Shaw66

Nice job, Logic. Nice focus on what Norman meant to the game. I hadn't noticed that he was first on the scene for both Oliver's stop and Jefferson strip-sack. That's cool. Interesting to think that what the defense may have needed was an emotional lift. We'll see if it carries over into Sunday (or a week from Sunday, if the Titans game goes up in smoke). I agree with you. It's often difficult for the first guy on the scene to make a clean tackle; he's scrambling to do whatever he can. I saw it the same way; Poyer held Waller up long enough for the reinforcements to arrive. He didn't miss the tackle, and he did his job. As did Norman. And then some.

There's a lot of good stuff in this article. Well, good because it confirms things I thought. It says what we're seeing is improvement in Allen's understanding of the game. Mechanically they worked on little things, but they really worked on his understanding of the playbook, how he "processes the plays." Allen says he and Daboll are very much on the same page. Said Daboll will watch the Monday night game, come in Tuesday saying "did you see what they were doing? we could do something like that." Interesting stuff.

My sentiments, exactly. Absolutely no reason to start reading his stuff. You reap what you sow. That's not what I remember. I remember him trashing, absolutely trashing, Terrell Owens for being a cancer in Buffalo when he had been a model citizen. I remember him in press conferences trying to lead coaches into saying things that contradicted what others had said. I remember him ripping Anthony Lynn in his very first press conference, hours or days after getting the job. I remember him being contrary just for the sake of being contrary, to the point where nothing he said had any credibility. I remember him believing that he was more important than the story. I don't need to go back to that.

36 games into his career, he already has a five minute highlight reel. This is one of a dozen or more plays that has people saying that he does things on a football field that no other quarterback does. Right. On the replay, I was thinking he almost waited too long, because he couldn't throw it any farther. For Allen, that's throwing darts.

I haven't read the thread, so I didn't see it. It was a great moment.

Thanks. 9th in yards and 12th in points, just as you say.

I've said it, in different words, that the Bills have consistency and class at the four most important spots - HC, GM, QB and OWNERSHIP. The Pegulas know when they have a good thing going, and they're willing to spend money on it. The last piece I'm waiting for is Beane's extension. I hope he's happy and committed to the long term, and I hope the Pegulas write the check that he deserves. Extending Allen is a no-brainer. Once Beane is locked in, the franchise is rolling.

Well, I remember at the time thinking the Cowboys seemed to be playing a pretty vanilla defense, and not particularly well, either. Look at the defense this season, and it makes me think even more that the Cowboys just weren't very good.

Bills still might be a year away. We'll see where we stand in a couple of weeks. And even the Bills can go toe to toe with them, it's one thing to do it in the regular season, it's another to do it in the playoffs.

How'd you do that? Yup, there it is, 18 seconds into the video and broken down. I watched that play and said "he's a keeper." I mean, who do you know who throws that pass? Rodgers. Not sure Brees or Brady has the arm strength. Mahomes. Some guys can see it, but very few can see it AND throw it.

Oh, he definitely needs to get better. He isn't there yet. But you're right about last season. I thought it was pretty obvious, based on his progress over his rookie year, that Allen was a keeper. As you say, there were just too many plays that were hard to ignore. Different skill set, but I think the same thing was true about Mike Vick. Came in as a rookie, and I thought "this guy shouldn't succeed in the NFL." Then I watched him, and after a year of unbelievable plays, I had to conclude that the guy play. Had a lot to learn, but he obviously brought skills to the game that made him a weapon.

Honestly, it was his first preseason game as a rookie. He made a throw that I still remember, maybe 30 yards downfield, up the right sideline, maybe inside the 5. I don't remember, but I think he'd scrambled out to the left. He turned and fired the ball beyond the corner back who was trailing the receiver by half a step but had inside position, and the ball arrived just before the safety closed from midfield. There was a window between the two defenders, the window was closing, and as the ball went through the window, each defender was within 3-4 feet of the ball. Receiver slid to a knee and caught it. One of the best thrown balls I've ever seen. I thought right then, "Oh, we've got something here."

Nope

I'm happy for you. Seriously. I'm enjoying the games. You're enjoying the full experience. I'll get there.

Oh, yeah, I'm doing all of that. It's incredible watching. And I really miss being in the stadium. It's dealing with the rest of the world that has me at sea. I don't know how to accept congratulations from people. I don't know how to react when I hear Jim Nantz say "the Bills are for real." I just have lived in that other reality for so long, that reality where, you know, I'm excited because the Bills at least have a good punter, that I haven't figured out how to live in what's becoming the new reality. Maybe I'm afraid I'll wake up and discover this is all a dream. Maybe I died on Labor Day and I went to heaven. I don't know.

Yeah, I understood that. I was just commenting that I seem at least to have gotten past the expectation that the Bills will find a way to screw this up.

Allen's throw to Brown on the goal line? My reaction was "nice catch." I wasn't surprised he caught it, and it didn't even occur to me at first what an incredibly good throw it was. That was a completely different experience for me, to see a great play, to love it and be excited by it, but to not find it unusual or special. It was "okay, good. Now get the touchdown." It's all strange to me.

It's one thing to be emotionally ready to play. It's another to be tough enough, patient enough, in control enough to win a game like that. One measure of the kind of toughness I'm talking about is that the Patriots made some major mistakes - simply giving away 3 points twice, and then a couple of disastrous turnovers, including a pick 6, but they were still fighting and were still threatening to be in the game in the middle of the fourth quarter. That's true team toughness. As someone said, that's late-December football. It's nearly playoff football. Until you've shown you can do that, you aren't a truly serious contender. The Bills sort of did it against the Rams, but if they were all the way there they wouldn't have blown the lead. They sort of did against the Raiders, with the second-half takeaways. But Chiefs-Pats was different. That was two coaching staffs and two teams totally going at each other until someone took control of the game. It was impressive. The Bills need to stand up to the Chiefs like that. And they need to stand up to the Pats like that.

I wasn't thinking "something Billsy would happen." That much I'm beyond. Like other people have said, I now expect that Josh will do something. Third and 22? We've got a shot. So I'm personally confident. But when I hear someone else say the Bills are good, all I can say is "yeah, well, we'll see." I need to see them beat KC, or the Packers. And I need to see them beat the Pats.

Perfect. Right. If you're a Yankees fan, you live with great expectations (despite the fact that Yankees haven't won anything for a while), so positive press seems normal. It's what you're entitled to.

I have to say I find myself not knowing how to deal with success. I can't remember what it was like 30 years ago when the Bills last were a good team. I don't remember how I felt or I behaved. I've spent 30 years wanting the Bills to be good again, and the early indications are that it is happening. They could collapse, of course, but I believe McDermott knows what he's doing, and he's building a serious winner. But as the national media begin to notice the Bills, I don't know if I want or like the attention. On one of the games last night, one of the announcers said something like "Don't leave Buffalo out of the conversation. Buffalo is for real." Something. I heard it and realized it was the first time I'd heard a genuinely positive comment about the Bills, a full-fledged statement that the Bills are among the best, since the early 90s. It sounded so unusual, and I realized that I didn't know how to react to it. A few years ago, I was thrilled just to hear an announcer say the Bills could be trouble for some teams. But this was different. This was a statement to the effect that the Bills could beat anybody. I didn't know how to take it. Then I pick up my local paper, which covers the Jets, Giants and Pats, and there's an AP article about how there's an offensive explosion going on in the NFL, and the accompanying photo is an action shot of Josh Allen. In the article, Jon Gruden says this: "You watch Buffalo's offense, they can do a lot. The quarterback can complete passes left-handed. The guy's a beast standing back there. They got a pretty good attack." I find myself hoping friends won't ask me about the Bills, because I don't know what to say. One thing I do say is, "I told you this was happening." But then I quickly add, "they aren't good enough yet." It's like I don't know how to deal with the success. It was much easier when no one had any expectations for the Bills; losses weren't disappointing then. But now if they lose, people will want to know what happened, or people will say, "see, same old Bills." It all feels so strange. This is going to take some getting used to.

That's interesting analysis. I think it explains the philosophy. The question is this: when you play the Pats in a few weeks, how are you going to stop their running game? The front four has to win, or at least neutralize, the offensive line, in a sense to protect Edmunds. I don't disagree with others who say he needs to be stouter against the run, I just think he's worth investing another year or two in him to get him there. He's a physical star who can change the opponent's game plan every week.

Patriots-Chiefs showed the Bills how far they have to raise their game. Those teams slugged it out for 55 minutes,. The Patriots did it with two QBs who weren't up to the moment, but they kept on slugging. That was higher level intensity than the Bills saw in Las Vegas or against the Rams. That was two teams executing really well, grinding each other to a halt until KC finally exploded. I hope the Bills were watching. That's the next level. They have to bring against KC like that and against the Pats like that. That's the next test.

Yeah, I read the stories. I just don't buy that he's made some kind of historic leap. When a guy works with coaches, like that, he's working on little things. He isn't remaking his game. Little things account for maybe a completion a game, maybe two. If off-season coaching and work could improve Allen's passer rating from 85 to 120, then every quarterback would do that training. Allen has been working with Daboll and his offense for three years. They began asking him to do things he'd never done before. Little by little, he progressed. He's now seeing the field. He now knows where his receivers will be. He now knows what to do with certain blitzes. As I've said several times, he isn't making any throws he didn't make two years ago. He's just making them more consistently. He threw plenty of balls with touch last season. He's making them behind the best offensive line pass protection he's had since he got to Buffalo. He has Diggs and Davis this year, plus two experienced tight ends instead of one rookie. I think he's just making normal progress from season to season, and the team is getting better around him.

Funny. It didn't occur to me. Rooting against the Patriots is such a habit, I never thought about broader playoff implications. I've always thought of the Bills taking the next step - the next step being getting to the playoffs AND winning a playoff game. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm thinking about home field in the playoffs. For me, it's first things first. The Pats are too close. Let them lose. We'll deal with KC down the road.