Logic

Tom Brady also hadn't thrown an interception this season...until he played the Bills. To me, you play Mariota exactly how other teams play Allen: Keep him in the pocket, force him to be a QB. Eliminate his running ability and improvisatory ability. Blitz only sparingly. Above all else, keep contain on the edges and hope the interior defensive line can bring pressure up the middle to make him uncomfortable. I expect something like a 16-13 football game.

I have zero worries about the Titans offense against the Bills defense. I have LOTS OF worries about the Bills offense against the Titans defense.

Thanks for the writeup. The only thing I'll say is that that was a WEIRD Bills-Patriots game. How many times during the past 20 years against the Pats could the Bills have a blocked punt TD against them, throw three interceptions, and NOT got blown out? How many times have we left the Bills-Pats game feeling like the Bills were the better team, that they SHOULD have won the game, but for a few silly mistakes? It was weird looking, I tell ya. Like one Bills analyst said after the game: The gap between these two teams hasn't only closed, it's non-existent. The Bills appear to be as good as the Patriots across the board. The one glaring exception, of course, is at quarterback, and that was the difference in the game. Like you said, this will either be the game that forever ruins Josh Allen (like the Cardinals game did to Trent Edwards), or it'll be just another speedbump on the road to a great career. I would be lying if I said that I'm not at least a LITTLE nervous that it's going to be the former rather than the latter.

They stated it as a complete certainty, though. "Don't sleep on our sources!" and "Be patient!". Can you point out any major news story or trade that they ever HAVE been the first ones to (correctly) report? I'm truly curious to know.

The entire right side needs help? I disagree. Nsekhe needs to ALWAYS be the starter at RT. Enough with the Ford/Nsekhe rotation. Feliciano is a damn good RG. He didn't have his best game against the Pats, but hey, he's not going to dominate every single week. If you have Nsekhe at RT full time, you can also let Ford devote all of his time to competing with Feliciano to start at RG, and may the best man win. Trading for Trent Williams and forcing him to play right tackle is not the answer and isn't going to happen.

Cold Front Report....aren't they the ones who said we were trading for a dude earlier this season and to "be patient" and blah blah blah, and then they were dead wrong?

My recollection is that he was sort of "first on the scene" as far as Twitter Bills breakdowns, but he only did it for fun as a hobby. Then the Cover 1 account and website started up and, as far as I can tell, YardsPerPass stopped doing nearly as many clips and breakdowns. It seems to me he was sort of "usurped" by Cover 1.

Found the below chart on Twitter. It shows the frequency of passing in "neutral" down and distance situations, i.e. not 3rd and long, not down big on the scoreboard, etc. EDIT*** it seems they may have deleted the picture in the time it took me to post this. It was a chart, and the Bills were listed 4th after KC, Arizona, and Cinncinatti. If I find the chart elsewhere, I'll re-post it. This chart tells me two things: 1.) Brian Daboll is calling a modern offense each week. The Bills are right there amongst known pass-happy teams like the Chiefs, Cardinals, and Bengals. This alone is big news. The Bills have been stuck in the last century for years now. Run, run, pass, punt. No more. Of course, they should probably be even HIGHER on this chart, if not for the fact that they've come out a bit conservative in the second half the past few weeks. 2.) The Bills trust Josh Allen. They are not babying him, they are not putting handcuffs on him. They have given him ownership of this team and said "here ya go, kid, sink or swim". Just thought this was all very interesting.

Take a week off from drinking during the game. Just eat a strong weed gummy instead.

I was firmly on the "Anyone but Allen" train. I was scarred from JP Losman and EJ Manuel. I didn't like the idea of a kid with "prototypical size" and a "cannon arm" but who, by most accounts, couldn't actually play football very well. I bought into the whole analytics movement against Allen hook, line, and sinker. The moment Allen became a Bill, my attitude changed. Why? Because I don't root against players on my own favorite team. Unlike some people, I'd rather be wrong about a prospect I don't like and watch him succeed for my team than be right about him and watch him fail. So I said "let's give him a chance", and I watched all the college highlights I could find, and I talked myself into the notion that he had a chance to be very good. It's early, of course, but it sure seems like I was wrong. It seems like ALL the anti-Allen folks were wrong. At the very least, Allen's FLOOR seems to be "average NFL quarterback", which is ALREADY way better than most people thought he'd be. The Allen haters said he'd be an outright bust, and he certainly isn't that. At worst, he's a replacement level player. But he's only 15 games into his career, and I think he'll wind up being much better than that.

Who cares?

Thanks. You may have just said what I was thinking better than I was able to say it.

This. Multiple people that have replied in this thread have presented some version of the "pump the brakes" comment. They're missing the point of my thread. It's as if they read what I wrote as "The Bills are going to win the championship this year! Best team in the league!". That's not what I said at all. What I DID say is that they are competently managed and have a clear and cogent plan in place. One loss on Sunday -- even to the Bengals -- won't change that. Hell, if the Bills lost the next TWO games and fell to 2-2, it still wouldn't change that. There will be stumbles, losses to teams they shouldn't lose to, maybe even some losing seasons...and it won't change the fact that I believe the Bills have a great front office, excellent coaching staff, and have moved out of the "groping the dark" group and into the "well run, purposefully planned, intelligently run" group. I will not be "pumping the brakes" any time soon. A loss here or there won't make me suddenly think "gee, maybe I was wrong and the Bills AREN'T well run". Good management resides at One Bills Drive now, and it would take a hell of a lot to change my mind.

I've posted 11,000 less times than you on this forum and have 1,500 more "likes". I'm not usually one to play the popularity game, but if you're going to act like more people around here think the way you do than the way I do, well...the numbers don't back that up.

I find your entire shtick incredibly tiresome. This is the most exciting time to be a Bills fan in the past 25 years and you're gonna spend a bunch of time typing up the sort of thing you just posted above? THAT'S the type of stuff you choose to concentrate on and spend energy thinking and typing about? You and I couldn't be more different in how we like to think about things. Following sports is supposed to be fun. Life is short.

Haven't read through any of this thread, but this one's simple: Jalen Ramsey's upset because he's being used in a lot of zone coverage, and he wants to be a man-to-man cover corner, following the opposition's best receiver every week. Does that sound like a fit for the Bills defense to you? Aside from the above, he'll likely take a 1st round pick to acquire. Do you want the Bills to spend their 2020 1st round pick on a cornerback? Hard pass on Ramsey.

It's like people can't tell the difference between me saying "I like how the management of the Bills seems to be more competent than its been in 20 years" and me saying "OMGz BiLls SUPER BOWL 2020 AnD BeeeyOnd!!!1". If you scroll up a bit from your original comment, you'll see me tell the same thing to three other people that told me to temper my enthusiasm: I don't need to see any more to know that the Bills are in good hands. Them losing a few games won't suddenly make me change course on the job that Beane and McDermott have done building this team. I'm not a reactionary, slave-of-the-moment nitwit. I know good team management when I see it. In other words, I'm not tempering *****. Only if you don't know the difference between "it appears the Bills are a well run organization" and "BILLS ARE WINNING THE SUPER BOWL!!!" I remember that. It didn't make me stand up and say "this team management and coaching is pathetic". Context is important.

No TBD thread is complete until ScottLaw comes in and poops in the middle of the floor.

The "Update: Not going well" subtitle on this thread is ***** hilarious. ?

That dude to her right looks like he wouldn't mind getting mono from her!

This is about the third "pump the brakes" response I've gotten, and here's the thing: I've ALREADY seen enough to show me that the Bills are now a well-run organization with a good plan in place. Seriously. I mean, sure, if they wind up 4-12 this year, then I guess the "not so fast" stuff is warranted. But I mean...isn't it obvious to anyone else how much more logical, competent, and coherent the Bills current front office is than anything else we've seen in the past 20 years? Why do I have to wait any longer to proclaim that? Again, with all due respect to the more cautious folks, I've seen enough already to say that the Bills are being run the right way. Certainly better than the teams I listed in the OP.

They did? I must have missed that.

Nah. I'll leave "one game at a time" to the players. Me? I choose optimism. Again, I'm not "crowning" the Bills anything other than having a competent management team with a cogent plan. That's it.

With all due respect, even the Bills laying an egg against the Patriots wouldn't change the fact that the team is run with a competent, intelligent vision. Losing to the Patriots won't suddenly take away all the smart team-building that Beane and McDermott have done.

Looking around the NFL, I see stunning amounts of front office and team building incompetence. The Jets letting a Pro Bowl kicker go despite having plenty of money to sign them, then losing a game due to bad kicking and already being on the FOURTH kicker of the season by week 3. Also not putting good protection in front of Darnold and having to talk Ryan Kalil out of retirement. They also paid infinity dollars to an off-ball linebacker and a running back and a corner that they just benched. The Browns ALSO failing to put good protection in front of Baker Mayfield, who now looks like he may be pulverized into dust before he can set the league on fire. The Giants just...well...there's too much to even list. The Dolphins tanking in such an obvious way that even good, young, recently drafted players like Minkah Fitzpatrick want out. There has always been this level of incompetence in the NFL, of course. The difference now is that, for years, the Bills were near the top of the "stumbling, bumbling" incompetence list. As a fan of the Bills, I never really had room to talk about OTHER teams' bad decisions. Now? I sit back, confident in the fact that my favorite team finally has stability, a GM and head coach that are on the same page, and a clear direction. I look at the awesome offensive line that this front office has built for Josh Allen, the targets they've gotten him, the purposeful building of the defense, the smart free agency spending, the culture...just about everything. I'm not used to looking at chaos and stupidity around the league and thinking "not MY team". This is new. I could get used to this.