Shaw66

After his sack he was breathing heavily for several minutes on the bench. Not a good sign.

Yeah, Sunday there were a couple of plays where he attacked the run at the line of scrimmage, and I thought, "that's different." He isn't afraid to hit, and he seems to have good speed, so let's hope he's learning his way into the role. For me, simply the eye-test tells me he's a better talent (size and athleticism) than Hamlin. To his credit, Hamlin learned the position and plays it about as well as his talent will allow.

I've been thinking about this. What good is an elite cornerback when the Bills offense doesn't have a 1,000-yard receiver? Are they going to play man-to-man all the time so their elite cornerback can shut down Khalil Shakir? And while they're playing man-to-man, are they going to let Josh Allen run all over their defensive backfield? Or are they going to play zone? If they play zone, what good is an elite cornerback?

Nope. I would have loved being there, but not as much as Thrivefourfive.

I hear you, and I see what you see, but there are a couple of things about that. First, I think he's working his way back. I don't think he's fully recovered. But whether he's fully recovered or not, there's a more important point from McDermott's perspective. Every player's job is to execute his assignment to the best of his ability every time. The assignment is determined by the player's abilities. Your job is to get to your spot to the best of your ability. If your abilities are limited, then your spot is a little different, and the rest of the defense adjusts because your spot is different. What's important is that you get to your different spot every time, and your teammates will cover for you. Williams clearly can get to more spots than Milano, based on my observations. However, Milano gets to his spot every time, because he makes his reads and he knows his assignments. It's more important to McDermott that Milano does it every time than that Williams will do it better sometimes. That's why Klein was the choice last year. He was physically limited, but he executed to the best of his ability. So, if you're correct and Milano has lost a step, he'll be replaced next season. But he can't be replaced this season, because there is no one who can execute the assignments as well as he can. That's why Williams goes to the bench as soon as Milano is physically able to play. And that's why Elam sees such limited playing time, despite the talent we seen when he's on the field. You can disagree with that approach if you want, but it's how McDermott sees it, and he's the coach.

My recollection is that coming out of college Bishop had excellent physical skills and most importantly, he played his position flawlessly in college. He was smart and led the team. I think the Bills liked him for his smarts, just like they liked Bernard for his smarts. However, I suspect that safety is one of the toughest positions to learn in McD's defense, because the responsibilities are so broad. Cover like a corner, tackle like a linebacker, blitz, disguise what you're doing presnap. As some have said, missing a lot of camp hurt him, because that's the best opportunity to try to get up that learning curve. I think he's a good candidate to make a significant leap in year two. He has the measureables, and next year in camp he will be able fine tune the things he's learning about the position late in this season.

It isn't loyalty, at least not in the usual sense. McDermott has a bias in favor of players who know and execute their assignments repeatedly, over players who may have better physical skills but who miss assignments. Milano executes, and I'm guessing that Williams doesn't. I like a lot of what I've seen of Williams, especially his closing speed and his tackling, but I'm guessing that he misses his assignments in the passing game too often to make McDermott play him over Milano. I would guess that Williams doesn't take the right drops, doesn't react quickly enough, etc. Milano, when he's healthy, is never out of position.

I agree completely with this. I think the reason is talent. The team concept is great so long as the talent differential doesn't get too large. So, when you're playing Hyde, Poyer, and White in their primes, you don't have the best player at his position (compared to the best players in the league), but you're very good. Benford in my mind already may be playing at a White level, but Rapp and Hamlin/Bishop are a couple notches below Poyer and Hyde. Other than Rousseau and maybe Oliver, the Bills aren't getting any high-level play out of their d-linemen. That's why I think next season will be special. I like Carter, and I think we'll see more of him. I think Bishop will make a step up, and the experience he's getting now will help a lot. Milano will return to form or be replaced. They'll probably get some help in the draft or free agency. When the Bills upgrade their talent next season, the team concept will make the defense special again.

For some people, when the Bills win, it's the players, and when they lose, it's the coaches. For some others, when the Bills win, well, they're supposed to, and when the Bills lose, it's because Beane didn't get the right players. I'd love to talk to McDermott about his philosophy. I think it's similar to but not as well developed as Belichick's. I think McDermott believes deeply that 11 athletes playing as a fully integrated team will beat 11 athletes, some of whom are more talented than his, who are less well integrated. I think we've seen it McDermott's defense for several years now. The Bills don't have a starter on defense, and haven't had a starter on defense for several years, who is the best player in the league at his position. Not Hyde, not Poyer, not White, not Rousseau, not Milano. But McDermott gets his players to integrate and as a team to blanket the field to prevent explosive plays and to make big stops at the goal line and on fourth and one or two. This season, he's got an offense like that. They don't have a dominant receiver, and they don't have a dominant running back. They have an excellent offensive line, but the talking heads talk about the Chiefs' interior linemen, not the Bills'. They rave about other offensive tackles, but not the Bills'. But the Bills have a fully integrated offense that adjusts over and over again to take advantage of gaps in the defense, wherever they are. What McDermott has done is pretty amazing. Next season, there will be a talent upgrade. The defense will improve, and the offense will, too. Pretty amazing, except McDermott cost the Bills the number one seed, so I guess he needs to go. 😄

Of course, McDermott gets no credit for the Bills win over the Chiefs.

Better than the Bengals? Is Denver's defense the reason?

Denver has the weakest QB and the weakest receivers. Easiest ride for the Bills' defense. All I really want is for Denver or Miami to keep the Bengals out.

I agree, but I give pretty much every rookie a first season pass. I think Bishop's playing better, but not what I expected. I was interested to see him in the second half today turning around and asking Rapp presnap what to do. I mean, it's a good thing he's asking, but at this point in the season I would have expected him to be beyond those questions. If he isn't starting next season, I'll be disappointed.

Von Miller continues to ramp up his game with another sack. And his face on the sideline was all business. Don't count him out.

It's old, but it never gets old.

I wasn't too upset about the game. I hated that they kept giving up third downs; it almost looked like the defense thought it was third and ten and gave up nine every time it was third and seven. I wasn't upset for several reasons. Divisional game. A lot of AFC east games a re like that - tough tests. I expected the Pats to be ready to play tough. The weather. Cold weather games are tough games, and they favor the run game. Bills don't have a real power run game. Bills didn't give up a lot of points. Second half, the Bills shut them down pretty well. Possibly a bit of a post-Lions let down. Bills never really opened up the offense. They looked like they wanted to run their basic plays, beat the Patriots just by being a better team, and get out of there. Bills were still trying out their backup defensive backs, and they were working on their linebacker issues, too. Now, of course, there are are all kinds of arguments about why maybe they should have come in with the pedal to the metal, why the defense is really flawed, etc., but I don't think we saw the team we'll see in a couple of weeks.

I'm not more down on Elam more than I was before. I thought he played pretty well. I like how he stays in touch with his man (no pun intended), and for the first time I saw him making solid plays with his body. However, it seemed pretty clear that he still has not learned to make proper plays on the ball as it arrives, and I suspect that by now he's a marked man for the officials. I thought the calls against him yesterday were the appropriate calls, because in each in each case he did interfere with the receiver's ability to catch the ball in ways that are not permitted by the rules. There may be hope for him, but I was discouraged.

Thanks for the story! Happy holidays to all!

I grew up in Buffalo. I've lived in the northeast for 50 years. Buffalo is definitely midwest. Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee are essentially all the same city, and none of them is like Boston or Hartford or New York City.

I tend to think you're correct.

I don't spend much time or energy on chasing free agents. One guy makes a difference only once in a while. Like Miller. However, the thought that Beane might find a way to get Calais Campbell for the playoffs got my juices flowing. I don't know if he has anything left (and I don't mean to start that conversation - there's a thread where all that's been discussed), but sticking the Calais Campbell of a year ago into the middle of the Bills defensive line would change the whole picture. Mixing and matching Campbell, Groot, Jones, Oliver, Miller could create some great mismatches.

I look at the team and generally agree with you about an impact player. The good teams generally scare you with some big=time defender. Hutchinson says he plans to be back for the Super Bowl. That's something every AFC opponent has to think about. I really do think the ultimate question for discussion is philosophy. Groot is a good example. The guy could be the best all-round defensive end in the game. He can do everything. He's coachable. I'm sure McDermott loves him because he's skilled, high motor, durable, and consistent. He's the ideal McDermott player. Look at Jerry Hughes. He was a big play guy until McDermott arrived, and then he transitioned to a player more like Groot. The big plays declined, but the mistakes, the plays where the edge was left unprotected, also declined. That's what McDermott wants. But Groot is a playmaker without being a big-play guy, and in big games the perception of many (including me) is that you need big plays. Now, maybe out perception is wrong. Maybe consistent play is more valuable than big plays even in big games. I don't know. But when Chris Jones disrupts Allen on a critical throw in the red zone, it's hard not to think that the Bills need a big-play guy. It's an interesting discussion, and I'd love talking to McDermott about it. I won't get that chance. In the meantime, I'm not holding my breath. McDermott and Beane seem to agree on philosophy, because Beane keeps getting guys who fit the McDermott ideal, not the Deek ideal.

This is an interesting point, and I think you're correct. I commented somewhere that the Bills went heavy early in the season on all sorts of screens and rubs and other gimmicks to get the ball in the hands of Shakir or Samuel or any of the others (Kincaid, Knox, Coleman all were targeted some). As the weeks went by, teams started locking down that stuff, playing tighter, fighting through blocks etc. Several weeks ago, the Bills went away from those plays and now throw them only occasionally. But teams still know that if they play soft on the outside on short yardage, the Bills will just throw it out there and take the necessary yards, so the opponents still have to get up tight to stop those quick passes to the outside. What we saw on Sunday in Detroit is that the Bills are now taking advantage of that tight coverage in short yardage situations by going over the top of the defense. It's really demoralizing to a defense to give up 15, 20, 25 yards on third and three, and that's what happened to Detroit. It's all about play design and execution. Brady has the right design, and we're now seeing Josh in more or less full control of what's happening out there. The result is an offense that has looked unstoppable for a few weeks.

I agree with this. Signing Miller wasn't a mistake; it was a decision that didn't work out. We have no way of knowing how much he would have contributed if he hadn't injured his knee. He looked good before it happened; he hasn't had his special magic since he came back. In Detroit, he did his job and played his position, but he never really won one-on-one. Still, there's time. Two or three timely sacks in the playoffs will make everyone happy the Bills have him.

Thanks. I doubt McD will change his approach, so it won't happen. I can't say I disagree with you. I wish they had a big play guy up front.