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Yeah, Allen's spoken on it before. He and Daboll have sat down several times to go through the playbook and try to find what they think is gonna work for them. I don't think they completely get rid of plays, they might just put it on the backburner and use it when it seems like it'd work on a certain opponent or something.

Well, I dunno about the rest of youse, but I'm ready to send the kid packin' after 17 career starts. /s Progress isn't linear. There are ups and downs. Every first round QB from 2018 has had both good and bad outings this season. None of them have arrived, they're all still working to get to where they wanna be. And I thought most people knew that Allen has a lot of freedom to change plays, it's been talked about several times this season. They also sit and go through the plays and ditch anything that he doesn't like or doesn't think will work.

San Fran went 6-10 and 4-12 in Shanahan's first two seasons. They haven't experienced as much turnover. Rams had a pretty solid team with their franchise QB already in place when McVay took over. McBeane have had to pretty much build this thing from scratch.

Thanks. I just try to temper expectations, you know? Obviously it's difficult to really believe that this team has it together after we've seen starts like this before only to watch them burnout in the second half of the season. But I believe this team is more coherent and coached better than those past teams. I mean, most fans have been saying they can go 10-6, 11-5 maybe... well the losses have to happen sometime, right? This team has a good, solid foundation right now and they're still building. There are gonna be bumps in the road. Overall, I think they're gonna be alright.

One of these "statement" wins will come. What's interesting is the two remaining undefeated teams have also had powderpuff schedules and I don't hear anyone talking about that. And remember, the Bills weren't due to "arrive" until next year. They've had some success, perhaps unexpected for this season, but that type of stuff can only build confidence and help propel them to where they wanna go. Expectations skyrocket after a 5-1 start and then a loss happens and everyone forgets how young this team is and how much turnover they've had on the offensive side of the ball. They're still discovering their identity.

Yeah, because Kenyan Drake is the be all, end all of running backs and he'll surely come in and save the day. He's averaging a flabbergasting 24.8 yards per game on the ground (3.7 yards a carry) and has a whopping 22 receptions for 174 yards... which is exactly the same total amount he has in rushing yards. Zero touchdowns and two fumbles.

Nobody is the answer anywhere, OP. They should all just probably be replaced by CFL guys. Just for losing this one game here, they need to be fired! FIRED I TELL YOUSE! They'll be fine. Edmunds will be fine. It's still a young team coming together and learning how to win. These types of questions after one loss are just ridiculous. If you think one loss is going to dramatically change things to the point where they decide their first round MLB isn't the guy then you're gonna be disappointed when things carry on as usual. They had a rough game but this is a resilient team and I'm sure they were dying to get in there today and start fixing things.

Boo. This thread is bad, and you should feel bad!

Well, they were apparently negotiating for Emmanuel Sanders (along with New Orleans) but were outbid by the Niners. Beane has been remarkably good at keeping a lid on things. There's rarely any leaks or things like that. Aside from Sanders, though, I haven't seen anything else linking them to any player aside from speculation.

Good article, thanks for posting it, Yolo. From the start, when they drafted the kid, my thoughts on him have been this: He's a gamer. It's not always gonna be pretty, it's not always gonna go down the way fans would like to see it go down (you know, like he said, rack up 300 yards and beat their opponent by 42 points every game), he's gonna have some rough stretches here and there. But when the game is on the line, it really feels like they're always gonna have a shot with him under center. He just has that air to him and he's already shown it several times in his short career. The other thing he's shown so far is the ability to take to coaching and make genuine adjustments and improvements to his game. The article highlighted it perfectly, he struggled mightily on shorter throws last season but this year he's one of the best in the league at it. Seeing that improvement helps reassure me that he'll start hitting on the deep throws as well. Again, he's only 17 games into his career, hasn't seen every defensive look out there, hasn't played all 31 other teams, he's still gaining experience. And what better way to gain experience by winning in the process? I think he's gonna be a good one. I think more fans need to accept the fact that he's probably gonna make you scratch your head now and then, but in between those moments he's also gonna have times where you're picking your jaw up off the floor because you can't believe he just completed the pass that he did.

I'mma take a wild guess here and say...whine. They wanna whine.

Have the point spreads changed at all? I know some posters here keep up with that stuff. A buddy at work gets these pick'em tickets and on it it gives Philly +3.

It's rough on gamedays when they aren't playing so hot. I got a 3-day suspension for sharing my thoughts on that sometime last year, haha. Definitely a ton of knee-jerk overreactions.

Good read. Goff and McVay's setup has been known for a while and I've wondered if other teams have tried that. Leave it to Belichick, of course, to find the exact right way to defend against that.

Dude is nuttier than a squirrel turd.

Seems like a bit much for Sanu. And I guess I don't get the love-fest for Green. Guy has been beat up the last two seasons and is 31 already. If they were to trade for a Bengals receiver I'd rather it be Tyler Boyd at this point. I just don't think Green has that much left in the tank.

I had to laugh when I saw Belichick trying not to smile over Gase declining both those penalties. Got a lotta respect for Belichick but I'm always gonna put an asterisk next to his name based on his pushing the envelope with the rules. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. Guy just always searches for the competitive advantage, even if it means stepping over the line with the rules.

I think they're still bringing him along kinda slowly. They aren't asking him to do too much. That's kinda the mantra of this team, isn't it? No real superstars but the way they come together as a team is what keeps them in games. Is there gonna be a time where he's gonna have to step up and save the day? Sure. I'd say he kinda saved it yesterday going 10 of 11 for 112 yards and two TDs in the second half and led a 98-yard drive to score the TD which gave them the lead that they never gave back. Certainly we'd all like to see him connect on those deep passes. That's gotta happen and I believe it will. Beyond that, though, week in and week out there is so much focus on Allen. And I get it, the QB position is the most scrutinized position in sports. But the offense as a whole really wasn't firing on all cylinders yesterday, either. Pre-snap penalties, holding penalties that wiped out decent plays, drops, OL struggling with some pressure, etc. They were rusty coming out of the gate. But that stuff doesn't always get mentioned. It's just, "Josh bad! Josh frow ball and ball not go to receiver! Josh bad!" Some of these "experts" devote paragraph after paragraph to breaking down his accuracy and all that, without mentioning that just about every game this season, 60-70% of his incompletions are throw-aways or drops. It's like he's held to a standard he can never reach because whenever he gets close, people wanna move the goalposts. I think he and Daboll are fine. Consistency is good, second year in the system, more familiarity with it, etc. Sometimes I think Daboll tries to get a little too crafty. I mean, yesterday they seemed like they were able to run the ball really well, yet he got away from that for whatever reason. But I do try to keep in mind the philosophy behind this offensive system is that they aim to adjust from week to week in order to exploit weaknesses in their opponents defense. So some weeks they may ask Allen to throw it 40 times, others it might be the Gore/Singletary show, it's just how they wanna run things. Does Allen have some areas where he needs to improve? Sure. Does the offense as a whole have areas they need to improve? Definitely. But a W is a W. Victories can only help this team build confidence and more belief in themselves and with that hopefully the execution will start getting smoother and they'll really start clicking.

A win is a win. I don't think many folks here, if any, were crowning this defense as an all-time great one. They're playing very well, though. Top of the league in a number of defensive categories, have yet to allow more than 17 points in a game. Everyone knows one of Fitz's strength's is getting the ball out fast, big part of the reason the OL's he had during his time here looked a little better than they were. Miami plays hard. They're not just gonna roll over and let teams beat 'em up and down the field. Is the team a mess? Yeah, they have a rag-tag roster of second and third string guys playing but those guys are gonna play their tails off because they wanna prove that they can hang in this league. You're not gonna get any players that are gonna buy into tanking a season because players aren't gonna go out there and put their bodies on the line just to lose so the franchise can get higher draft picks that will be brought in to take these guys' jobs. I think Jordan Phillips said it after the game, Phins play hard, but things tend to unravel for them in the second half. And you sure can win games 17-13, or 21-14, or 16-13, a W is a W.

Well yeah... why take a premiere edge rusher when they already had terrors like Dwan Edwards and Alex Carrington?!

It's been said by a number of players that have come over from other teams that the Bills treat their players with a lot of respect. Some organizations treat their players more like property and can be pretty cold. I'm sure they wanted the best for Zay, they obviously wanted him to flourish here, but it just didn't happen. I mean, surely it didn't help that they were unsettled at QB, and in Zay's first two seasons here the Bills were 31st in pass attempts for 2017, and 28th for 2018. So, not a whole lot of chances to shine if you're a receiver on a team that prefers to run the ball. Now, granted, that's changed in 2019 as the Bills currently sit at 12th in the league in passing attempts per game with about 35, so, in theory that should've created more chances for Zay but he just fell behind some of the other receivers on the roster and never quite recovered. Wish him all the best in Oakland. Seems like a good kid, works hard, team player, etc. May have peaked in college, though.

They wanted Cam, I don't think Buddy has minced any words about that. If there was a redraft, though, given the benefit of hindsight, I'd take Miller over Cam and Dareus.

Hahaha. Beep beep!

Yep, especially with how DBs have to play these days. Back then you could mug a guy, take his wallet AND the ball and no flag.

Night Train holds the record for picks in a single season, snagged 14 while with the Rams in 1952.