Logic

Kroft and Gilliam are TEs.

What if Lawrence stays in school for another year to avoid being drafted by the Jets, a la Peyton Manning? We can play the "what if" game all day.

Fear him? No. I do think he will be a high quality NFL quarterback, though. I used to think Allen vs Darnold would be the big QB rivalry in the AFC East for the next decade. Now I think it'll more likely be Allen vs Tua.

Fair enough. He wasn’t all bad last year, either. Had some bright spots. I’m just saying I prefer McKenzie to be a gadget guy, Davis to be WR4, and Roberts returning kicks. I’m not saying we should give Duke a permanent spot on the roster, but the offense has been struggling sinceBrown got injured, and I think it’s worth a shot to see if Duke can provide a boost.

Agreed on Duke. If Brown sits — and he should — call up Duke. Instead of doing the timeshare between Roberts, Davis, and McKenzie at WR2, just play Duke. He’ll be supremely motivated, he’ll provide some swag to the offense, and he’ll help in the run game.

I don’t get that sense. The Bills could be without their top three (!) CBs and Matt Milano. Just win.

In GB’s case, Jackson hasn’t adapted well to their man-heavy scheme. He’s not a plus player for them. Here’s an article from a year ago about his struggles and diminished playing time. https://www.google.com/amp/s/lombardiave.com/2019/10/24/packers-happened-josh-jackson/amp/ The hope, of course, is that he’s a better fit for what McDermott likes to do. He’s a rangy, long limbed player with good instincts and a nose for the ball — or at least he was at Iowa. In the Chargers’ case, King is in the last year of his deal. He would only be available if they don’t plan to re-sign him to an extension. Bills have 3.5 mil in cap space. Rudolph is at 7.5 mil this season. Bills can’t afford him.

I liked Greg Tompsett and Joe Buscaglia's ideas of Josh Jackson, CB, Green Bay or Desmond King, CB, Los Angeles. Jackson is Miscast in Green Bay's defensive scheme. King could possibly be had. Bills need depth at the position. Neither would likely require a king's ransom.

You're right. He did not specifically say "I regressed". I guess I meant that he used language like "this team can't afford for me to play poorly" and "we've gotta be better and that starts with me". That does not necessarily equal "regressed", but it's not the type of language he was using after the first four games. Could just be generic post-loss player-speak, though.

The Ford quote is a lyric from a Meek Mill song. I can obviously see why Ford posting THAT line would raise some eyebrows -- particularly with Spain "liking" the Tweet. It seems crazy to me that an o-line with Dion Dawkins and Mitch Morse would be bickering/dysfunctional. Both are good guys and, by all appearances, good leaders.

I agree. When I look at the Jets right now, I see a team that is finally getting healthy on offense. Winless teams are always more desperate and cannot be counted out, and surely their players read the point spread and all the negative stuff written about them. We're playing in their house, with an injury depleted roster that is struggling to find itself. The offense has not been the same since John Brown got hurt. The defense may be without its top three corners and its best linebacker. Anyone counting this as a sure win is, in my estimation, off base. And if the Bills DO win, I don't expect it to be the blowout, no-doubt-about-it, "get right game" that many fans seem to want.

Can you elaborate on what you mean here?

We have no corners left. If we have to start Taron Johnson, Dane Jackson, and Siran Neal, we’re in huge trouble — even against the Jets. Ugh.

Didn’t know that about Harrison. Thanks.

I just don’t understand why they don’t sign Snacks Harrison, who has been a top run defender for years. He’s in another team’s practice squad right now, meaning the Bills could at least attempt to poach him.

Honestly, I don't know that he's been substantially more impactful than Quinnen this season. Oliver is a plus run stopper, but so far just an average pass rusher. As I understand it, that's Q's story, too. Where I think Oliver may have an advantage over Williams is in the "hustle" department. His motor never stops. There's also at least a little reason to believe that he's still hampered by the leg injury he suffered earlier this year.

Despite being here 3 years to your 20, I've still managed to post twice as much content that people enjoyed as you have. Regarding everything else in bold, thanks for again and again re-enforcing my point about the bizarre personal attacks you can't seem to stop making. Once again: There's a difference between disliking/critiquing someone's writing -- which is all well and good -- and attacking them personally. To act like I "need a thicker skin" simply because I take umbrage with your personal attacks against me -- which now span three different replies, and which go well beyond critiquing my post itself -- lends further credence to original point: You're making something personal that doesn't need to be and going beyond the scope of what's appropriate. I'm done with this conversation. You've made yourself clear: my writing is terrible, I'm terrible, my username is terrible, personal attacks are a totally legitimate form of critique, and you yourself are beyond reproach and rebuttal. Got it. Thanks again for your feedback.

1.) I have no problem with a little constructive criticism. It goes with the territory. My writing may not be for everyone, and it clearly isn't for you. That's fine. I WILL say that I find your string of personal attacks to be a bit bizarre, over the top, and inappropriate. I posted a football article on a football message board. You reacted with personal venom and childish insults. There's fair criticism and then there's being rude and miserable just for the sake of it, and your posts place you squarely in the second camp. 2.) People post articles all the time on this forum. When I post an article I have written, I always paste the entire body of it on this forum so that people don't have to click away if they don't want to. The website I write for is free, there's no advertising on it, and I don't get paid. It's a fan blog. I'm not trying to "get clicks" or get paid. As far as I know, I am breaking no rules by posting my articles, and you're literally the only person who has been offended by it thus far. 3.) I have posted less than one third as much as you on this forum, but I have twice as many reputation points. This means that people enjoy what I have to say far more -- and far more often -- than they enjoy what you have to say. This article, for instance, was enjoyed by at least 15 people. You'll have to excuse me if I don't take your word to be gospel, especially since you have a less than stellar history of positively contributing to conversations on this forum or saying anything of value. I'll tell you what: I'll go on discussing football on a football message board in the way I see fit. You go on being miserable and lobbing inappropriately rude and personal attacks against strangers for reasons known only to you. Sound like a deal?

Tell me how you really feel. This isn't just about my article, is it? Is everything going okay at home, BADOL? Something you wanna talk about? Hope you're happy and healthy. God Bless!

Respectfully, I disagree. He was visibly less accurate with his ball placement against both the Titans and Chiefs. His passer ratings were 77.6 and 73.4. The offense scored 16 and 17 points. Allen absolutely DID regress the past two weeks, and he himself stated as much after both games. Note: I’m not saying he’s bad or isn’t our franchise QB or any such thing. I am simply acknowledging the reality — backed up by stats and passer ratings and point outputs and my eyeballs— that he was worse the past two weeks than he has been all year.

I didn’t mention this in the article, because it’s not a valid set of excuses in and of itself, BUT... I do believe the way the NFL has decided to call games this year (and the decision to basically ignore Holding, and the offensive outburst across the league that followed) have to at least be considered as factors. As does the lack of fans in stands to get defenses “juiced”. The problem, again, is that these Factors affect all teams equally, so the Bills can’t really use them as excuses.

I agree. The article I wrote this week was almost going to be about Josh’s regression. Even though the offense needs to get back on track, it doesn’t excuse the defense completely falling off a cliff. With McDermott as head coach, the defense should never be as bad as it’s been this season. And it IS weird that it’s gotten this bad, this fast.

D’oh! Great catch. Thanks!

Best non-throwback jerseys in all of pro football.

I wrote an article about the Bills' defensive woes. I will paste it in full here, though it looks better at the link with pictures and such. And before anyone says it: Yes, it's longer than a typical TBD post. It's an article, it's supposed to be. http://buffalofambase.com/2020/10/21/maddening-mystery-mcdermotts-disappearing-defense/ The Maddening Mystery of McDermott’s Disappearing Defense Gather ’round, kiddies. In the spirit of Halloween, I’d like to tell you a spooky and mysterious tale. A tale of overmatched linemen, missed tackles, and vanishing big plays. A tale of a once proud and fearsome platoon, reduced suddenly and shockingly to a sniveling and pitiable state of helplessness. I must warn you that this tale is not for the faint of heart. Indeed, it is sure to send chills up the spine of every member of Bills Mafia and leave them shaking in their Zubaz. It is a tale which must be told, though, for it may decide the very fate of the Bills’ season. To understand where we are now, though, we must first look back to from where we came. The date is December 15, 2019. Under the bright lights of Heinz Field, the Buffalo Bills have just notched their tenth win of the season, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-10 on Sunday Night Football. The victory was due mainly to the exploits of their relentless and swarming defense. That night, Buffalo tallied four sacks, nine tackles-for-loss, and four interceptions. Up-and-coming star cornerback Tre’Davious White picked off two Duck Hodges passes. While the Bills themselves only scored ten points, it didn’t matter. Their defense won the day. The victory clinched a playoff spot for a Bills team that had been carried by its dominant defense all year. At season’s end, the Bills defense ranked second in points allowed and third in yards allowed. The lofty finish seemed to be a continuation of the upward trajectory on which the Bills defense had found itself for three seasons under head coach Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, one which had seen the Bills finish as the best pass defense in football the year before. Led by young, exciting defenders like Tremaine Edmunds, Matt Milano, Tre’Davious White, and Ed Oliver, as well as savvy vets like Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, the Bills defense appeared to be embarking on a sustained period of greatness. Appearances, though, can be deceiving. October 19, 2020. For the second time in two weeks, the Bills have just faced a top AFC opponent in front of a national audience. For the second time in two weeks, their defense has looked feeble, toothless, helpless, and has directly contributed to a humiliating defeat. This time, the loss came at the hands of a Chiefs team which rushed for an eye-popping 245 yards and whose quarterback finished with a 128.4 quarterback rating. Play after play, the Bills’ defensive linemen were blown off the ball, driven back five yards, and buried in the turf. The next line of defense — the linebackers — faired no better. At times, the physical domination by Kansas City’s offense was reminiscent of the Urbania Cowboys bulldozing the Little Giants — only this time there would be no “Annexation of Puerto Rico” play to save the day. Instead, with one last chance to stop the Chiefs offense and give the Bills a chance to score a winning touchdown, the Bills defense folded like a cheap suit. On 3rd and 14, Patrick Mahomes had enough time to make a sandwich, get an early start on his taxes, and then find Byron Pringle for a 1st down. The failure of the Buffalo defenders on the play summed up the night perfectly: all three levels of the defense suffered at least one instance of poor execution, culminating in the Chief’s ninth 3rd down conversion of the night and resulting, ultimately, in another Bills loss. It was a night filled with sights that Bills fans simply weren’t used to seeing prior to this season, but which have now somehow become commonplace: poor execution, poor discipline, stupid mistakes, blown coverages, missed tackles, bad fundamentals, and — crucially, this time– a complete inability to get off the field on third downs. All defenses have bad nights now and again, ESPECIALLY when they face the Kansas City Chiefs. Only this putrid performance by the Bills defense was nothing new — it was a continuation of an alarming and flummoxing trend that threatens to doom Buffalo’s chances of a return to the postseason. The week before, they allowed Ryan Tannehill to notch four touchdowns and a 129.3 passer rating en route to the Titans scoring a dizzying 42 points. In that game, again, there massive were failures at all three levels of the defense. Prior to that hideous performance, the Bills had also allowed the likes of Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jared Goff to dominate them through the air. All told, after six games, the Bills defense ranks 25th in yards allowed and 24th in points allowed. For a once proud, ascending, and dominant unit, it represents an utter and mind boggling failure. Worse yet, there is no obvious explanation for their woes. How can a defense which so recently demonstrated such excellence suddenly find itself so helpless? How can a group led by proven, disciplined minds like Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier now look like a Rex and Rob Ryan led bicycle-built-for-two of crappiness? Some will point to a lack of offseason practice reps — coach McDermott estimates that the Bills lost out on about 500 of them due to COVID-shortened camps. The only problem is that this wonky offseason affected all 32 NFL teams, and you don’t see defensive squads like the Steelers and Ravens suffering for it. Some will point to the opt-out of nose tackle Star Lotulelei and the ripple effect it has on the rest of the defense. This argument may have some merit, but I find it hard to believe that the loss of one defensive tackle has caused the linebackers to forget how to tackle or the safeties to forget what a good angle of pursuit looks like. Some will point to injuries to Tremaine Edmunds and Ed Oliver and Tre’Davious White, or missed games by Matt Milano. Again, there may be some merit to these arguments, though I fail to understand how they lead to Jordan Poyer body-slamming an opponent five yards out of bounds or Jerry Hughes failing to record a sack through six games. Put simply, there are a myriad of reasons that Bills fans can point to when trying to understand the collapse of the defense, but none of them — even when combined together — sufficiently explain the sorry display that we’ve seen the past several weeks. A drop-off in performance due to injuries? Sure. Fine. A complete inability to exhibit discipline, to tackle well, to win individual assignments, to affect the opposition’s quarterback? Inexcusable and unexplainable. While the Bills offense came storming out of the gates the first few weeks of the season, they seem to be regressing to the mean. With that in mind, it is crucially important that the defense diagnose its struggles, fix them, and find a way to field a unit that is at least COMPETITIVE most Sundays. Unfortunately, there appears to be no easy solution. No miracle trade will save them, no “Rudy” style midseason pep talk. They just need to do, well…EVERYTHING better. If they can’t, they will doom Bills Mafia to a most chilling fate, indeed, and one to which they have grown most accustomed these past two decades: watching their team miss the playoffs, and uttering that horrid phrase they know all too well — “Maybe next year”.