transplantbillsfan

Sirles practicing again today with Miller sidelined. It'd be nice if we could find some good ingredients for our OL... it's the all important base of the recipe

Yep, the pressure was still there, but it was less and he was smarter. 1st game of his young career where he didn't get sacked once.

Yeah he did, but there's been some grumblings to see what Sirles has. And today it's Sirles, not the more experienced Duccasse.

Let the experiment continue Not the vet with experience in Duccasse getting another shot. It's the younger, less experienced guy. And I bet Sirles plays. Why not? The beauty here is that so many outside "experts" might perceive this as "tanking" or at least, "aw hell, we aren't going anywhere, anyway, let's just play around a bit." I think it's more the way a good cook in a family experiments with a family. Play around with the recipe, but when the family REALLY likes something specific, they note that and stick with at least that, while maybe continuing to tweak other ingredients. Teller seems like a great ingredient, so notice he hasn't left the field. Foster now seems like a great ingredient after seeming spoiled at the start of the season, he sticks. Taron Johnson's stuck. Since Vontae Davis abandoned us, we're experimental with guys like Ryan Lewis and Phillip Gaines, and now it looked like Levi Wallace has stuck. Punters aren't. Gotta play with that ingredient more. We just signed some guy named Darr. Shaq Lawson has suddenly turned a corner, so he sticks. Croom seems to be sticking. Same with Zay Jones. Benjamin seems spoiled, and I worry if this is the 2nd coming of Peterman love... loyalty that equals blindness. Regardless, I love the playing around with the roster. It's about making it better. And it's still about Wins, for this season and beyond. 5 games left in a season where we're barely clinging to mathematical playoff hope, but watching this young team and young Franchise QB develop is just so damn fun. I think McDermott is going to have the right ingredients next year from the start

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/20181128/miami-dolphins-see-bills-josh-allen-as-baby-big-ben Miami Dolphins see Bills’ Josh Allen as Baby Big Ben “He’s got a strong arm,” Dolphins safety Reshad Jones said. “He’s a bit like a young Ben Roethlisberger. He’s got that Roethlisberger to him. Big kid. He’s a runner, too. So with a guy like this you have to latch onto guys a little bit longer. Cover guys a little bit longer. Hopefully the rush will get to him. But he definitely can make those big throws. It’s just a matter of can those guys get behind us. And just latch onto guys once he starts scrambling.” ... “He’s a big guy but he’s more like a Big Ben,” Godchaux said. “He can scramble. He’s faster than Big Ben. Like I said, they just won their last one against Jacksonville and have won their last two. They’re feeling pretty confident so we have to come out and play fast.”

Yeah, that's because the 2 teams sitting at 7-5 and vying for the #6 seed both beat us. And the Colts have been playing good football lately. Root for the Jags this weekend and the Titans week #17 against the Colts and hope the Titans lose one--but ONLY one--more of their remaining games and that would take care of the tiebreaker with the Colts because they'd be eliminated by the Titans in any tiebreaking procedure, first. The Ravens, now that I look at it, aren't losing any tiebreaker if we end up with the same record as them even with a 3rd team in there at 9-7. Their conference record is too good.

There's absolutely no way we get in at 8-8. As it is we need both the Ravens and Colts to go 2-3 in their remaining 5 games. Yes, there's a chance we could end up with the same record as either/both of those teams and still get into the playoffs, but it would rely on the Titans or possibly Broncos (?) ending up with the same record in order to make it the three+-team-tiebreaking-procedure. But that's far-fetched. 8-8 won't happen. Hell, I don't really think 9-7 will happen because the Colts have just been playing too well, but if we want a shot, we need to win out. Let's hope we can win our next few games and then pray for a Christmas Eve Eve miracle in Foxborough.

I said over the summer I thought Foster would make the team because of his connection to Dabol combined with his immense talent as a former 5-star recruit. Then I watched him drop ball after ball after ball and completely understood why they cut him. Now he apparently figured out how to catch a football. If he's able to continue to actually hold onto footballs that are thrown his way, yes, I think it's possible he becomes a #1 WR, especially given his speed and our QB's affinity for the deep ball. But I still think we draft a WR in the 1st or 2nd round next year.

Yep. That was the problem. It wasn't hard to get better than Peterman or McCarron. Most reasonable people could see that, except the most important one, our Head Coach.

Not claiming to be an expert, but seeing that Peterman isn't an NFL QB has been pretty easy for anyone with eyes since last year.

Here are some more fun walks down memory lane from another QB thread, now closed, from Summer @jrober38 said: If Peterman is terrible, I think Allen will be worse this year @Thurman#1 said And yeah, Bills fans wanted Allen. That's what most fans do. They pick the heralded new guy and want to see him immediately. They choose the short term over the long term. They take the perspective of a person wanting entertainment rather than the perspective of a guy whose job prospects depend on the long-term success of the team and the QB in particular. And as for Allen not starting the first game, one word ... Duh. (and in responding to someone calling McDermott clueless for starting Peterman) Thang is we don't know yet whether what is due is blame or credit or whether the fans were right or wrong. We do know that McD has a ton more info on the situation than we do. @BullBuchanan said, in reference to why Peterman would win Forget stats. He's the only QB that doesn't look like a deer in the headlights and can move the chains. The only reason it's taking this long is because McBeane desperately wants to validate selling the farm to draft a raw prospect 7th overall. It's ego and nothing more. It hasn't been a close competition at any point since the draft. And Sorry, I can't hear you over his 85% completion percentage throughout the preseason. He went 8/10 113 and a TD. Allen went 9/19 against those "scrubs" last week. so what does that say? He's outperformed Allen in both games against 1rst and 3rd string players. You're starting to look like a fool.

Too bad our coach was as blind as you. Peterman showed all the same flaws in preseason that make him incapable of being an NFL QB. He threw an average of more than a pick per game and a couple pick-sixes... but the scrub DBs couldn't hold onto the football. Plus, vanilla defense in preseason that doesn't disguise anything makes a pre-snap read--Peterman's "strength"--pretty damn easy.

The most idiotic part about the "ruining draft position" argument is that we (hopefully) already have our Franchise QB. In our situation, you try to win, period. Let your college scouts do their job and rake in a deserving All-pro CB at #27 or a freak talent super young LB at #16. We're fine. Let Allen and the other young players build a culture of winning.

It's actually a real shame this is what happened as it relates to our playoff chances considering the Jags play the Colts this week and we want the Jags to win

Milano, Tre White, Hughes and Haushka should all be pro-bowlers and maybe a couple should be All-pros.

The Patriots definitely look like they're slowing down and they have a tough schedule to close the season, but them going 1-4 to close the season seems almost impossible to me. The Wildcard is still our best shot.

If the Bills, Colts, and Titans end up in a 3-team tie for the wildcard, the tiebreaker is divisional first, which means it goes to Colts vs Titans. If the Titans win that tiebreak, we make the playoffs.

It's funny Shaw, because I kept reading what you were saying and thinking, "man, this sounds overzealous." But ultimately, you're dead right about Allen. He just has it. And I understand that at the end of the season his stats are probably going to look very, very blah. He'll have somewhere around a 50% completion percentage. He'll have somewhere around 200 yards passing per game, but less. He'll have barely double digits passing TDs, if that, along with a less than 2:1 TD to INT ratio. For that, the national media is almost certainly going to slam him much of the offseason. But dayum... brotha's a gamer. And I can't wait until we surround him with better weapons and a better OL. All things considered: 1st game back, rookie, supporting cast, officiating... Allen was excellent, and I'm super excited to watch the rest of the season.

We have to go with Allen, don't we I can't believe my massive 180 on him. He looks like he's going to be our answer at QB, finally.

Yeah, I doubt we will either, but the reality here is that we have the easiest schedule in the NFL on the back half here. I actually believe we'll end up 7-9, possibly 8-8. But aren't you used to this yet? Going into December. Realistically pretty much no hope of playoffs but mathematically still alive. "One more week!!!" It's the Holiday season of the 21st century Bills fan.

It's just such a pipedream to have the Patriots lose 3 of their 4 remaining games that aren't against us PLUS lose against us. If that happens, I bet Brady retires.

Here's our problem: The Colts and Ravens beat us. Obviously, our biggest problem, is winning out. More specifically, it's beating New England in New England. But even if all of that fell into place, I think our only hope is ending up in a 3 team tie somehow with some combination of the Titans and the Colts/Ravens and hope the chips fall where they will. If the Titans end up in a tie with the Colts, divisional tiebreakers are applied first and we just have to hope the Titans have a better divisional record than the Colts, giving us the edge because then the Colts would be eliminated and then the Titans would be eliminated because we beat them. I know a lot of people think the Ravens are the likely 6 seed, but I don't know why. Anyone look at their schedule? @Falcons, @Chiefs, Bucs, @Chargers, Browns. I think they're actually fairly likely to lose 3 of those.