Shaw66

Yeah, I remember noticing that block live. I mean, man, the toughness of those guys. He knew his assignment, saw the free runner, and stuck himself in there with power. It's interesting that when you're talking about winning your individual battle, for the defense a win is beating your man, but on offense winning is just getting a standoff. You don't have to pancake anyone, just stop what he's doing for a second or two. So, Motor had a clear win there, even though by the time Josh threw it the rusher had overpowered Singletary. Doesn't matter; he gave Josh all the time he needed. Supreme toughness.

I agree. You could hear a player's perspective. Those guys are all so positive. He says, "yeah, taking nothing away from the Bills, but we had 'em. Then we gave up three explosive plays. We can stop those." He was all about competing, and how they could win. Of course, what he had trouble seeing was that they simply got their butts kicked by a better team.

Signing Mario Williams when the Bills already had Ryan Fitzpatrick!

And Diggs is a wideout, right? He's in the slot a lot. McDermott is big on position flexibility. All the wideouts can play all three positions.

They can play with McKenzie and Crowder.

Great stuff, Virgil! Thanks for getting down for us to look at. I'll comment on a few things. I love that you started off with McDermott. This amazing success this team seems to be enjoying is due to him. He's created the environment where everyone thrives. People may say "What about Allen?" and I'll say that even Allen is a better player today because he's playing on this team with this coach. The level of excellence that all of the players is achieving is amazing. And in particular, you said the one word that I kept thinking last night: Physicality. Look at Allen's TD. Look at his stiff arm. Look at Gilliam absolutely sticking people. Look at one of Baldy's breakdowns, showing the picture perfect execution by Gilliam, Knox, and Davis blocking. Look at Miller overpowering tackles. Look at the Dline absolutely pounding Stafford. Even Edmunds was hitting harder. In his heart, McDermott is a wrestler, and he wants that wrestler's mentality on the field. We saw it last night. I'm happy for Phillips. He loves the game, and after his travels he knew Buffalo was the place for him. He will make the most of the opportunity. I had very similar thoughts about Von Miller. I didn't know what to expect, but I know I didn't expect what we got last night. I almost jumped out of my chair with his first sack. What a player! And after all the bashing of Beane that's gone on around here about his first and second round picks lately (late in the round, I might add), I wonder what people think about AJ, Boogie and Rousseau now. People can say that the dline benefits because Miller draws attention, but that's now what we were seeing last night. Those three guys have now grown into young defensive linemen who can make plays. Not dominant, but effective, hard-working guys who make impactful plays. When McDermott and Beane first arrived in Buffalo, they described how they were going to build for long-term success. One thing they said was that by having good veteran leadership and continuity with players, you can raise the level of play in year one, and then build from that level in year two, and so one, and the team keeps getting better and better. And as you bring in new guys, they come in and are taught in their first year to play at the level the other guys already are at. And lo and behold, here are Dane Jackson and two rookie corners on the national stage against a serious, good team, the kind of team you would expect to expose the inexperience of those guys, and what happened? Nothing happened, that's what. Just solid corner play all night long. And, finally, in that regard, I don't buy for a minute that complaint that Kupp caught too many passes for too many yards. It's a team game, and it's all about winning. If you can let their star have, for him, an ordinary game and shut down everyone else in their offense, there is absolutely no reason to think that there was a problem. Dane Jackson and two rookie corners playing their first game (and Taron Johnson) held the best receiver in the league last season to one beautiful touchdown and a hundred meaningless yards. Look at this way: The Rams averaged 372 yards and 27 points last season. Last night, they got 243 yards and 10 points. There is absolutely no reason to complain about what Kupp got last night. Thanks again for the write up. Crowder was, in my mind, the biggest and most pleasant surprise. For me, there is just something about the way a guy fields punts that tells whether he can be trusted back there. He gave me that feeling immediately. He's just really solid handling the ball back there. And he's equally good in the passing games. His hands are excellent, way better than McKenzie. I think he'll be the primary slot guy, with McKenzie used in spot duty.

Now the guy needs to write an article about the defense. Sacks, takeaways, stops. Everyone had a good game. The equipment manager probably had a good game.

The Bills won the Super Bowl three years ago? I missed that.

Thanks. I remember seeing McD animated about it. And I also remember thinking that it was odd how he got hit on that play. It didn't seem like a normal football collision. Wagner's been a good player for a long time. Too bad he did that. Some of Gilliam's blocks were stunning.

Nice comments. Thanks. I particularly like your comments about Gilliam. Man, he was stuffing people in the hole. It was really fun to watch. I haven't seen any news; I hope whatever happened to him last night wasn't serious. Did he come back? What I haven't seen is any discussion about ball security. I've always disliked how McKenzie catches the ball, and we saw it again last night. The first interception was on him - ball was there, catch it on the first touch, don't hand it off to the defender. Even his TD catch looked like he double caught it. Cook's and Moss's fumbles both were sloppy. They need to be better. On the other hand, I want Crowder on the field more. He doesn't have ball security problems. I like the way he catches punts, and he had several very nice, secure catches.

I didn't hear him a lot last night, because I was in a sports bar. I like Collinsworth. He is observant and points out interesting things that players do that make plays succeed. He's enthusiastic, which is what his producers want, and he's enthusiastic about stars, which is also what his producers want. Cheerleader for the elite is a great description. He doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the lesser guys on the field, which is certainly a shortcoming of his, he's entertaining and he is smart.

All true. And it's all possible. It just seems to me that if we're all feeling this, the players are feeling it too. And they remember Pittsburgh, and how the season ended. I'm confident, but I've been wrong a lot, too.

It's 17 games, the Bills are going to lose some, and this is a good opponent. But, I've been thinking about how emotional the Bills are going to be, and about how much McDermott has worked over the past few days to control and focus that emotion. I don't think the Rams will be able to match that energy, even though they'll celebrate with the Lombardi. What the Rams did last season is in the past. The Bills are looking forward.

Well, I love you, man, but now it's time to let it all go. It's all emotion now, and logic be damned!

Be as loud as you've ever been!

I'm really excited. I wish my parents were alive. If I could talk to them, I'd say something like this: The NFL season is about to begin. You should see and hear what people around the country are saying about the Bills. You wouldn’t believe it. Dad, it’s been a while since you’ve seen any football, so it’s really kind of hard to explain. Remember how good the Dolphins were? Well, no one’s saying the Bills are going to go undefeated, but people are talking about the Bills potentially being as dominant as those Dolphins were. Not in the same way – the Dolphins dominated with the run, but no one does that any more. These days, the Bills dominate with the pass. No, teams don’t have guys like OJ or Cookie, but they don’t need one. No one runs the ball as much, because it’s too hard to win that way. The good teams throw it, and they make do with at least a decent running game. Mom, you saw Kelly and watched those teams go to the Super Bowls, so you know what that kind of excitement is like. All of western New York is excited about the coming season, and plenty of fans around the country are, too. But this is different, too. Kelly was great, and his teammates, too, but the Bills have a quarterback now named Josh Allen, and I don’t even know how to describe him. He’s a big guy, 6’5”, 240 pounds, and he throws better than anyone you’ve ever seen. Kelly, Marino, Aikman, young Peyton, remember those guys? Allen throws it better than all of them. Farther, faster, accurate. And he can run too, better than any QB you ever saw run. Really, he could be a running back. Well, almost. People in Buffalo are pinching themselves, wondering how, after all these years, this has happened. You know how much we’ve always wanted the Bills to win, but I think we always envisioned some heartwarming overachievers who become champions, like in Hoosiers. Oh, sorry, you didn't see Hoosiers. It’s a movie. Okay, I think we’ve always thought that when the Bills got good they’d be like the Dodgers in the 50s. Some kind of second class citizens of the baseball world who happened to get good with some workhorses and some Negroes and who managed to win the World Series once before, what? Before leaving town? No, the Bills aren't some bumbling team that may have a a magical season. The Bills look like they will be the Yankees, not the Dodgers. And what’s so amazing is that people around the country are starting to see that this could be a team that is a serious force in the NFL for ten years or more. A force like the Chiefs were in the AFL in the late 60s. Or the Chargers were for a couple of seasons in the AFL, before the Bills took them down. Or the Packers with Starr. The Bills could be like that, but not for two or three years, but for ten years! It hasn’t felt like this in Buffalo, ever. Maybe during the Pan American Exposition, 120 years ago, the city was excited like this. People feel good. It’s so nice for Buffalo.

Right. And the praying strawberry isn't trademarked ... anyone could use that logo. What's your point.

No. It wa explained above.. Founders couldn't establish rights using the Bills name.

Interesting. Sounds right. Thanks. Also makes sense because they never intended to become a real business, but just a fan group.

Yeah. The tweet is incorrectly. It didn't arise "organically." Del Reid and a couple of other guys created it intentionally. It's maybe gone someplace they didn't actually intend, but it's theirs. Bills can't get rights to the tradename unless the people who are the Bills Mafia organization give it to them. https://buffalofambase.com/what-is-billsmafia/

No, the Bills are paying him like a top 10 TE. That's not elite.

You can't have an elite player at every position. You need elite players at edge, corner, qb ly and wideout. Every place else, the beat you can afford is very good. Knox is very good, not elite.

I fully expect Dorsey to be better than Daboll. I always thought Daboll was limited, and I actually was hoping someone would offer him a head coaching gig, so he'd leave. I started with some doubts about Dorsey, but I'm fully on board now. I think he's smarter than Daboll, and I think he's more willing to take risks than Daboll. I think he will be a hot head coaching prospect in three years, max. The Bills will need to write him a big check to keep in Buffalo as OC, just like the Pats were willing to do with McDaniels. Am I sure? Of course not. He could fail miserably. I just don't think the Daboll set some kind of really high bar. I think Dorsey's been waiting a few years for the opportunity to run an offense, studying, working at it. I think he probably had opportunities to leave Buffalo, but he chose to stay for three years. Why? Because he see where this was going, and it meant that his OC opportunity was coming in Buffalo, so he waited for it.

As others have said, with the cap rising and a couple of TEs franchised, this isn't likely to be top-5 money for long. A lot like Morse - his deal looked rich to some originally, but right now he's eighth which, if it's high, isn't high by much. For key players, you have to pay them. And that's another reason we see McBeane always looking for position flexibility. McBeane can afford to pay Knox because they get a guy like Gilliam to be a backup tight end at relatively low cost, given that he's also the fullback, H-back, and special teams guy. McBeane know exactly what they're doing.

That's an interesting point, that the level of trust between player and management is such that both sides knew in December that Knox would be back, and that it was just a matter of time before the deal got done. That means his agent told Beane back then what the ball park would be, and Beane told Knox that they'd be in that ball park. That's a very solid way to run an organization.