Shaw66

Born to be a Bill!

The quick emergence of Gabriel Davis drives this. McKenzie and Roberts and Duke or whoever might have made the roster don't add a lot, but Davis does. But I think the more important point is that running four-wide requires excellent decision making by the QB. When you go four wide, the best defense is to get to the QB and force him to get the ball out in a hurry, because it doesn't take too long before one or more of those wideouts will get open. The QB needs to be able to make good pre- and post-snap reads and make the right choice as to where to go with the ball. Allen was quite good at that Sunday. He seemed to have a real command of where to attack the defense. Also, there were several plays where Singletary was spliit wide and Allen motioned him back into the backfireld, presumably because Allen understood that the defense was forcing him to get an extra blocker in the protection scheme. Finally, the Bills have been clear - they want to play all styles. They did it against the Jets, as others have said, because they expected the run defense to be tough to crack, and it worked well to take that approach. Now it's on film, and the message to upcoming opponents is "you have to prepare for the four-wide." And it isn't just any four guys - it's Diggs and Brown and Beasley, each of whom is a serious threat in his own right, and it's this rookie who's a big target and who can run and catch. Or it's Singletary. That's a lot to contend with. Thanks for pointing out this stat. It's interesting.

No. I hold them to the same standard they hold themselves. Allen will tell you the same thing I said. Two bad fumbles and two missed touchdowns.

Everyone has a job to do. The nature of the beast is that if you do your job, that's what you're supposed to do. If you don't do it, it's worth talking about. I just so happens that in yesterday's game, the obvious mistakes that hurt the Bills were made by Allen and Edmunds, so I commented on those. In case you missed it, I also had praise for Allen.

I often quote some football or basketball coach who said something like "The only reason to play the first half is to get to the second half." You can't win the game in first half, but you can lose it. There are no fourth quarter comebacks in the first half. Nobody tracks "second quarter comebacks." Kelly's Bills might have been an exception, because they scored on their opening possession very often. Teams feared the Bills offense, and it was really discouraging to teams to be down 7-0 after three minutes. But in most cases, by the third quarter no one remembers how they felt emotionally in the first quarter. They're just fighting for their lives.

There are many reasons I've been high on Josh since his rookie year, and this ability to move in the pocket is one of them. He showed it as a rookie. He's always had it. What he hasn't had was enough experience to see and understand what's going on around him. As he's learned more of the nuances of quarterbacking, this ability to move in the pocket, and his timing in getting out of the pocket, have been enhanced. Yesterday he was superb at it. I've always compared him to Big Ben in that regard. Ben slides in the pocket very well. Both Ben and Josh are big enough that when a guy gets a hand on him, it isn't enough to bring him down, and both Ben and Josh move instinctively when they feel that hand.

Here's one comment about Allen:

I know the first half has 30 minutes and the second half has 30 minutes, but all coaches will tell you that the second half is more important than the first half. Therefore, the extra possession that you get by taking the second half kickoff is more important than having the extra possession in the first half.

I never listen to them. I assume they know their business, and they know what attracts and keeps listeners. You and I don't understand why that approach would attract listeners, because you and I can't stand it. But we apparently are not all listeners.

Good game to have it happen. Give the rookie a good taste, give him a week to get his head together, come back strong.

Guess I missed the ball being punched out. I don't consider fumbles caused by hard hits as forced. His job is to hold on to the ball when he gets hit. Interesting. Thanks.

“Off and Passing” Everything was pretty much as predicted on Sunday, except for the injuries. Some rookie jitters, some blown assignments, some big plays, an auspicious debut, the Bills played as their fans had hoped, and the Jets played as their fans had feared. 1-0. On to Miami. On a perfect day, this would have been a blowout – total blowout. The Jets had no chance against the Bills defense. Well, they had one chance - LeVeon Bell. Once he went down with a hamstring injury, they had no chance. The Bills won, 27-17, but it wasn’t that close. The Bills scored on three straight possessions in the first half, and the only reason it wasn’t five straight was Josh Allen being Josh Allen. Two costly, unforced fumbles by Allen kept the score from being 27-0 or more in the first half. In addition, Allen’s two bad over throws into the wind in the open-end end zone also cost the Bills points. The Bills should have had 40, because the Jets couldn’t stop them, but there will be no blowouts until Allen starts playing like a grown-up. One thing was apparent early, and throughout the game: Stephon Diggs is who Brandon Brandon thought he is. He seems to get open at will, and he makes catches consistently. Even better, Allen already seems to understand how Diggs runs his routes, because Allen found him early and often. And, as Bills fans had hoped, the presence of Diggs meant that Brown and Beasley could get open consistently, too. The trio had 18 receptions for over 200 yards. And just for icing on the receiving cake, rookie Gabriel Davis had two nice receptions, including a big third-down catch where he flashed his big-target credentials and his toughness. It all added up to the long-awaited first 300-yard passing day for Allen. Allen, for his part, did fine. Not outstanding – the two missed touchdown passes looked like JV-high-school play, but in general Allen was good in the pocket, escaped well, and found the right guy. He completed over 70% of his passes, and if he’d completed the two gimme touchdown passes his 107 passer rating would have been 123. The running game struggled. Singletary popped a couple of runs in the second half, but other than that neither he nor Moss saw much daylight. Moss often was on the field on third down, perhaps a sign of things to come. The two were in the backfield together occasionally. The guy the Bills don’t want to lead the team in rushing, Josh Allen, was the leading rusher again. If he were an actual running back, he would never see the field, because he puts the ball on the ground altogether too often. The defense was what Bills fans have come to expect: A lot of three-and-outs, few missed tackles, excellent coverage, consistent pass pressure. They gave up a long scoring drive at the end of the half, but they redeemed themselves with a big takeaway in the second half when the Jets were showing a little life. Oh, and we saw the same occasional weak tackling by Edmunds. His missed tackle on Jamison Crowder gave the Jets their only serious chunk play of the game, a 69-yard catch and run on third and seven. The touchdown added the insult to his shoulder injury. The bad news, of course, was that both Edmunds and Milano left the game with injuries. The character of the Bills defense will change dramatically if both are off the field for multiple weeks. Klein and Matakevich completely change the character of the defense, giving up multiple steps each to the two starters. Oh, and Tyler Bass. The rookie certainly was shaky, going two for four on field goals in the Bills Stadium wind. Actually, maybe three for four, but no matter – his kicks were anything but down the middle. Bottom line, the Bills were fortunate to open the season with something that felt like a preseason game. They might have a second next week in Miami; the Dolphins couldn’t do much of anything against the Patriots, and not because the Patriots dominated. 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 everyday 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.

Outstanding. Period.

I hope they don't release him. I think he still can play, and as someone said, he could be the cherry on top.

It's good for people to remember what you say. This stuff isn't revolutionary.

Do you need billionaire reality TV stars making political statements? If you have power, you can get on TV and make your point. It's a free-market system. It's always been that way. And you've always been okay with it. You weren't complaining about the hour of advertising we're bombard with during every game. All that's happened is that the players have discovered they have power and they've begun exercising it. It's the same system operating in the same way. You just don't like this week's message.

I think the Bills come up a little short pretty much all the way around in that comparison. Maybe the wideouts are a push, but even there, I think there's some quickness and speed in KC that Buffalo doesn't quite match. Tight end isn't a discussion. Bills running backs have shown promise, but they don't have the game-breaking speed and quickness that Edwards-Helaire showed last night. Allen may prove to be the better QB over 15 years, but if you're picking a QB for 2020, it's Mahomes. Offensive lines, I don't know, but KC looked awfully good. Offensive coaching - Reid. Their overall team quickness and creativity if way ahead of where the Bills are right now. KC was really well prepared, and they have weapons.

my thought, exactly. They were mediocre.

I agree. Texans looked slow and not ready to go,

For those interested, I just tried to connect through ExpressVPN to the NFLGamePass account I created. Seemed to work fine. I had the Chiefs game, maybe an 8 or 10 second delay from whats on NBC. It looked fine, should be better when I feed it to my TV. So it cost maybe $250 of the season, but as LOGIC said, it seems quite reliable.

Great!!!! So funny and so true. Hilarious!

The problem is that any of those devices will be blocked if you access through a US server. That's why you need a VPN.

Well, I'm happy for you, but surprised it took the virus for you to turn it off. Sports radio has been horrible for years, maybe decades. You know what I don't like about it? They don't talk about the games. I love sports for one reason - the games. The Chiefs and Texans could play a 44-40 thriller tonight, lead changes, two scores in the last minute, all of that, and unless there was a super-controversial call that decided the game, tomorrow sports radio will be talking about Jerry Jones or some player accused of beating up his girlfriend. You get to November, and sports radio is talking about how the GM for this team or that is planning for next year's draft. I just care about the games.

Well, I'll tell you for sure Sunday night, because I haven't done it before, but I think you're incorrect. There are two levels of Gamepass - one that lets you watch only replays of games, and the more expensive plan that lets you watch games live in real time. The expensive plan isn't available in the U.S., as I understand it, because DirectTv has an exclusive deal - they are the only ones who can show all the games live on Sunday in the US. But that exclusivity doesn't apply in Europe, for example. If you're in Europe, you can pay the NFL about $200 and you get all the games in real time. That's why you need a VPN that offers you a server located outside the country - the NFL recognizes the server as not being subject to DirectTv's exclusivity. I go to all the home games, and about four or five others are on my local TV. So I had four games a year where I had to go to sports bar. But this year, no home games for me, so I've got 12 or 13 games that aren't on locally, and I'm not going to sports bars. I'm only 100 miles from NYC, but I don't even get the Jets game this weekend, because I live in Connecticut and the Patriots will be on. I actually was planning on driving someplace in New York State - it's two hours to Albany - every weekend and taking a motel room to watch the games. This VPN route is a LOT cheaper and a LOT more convenient.

I'm so glad someone posted about ExpressVPN. I signed up yesterday, picked a German server and bought NFLGAMEPASS for about $200. Now I will get all the games.