feel like a pretty young team who happen to have a few key contributors aged 30 or older.

Watch the Bills lose to the Phins and drop to 0-2, followed by the entire national media jumping off the Bills bandwagon and calling them pretenders and frauds. Watch then as the Bills use the poor start as a rallying cry, coach McDermott gets to use his favorite motivational tactic ("Nobody believes in us!!!!"), the Bills reel off a bunch of wins to get to 6-3 by the midpoint of the season, and the players all point to the 0-2 start as a galvanizing force that brought them all together and got them to re-dedicate themselves to fundamentals or whatever. I'm not saying there seems to be a period every season where the Bills get their butts handed to them and I question everything about the team and coaches, only to see them use the bad stretch as motivation and rebound and win a bunch of games, but......well.....I guess I AM kind of saying that.

As it relates to the Bills, I saw some encouraging and not so encouraging signs with the Washington Football Team. On the plus side, they let Daniel Jones run for 95 yards. That would seem to bode well for Josh Allen. Also on the plus side, Tyler Heinicke didn't really wow me. He looks like the type of QB that the Bills defense usually does well against. On the negative side, their two defensive ends, Chase Young and Montez Sweat, are likely to give the Bills' tackles fits. Ron Rivera will be bringing a pretty fierce defense to town and will have ten days to prepare to take on his former DC, Sean McDermott. Overall, while I don't think it will be an "easy" win because of Washington's defense (and their defensive line, in particular), I don't believe the Washington offense will be able to put as many points on the board as the Bills. Bills win.

100% Actually, I mostly avoid TBD, Twitter, and any other kind of social media after a loss. I'm already usually in low enough spirits after a loss that I don't see any point in piling on by immersing myself in negativity. On the flip side, after a Bills win, I soak up all the articles, social media, and TBD that I can. Actually -- and this is a little off topic -- I find that I spend much more time here in the offseason than during the season. I wonder if that's common or if I'm just a weirdo. I find that discussing roster construction, free agency, draft picks, etc, is more interesting than dissecting wins and losses on this forum.

Assuming Hughes sticks around, we'll have: Hughes Rousseau Epenesa Basham Obada We just have to hope the three youngsters step up. I would hope that after spending a 1st and two 2nds on edge rushers, they won't need to dip their toe in the free agency pool at that position.

I believe what Chris Simms said is correct. I also believe -- to echo what someone said on Twitter yesterday -- that any time an opposing defense can rush four, drop seven, and get to the quarterback as easily as the Steelers did, that quarterback is going to have a bad game 99% of the time.

Here's the official policy, with everything you need to know: https://www.buffalobills.com/stadium/health-and-safety Vaccine Verification: Show one of the following at entry: • PHOTOS OF VACCINE CARDS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED • Physical Vaccination Card • New York State Excelsior Pass • CLEAR Digital Vaccine Card • Government digital vaccine proof from outside NYS

If I understand your question correctly...the answer is yes. I stated earlier in this thread that I did not plan to go to any future games unless and until vaccination was required. I agree that EC could and probably should have made this call earlier. I think they wanted to give the fans enough rope to hang themselves with, and hang themselves they did. I also think that it's reasonable to be concerned about the amount of time it will take to get into the stadium. I find it more likely, however, that stadium staff will do little more than take a quick, cursory glance at the vaccine proofs, in the same way that the pat-down procedures at big events are often laughable. For what it's worth -- and granted, the vaccine requirement was not yet in effect in week 1 -- I got to the gate at 11:30 (I would normally get there at 12:15 or so), and I was able to waltz right in without hassle or delay. To anyone worried about entry delay, I suggest going in at 11:30. Worst case scenario, you get into the stadium "too early" and have to grab a beer, watch pre-game warmups, and scroll social media for longer than you'd like.

A passport is a good bit sturdier than a vaccine card. It's much easier to accidentally rip, stain, or otherwise destroy a vaccine card than it is a passport. Again, I'm not saying that it's an insurmountable task to bring a vaccine card. I support the new rule. I'm just saying that it's a bit more of an inconvenience for non NYS residents. That's all. I wouldn't think much of it if vaccine cards were wallet-sized, laminated, sturdy. The fact that they're an awkward size and don't really fit in a wallet just make them a bit odd to carry into something like a football game.

Bills fans are indisputably bad at this. I was at the game Sunday, and holy ***** was it loud on some of the Bills' offensive drives. It got ESPECIALLY loud any time it was 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1. I truly think that a lot of fans just don't understand this very basic concept. The Bills would be well served to film some sort of video or graphic to display on the jumbo screen in the stadium asking for quiet. When I was at the Texans playoff game in 2019, I seem to remember their stadium cuing the fans to be quiet when they were on offense. Highmark Stadium does have graphics imploring the fans to be loud on 3rd down, but it does NOT have anything imploring the fans to be quite when the Bills are on offense. For that matter, I would say Bills fans need to do a better job of being loud on ALL THREE DOWNS when the Bills are on defense. They shouldn't JUST get loud on 3rd down. For a fan base that is universally recognized as being great, Bills fans could use some lessons on how to help the team when they attend a game.

Norm was my favorite comedian. I saw him do live standup several times, and he was always great. He was definitely not everyone's cup of tea. At every show of his I attended, there would be a few walkouts. People who likely just knew him from SNL and then, upon seeing the type of comedy he did in his act, decided he wasn't for them. More than any other comedian I can think of, he had a very specific type of humor. If it resonated with you, it REALLY resonated. That was me. I feel that he had the most brilliant comedic mind I've ever seen. He worked on a completely different level. He was, thought its cliched, and for lack of a better term, "a comedian's comedian". Great examples of Norm being Norm often came from his appearances on talk shows. There was "the moth joke" on Conan. There was the time he ruined Courtney Thorne Smith's interview back in the 90s, I think also from Conan. There was his statement "the perfect joke, to me, would be the punch line being the same as the setup", which was typified by his Weekend Update joke: "Julia Roberts divorced Lyle Lovett today. According to Julia, the turning point in the marriage came when she realized that she was Julia Roberts, and he was Lyle Lovett". There was his book "Based on a True Story: a Memoir", which was neither a true story NOR a memoir, but which pretended to be both. The publishing industry (unsurprisingly) seemed to miss the joke, and still continues to place his book in the "biography" category. He also seemed like a kind and decent man. He once stated that he always tries to make time to talk to the homeless. Not only that, but he always tries to make physical contact with them in some way -- a handshake, a hand on the shoulder, something -- because no one ever touches them and people can go kind of crazy if they go too long without physical contact. He made me laugh. A lot. I will miss his mind, his smile, and his jokes. So long, Norm.

In fairness to the poster to whom you are replying... I actually kind of agree that it's a bit of a pain for out-of-towners. I flew in from Oregon for the Steelers game. I didn't bring my vax card because it wasn't required at the time, but I did reflect on the fact that if it WAS required, I would have felt a bit uncomfortable having to pack it, fly with it, and remember to keep it safe and clean and handy during the game. Not an unreasonable burden or undoable task, mind you, just a little bit nerve-wracking having to carry with you something that is small and odd-sized (doesn't fit in my wallet) and cumbersome to replace if lost.

Man, it must have taken you a long time to follow up with all of the attendees in the days that followed to see how many people contracted COVID at the show.

It felt like I could count on just two hands the number of masks I saw all day, from the time I walked in to the stadium to the time I walked out. This was the case despite the very clearly posted -- and oft repeated over the PA system -- stadium rule on masks in common areas. For those who are angry about the new vax requirement, I have a pretty clear idea who they can thank for it...

Agreed on all counts. I fully realize that by going to an event of such size and magnitude, I am accepting a certain degree of personal risk. I was under no illusion that I was walking into a completely safe and protected situation. That said, the onus has to be on the team, the stadium staff, the league, the county, etc, to at least ATTEMPT to mitigate that risk by implementing certain common sense measures, like enforcing -- or at least TRYING to enforce -- the "masks in concourses and indoor areas" rule. Saying "Full speed ahead, full capacity!" and not at least ATTEMPTING to implement SOME basic, simple common sense measures just doesn't make any sense to me. I went to the game as a sort of litmus test. I recognize that COVID is now endemic and that it's not going away any time soon. Attending the game was a way of dipping a toe in the water to see how it felt to return to doing one of my favorite things in life -- attending a Bills game. It didn't feel great. It might not have felt great no matter what, because of the basic nature of that type of event. But I can't help but feel that it would have felt SOMEWHAT better if people heeded the basic rules, the staff cared to enforce them, and there weren't hostile, lunatic anti-maskers harassing fellow fans. To each their own, but it just wasn't a great experience in my opinion.

Maybe I SHOULD have stayed home, you're right. I expected a relative lack of mask compliance. I didn't expect for 99.9 % of the fans in attendance to completely ignore the "wear masks in concourses and indoor areas" rule and for the stadium staff to not even TRY to enforce it. I guess that was naïve on my part. I also didn't necessarily expect the non mask wearers to be harassing the mask wearers, which I did witness happening a bit in the concourse and bathrooms to other people and which another poster attested to having experienced himself.

I'm sorry to hear you got harassed for wearing your mask. Absolutely ridiculous that that would happen during a pandemic that has killed over 600,000 Americans and left countless other with long haul ailments. I double-masked the entire game. I don't really care how many eyeroll or vomit emojis that elicits. Being densely packed into a crowd of 70,000, many of whom were shouting drunkenly and spewing spittle droplets everywhere, felt like a reasonable/logical situation in which to wear a mask -- indoors or not. I did not catch any crap from anyone at any point. I would have happily chirped back at them if I did, but luckily it didn't come to that. What's so infuriating about anyone having a problem with a masked person is that they don't have ANY CLUE what considerations played into that person's decision to wear a mask -- they could be immuno-compromised, have young children or elderly relatives at home, etc. Not only that, but the current stadium rules LITERALLY REQUIRE YOU to wear a mask in the concourse, so these people are essentially just harassing someone for following stadium rules and for exercising safety and caution during a pandemic. Ridiculous. Going forward, I'm hoping that teams either mandate proof of vaccination or strictly enforce mask wearing. I personally won't be attending any more games unless and until that happens. The vast majority of the time, it feels safe to me to be maskless outdoors. Being packed into a crowd of 70,000 screaming, drunken people -- many of whom are likely to turn to you at any given moment and scream "LET'S GO BILLS" directly into your face from 10 inches away -- did not feel like one of those times.

I'm never happy to be right when I predict the Bills losing a game. Still, several here called me a whacky Negative Nancy for saying it would be a close game and a Steelers win. As it turned out, well... I'd still rather have been wrong.

I'm reading Ravens fans' comments on their various forums, and I'll tell ya... Lots of fans feeling like their season is over because of the injuries to their running backs. Meanwhile, I feel like they'll be just fine in the run game because they have Greg Roman scheming it up. Put Ty'son Williams back there, put Le'Veon Bell back there...hell, it doesn't matter, put the ghost of Karlos Williams back there! Roman's going to have that running game humming, I guarantee it. Now losing Marcus Peters, on the other hand? That's a big blow. It's almost like they shouldn't have traded away rookie cornerback Shaun Wade to another AFC team...

All the people saying it's Le'Veon Bell time must not have seen Ty'son Williams run in the preseason. I have a feeling he'll be the lead back -- and a breakout star -- for the Ravens this season. Then again, I could just be saying that because I roster Ty'son Williams in all three of my fantasy leagues.

Brady and the Cowboys are so high atop my "NFL hate list" that I'll be rooting for a zero-zero tie tonight.