Shaw66

These are good points. Vick had both size and his arm over Jackson. Vick was extraordinarily gifted.

Cool. Another one. It's satisfying getting some national attention. Now the Bills have to win some games.

My personal opinion is that it's impossible for fans to make any meaningful judgment about the quality of the play calling, except for an occasional play here or there. What was it that you thought was abysmal about the playcalling? And if it was abysmal, how did the Bills score 24?

I dropped it too, several years ago. Articles were getting shorter, and they tried to copy the ESPN sound-bite style. Now it's a monthly, so it costs less, and they still have some great writing. I'm going to resubscribe.

I think Davis is a better version of Duke. A little better speed, equally reliable hands, etc. I was really hopeful about Duke last year, but if he were a difference maker in some way, I think he would have found himself some playing time by now.

Well, I don't know. It's a complicated question, but KC is facing the same defenses, and it's having more success passing. In part it's that they're running well, in part it's Kelce, but it's also their ability to take the top of the defense. They force defenses to play deeper, I think, because they have the deep threats. That, in turn, allows them to complete those little chunk plays - 20-25 yards. I think Brown healthy on the field, with the threat that Diggs is, pressures defense sin a way that isn't happening now.

I think part of Beasley's success is what we all expect when the Bills got Diggs. Beasley isn't a better player this year than he was last year. But he's more productive. Why? Because he gets lots of man coverage out of the slot with Diggs outside, and because the zones over play to keep track of Diggs. I agree he's become more valuable - Diggs made him more valuable. I really want Brown to get back, because I think Diggs will make him better, too.

Depends what order it happens in. If you have Lamar, great receivers aren't going there. If you have Woods and Sammy and Goodwin and Hogan, Tyrod is happy to go there. And then all the receivers leave, which is exactly what happened. Good receivers don't want to be wasted on a team that runs and throws to the tight ends.

Yeah, but it's a chicken or the egg thing. It's James Harden. If he's going to lead your team, the ball has to be in his hands. Why does a top power forward want to play on that team? Lebron, sure, but he's a passer. When you build a team that is going to run 60% of the time, and when you don't run, you run play action and throw the ball 5-10 yards downfield, you aren't going to get Amari Cooper to sign up. The fact of the matter is that when you make your QB the focus of your game, you focus the defense in the space close to the QB. That puts a lot of defenders in a relatively small area. When you come at people with Sammy Watkins and Hill (or John Brown and Diggs), you tend to force the defense to cover a bigger area. But Diggs doesn't want to play in an offense that intends to have Lamar dominate with his legs. So until Jackson is a serious passer, a pocket passer who can attack the whole field with his arm, his offense is limited and he's not going to get great receiving talent around him.

Yeah, I saw that, too. 15 mph! Cue Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator. Right. I was always amazed last year when people refused to believe that that calmness was coming. And I don't think he's done. He's going to be a really good field leader in a couple of years. And because he's a natural leader, his team follows him. So he'll be really good on two-minute drills, because his team will want to follow him and they'll know that Josh actually knows what's going on. He's going to be special.

Thanks. Those are good points. But don't you think that the look on Josh's face is different? His behavior? I kept watching him at the line of scrimmage. Standing a step behind the center, looking over the defense. When he changed plays, he knew what he wanted, and he communicated calmly with his teammates. You could see him glance up the play clock to be sure he was still good. He looks like a guy who has a job to do and who knows how to do it. Same thing in the pocket post-snap. What I really like is his judgment about staying in or bailing out. Several times on Sunday I was thinking "get out," and he'd stay. He'd slip a tackle, side step, whatever, make the throw, and sometimes take a hit. What he was doing was waiting for something he knew would happen, for a receiver to clear a zone, make a cut, whatever, and he was also determining whether he had time to wait. He knows how to do that now, how to make those judgments. He gives me a general sense of being under control.

Thanks for the data and the comments. I didn't know how often they had 6-7 DBs on the field - this tells us. More importantly, I think, is your comments about what happened when Belichick did that. What happened is that Allen looked at it and said "I got this." He really looked calm all the way through. I go back to the Davis the drop - Josh was completely plugged in on that play. People have commented in the past about the look on Josh's face in the fourth quarter of the playoff game. It's a look we had seen before, a look that said "Whoa, all of a sudden this isn't fun and games. This is serious, and I'm not sure I'm ready." Well, so far this season, that look is gone. This season, he's ready.

Not laugh-out-loud funny, but funny in the sense that McBeane knew exactly what they were doing, and so much of the rest of the world, including people in the Giants' and Browns' front offices, and the media, didn't. I mean, if you put together a 2019-2020 Josh Allen highlight film, or better, all-22, would anyone in his right mind take Mayfield over Allen or Barkley over Allen? The simple fact is Beane knows what he's doing. Isn't always right, but understanding who Allen was puts him way ahead of the average GM. It was no less brilliant than Andy Reid trading up for Mahomes. Reid knew what he had.

"At Buffalo's facility in Orchard Park, the GM headed downsairs to the media room, all fired up. 'The looks on some of their faces, I'll never forget it," says Beane. 'It was like I had just screwed everything up.' 'Listen,' he promised, ' you're going to love him.'"

He showed that strength again Sunday. I don't remember exactly what happened, but Allen had taken a short drop and drifted to his left a bit. Some defensive lineman broke through and Allen just held him off with his arm until Allen could move away from him. He's just an over-sized athlete. Plays with the agility and finesse of a guy four inches shorter and 40 pound lighter. He's a linebacker playing like a quarterback. One thing the article said is that Allen studies Rodgers. He calls Rodgers the most physically gifted QB he's ever seen.

I'm surprised at this at all. We haven't seen it here much this year, but if you think back, think about all the times people argued that QBs don't improve their accuracy. All the times that people argued that QBs make their biggest jump from year one to year two, and if you aren't doing it by year two, you're done. Now all we're getting is people arguing that if the guy isn't winning Super Bowls in his first three years, he isn't worth a mega-deal. The simple truth is, and always was, that it takes QBs multiple years, - three, four, five years, sometimes more, to master what's going on on the field and to manage the game, especially the passing game properly. These stats show that Allen is on that path. Allen's potential was obvious in year one. His improvement was obvious in year two. His competence is what we're seeing now. His greatness is still ahead of him.

Oh, yeah, he wasn't sacked. He threw it away. Yes, the face-mask play.

It's monthly. I stopped getting it years ago, but they still do some serious writing.

Yeah, isn't that great?! As I said, I also loved the description of the face-mask sack. It sounds like a description of a comic book superhero storming though super-villains.

Thanks. A friend of mine scanned the pages and emailed it, so I don't know what issue it is.

I didn't see anything posted here about the article about Josh Allen in Sports Illustrated. It doesn't seem to be available at their website; I think you have to have the print version to see it. I think it was in last week's SI, or possibly the week before. It's a full-fledged SI feature about him, starting with a great description of the face-mask sack he took against the Rams before winning the game. It's a really positive article, describing how awesome he is physically and how much progress he's made working with Palmer each off-season. Also a funny comment from Beane about preparing to face the press after they drafted Allen. If you can get your hands on it, it's worth the read. Serious, positive national attention.

Gotta say I don't use "haters" much. When I used it here, I certainly wasn't intending to include anyone who criticizes Tremaine. It was more of an "if the shoe fits, wear it" kind of comment.

YEeh, it looked like Zimmer was embarrassed to be singled out, but then he knew it was his job to accept the love from his teammates. Quite nice.

The Bills' objective is not to race to the top with a good QB and then implode. The objective is to be good for a long time. The objective is to have a Brady, a Manning, a Brees, a Rodgers, and then to build around him. The objective is to be a threat to win every year, not just to have a good QB and throw a bunch of talent together really fast to win, then let the good QB go because you don't want to pay him. The model you describe is nice, but McBeane have been very clear that they are not building that way. They are expecting their team to get better, year after year, and then to be on top for many years.

I'll tell you a story you can add to your arsenal: My son went to Tufts, outside of Boston. He had a friend who wrote sports for the Tufts Daily newspaper. The kid went to a Tufts-Wesleyan game, at Tufts. Saturday afternoon. The kid see Belichick sitting alone in the stands - it must have been the Pats bye week. (Belichick went to Wesleyan.) So the kid sits next to Belichick, introduces himself as a reporter for the Daily. Silence. Asks Bill a question. Silence. Another question. Silence. Belichick didn't have the decency to give the kid the time of day. It was classic Belichick. Not very likable. On the other hand, here's some evidence of what a geek he is. Belichick wasn't a very good football player. I don't think he ever started a game at Wesleyan, which is mediocre D-III football. He also played lacrosse. He may not have been very good, but he fell in love with games and strategy and teaching. So a few years ago, when his daughter became the women's lacrosse coach at Wesleyan, he would show up when he had a free afternoon and be sort of an assistant coach to his daughter. This is a guy who lives football 24-7, and when he has a day off, he finds a place to go coach. He's just different from most of us.