Shaw66

This is great stuff, nice analysis. Thanks.

I guess it isn't a fascinating question, because more or less everyone agrees it's the Browns. In my mind, it's simple. If you're NFL team and you don't have a QB to build around, you need a quarterback. Seems like both teams have cap problems that will keep them from acquiring a QB in free agency, but it's pretty tough to get a good QB in free agency - just look at, uh, the Saints. Cousins is about the free agent QB any team has gotten since, uh, the Saints and Brees. That means they have to draft a QB. Let's assume both teams hit the lottery and draft QBs are good from the get go and are guys they can build on. Which team is in a better position to build? Saints, because their cap situation is less bad than the Browns. Ownership? I have no idea if Gayle Benson knows what she's doing in New Orleans. I am sure that Jimmy Haslam doesn't know what he's doing in Cleveland. Again, the negative advantage foes to New Orleans. I'd rather be the Bills.

If I had to guess, I'd guess it wasn't his best game. He showed up in the passing game, but I've been noticing him playing special teams. He plays them all, I think, and multiple times I've seen someone make a play and ask, "Who was that?" It's surprising how often the answer is Hollins. I think he's another one of those guys whom McDermott loves.

Apparently, and that's another thing that's problematic. One ticky-tack call, okay. Maybe it's a makeup call. But two in row? If you don't see it, don't call it.

Logic - I saw this when you posted it, but didn't have time to respond then. I just remembered. The bolded part describes it exactly. It's a great, succinct statement of the philosophy of the run defense. The Bills put a lot of people on the field who can run and can tackle. Then they give them assignments that require them to run to the point of attack, starting from some optimal place. They are not power guys, not on the line of scrimmage, and certainly not at linebacker or DB. The result is that they are susceptible to getting block, because they are running to make the play. The Bills force the offense to execute those blocks, which isn't easy, because the defense is so fluid. As you say, the best offenses execute consistently enough to get good yardage in the run game consistently. But even then, except Henry's run, they don't get beat for game-breaking runs. And to their credit, when they're in the red zone, they are really tough against the run. The Chiefs showed the other night that they are happy to play against a defense like that. They'll run all day long. Great post. Thanks.

Thanks. Definitely not a hold on Dawkins, and I agree that this doesn't show a hold on Torrence either. It's possible that he was grabbing the guy's shirt, which we could see from this angle, and the official could. However, it has to impede the player held, and it didn't. Torrence is carrying on with the execution of his block, moving his feet with defender and pushing with his arms. One of the most difficult thing for officials in any sport to do is to be disciplined about only calling the foul when the official actually sees it. What happens with the poorer official is that they see something happen that looks like the aftermath of a foul (like the defense lineman unable to get off the blocker when the lineman changes direction). I think that's what happened here. The lineman is turning to get off the block and to make a play on the ball carrier, but it doesn't look like he was being held. The same is true on the very next play, also called on Torrence, and the same thing happened. Torrence is in excellent position with his hands on the guy's chest, managing the block just as he's taught to do. Really unfortunate calls, and poor officiating. If you don't see it, don't call it.

This is a familiar technique, and we shouldn't be surprised. Because of the continuity that exists in Buffalo, which includes continuity on the defensive scheme, the Bills can bring back former player and plug them in almost immediately. It's what we've the Chiefs do with Kareem Hunt and with whichever receiver they brought back late last season. If a guy who returns can't cut it, they'll figure that out soon enough and deal with it. In the meantime, they've live warm bodies who are up to speed almost immediately.

I agree, the offense isn't overpowering. And I agree, I don't know what Anderson and Virgil add. Either one takes a valuable skill player off the field and makes the offense less multiple. As to your first paragraph, again, referring to three years ago is pretty much irrelevant. Most teams are stopping that dynamic downfield offense. All the good teams are winning by going on extended drives, just like the Bills did Sunday and against the Seahawks before that. That seems to be the only way for offenses to succeed consistently in this era.

I don't know about 13 seconds, but last night for sure. Coin toss is 50-50, and Chiefs probability of getting the TD on the first possession is higher than the Bucs. That means the chances that you win the game in overtime are less than 50-50. I'd guess that the Bucs chances of making the two-point conversion are better than 50%. That means your chances of winning the game are better going for 2. .

DHop will change that. They are going to be dynamic on offense now. Worthy deep, DHop all over, and Kelce finding openings as the DBs chase the other two. I think the Chiefs will be explosive.

The first half of the season is about winning enough games to be nicely positioned to make the playoffs. The development of the team isn't complete yet, and the result is that there will be close games, ugly games, even a loss here and there that shouldn't happen. As the second half of the season progresses, the team should be rounding into form, becoming the best team they can be. What's disturbing about the Chiefs is that they've been able to win all of their games, even the ugly games. But it really doesn't matter all that much, except for the playoff seeding. What matters is becoming high-performing team over the next two months. The Bills have a shot at that. If they develop nicely, they'll win their share of the tough games coming up, they'll finish the season at 12-5 or better, and they'll be ready for a playoff run. If they don't develop, they'll lose three or for of the big games ahead of them, finish 10-7, and struggle for a game or two in the playoffs.

I'm not going back through this thread to see who's said these things already, but I had a few thoughts about the game: 1. Nobody matriculates the ball down the field like Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Nobody. 2. DHop still has it and he's a fantastic addition to that team. He changes that team. 3. Late in the game, Chiefs needed about four for a first down, DHop ran a quick slant on the left side. Mahomes threw it before DHop looked for it and it fell incomplete behind him. Mahomes' throw was great, and DHop knew it as soon as he realized what had happened. He's been around the league, but he's never played with a QB like Mahomes before, a guy who is truly a master. Imagine how tough the two will be after working together for a few weeks. It was a little like Cooper dropping the quick sideline throw on his first live target from Allen - Cooper looked startled that the ball arrived as soon as it did, on tim.

One of the Bills, maybe Johnson, said after the game that the Bills were sort of giving the Dolphins the run. He sort of stumbled over it, but it was clear that the Bills were determined to keep the passing game under control and challenged everyone to make sure the run game didn't beat them. I think the Bills' defense did a great job. Ultimately, they didn't stop Miami much, but Miami comes at you with great, great skill players. In the end, only Ray Davis broke free for an explosive touchdown.

Yes, they said competitive for the long term. They also say it's about continuous improvement. I think it's quite possible we won't know if they're a contender until January. I think the Bills need to go 2-2 against the Rams and the three you name, and maybe even only 1-3. How they do against those teams is more an indicator of whether they're competitive at that level or not. Whether they're a contender will depend on that and on injuries. Getting Keon back, for example, may be healthy. I think they're a much different team with Keon and Cooper.

The point that this article misses and that McDermott was too modest to admit is that McDermott built his team with the expectation that this is exactly what would happen as players leave. When he came to Buffalo, he said the objective was to get better every season. He and Beane were very clear that they intended NEVER to rebuild, just to get better.

And the answer is no. The guy made no effort to change direction or move away from Torrence, so Torrence didn't restrict or alter the defenders path. I'm not sure the guy even recognized that Allen was heading upfield until Allen was out of reach. It was a bad call, especially right after the other bad call.

You're confusing toughness with excellence. Bills are tough. They haven't been excellent, at least not consisterly.

Good points, all. Thanks.

That may be correct, but the point is that no one knows how a player may get injured when he's hit in a defenseless position. Could be his wrist, his knee, his head.

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.