Shaw66

Well, I don't know who his replacement would be, but I agree very much with the observation. The defense does look uninspired. And, for that matter, so does the offense.

People say Benford is having a bad year. The safeties aren't lighting it up. Taron Johnson looks average. White is "unrosterable"! And yet, the Bills are fourth in the league in passing yards per game allowed. Ninth in completion percentage allowed. Second in longest pass allowed. 15th in passer rating allowed. McDermott must be an absolute genius, getting that kind of performance out of five DBs who suck.

I haven't read much of this thread, but it relates to something I've been thinking about. I agree there's too much panic. Of course, we'd like the Bills to be dominating every game instead of looking so suspect, but that isn't reasonable. Teams rarely do that. I agree with starry, that it's all about making the playoffs and playing well then. Ideally, you win the home field throughout, but homefield isn't as important as playing well when you get to the playoffs. I wrote last week about how the preseason is coming to an end. Many people got on my case, saying that's ridiculous, but this past week has me even more convinced. Who are the favorites to get to the Super Bowl? Bills and Eagles, and that was AFTER both teams lost on Sunday. Nobody thinks the Bills and Eagles are playing like big winners - they both are struggling. But the question is who's most likely to put it together, and based on the bones of each team, the experience, the QB, most everyone still thinks those are the two leaders. I was watching the Eagles struggle against the Giants last night and could help but think two things: Right now, the two teams looked similar, bumbling around the field, too many penalties, certainly not firing on all cylinders, leaky defense. Very similar. The other thing I thought is that the Bills played a tough team on Sunday, a team that looked like it was coming together, got smacked around a bit, and lost by a field goal on the last play. The Eagles completely fell apa, rt against a team that had shown very little except a wish about their rookie QB. Eagles took a much worse beating. If the Eagles still are the team to beat in the NFC, then the Bills are struggling less. The offense clearly hasn't come together yet, but all the pieces are there. The passing game will be fine, especially when the oline tightens up the pass pro. Cook is doing fine. The defense hasn't found itself, but I think it's by design. I think, for example, that when we get to December we'll see the Bills' zone tighten, and they'll be tough against that underneath stuff that's killing them now. And the d line will get reinforcements and will be battle tested. Can I prove that we saw last week will fade as the team gets sharp in December? No, but it looks to me as though the Bills are doing this consciously. They will be cranking things up beginning after the bye, being 4-1 at this point will have been certainly good enough.

Wow. Third fewest passes attempted against the Bills, and the two teams ahead of them have played one fewer game. So, the Bills are essentially leading the league in passes attempted against. Makes sense. Bills invite you to run the ball, and teams have been doing that. And it's worked as a strategy. Bills are 4-1 doing it the way they do. Still, I can't say it gives me much confidence.

I'm back home from Buffalo. Haven't read this entire thread, so I don't know if anyone has said what I'm about to say. I agree. No more white outs. And no more silly special unis. And it's not because it's some kind of jinx. It's because the Bills are who they are, and they shouldn't try to be something trendy. Guy in front of me wore his standard blue Josh Allen game jersey. He said he's been wearing for three seasons, and he wasn't going to change for some silly white out thing. Same thing with the towels. Every time they pass out towels, it's stupid. Towels are a Steelers thing, and we look like junior high school trying to be cool like the high school kids when management tries to generate excitement by copying the Steelers. The Giants play in their standard blue just about all the time. They're happy to be who they are. The Bills are the Bills. The fans are proud of who the team is, and who the Bills are. We don't need gimmicky BS. We're blue collar, and we wear the same stuff every week. Team should too. And one more thing: The Bills are raking in millions with their seat licenses. They don't need to gouge us all for another $200 selling us special white game jerseys.

Yes. I think in December, when we ask ourselves who the really good teams and why, those teams we'll be talking don't exist yet. If the Bills are one of those teams, the December Bills will be a lot tougher than the version we saw last month. It'll be playing tough, hard-nosed defense, even though they will have suffered some injuries. We haven't seen that defense yet, for sure. And we haven't seen the full variety and power of the offense. It's all coming, I hope.

Thanks, pal. CDL and I have had some good times together, as he's noted. Fanhood just feels good. It's a great way to feel connected to others. So CDL are connected, even though we're decades apart in age, even though the ONLY time we see each other is the six hours it takes to drive to the game, watch the game, and drive back. We don't work together, we don't drink together, we don't play bridge together. The only thing we do is go to games together once or twice a year. But that alone makes us friends, for sure. And CDL will have write a book one day about his fan adventures. Oh, and I'm definitely in for next year at the new Highmark.

I was watching last night and thinking about how the 49ers in particular, and the Rams generally, are designed the same way the Bills are. The announcers, as usual with those two, completely missed the point. The 49ers weren't good last night because some substitutes had incredible games. The substitutes, like Jones, had incredible games because of how the 49ers are designed. They have a true team philosophy. Like the Bills, the 49ers expect every player at every position to execute his job, and his job is designed to blend with the jobs of the other 10 guys. Every starter and every starter learns the same job for his position. What that means is that when a player goes down, they have another guy to plug in who executes the same stuff the starter executed, only just not quite as well. It's a great system, because every team loses guys to injury during the season, but when a guy goes down, the team isn't designed around his special talents. There's always a guy behind him who knows the same job. So, when Purdy goes down, he can be replaced not because he isn't very good in the first place, but because another NFL-quality guy has been studying and practicing the exact same role. The 49ers were missing all those guys, but it's a team designed as a true team, so next man up works pretty well. Compare the 49ers to the Bengals, who are designed around have a QB and two great receivers. When one of the receivers goes down, the offense begins to struggle, because his part of the design cannot be replaced. When the QB goes down, well, that's a huge problem. What does that say about the Bills? Well, first, for 21 positions, if a guy goes down, he can be replaced. We see it every week. That's why a guy like Cam Lewis is so valuable - he can play multiple positions, and he knows exactly what he's supposed to do. But what about Allen? Obviously, he can't be replaced. But look at how his game has evolved. This season, the team is relying even less on his greatness, and more on his ability to execute the offense at a high level. And that's why they have Trubisky. He is a veteran, smart QB, and he can come in to execute the same offense. He can't make every throw and every run Allen can, but he can play the position as it's designed to be played, so the whole playbook remains open. It's a good style to play for the regular season. As we've seen, both with the Bills and with the 49ers, it doesn't necessarily work so well in the playoffs.

Did you have to sign up for it, or did it come without any request from you? I'm asking because I haven't received one, and I'm wondering if I missed the notice. Or if it's only for people who bought seasons in the new stadium.

Thanks for this. It relates to how I feel about the book. I imagine someone asking me why what I have to say in the book is relevant to anything, what makes it special, what credentials do I have? And I've realized that I wrote a book that's just about one fan's experience with Buffalo and the Bills. My experiences are different from yours, but they aren't better or worse. There are tens of thousands of people who have been fans of the Bills for decades, and they each have their own experiences. The only thing that makes me different is that I like to write, so I compiled a bunch of my experiences and put them on paper. If we were talking over a beer, we could go on all night, sharing yours and mine, big moments, crushing moments, funny moments, all of that. Maybe you need to pour a cold one before you start reading.

Yes. And Moore, too.

Thanks! That's cool. I'll have to get those.

Interesting. I agree. I think blitzing is becoming part of the defense, rather than something to do when the four aren't getting home. Making the defense more varied. Plus whatever they were doing with White is another example.

What a cool story. What a great thing to do for a Bills fan. I don't have a big red book. The details of games and seasons get away from me. But I have plenty of memories.

Sometime about 18 months ago, someone here started a thread called something like "Tell Us Your Favorite Bills Memory." I saw the title and immediately thought, "I have a lot of favorite memories. I'm not going to pick one." I moved on. Within a couple of hours, I had decided to write a book about being a Bills fan. And now I've done it. My memoir, FAN - Stories of Buffalo and the Bills, has been published and is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. In FAN, I've written about my life growing up in Amherst in the '50s, about my earliest memories of being a Browns fan, and about how I became a Bills fan when Mr. Wilson decided to invest in the AFL and in Buffalo. The book includes chapters about games I've attended, including the 1964 AFL championship game and Wide Right, my experiences as a season ticket holder, and plenty of other stories. If you're interested and want to see some of what I've written, I've posted the Preface to FAN on my blog, www.Hartfordtodayandtomorrow.com and also on the Amazon page. GO BILLS!

Tell me about it! I have to go up just about 5 rows, but I've almost gone down a couple of times. Life always presents new challenges.

I think this is the result of playing a lot of zone and rushing four. Somehow, when they play Lamar, they've learned to rush with discipline and keep him contained. Other teams, I think they turn the lineman loose a bit more, which means there are gaps for the QB to escape. It's part of the reason the Bills' rush defense numbers are bad.

Maybe. I was in the stadium and saw it only once. But it looked to me like Tre had him around the shoulders and held him in place until help came. But as I said, I only saw it once.

Me too. Just score 31 in the first half and coast home. They fell to one and three because they had to play Buffalo, Detroit, and Kansas City in the first four games. Brutal schedule.

Not in October. It's still only the beginning of the season. The 4Q statement game you speak of should happen in the first round of the playoffs. That's where you send a signal to the other teams in the playoffs that there's a monster in Western New York waiting for them.

It’s the end of September, and one quarter of the Bills’ 2025 campaign is in the books. It’s a good time to take stock. Let’s take a moment to think about the realities of the NFL season. The first four to six games of the season are problematic, because the wins and losses count but the games are, in a sense, preseason games. Every season it’s the same: teams spend October and as much as half of October trying to figure out how to play. It wasn’t always this way. In the 50s and 60s, the season was 12 games long. Teams played five preseason games, the first two or three to get into shape and practice plays, the last two or three to fine-tune offenses and defenses. Along the way, the teams figured out which rookies could contribute. There was no free agency; except for trades, there were no new veterans in training camp. Today, those five preseason games are the first five games of the regular season. The games we now call preseason games are actually scrimmages designed to install offenses and defenses and work out new and unproven players to see if they might be able to contribute to the team. The players who will actually play during the regular season barely see the field in the modern preseason. In the modern NFL, each season teams are faced with the problem of playing preseason games in September that actually count in the standings. That is, the objective is to win games at the same time the coaches are trying to put together the team that will win games when the actual season begins sometime in October. That’s when we begin to see which teams actually are good and which teams that, despite having won a lot in September, really aren’t so good. What are the team objectives while they play these preseason games that count? 1. Win games 2. Avoid major injuries 3. Work your rookies and newcomers into the offensive, defensive, and special teams units 4. Begin to develop your offensive and defensive identities So, how are the Bills doing as the preseason winds down and the true regular season—mid-October and beyond—approaches? Very well, thank you very much. Number one, win games. Can’t do better than 4-0. Every team in the AFC that began the season with serious hopes of playing for the Lombardi trophy (Bengals, Ravens, Chargers, Chiefs) is now chasing the Bills. In fact, every team in the entire AFC is now chasing the Bills. Some fans are quick to say, “Yes, they’re four-and-oh, but blah, blah, blah.” It’s preseason, and all the “blah, blah, blah” is simply stuff the team will continue to work on as the preseason winds down and the real games begin. Four-and-oh is four-and-oh, and at this point in the season, pretty much nothing else matters. Number two, no major injuries. Check. As usual, the Bills know more than they’re saying, but—knock wood—there have been no season-ending injuries, and the guys who are down at the moment, including Ed Oliver, Matt Milano, and Spencer Brown, all seem likely to return in the upcoming weeks. Tyler Bass may be the biggest question mark, but Matt Prater has proven to be an excellent replacement. Number three, work your rookies and newcomers in. Check. Getting the newcomers up the learning curve in preseason is critical to late-season success, because there will be injuries, some guys are going to be asked to step up. TJ Sanders and Deone Walker both are getting serious playing time on the defensive line. Dorian Strong held up at corner against the Ravens, and the Bills were working into the lineup against the Saints. (Max Hairston, the Bills’ number one draft pick, is missing out on the opportunity to work into the rotation, at least for now, but Tre’Davious White and Strong are getting the job done at the #2 corner spot.) Cole Bishop, not a rookie but was still playing like one this summer, now seems to be settling into his safety spot. Put aside his spectacular read, reaction, and interception against the Saints; he was consistently in position, consistently tackling, and just generally playing like he belongs out there. Jackson Hawes is playing like he belongs out there, too. Joey Bosa is making plays, which is why the Bills brought him to Buffalo. Shaq Thompson, who played for Sean McDermott in Carolina, is making his presence felt. Number 4, establish your identity. It’s happening. The Bills are a team that can run the ball and can pass efficiently. They are a team that can be exposed to good running attacks but that stops the pass effectively—Sean McDermott’s style. They are resilient; they make mistakes, but they play through them, and at the end of the game they are ready to deliver the plays they need to win. They delivered those plays in spectacular fashion against the Ravens. The games against the Jets, the Dolphins, and the Saints all seemed closer than fans expected them to be, but in each game the Bills took charge when they needed to close out the win. Is everything great with the Bills? No; there are plenty of areas of concern. For me, one of my biggest is that three-headed running-back-by-committee that worked so well last season is missing. James Cook has been spectacular, but Ty Johnson has done little and Ray Davis has disappeared. It’s a long season, and pounding James Cook for 120 yards every game isn’t a great plan for a long season. Pass rush hasn’t been great, but maybe the Bills will benefit when Oliver returns, their two free agents come off suspension, and their rookies continue to develop. All of those guys also may help shore up the run defense, too. Here are a few things I particularly like: 1. The passing game. Every play, the Bills plug in a different collection of skill position players, and every play the defenses have to adjust. Each guy is a threat in his own way: Kincaid, Knox, Hawes, Shakir (oh, my, what a run after catch!), Coleman, Palmer, Moore, Shavers, Samuels, Cook, Johnson. And Josh Allen knows how to find them. His throw in the middle to Shakir on third and eight was miraculous. 2. Terrell Bernard. Lightning quick to the ball. 3. Tre’Davious White. A lot of fans are bashing him, but if he weren’t getting the job done as the number two corner, the Bills wouldn’t be leading the league in yards passing per game. Sure, teams are completing passes underneath against White, but he’s not giving up big plays, and he’s making big tackles. His play on the ball and his tackle to hold Alvin Kamara to two yards on fourth and three was spectacular. Unless I’m mistaken, I saw White lined up once or twice as the single deep safety. 4. Keon Coleman is looking like his head is now into the game and in sync with Josh Allen. 5. Cook has been sensational. The Patriots are coming alive. Sunday night will be another challenge as the Bills continue to become the team they want to be. Let the regular season begin! GO BILLS!!! The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

Leaf was a bigger bust, but it's a good comparison.

Defensive back. He was a big deal in college, like Tory Hunter. Projected as a star at two positions, starred at neither. It's a testament to how hard it is to draft. One guy is a first round HOF player, one guy has a mediocre career, and yet during the draft it was an actual debate over who should go first.

There was a lot of debate that year about weather Simpson or Keyes should go first in the draft. Keyes was a two-way star, and teams were talking about whether he could play both sides of the ball, and if not, where was he best suited. Second, last game of the season, the Bills were at the Raiders and driving for the touchdown that would win the game and cost the Bills the number one pick overall. Ed Rutkowski was the quarterback by that time of the season. Down around the 5-yard line with little time left on the clock Rutkowski rolled right and fumbled. The Raiders recovered, the Bills lost and lost again the next week. That's how OJ ended up in Buffalo.

Everyone laughed at this comment, but it seems to me it's pretty simple: First, if you need someone to do a job, it's best to find someone who's already done the job. Jake Browning is an undrafted free agent QB who's barely been able to get off the practice squad. Russell Wilson has won a Super Bowl. Second, I've been amazed, like everyone else, at Wilson's decline, and I don't think he's anyone's quarterback of the future. However, I didn't think Joe Flacco could play in the NFL any longer, either, but he's shown that his experience alone is enough to enable him to make good decisions for his team. Third, remarkably the Giants have been unable to put any talent around their quarterback - in fact, they let a quarterback and a running back go. Wilson is struggling back there in part because he isn't what he was and in part because he has no help. In Cinci he'd have some real talent and a well-conceived offense to direct - he'd have to do less than the Giants need him to do. If I'm the Bengals, I know at least this: You can't win without a QB. If your QB goes down for a couple games, you struggle through with your backup. But if you have a quality QB with a quality team around him, and the QB goes down for three months, it's a wasted season unless you find someone who can do the job. Going forward with an inexperienced guy who never has projected to be an NFL success and who has no experience on the field is not a formula for 2025 success. Bengals have to do something.