Rochesterfan

The issue is that sometimes JA slides, sometimes he dives headfirst, and sometimes he runs right through a defensive player. The defenders and the referees do not know what he is going to do - so they are bound to give the defenders a bit more leeway. The quote supposedly was “he slide late and I am warning you not to do that again”. If JA slides every time - he gets that call right away, but because he tends to maximize his yardage and only slides about 30% of the time - what is a defender supposed to do - you are running at him, but you don’t know if he is going to slide, juke, leap over, or barrel through you - so you have to be prepared and the refs should give the leeway. The refs job is damn near impossible and every call is scrutinized by two fan bases and every fan base thinks they are getting screwed - yes even the Cowboys and the Pats. I do not believe at all that there is any kind of league wide bias or planned outcomes. I think some teams get better teams of officials more often and have a better understanding of what they can get away with as each team calls things differently. If someone said an individual referee was betting on games and had a bias - I could believe that, but it would be rare. If you try to say the league has anything set-up or the league wants calls to go a specific way - I call total BS. There is no way an owner like Jerry Jones - who is outspoken and interviewed as frequently as he is - would allow the Pats to have a run of success that allowed them to pass his team. There is no way these owners as competitive as they are would agree to anything like that - they just would not.

Kroft was basically replaced by Knox. They signed Kroft because they had basically no TEs on the roster that could both block and catch. Drafting Knox gave them a TE that could do both (along with Sweeney) and then with the Kroft injuries- Knox was able to show what he could do. Running a basic 11 formation with Singletary and 3 WRs - Knox and Kroft are interchangeable and Knox is further along in the offense and slightly better. I think if the run a 1 RB and 2 TE set both Kroft and Knox make a nice combo because both can block and catch making it harder in a balanced set to know what to cover.

I think the same thing - especially with the critical nature of the play.

Really - we were talking about how balanced he was - especially compared to a guy like Aikman.

Even half way competent QB play and they beat the Raiders last week and Pittsburgh this week. I get it that with only 1 game separation - not wanting the wins, but I think not getting a win when you had a chance might cost them long term. I think their coach is outmatched and that locker room must be defeated.

My only issue with Feliciano was some of the shotgun snaps were slow and high. I prefer Morse because he is much more consistent in those snaps. Feliciano is a bit stronger and a good point of attack guy.

I think that the Bills are happy to have 2 TEs that can both block and catch - allowing them to be more or less interchangeable. Right now Knox is the slightly better option all around, but Kroft has found a few plays also. I don’t mind at all what I am seeing. They need to tighten up the presnaps, but overall you are getting blocking and some pass catching out of multiple TEs.

Virgil - there was no groin kick. There was a foot that was in the groin the Rudolph was pushing off with as Garrett is lifting him off the ground by his face mask. He did not even making a kicking motion - it was a groin push off with a guy lifting you by you face. I think the fine was ok - would not have been upset if higher, but based on outcomes previously- seems about right. Now if there is any proof of a slur - which I doubt - I think a suspension is warranted.

If the OP had posted something like this - even part of it to facilitate a discussion and then linked the Podcast and the time - then you have thread. Thank You for this.

Again - if the OP wants to discuss the issue then put that in the statement with a link to the cast and the time and that becomes the discussion. The OP that admits to being financially linked to the website and is just trying to get clicks to the website. So for that I will respectfully disagree with you. The topic could be relevant, but the original post to me is still just an AD to his site. As to the Sullivan junk - I have no doubt that McDermott is a control freak and can be a real jerk to some of these guys. They have a tight group and try to keep things on lockdown - so it is no wonder he would go off. It also does not surprise me in the least that a guy fired from the Buffalo News that was Negative and Anti-Bills and now lacks access would report this because he has nothing to lose - he is not getting back in, but confirming the story and then telling it with his own negative spin has always been his problem. Fairburn on his Podcast talked about being called out for mentioning the Pat Shurmer quote because although it was seen by the reporter - they had been told not to discuss things seen in the locker room - as that could give an advantage away. The same would go for a fake punt. Ideally for the coaches - they would not let reporters into the areas at all, but the fans are insatiable so we want info. It is a fine line to juggle for both reporters and coaches. If anyone doubts that McDermott could be a complete Jerk to someone - just watch him on the sidelines with the Refs - he goes totally insane at times - so I have no doubt that he would do the same thing elsewhere within the organization or to media. He wants to win and is no different than many other control freak coaches like Belichek that do everything to keep control on his situation totally.

Again don’t care about Jerry and I hate it when people try to hype their own podcasts/websites. Get that out of here. I think it should be bannable and an auto lock. Per COC: Do NOT post: Advertisements (We sell ad space to anyone who wants to get their website noticed). To me this is the OP that admits to running/investing in SoundCloud and is just trying to get clicks to his site for a waste of time podcast. Plus it is the second time he has posted the thread. Post what you want to discuss, but he wants the clicks only. If there is something relevant for discussion - it would be different, but Jerry is a lying douche that is anti-Bills - so go away Jerry and take your crap with you. .

Honestly - many of the players talk about smoking an hour or so before kickoff in the locker room. So technically several players have admitted to using directly at work.

Not a chance in heck would I listen to anything with Jerry. Hoping he will just go away. He is a useless tool. Sorry not giving you a click.

I would disagree with that. What is the one thing everyone was saying right after the incident - How could he do that? If he was truly called a racial slur and that was what caused him to flip out - don’t you think that he would have been saying that in the confrontation - something like “how dare you say” that along with some expletives. Other players would have known something happened and was said. Second by stating right away it would have gotten to the root of the insanity and would have provided an understanding (not acceptance) of the actions. Many people that watch and cover the sport would still not condone his actions, but have an understanding of why and he would have gotten more support in his position. I do not think it would have changed the ruling - he still deserved the suspension, but it would change the narrative toward him. The delay in stating that until his trial means almost no one will believe him and he looks even worse. Stating it right after the event - he would be a much more believable person and more importantly- his apology and actions would be seen in a different light.

I think McDermott felt the same way. It sounded like Woods really wanted to be back on the West Coast and McDermott respected that. He wanted to build a team of people that want to be here and I think he knew that Robert Woods had other places on his mind.

I saw this before their game last week. I hope everything is alright. It seems strange that there is very little info dealing with this, but I wish him the best. He was a good guy that wanted to be back home for family and this seems family related- so give him strength.

Not sure it matters - I believe he was IR’d in the preseason and is ineligible to return. He’d have to be released with an injury settlement.

Sort of. Daboll started in the booth, but as Josh was a Rookie and Peterman was the Back-up - there was not a good coaching/veteran presence to talk through looks with Josh and work to correct issues. He moved to the sidelines for better more direct communication with Josh especially right after series. Now they have a Veteran QB (limited starts, but experienced) and Ken Dorsey on the sidelines to discuss things with Josh. Thy are free to move Daboll up to the booth and still get the correct communication after the series.

I love this assessment and it is why I am happy what we are seeing for progress. I do not believe the Bills are over dumbing the playbook down and I do not believe they are by passing the learning phase. Overall it may take longer, but you end up with a better QB long term. I think Goff (and Kyler Murray to an extent) were given “cheats” by the HC that allowed them early on to know what to do without recognition. Once teams begin to move and prevent that - they are struggling more than someone that has had to learn it on their own.

Yes and some of those Beasley targets have been with him as the #2 WR - when they have 2 TEs in the game. Plus the other 5 WRs in more limited roles have been targeted 55+ times to Beasley 60 targets. I have no issue with how they are using Beasley and I believe by the end of the season both he and Smoke will have career highs in many categories. It just seems watching JA - he is still more comfortable reading and dissecting the coverages on the outside. Beasley - like Edelman in NE is open very quickly and then flows into coverage and NE at this time is great at using that play and Josh is a bit slower to pick it up. I am overall very happy with the growth shown.

Hap - I am no expert, but I believe that JA is simply much more comfortable at this point and time reading the outside receivers and coverages than he is reading the inside option routes. I just watch JA presnap on both game and “coaches film” and he seems much more comfortable with the reads and coverages he is going to get. I think that sometimes right now is causing him to miss Beasley even when he beats his man because that is a very easy area of the field to get a major mistake. I believe this is something that will get better - he is already using it more this year than last year with both Beasley and the TEs, but I believe this is the hardest part about trusting what you see and he is just not there yet. We see JA throw more to Williams, McKenzie, and even Foster and Jones to limited degrees as they line up outside - than he does to Beasley in the slot. Long term I think it will become a better part of the offense - I just think it took years for Brady to be comfortable reading and understanding the concepts and getting his receivers to see things exactly the same way. I am not surprised it might take Josh a bit over 10 weeks to get there.

I agree 100% - the fact that the staff decided to go all in on designing an offense around him has made all the difference in the world. He has grown by leaps and bounds and the offense he is in just works great for him. To me if people want to think about him on this team instead of Allen - I believe Jackson would be struggling big time to be successful, but still working hard. I just think that having Roman as the OC (a guy that has done this multiple times - with multiple QBs) just makes the fit special. Just as I am not convinced that had the Bills drafted Mahomes - we would be seeing the same guy we see in KC. I think having Alex Smith and Andy Reid on a team that already had a ton of offensive talent - helped him grow much faster. I don’t think he would have been a bust here, but I don’t think he would be in the MVP discussion either.

I do not even understand half of what you wrote here. There are multiple ways rules get introduced in the NFL - this has been the case for years. The number one way is the competition committee made up of coaches and GMs puts together rules that they want to see changed or updated. Sean Payton is a part of this group and he was hell bent on getting some kind of review in place. This is also the group that brought us the great catch debate for years as they could not define catch with the group. The individual teams also have the ability to submit rules that they would like to see addressed. Sometimes these are accepted and sometimes denied. The NFL and the Refs then have to take these approved rule and find out how they are going to fit into the current rules. The decision was that for the most part these challenges need to fail or we are going to get unintended consequences late in games and playoffs. They do not want these decisions to overturn how a game is being called.

I saw that - should of been a no call, but the Cardinal DB got in the way and prevented the 49er receiver from getting to the spot. The DB did try to turn, but he was running/moving much slower and the WR ran up his back trying to get to the ball. In my opinion, the best call would have been to just let them play, but the call could go either way and been fine. The DB cut off the WR and prevented him from his route. The WR also increased the contact and could easily have been called himself.

No it was the competition committee lead by Sean Payton that created the rule and the challenge. The League saw it as another catch rule failure - that also came out of the competition committee - and came out and stated early unless it was a play similar to the playoff game they were not going to overturn these in most cases. You saw the reason why in the preseason because the coaches were going to challenge every little bit of contact and it was going to make things unbearable. Therefore from early on - the league has overturned very few of these. If the refs on the field are letting them play and did not call this contact all game - I have no issue with it not getting overturned. It is clear that there is contact I would of had no issue with them throwing a flag for PI, but since they didn’t call it - I have no issue with them not overturning it. Watching the rest of the game - they allowed pretty physical play on the outside with few calls - so that stayed right in line with the rest of the officiating.