Shaw66

Thanks for this. Sure seems to be a better approach to the running game, especially with Morse and Brown, who have such great mobility.

Fair point. I wasn't really trying to prove anything - I just thought the data were interesting, especially the fact that Allen was the only guy who'd won. I agree, the collection of all sub-65 is a better indicator of something, maybe QB resiliency. I wouldn't be surprised if Brady were the all-time leader in that category. Winning nearly a third of your games when you're basically awful is pretty good, indeed.

If you don't mind my asking, how much do you weigh? Seems like food drives your life.

"No problem. We got this." He impressed me against the Pats, and he impressed me yesterday. There was this "I'm the QB, and I got this" attitude about him, even after the third INT. I think that attitude has its effect on the rest of the team. They see it in their leader, and they realize that all they need to do is their jobs. The continuing growth of Josh Allen.

Well, you're sort of right about this. It's good for seasons and careers. For games, it's just interesting. It does tell you something about how the game went, but the actual number is irrelevant.

It IS fun listening to him. I watched a little of the first quarter and the ending. It's worth a look. A different era. So cool to see them cut away for highlights from other games and see a clip of Barry Sanders being Barry Sanders. Wow. For that matter, it was pretty cool seeing the Lions beating someone, even if it only was the Bears. Thurman was still Thurman. Great stuff. Thanks.

Great story. Thanks for posting it. Go Bills!!!

I haven't listened to any of the interviews. Do we know he was throwing to Beasley? I think it looked like he was throwing to Beas because he was closest to the ball when it was intercepted, but when I watched the replays, it looked to be like he was targeting Diggs in the back corner of the end zone. I think that because Beas was cutting to open space toward the center of the field and Diggs was coming across to the corner. It looks like Allen was throwing up the sideline and as the ball got deflected it went toward the spot where Beasley was. In either case, except for the fact that Allen didn't see the guys who could make deflections, I didn't have a lot of trouble with any of the INTs. They just happened, and they all happened within minutes of each other.

The great thing about McDermott is his dedication to all of the stuff he spouts, the growth mindset, continuous improvement, etc., etc. He doesn't just spout it, he lives it. He demands it of himself, and that's what we're seeing. I'm personally not a fan of going for it - I often thing that taking the points is the way to go, but McDermott is the one studying this, watching other teams, listening to his players, all of it. Even his demeanor on the field has been evolving. He used to be mocked here because of his hand-clapping rah-rah stuff, but I think there's less of that now. The spirit, the tenacity, that he was encouraging with the rah-rah stuff is now part of the character of the team. Everyone plays with that spirit now, and McDermott just as to remind them occasionally to stay with it. He's growing, just like the team has, and it's a good thing.

I don't like it when people get promoted because, well, people like them. Mark Sanchez simply was not good enough to play football in the NFL, but somehow the NFL let him play anyway. He isn't any better at announcing than he was at playing, and still Fox puts him on the air. All he has going for him is good looks and a nice smile. He's boring as hell and often wrong. The worse example is Michael Irvin, a career-long jerk whom the NFL network continues to glorify. At least the NFL seems finally to have gotten away from Ray Lewis.

Allen also is so big that he takes hits pretty well. Still, it's inevitable that he will slow down over the next few years, and that his potential for injury will increase. He will run less in the future, both to avoid injury and because he won't be as effective running. Elway, the guy I think Allen is most like, never had 600-700 yard seasons, but he stayed pretty constantly above 200 throughout his career. I expect Allen will settle down into 200-300 yard seasons after a few more years. In the meantime, however, he is a devastating weapon on the field, and the Bills would be foolish not to take advantage of his talents.

So, Josh Allen had a career-worst single-game passer rating. 17. It's, like, phenomenally bad. I decided to take a look at the career-worst single-game passer ratings for the super-star quarterbacks. They're interesting. The single most interesting thing about the best QBs and their worst days is that, although Allen's day was the second-worst passer rating in the group, Allen is the only guy whose team won the game. Peyton, Brady, Rodgers, Brees, all lost their worst games. Why is that? Because Allen's running brought another dimension to the game that the super-stars didn't have. Here are the worst games for the super-stars: Peyton: With the Colts, Peyton threw three interceptions against the Dolphins in his rookie season, lost 41-6 and had a passer rating of 35. With the Broncos, Peyton lost to the Chiefs 29-13, threw four interceptions and had a rating of 0, the lowest of any super-star. Brees: With the Chargers, Brees had a passer rating of 27 against the Bears, threw one interception and lost 20-7. With the Saints, his low was 37.6, losing to Atlanta 23-13. Brady's low with the Pats came in the 31-0 loss to the Bills. He threw 4 ints and earned a rating of 22.5. With Tampa, he lost to the Saints 38.3 and had a passer rating of 40.4, with 3 INTs. Rodgers made the Bills the only team to hang an all-time low passer rating on two different superstars, when he racked up a 34.3 rating by throwing three INTs in 21-13 loss. These are just silly little data points, of course, but I think it's more than pure accident. Brees, Brady, and Rodgers were, like Allen, playing with good teams, but their teams weren't good enough to bail them out of their worst days. Allen got the win when the super-stars didn't, not because his team bailed him out, but because ALLEN bailed himself out by being an integral part of the running attack that took over the game in the second half. Allen isn't throwing like the super-stars, but it isn't absurd to say that is throwing is excellent. He isn't running like Vick or Lamar Jackson, but he's already established himself as a great running quarterback. Allen's a much better runner than any of the best throwers, and he's a much better thrower than the best runners - Vick, Newton, and Jackson.

Thanks for saying this. It's maybe a better way to capture what I was feeling about this game. I have memories of the 1064 and 1965, and of the Super Bowl years, and whenever I happen to see a game-by-game run down of any of those seasons, I'm amazed that I don't remember how ugly some of the wins and some of the losses were. There are a lot of wins that are not what I called prototype wins. They're a mess. Every once in a while someone posts a link to the video of those 117 seconds against the Broncos when the Bills blocked a field goal for a TD and got two turnovers that they converted into TDs. Runs like that happen in football games. They just do. You can praise some players if you're on the right side of the run, and you can criticize players if you're on the wrong side of the run, but the real question is what did the team do for the other 57 minutes of the game. That's a team question, not an individual question. Against the Falcons, the Bills were on the wrong side of a series of events. However, the Bills dominated most of the rest of the game, and thus they survived the bad stretch, and they coasted to the win. That's the kind of team McDermott has always said he wants to build, a team that is good and that handles adversity. It was a good win.

Fans have a mental-image of what an NFL win looks like. A prototype win. It’s what they want to see from their team, week after week. Take control of the game from the start, score on almost every possession, have a comfortable half-time lead, and cruise through the second half to a stress-free win. Problem is, every NFL game is unique. It’s different from every other game, and very, very few wins fit the prototype. In every game, as Sean McDermott is fond of saying, each team will face adversity. How the team responds to adversity is the measure of how good a team is. Yes, it’s a cliché. The reason it’s a cliché is because it’s true. Things go wrong in games. They always do. The cliché was on display Sunday as the Bills beat the Falcons 29-15, clinching a playoff berth and now needing a win over the Jets in Orchard Park to win a second-straight AFC East title. Things went wrong in the middle of the game for Josh Allen and the Bills, but the Bills responded. The defense held, the running game clicked into gear, the Bills regained the lead. The Falcons threatened to make it close, and then something went wrong for them. They couldn’t recover. For a game with plenty of uncomfortable moments for the Bills, it all ended oh, so comfortably: Run the clock down to the two-minute warning and take three knees. The story of the game begins as it almost always does for the Bills, with Josh Allen. Commentators for the past few weeks have been saying that no team relies on one player more than the Buffalo Bills, and it’s hard to deny it. Allen can wreck a game with his arm and with his legs, and no quarterback in the league is as good as an over-all offensive player. A few QBs run better, and a few QBs pass better, but no other QB is like Allen, a high-level threat both ways. Against the Falcons, Allen had some typically amazing throws, some near misses, and some drops, but he certainly did not have a good passing game. Allen threw fastballs most of the day, probably because of the wind and snow, and the fastballs weren’t connecting. With the Bills driving for their third TD of the first half, a score that would go a long way to ending the game, Allen saw Diggs in the endzone, fired another bullet that was tipped and intercepted. The Falcons then scored so quickly that the Bills still had time to attack again. Allen immediately threw another interception, and the Falcons drove for a field goal to take the lead at halftime, 15-14. On the third play of the third quarter, Allen threw his third pick. Did someone say adversity? The Bills responded. The defense forced a three-and-out and also pushed the Falcons out of field-goal range. The offense drove 80 yards in six-and-a-half minutes, an 11-play drive featuring 10 runs by Singletary and Allen. The offensive line took charge. The touchdown and two-point conversion put the Bills up 7. The Falcons punted after five plays, and here came the Bills offense, again. Twelve plays, seven and a half minutes, 65 yards for the touchdown to make it 29-15. Another 10 running plays, shared by Allen, Singletary, and Moss. 29-15, and the game was in hand. But the Falcons marched back, insisting the game was not over. Matt Ryan scrambled for a touchdown and picked up a taunting penalty that became incredibly damaging when it was ruled Ryan had given himself up short of the goal line. That took six points off the board and left the Falcons with third and goal from the 16. The Bills held for two plays to take the ball back. And now, as if to show that Ryan’s drama was irrelevant, the offense took over again. They went on an 11-play, 5+ minute drive, that included all runs and three kneel downs. If the Bills had needed a TD, Allen would have gotten it. The Falcons were not going to beat this team at this point in the season. These Bills are doing a lot of things right, not always flashy, but right. These Bills are mentally tough. It’s evident everywhere: Singletary’s emergence as a real threat; the offensive line’s sudden development as a pass protection unit, the line’s equally sudden ability to create the running room for Singletary, Allen, and Moss throughout the second half; a strip sack from Rousseau; a shoe-string tackle by Epenesa. Guys at every position were making plays. Sure, on pure style-points, this game was far from awesome: Stevenson’s fumble. Allen’s INTs, of course, the defense’s failure to get a stop on the Ryan non-TD. But, style points no longer matter. Scratching and clawing and competing in every way you possibly can is what matters. The style isn’t always pretty, but this style is showing that it can be pretty tough to beat. And Josh Allen is the Chief-Executive-Scratcher-and-Clawer. The team feeds off his determination. We see his physical toughness in his runs, of course, and we also see his mental toughness in his presence in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage. He isn’t confused; he understands what he sees. We aches to win. He’s mentally tough. The Bills have played with that toughness, led by Allen’s toughness, for two games now, and I would be surprised if they lose that attitude against the Jets next week. GO BILLS!!!

Dress like you would if you were going shopping and would be in and out of stores, going to the parking lot, getting gas. I'm in row 10. The heat from behind is pretty good. The heat in front of you does something but not a lot. But you're near the end, so it will be a little colder. As others said, if the wind is coming at you, then dress like you would if you were uncovered and without hear. Heat does nothing for you in the wind.

Wow. I was so disappointed that day. I hated the rejection. Then Rex under the bridge. Now this. Almost out of the blue.

You know, I wasn't even sure I knew what I meant when I wrote that, but you're correct. There we were, on the brink of yet another season without making the playoffs. It was over. It was 4th down, and Howdy Doody (that's what my wife calls Dalton) simply never was the guy to do Josh Allen impersonations. And then - BOOM! - (as our dear departed friend would say). It was magical. Unbelievable. Diggs's miracle touchdown for the Vikings was like that. Now, maybe Diggs can do that in the Super Bowl for us. Wow. Never saw that video. What a perfect way to experience that moment. Fabulous.

Maybe even winning a Super Bowl won't match that day and that moment.

Fair enough. I don't see it. I like Davis's size and Beasley's tenacity.

You make some good points, but I think you overstate the case. First, McKenzie has had one good game. Before Sunday, he never had had a game where he looked like some legitimate go-to receiver. And until this season, his hands were really suspect. Even this year, I watched the receivers running warm up drills, and Beas and Diggs were consciously turning their bodies to practice making catches in weird positions. McKenzie was trapping the ball against his chest. So, he hasn't shown me that he can be consistently anything like what we saw Sunday. Maybe the light went on on Sunday, I don't know. Actually, I think the light went on for a lot of guys, and maybe Isaiah is one of them. And as you say, if he can get more snaps, then he's on the field for jet sweeps. So, yeah, I can see it, but not yet. Plus, I don't think we can expect McKenzie to be anything like the tough, clutch receivers that Beasley and Davis are. In their own, different ways, they are dependable third-down guys. They both have decent speed, so it's not like they can't get deep, but I'll grant you they don't have the McKenzie blow-by-you speed. These guys have different dimensions to their games. Maybe McKenzie is coming of age, or maybe he just had a career game. I always used to look at the best games David Nelson had and try to talk myself into how he could be a really good receiver. That was foolish - those were just his best games, and in other games, he was just a journeyman and always would be.

I didn't see anyone mention that McKenzie also has several catches that are essentially handoffs. Guys who run the jet sweep and get the ball on what's technically a pass are going to have a higher catch percentage. Before the NBA completely changed the style of play to emphasize three-point shooting and the slash-drive-kickout game, the big men always had the highest shooting percentages in the league. That didn't mean they were the best shooters. It meant they took the easiest shots. Wilt Chamberlain had a career shooting percentage of .540. Stef Curry is .475. Doesn't mean Chamberlain was a better shooter than Curry.

I don't know if this would work. I don't think he has the burst you need at that position. But I'm intrigued. In fact, I've often thought that Rousseau is the guy on the team built most like Edmunds. Imagine them on either end. If they play their gaps properly, nobody's running outside on the Bills. Anyway, I doubt it will happen.

I got something similar. Bills need to win two games first.

Looks like it should be a lifetime ban.

You have to understand how the Bills defense works. It's a total team defense. It doesn't feature individuals; it features complex, precise teamwork. So, you get a player like Tre White, who is regularly called one of the top five, while if he played for a team that truly put him on an island he might be called the best. The Bills don't put him on an island all day, because there defense is played within a team concept. White stands out less in this defense. Buddha Baker makes plays that shows up on TV a lot. Hyde does the things that don't look flashy but that allow his teammates to do their jobs better. Pro Bowl voters don't care about that kind of . It's also why so many fans here are unhappy with Edmunds. He doesn't stand out like they want him to. Same thing - he's playing in a team concept and, I think, doing the job he's supposed to be doing. So, what happens is that players on the Bills are underappreciated. Poyer, White, Hyde all are underappreciated by the rest of the country, but not Bills fans. Edmunds is underappreciated by the country AND Bills fans. Another one of those guys is Hughes. Hughes is really good, maybe even outstanding, at doing his job. His job on the defense does not require him to be a big, flashy pass rusher. He's gotten his considerable athletic talent under control and plays completely within the system now. He's a leader. He's underappreciated.