Shaw66

I agree about the suspension. I don't think that Poyer's a dirty player, not at all. But the league put these rules in place to protect the receivers who truly are defenseless. The rules require the defensive players to recognize when players are defenseless and to adjust. Poyer, and the guy from the Lions, didn't do that. The only way to assure that players won't take these shots to make them understand that there are serious consequences for taking them. If all the guy gets is a 15-yard penalty and maybe a fine (which all of them can afford), then guys will be making business decisions about whether to make the hit. In Poyer's case, for example, at that point in the game, he's thinking that that reception could cost them the game, so he'll take the chance. Player's won't think that if they know the play will get them ejected and get them a one- or two-game suspension. Those hits will stop. I mean, Keon's got maybe a concussion and maybe a broken wrist because Poyer decided not to protect him. Every DB in the league has to understand that if they expose a receiver those kinds of injuries, they are going to get whacked, hard.

I gotta say that when I write these, I have a healthy understanding that I may be completely off base, and I had that concern writing this one. It's comforting to learn that someone else sees it the same way. In the old days, in the '50s and '60s, a lot of games were struggles from the beginning to the end. It was desperate warfare in the trenches, and every yard was gained by snatching the smallest advantage from the opponent and taking advantage. The desperate warfare never changed, of course - these always have been really tough men fighting every second, but rule and strategy changes made it easier, for a while, to gain yards more easily. The change has been coming for a few years, but this season it really seems things have flipped. You can still get an occasional explosive play - like Davis's touchdown - but you get it by doing all the little things that let you take advantage of an instantaneous edge you have somewhere, not by just drawing up a deep post or corner and beating your man. One thing that I think has happened to cause this change is that the league has finally reverted to calling pass interference the way it should be called - contact is okay, so long as it isn't contact that substantially impairs the receiver's ability to make a play. Incidental contact comes from two great athletes trying to make a play and shouldn't be called. This season, it isn't being called. Three years ago, on the play where Poyer hit him, Keon would have gotten a pass interference call on the other defender. Not any more, and I think that play was called correctly. The whole point is that the explosive Daboll style offense doesn't work any more. KC ran that style too, but they can't any more. And Detroit is winning by playing the new style too; the difference with Detroit is that they have two exceptional running backs and two exceptional receivers, all of whom can play this grind-it-out style and turn decent gains into big gains.

Gotta it. Thanks. I agree with all of it, including our tendency to read into things online that aren't always there. What your post made me think about, and something that I guess you agree with, is that when it comes down to the end of close games, there's a whole range of outcomes. First, of course, there's wins and losses. All wins are good, and all losses are bad. In virtually all the bad losses, there are plays to criticize, and justifiably, because those plays were the difference between winning and losing. And in some of the wins, there also are plays to criticize, some wins more than others. You're absolutely right to criticize those plays - in fact, that's what the Bills' coaches are doing today - what worked, what didn't work, what went wrong. As I said in The Rockpile Review, the Bills win by being tough. Tough isn't always pretty, but it's effective.

The Bills beat the Dolphins in Orchard Park today, 30-27. It was a great win. I watched the game in my home in Connecticut, and I watched Detroit-Green Bay and Indianapolis-Minnesota. NFL football has changed; it has flipped from a game dictated by the offense into a game that is dictated by the defense. All over the league, what I’m seeing is hard-nosed, tough defense. Offenses can succeed against those defenses only by picking at the defense, finding the things the defense gives, and then executing, play after play. If you don’t find the opening, and you don’t execute, you aren’t scoring. (On Josh’s interception against the Dolphins, he found the opening, Coleman didn’t execute.) The defenses are so quick and so smart, they may give up yards, but they don’t give up many big plays. Yes, there are exceptions (Detroit is gashing everyone), but defenses have the upper hand. In many NFL games now, two teams are matched up with both teams playing that kind of defense. The result is much of the game is played within ten yards of the line of scrimmage. It’s like an orchestrated 11-on-11 wrestling match in a defined space. In that kind of game, toughness wins, because toughness is what gets the offense an extra yard, toughness is what makes the stop on fourth and one. Toughness wins wrestling matches. Texans-Jets looked like that kind of game, until the old Aaron Rodgers showed up. Two tough teams with quickness all over their defenses, fighting it out. Scoring in a game like that is a real accomplishment. Lions-Packers looked like that, too, and Colts-Vikings. And Dolphins-Bills. It’s old-fashioned football, hard-nosed football, play after play. Winning football grinds it out, play after play, on offense , on defense, on special teams. Yes, it isn’t three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust football – there’s a lot of throwing and a lot of movement, but like many games in the ‘50s and ‘60s, it’s a game where one side imposes its will on the other, imposes it physically and mentally. And that is why the Bills are tough to beat. The league has reverted to the game the Bills like to play: old-fashioned, in-your-face football. The Bills aren’t exactly blowing teams out with explosive offense; they’re grinding teams down with relentless offense. The Bills just methodically beat their opponents. Long drives, regularly finding the opportunity on each play and taking it. They convert third downs and the occasional fourth down. They overcome penalties. They’re tough in the red zone. And they do all of it more effectively than their opponent. They do it by being tough, by fighting through every moment on the field. And that is exactly the kind of football that Sean McDermott wants to play. They do it with the intensity of wrestlers. It’s a team in McDermott’s image. The Dolphins game is the latest example. That was just an outstanding performance. The Dolphins are about as good a 2-6 team as you’re going to see in this league. When Tua is healthy and throwing in rhythm, he’s a tough opponent. He has receivers, running backs, and a creative coach, and that offense is a handful. And the defense is tough. The Dolphins were up against it with the Bills. They needed a win to have any realistic chance of saving their season. They are a good team, motivated and focused, and they came to Buffalo well prepared. The Bills wouldn’t let them win. The Bills offense was relentless. Allen was in control; he seemed always to know where to go with the ball. He ran well, once for an important first down, once for a touchdown that was called back on the second of two apparent phantom holding calls. His throwing was off, but he found and hit receivers well enough to win. On Davis’s touchdown, he knew at the snap where the ball needed to go. Davis took every yard the defense gave him. The defense had trouble stopping the Dolphins all day. The Dolphins scored on every possession except for a punt in the first quarter and a fumble in the third. They did it by being tough and relentless in much the same way the Bills played. They took advantage of openings in the Bills defense all day, with few explosive plays but with good yardage on a lot of plays. Tua was 25 for 28, because he was able to throw on schedule and without any serious pressure from the Bills. Each team had three touchdowns; the Bills had one more possession than the Dolphins and kicked one more field goal. Why did the Bills have one more possession? Because the Dolphins won the coin toss and deferred. That resulted in the Bills having one more possession in the first half, and that last possession yielded a field goal. (The Bills actually were better than the score would indicate. Coleman’s failure to catch Allen’s throw in the red zone cost the Bills seven points, and the two phantom holding calls cost the Bills four. Miami would have been in a deeper hole if those plays had gone the way they should have.) In the second half, the Bills did what they seem to do in most games: overcome a slow start and take control of the game. Each team had four possessions – the Bills got three touchdowns and a field goal and the Dolphins got only two touchdowns and a field goal. Why? Because Taron Johnson forced a fumble on the Dolphins first possession of the half and Kair Elam recovered. That flipped the script on the Dolphins – the presumed second-half advantage of having the first possession vanished, the Bills scored their first touchdown, and from that point the Bills controlled the outcome. If it had been a wrestling match, the takeaway would have been called a reversal. In the end, it came down Tyler Bass’s 61-yard field goal, an improbable finish considering Bass’s recent history of shaky performances. Allen was far from his best on the game-winning drive, but it’s a team game, and he got enough to get the Bills into range, sort of. They surely wanted another 15 yards to make the kick a little less dramatic but if you’re tough, you take what you get and make the most of it. That’s what Bass did, and that’s what the Bills did. It was a great tough-it-out win, the kind of win the Bills are built for. It’s throwback football, and that’s the kind of guy McDermott is. The question, as always, is “how far can the Bills go with that approach?” There are plenty of tough teams in the league, and some of them have better talent. We will find out in the next few weeks, as the Bills face the Chiefs, the 49ers, and the Lions. In the meantime, it’s on to Indianapolis. The Colts will play the Bills tough. 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 every-day 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.

Umm, it was a game-winning drive. That's what you want from your QB, game-winning drives. Not every one results in a touchdown as the clock expires. Not every one looks pretty. Not every one ends with a gimme field goal. The fact is that it's a team, and the team worked together, including Allen, to go on a nine-play drive that was enough for Bass and the kicking unit to make the play their teammates needed.

Loved Woods. I don't think Shakir is at that level, but Woods is another guy who's more or less equal to Shakir's upside.

Maybe Shakir could be an Allen or a Cobb. I'd say that's his upside. Those guys were consistent and valuable contributors to their teams. But your point about Coleman and Cooper having to produce to keep the underneath stuff open is exactly my point. Really good players, like Diggs, create opportunities for themselves. Shakir isn't one of those - Shakir needs his team to create opportunities for him. He can be really valuable when his team does that for him, but the rest of the time he's just another guy. Good player, but just another guy. Might he continue to develop? Yes, he could, but I don't expect him to get a lot better. Why? Because he is a smart, dedicated player and hard worker, that's the edge that got him to the NFL in the first place. We're seeing the results of his brains and dedication already, and I don't think there's a lot of upside left to see. I'm rooting for him, but I think we're seeing about the best of Shakir now.

I agree completely with this. When I want to know how the team is doing, I look at yards per game offense, yards per game defense, points per game offense, and points per game defense. Yards per game tells me how well the bills are controlling the game and points per game tells me how well the bill should be doing in the win and lost columns. I like where we are in all of those categories, and I think the Bills will stay there and perhaps improve. Every upcoming opponent opponent has the Bills game marked on their calendar. The Bills are always a test.

Good stuff. I hear you. I'd say Kahlil will go over 1000 yards three times in his career, if he plays 10 year. He isn't a 1000-yard guy; he's a guy who, when things fall right, will get 1000 yards. When the defenses evolve to slow down all this short-yardage passing, I think Kahlil will have trouble getting targets.

I think the Bills could go two ways. One, the most likely, is as you describe. The Bills will be a nice team, with a nice record, but they'll lose to the best teams, teams that are just as disciplined as the Bills but with more talent. Less likely, but I think a possibility, is that we haven't seen the real Bills yet, and won't until December. If the Bills start getting the play out of Coleman and Cooper and Shakir that as is possible, the offense could be really tough to stop. Taron Johnson gave the defense a clear boost when he returned last week, and the Bills have Miller, Bernard, and Milano - all difference makers - coming back. If injuries fall the right for the Bills, they could be one of the favorites down the stretch.

I was at the game, and I remember thinking something like that at the time. It felt like the Bills always had an answer. "If we can't go here, we'll go there." The defense had that same feeling. "We'll play you tough, we'll play you tough, and if you can get to the ten, we're going to execute so well that you won't get the touchdown." It felt like a team, not just a collection of stars. Among the best teams, that's the feeling they're all trying to develop. Bills seem to have it. We'll see what happens on Sunday.

Thanks for this. So, it means the Bills need to get it done on the road, too. I'd like to see the number of times the Bills have gotten penalized when they've had six offensive linemen on the field. Seems like they've gotten a lot - false starts, uncovered tackles and covered eligible receivers. Spencer Brown is second most penalized in the league among offensive linemen. Dion Dawkins is 7th. On the other hand, if you're scoring a lot of points, penalties don't seem to be a problem.

Yeah, i loved that about him.

Yes to Edelman. Edelman played maybe 10 years, had three years over 100 yards. No to Welker. Welker was a major threat, a guy went well over 100 yards five times. Those guys were the same style, size, yes. What do you mean, scratch the surface? Is he ever going to lead the league in reception yards - like 1500 yards? He might have a year like that, but he's not going to be a top 5 star. He's not going to be as good as Diggs was. He's playing in a scheme designed to get him the ball, and against defenses that give up the short pass in order to stop the deep ball. So Davis and Kincaid are stars now? They're ordinary NFL receivers. Nice to have, but not stars.

Yes, he had more yards per catch last year, but he was way, way under 1000 yards. He wasn't a feature receiver. This season he's being used differently. Yes, he's doing more, and yes everyone is happy with him. I'm just saying he's no star. He's a guy who has skills and a scheme that allow him to take advantage of defensive schemes designed to stop deep balls.

Sorry, Dawg, I don't buy all this Shakir love. He's a nice solid player, but relying on stats like his catch percentage and his YAC to prove he's great is misguided. His catch rate and his YAC are high because he's a punt returner/ball carrier, not a true wideout. Why is his catch rate high? Because the Bills run a lot of plays for him designed to get him the ball around the line of scrimmage with running room. He's an extended part of the running game. So, throws to him are easy, because he's supposed to be open to take what is an extended handoff. His YAC is high for the same reason. The Bills want him to get the ball in space, because he has unique ball carrying skills, with excellent change of pace and direction. That's what makes his numbers high. He isn't creating his numbers by running the routes that Diggs or Coleman or Kincaid or Cooper or any of the other true receivers run. He's not catching sideline balls, he's not catch back-shoulder balls, he's not catching deep balls. He's excellent in this offense, and he's a real weapon, but when defenses begin to focus on playing him tight off the line of scrimmage, I think he will struggle. I think he's always going to be a complementary receiver. He's never going to be a high-priced free agent.

I agree about Williams. As for Miller, the book is still open on him. I'm expecting some big sacks from him in the next three months.

If the question is "Who has been more productive," I don't think there's a lot to discuss. Many people have demonstrated that Mario had the better career in Buffalo, at least to date. That could change, of course, with one timely sack by Von in the Super Bowl. But the question was which was the better signing? To that, I'd say they were equally good. Mario never turned out to be worth all the Bills paid him, but it was an important signing in Bills' history. It made the Bills relevant for the first time in a long time. The conventional wisdom at the time was that no top-end free agents would sign with the Bills, because no one wanted to play in Buffalo and Buffalo was consistently cheap - good free agents LEFT Buffalo, they didn't go TO Buffalo. The Bills sent a message to the league when they signed Mario - "We ARE relevant, and we WILL be good." Of course, the message was premature, but it still marked something of a turning point for the franchise. The Miller signing was great for another reason. The Bills looked like they were one player - an impact player - away from the Super Bowl, and there was no greater impact player available than Von. In fact, the Rams acquired Miller for that reason, and to the surprise of the league, the Bills took him away from the Rams. It hasn't worked out as the Bills had hoped, but who knows what would have happened if Mario hadn't torn up his knee? In both cases, the Bills' GM went after a great player and got him. Both signings were great, among the best in Bills' history.

Sad news. Always enjoyed his posts.

Some stats are performance stats. They tell how productive a player is. Total yards, passer rating, etc. Some stats are analytic stats. They may relate to productivity, and they help coaches figure out how to make players more productive, but in and of themselves they don't tell us how good a player is. However mich separation the Bills receivers have been getting, they've been productive lately.

Exactly. Definitely a good showing, but let's not overstate it. When they made noise, Seahawk fans were MUCH louder than Bills fans. The reality is that the Bills let all the air out of the stadium with their opening drive. Seattle fans never got their energy back after that. They got quieter, and the Bills fans could compete with that quieter Seahawks crowd.

That's when the defender is in you back pocket. Sure it does. Separation is important, and stas like this are important to coaches when they're trying to improve performance. However, when you're one of the beat passi g teams in the league, it isn't cause for concern. EVERY team has some negative stays on one category or another. KC is about 20th in passer rating.

No way. 20%, tops.

Guy was a stud for the Bills. And for Damar.

This is one of those cherry-pucked stats. Yes, it would be nice have more separation, but Bills are 4th in passer rating. That's fine me and much better than 4th in separation and last in passer rating. Last season everyone complained about YAC. Cherry-picked stats don't mean a lot.