Shaw66

Yes, I was the one who commented about the body catching. I was so surprised when I first saw it that I watched three or four more reps. Diggs had people intentionally giving him balls he had to reach for, and he clearly was practicing using his hands. McKenzie was getting easier balls to catch, and he caught most or all against his body. I've complained about using him on returns, because a turnover on those plays is the most damaging play in football. And he flubbed another a couple of weeks ago, which is why Hyde started returning. When you think about it, it just doesn't matter, relatively speaking, how big the returns are - you get very few long returns, and a fumble is much worse than an occasional return. So, I wouldn't have him back there any more. However, he's become an important part of the offensive attack. The Bills have been featuring his speed, and i think it's evident that McKenzie is a problem for defenses. When he's on the field, he could run out of the backfield, run the sweeps, catch swing passes, and run routes downfield. As much as I've grumbled about him and his shortcomings, I think he's important to the offense now. Will he be back next season? I don't know. The reality is that rosters in the NFL turn over pretty quickly, and I think we should expect to see some turnover this off-season. Oline has already been reshaped, Dline will lose some people, other positions likely will see some change, too. It's just in the nature of the game. McKenzie certainly could be a victim. He's been a contributor, but it might be time for him to move on.

The more you look at the play, the worse it looks. Actually, however, I don't think it was as bad as it looked. It's just one more example of why this defense, as this team understands and plays it, is so good. The thing to remember is that Wallace knows he has help over the top. That allows him to overplay the shorter options. Doesn't mean that a great corner doesn't recover - White probably would have been right there with Hyde, but I'd be Wallace played it as he was supposed to.

Fun. Yeah, 245. Amazing that he got bigger, faster, and more athletic through college.

Yes, it was a sure fire TD, but it wasn't a great pass. Jones's job is to evaluate the window and get the ball there before the window closes. Either he didn't see Hyde at all, or he misjudged how long it would take Hyde to cover the ground. Either way, Jones threw deep into double coverage when he wasn't supposed to. That's on him, all day long. It's his job to evaluate the situation. Single coverage, yes, you take the chance. Double coverage, no, unless you are sure, sure, you will get the ball there before the window closes. I was sitting in the stadium watching the ball, and it was in the air a LONG time. Allen's touchdown to Sanders was the exact same distance in the same corner of the same end zone, and Hyde wouldn't have come within three strides of Allen's ball. If Jones wants to be the man in the NFL, he has to throw the ball with more velocity. If he can't throw it with any more velocity, then he has to know that he can't get that ball into that window. As Clint Eastwood famously said, "a man's got to know his limitations."

True, and there's more. The whole point of the play action is to give the oline an advantage in the pass pro. Successful play action stops the initial burst that can cause the pocket to collapse quickly, and it allows the blocker to establish position. So, the line helps the QB and the QB helps the line.

Plus this. I saw it in the stadium, and when I saw Hyde break on the ball, I thought he had a shot to get there and make a play. It wasn't some miracle. He read the routes and Jones and made the right decision. The catch was incredible, but the PBU would have been just a good safety doing his job. Plus, Jones hinges the ball in the air, and as others have said, he failed to look Hyde off. It wasn't a great pass. However, for pure football beauty, it was an all-time great play.

Greatest or best? Best? Okay I won't argue. It was a phenomenal defensive play, both mentally and physically Greatest? Johnson, hands down. Johnson won a tightly contested playoff game when the outcome hung in the balance. Bills were going to beat the Patriots even if Hyde drops the ball.

Thanks for bringing this up. I agree. Now, that obvious two-handed hand-off is also in his repertoire. I don't know why teams do it that way, but Allen does it. Anyway, you're right that on the Doyle TD he didn't do it that way. I've notice him bury the ball in his belly on other handoffs. It's very deceptive when he has his back turned to the line of scrimmage. It's all coaching and how he responds to it. He's taught to do it, and he does it very effectively. I didn't think about the deep drop, but you're right about that, too. It's an effective complement to the fake - no d lineman is going to follow him all the way back there without seeing the ball. Allen's little skills keep growing. One thing I've noticed Rodgers and someone else do is after the fake, as they are dropping back with their backs to the line of scrimmage, they look over their should and follow the running back with their eyes, making it look like they're interested in how the play will turn out. That's what Allen will add next.

Meet my friend Taron Johnson.

Yes. I guess it's something he does weekly. He really doesn't give any great football insights analyzing either play, but I thought I could hear his admiration for Allen. It was if he was thinking, "Well, I can game plan all I want, but sometimes my players are going to do everything right and this guy is just going to beat them." The other time I could hear it in him was when I watched a few minutes of that show the NFL Network, I think, did about the 100 greatest players of all time. Belichick was one of the guys they interviewed about those players, and you could hear Belichick's respect for these guys.

This. When I saw that video of Belichick on some Boston sports show, he was "breaking down" Allen's TD throw to Diggs against the Jets. Although he didn't say it directly, I thought it was clear that he is in awe of what Allen does on the field. Belichick first commented on the play Allen made to break free of the pocket, then he commented on Allen getting to the sideline and withstanding the hit, then he said something about the accuracy of the throw. It was all understated, but it seemed clear that what he was saying was that this is an extraordinary talent, making three outstanding plays on one play, any one of which alone was great. I think he's great. You just have to realize that he is a total geek when it comes to coaching and football. He loves it. I've heard two first-hand stories about him. One was that his daughter was the women's lacrosse coach at Wesleyan. Belichick was a lacrosse player. On a day off a few years ago, he came down from Boston to be a guest assistant coach with his daughter for a day. Who does that? He went to Wesleyan and played football and lacrosse there. One Saturday afternoon about 15 years ago he showed up, alone, at the Wesleyan-Tufts football game outside of Boston, just to watch. He's a serious geek.

I agree with this. Belichick loves the game, and he has great respect for it, as you say. I'm a little surprised that he would have gone into the locker room right after that game, because he's always in a foul mood when he loses. After the game, however, I thought that the special nature of the Bills' performance wouldn't be lost on Belichick. If not in his post-game comments, then sometime later I expected we'd hear from him about his admiration for what the Bills did Saturday night. I mean, you know he did everything he could to get his team prepared, every little detail was attended to. Daboll had his offense prepared for everything, and between the preparation and the simple superior talent the Bills put on the field, there was no stopping them. Belichick hates getting beat by that, but he has tremendous respect for people who do it right. It's why he and Nick Saban are friends.

That's interestjng, and I agree there's a degree of luck involved. But the Pegulas hired McD (who was available by luck), and then Beane, and they saw in Allen what others did not. So, yes, there was luck, but the Pegulas made decisions that resulted in the Bills taking advantage of the luck. I dont think that all happened by accident. Jones was smart enough to hire Jimmy Johnson but not to keep him. That's an obvious difference from Kraft.

Good point. Those Cowboys were an extraordinary collection of talent. And that's why the Bills had so much success, too. Each of those teams had three Hall of Famers, I think all but Reed was a first-ballot guy. In fact, it's much harder now than it was then to accumulate talent. That's what's kind of amazing about the Chiefs, with Mahomes, Hill, and Kelce. I'm happy every time the Cowboys lose.

Hah! Good question. Not to cop out, but I don't follow hockey at all, so I really don't have an opinion about how the Sabres are managed. I think Bills ownership is very good. I think they have the right touch between involvement and hands-off the football stuff. They help and support the football people. Most importantly, they learned quickly from their experience with Rex, really learned. They recognized what's special about McDermott, and they collaborated with McDermott to get Beane, and then they collaborated with McDermott and Beane to get Allen. I think it's a great thing, for example, that the owner can go on interview trips to see Allen but still not control the decision making. Stuff like that is important. So, I think the Pegulas deserve credit. Why that ability doesn't or hasn't translated to the Sabres, I can't say. I mean, we all know that different kinds of organizations require different kinds of leadership. It's not one-size-fits-all. Just because I can lead an organization of 20 people doesn't mean I can lead one with 150 people. Maybe leadership of a relatively large organization requires some skills, and leadership of a relatively small organization requires something different. I don't know. And there's more than that. I don't think Terry Pegula takes on projects expecting to fail, and I don't think Kim is much different. They are purposeful, determined people. In that way, they are like McDermott. Maybe they got lucky when they found McDermott, but the lessons they've learned from him will not be lost on them. They can see that their leadership of the Sabres is what will determine their success, and I'd be amazed if they haven't consulted with, and continue to consult with, hockey gurus about what behaviors they should adopt. Why haven't they succeeded after many false starts? I don't know. But I'm still betting on them.

You know, thinking back to those days, I've always felt that way about it, even though I didn't see it in myself. Giants beat us? Okay, this is a historic franchise, with great ownership traditions, with the greatest coach of all time, Belichick, coming into the spotlight, the very beginnings of his greatness. And it was a great game - fans all over the country loved that game. For a decade or more, fans were saying that was the greatest Super Bowl ever. Yeah, the Bills lost but, okay, I get it. Washington, I kind of always got it, too. Here's a team that put it altogether for one glorious year, with a storybook QB who came out for nowhere, a true flash in the pan, and a really good running back has a career year, and their offensive line. It all just came together for them for one season, and the Bills happened to be the last team that had to be overrun before they were crowned. Good story. Dallas? No, I'm sorry, no. I mean, not taking anything away from Aikman and Smith, but Irvin and Lett and others whose names I've forgotten weren't exactly hoodlums, but they sure didn't mind being close to the line. (You wonder whether the Ravens and Lewis and the Patriots and Hernandez were the natural extensions, knowing they were high risk.) Jimmy Johnson was kind of in-your-face. And Jerry Jones. The whole operation was seriously dislikable, and it started at the top. For me, they've stopped being dislikable. I mean, think of all those years of mediocrity with Jason Garrett at coach: what was that, really. Garrett seems to be a really nice guy, and I'm sure he's accumulated great knowledge about the game, and all that, but it wasn't hard to see that he didn't have the personality to be a good head coach, a true leader that the team will follow. The guy was like Woody from Toy Story. Any sensible owner would have moved on from him, but not Jones. Why not? Because Garrett was his puppet. Even Ralph would have fired Garrett.

I just posted something about this in the Cowboys thread. It's the same situation in both franchises. The owner is the leader, and not everyone who gets to be an owner is a great leader. Hard not to reach the same conclusion about WFT, too.

BINGO!!!! Go read the thread about Beckham and the Browns. Same story - it's the owner. Organizations are about leadership, and organizations follow their leader. I don't know what it is - a lot of people said Ralph was cheap, but Jones isn't cheap. It's not about the money. It's about leading and having the wisdom to get the right people in senior management, particularly the GM and HC. I loved Mr. Wilson, but he didn't have it as an owner. Ownership changed and the team changed. Dallas and Cleveland need better owners.

That's a fair point. As I said, I think Jones has good enough arm strength to play in the league, minimally good enough. It always will limit him a bit, because as you say, he has to be quicker to pull the trigger. That's why he won't be elite (unless he can improve his arm strength). The ability to wait, which you get from having a strong arm, is valuable. That extra split second allow the best QBs the ability to wait, and that means he has an extra split second to read a defender, to see the cut, to attack a small window. Having said all of that, every time I've seen Jones this year, I've been impressed. It's hard to play QB in this league, and in one season he showed he can do it.

If Allen were throwing, Hyde would have been two steps away when the ball hit Aghalor's hands. Hyde came almost halfway across the field for the ball. Mac's arm is minimally strong enough for the NFL. He might have a good career, because he seems smart, disciplined, and accurate. But arm strength will be a limitation for him. Of course, maybe he can train up to having a better arm. Brady has much better arm strength now than in his early years. Hey, Fan, gotta say I like when you drop in. You always have good things to say. Thanks. As for Judon, I don't know because I haven't watched him play much, but DEs get figured out fast in this league. There is a one-year wonder almost every season. That's probably who happened to Judon. Truth is, for most guys in the league, you have learn something new every season. You've got to build a repertoire of moves and techniques, because everyone develops a book on skill players.

Exactly. Jackson is the only guy who I expect will have a long career as a starter, at least so long as his legs hold out. Their teams will move on from the others within a year or two. As someone said, it will be interesting to see what the Eagles do with all their picks. Mayfield may be with another team next season. Tua won't last in Miami much longer. It's just too obvious when you look around the league that your future is limited if you don't have the arm. You have to be accurate, and you have to have at least decent velocity. These four are challenged in one or both categories.

You know, I have to be reminded weekly, if not daily, how great Allen is. He still has a lot learn, and if he can learn to see and understand the game like Brady and Manning, Rodgers and Brees, he's going to have a mind-blowing career. His ability to deliver the football is probably unprecedented in the league. There were a couple of throws Saturday night between defenders that no quarterback except Allen completes. I've already gotten used to the fact that Allen is going to make the throw, whatever it is. He's simply spectacular. And practically nobody is talking about that ankle-breaking move he made on the run. Love it!

I won't make it. I was there for the regular season game. And the recommendation on the museums is spot on. Very interesting stuff there. And do we need to censor *****?

I agree, but they all have the SAME flaw, which is that they aren't elite throwers. Lamar can survive best because he's a better runner than the others, but unless the NFL changes the rules to outlaw the forward pass, none of them will be big-time NFL quarterbacks. There's a reason Mayfield and Jackson aren't signed, and there's a reason the Dolphins were interested in Watson.

Huge play and drive. And any possible hope for Pats snuffed on second INT.