Shaw66

The more I read about the Dolphins, the more worried I get. It seems like the Dolphins pass defense schemes were very predictable, executed poorly, and played to Allen's strengths. Add to that, the Dolphins pass rush was anemic. That's what added up to Allen's great day. We'll see what happens when they play tougher opponents, starting this week.

Well, it's easy to see what he was talking about on the throw to Knox. First, it may be that Allen's instructions were to throw it to Knox, period, after the guys going deep cleared the space. But if Allen had an option to go where he wanted, he could see that Knox was clear and would be the checkdown for the next two seconds, so Allen had time to look for the deep man on the incut. He could have looked and thrown, or he could have decided to come back to Knox. The point is that Allen had the time to make a choice other than the checkdown. I think it's likely that in two years he'll take that time and be able to decide to go deep. This guy's point is, I think, that Allen still hasn't settled all the way down and still isn't seeing everything. It's similar to the point he made when Allen missed Diggs on the shallow crosser to the left. When Allen checked his #3 guy on the right side, he turned his feet to get ready to throw to that side. Then he came back to the left and threw, but he didn't reset his feet, so he was throwing across his body. He has just kind of antsy. He knew he had time, but he wasn't quite patient enough to reset. As I said, that's the kind of stuff that comes with experience. And, as you say, all the QBs make those mistakes as they're learning, even sometimes when they've been doing it for ten years. I've seen Mahomes do similar stuff - the announcers make him out to be a god, but his inexperience shows up every game, too.

It's more for me than for Allen. It was interesting to me to see the openings that Allen missed and to see the keys that should have shown Allen that he had another play. The point he doesn't make, the point we all get, is that these are instantaneous decisions the QB has to make, and it takes years of playing to understand the keys so intuitively that you just know to go to another guy. Like that thing about the middle linebacker turning to run with the checkdown back. You've got see it, out of the corner of your eye and know that that hip and shoulder turn is leaving a whole in the middle that your receiver can see and sit in. It isn't something you pick up instantly; it's experience and some bad decisions and a variety of things. Allen's still learning. What I've said for a couple of years now is that it will Allen's fourth and fifth years when he starts to show master quarterback skills.

I agree. He's a little redundant and talks with a lot of jargon, but he was excellent at pointing out Allen's flaws. It was really interesting. They are, undoubtedly, the kinds of things the coaches are talking to Allen about. He's seeing the field better, but he needs to be better still. How he shows Allen checking down to the back on the right when he should have recognized the mike turning and running to cover the check. That left the throwing lane open for the crosser down field. You can see as he explains how Allen should have seen it and gone over the middle. Nice analysis. And the guy's not being critical, he's just saying there's more that Allen has left on the field. At one point he marvels at the fact that Allen had a 400-yard day and was missing some of these opportunities. He didn't say it, but the message was that it could have been a 500-yard day. And he points out how bad the DB play was.

I didn't think so. First, they didn't throw at him much, so he had a good game just because of that. The guy is just so good they go away from him, which helps the defense a lot. The deep completion up the right sideline, he had good coverage and just missed making the play on the ball. He was just a tad late, and that happens. He missed what would have been a great tackle of a short third-down pass, again, just a tad late. He played it well. And the missed interception was also a close, tough play. If that was his worst game as a Bill, I hope he does it for the next ten seasons.

Sorry he's gone. In my mind, he was by some measures the greatest. The guy put together runs that were absolute things of beauty. Everyone else was running, he was gliding. RIP Exactly.

I agree with much of this. I don't agree that he's throwing it differently. Well, he is, as I said elsewhere just sort of flipping the ball - even the deep ball to Brown, he didn't really wind up and heave it. And I agree, he put air under it, which is a change. But the deep ball up the right side to Diggs, the one Diggs dove for, was on a line, just like he threw deep last season. No air. And he's thrown those 20 to 20 yard crossing routes the same way for three years now. I'm sure there are little things about his mechanics that have changed, but the real changes are simple. He has better receivers and better protection, so he has time to find the guy who's wide open and to deliver the ball in rhythm. He could do that last season, he just didn't have nearly as many opportunities as he has this season. And the other change is that he knows the offense and is seeing the field better. He's getting into the right play, he knows what he's doing, and he's letting his natural ability make the plays. I really don't think the guy went through some enormous remake in the off-season. He's just progressing. My comment about the Outsiders, and plenty of other people, too, was that they weren't looking at the guy last season. They weren't seeing what he was doing. Statistically, Trubisky and Allen were about the same guy. But anyone with a brain watching the two guys could see that Allen was the better quarterback, by far, even last season but especially as far as the future was concerned. People just kept letting their preconceptions of Allen control their thinking. All you had to do was look at him. To me, it was obvious.

I like Football Outsiders, but when you read what they wrote, it's easy to see that they are driven too much by their own numbers and not enough by just looking and evaluating. Their numbers under-valued Allen last year, and now they're overvaluing. They seem to think that through two games Allen is a surprise, because their numbers jumped so much. But I continue to feel that we've seen from Allen the last two weeks is not a surprise. He isn't doing things fundamentally differently. What's happened is that he's had another off-season to study and learn, he has a seasoned offensive line, and he has an improved receiving corps. The combined result is that the numbers have gone up, but it was pretty predictable. People were just two negative about Allen last year, when it was apparent that he was on his way to becoming a solid starter and probably more.

It's late in the life of this thread, but there's one thing I wanted to add: Allen always had the ability to do this, but Sunday he was regularly taking something off his throws. The balls seem to just float into the receivers' hands. Some he zips, like the TD passes to Gilliam and Davis, but a lot of them have a lot of touch on them. And related to that is effortlessly he throws the softballs. He just flicks them. Even the TD to Brown seemed like he could have thrown it 20 yards farther if he'd put any oomph into it.

I'd rather stick a cotton swab up my nose.

Thanks. It used to be easier to write. It was easy to be funny, because so many stupid things happened. And there was a lot to criticize. Now its fun but not funny, and there is no much to criticize.

Right. Complementary football. Bills have yet to show that they can run the ball effectively. If they can get the run game going, they'll be tough to beat. It may just be that through two weeks, the opponents' defensive game plan was stop the run and force them to beat us through the air. After Sunday, I don't think any teams will think that "force them to beat us through the air" is a winning strategy. No one's going to be challenging the Bills to pass.

I think you're correct, particularly the ACLs. There is very little training that anyone can do to help avoid ACLs, and what can be done is primarily strength conditioning, which can be done anywhere, anytime. Torn ACLs are about applying just the right amount of stress at just the right angle. It's a combination of events that you can't train for or prepare for. A lot of torn ACLs are non-contact injuries. This weekend was just a bad weekend. The hamstrings, shoulders, other stuff may be more directly related to this year's training regimens.

I can't remember a weekend when four names that big went down for the season. Each one of those guys is a big-time contributor to his team. We all love watching this game, and I'm regularly reminded that what we're watching is a stylized version of war. Boxing and MMA are more directly violent, one on one, but football is like watching two armies in battle. Part of what makes it similar to watching a battle is that the combatants actually are at risk. Weekends like this make that risk all the more apparent.

Yes. I think the point is that every year, the season is fluid, and the league never looks the same in November as it did in September. So, as you say, where Buffalo stands in the grand scheme of things remains to be seen. If the playoffs were held today, the Bills would be in. Unfortunately, that ain't the way it works.

Good points. I think we don't really know what we have yet, for several reasons: haven't played any elite teams yet, haven't really emerged from preseason mode, don't know what the injury story is yet, etc., etc. I didn't write about the power outage and lightning delay, because I didn't know exactly what to say about them, but it's a good bet they both contributed to the uneven defensive performance. Of course, the question is why those things had an effect on the defense while they didn't seem to affect the offense (other than the third quarter). The whole point is that it's early in the season. I'm excited about what I've seen, but just like every season, we won't know what we have until at least November. It's a shakedown cruise for the whole league until then. What I do know is that the Bills have a lot of opponents on their schedule who look very good. The Patriots plus the entire AFC West and NFC West. That's ten tough games. However, I keep reminding myself that those nine coaches are looking at scores and highlights and realizing that the Bills are one of the tough games on THEIR schedule, too.

NIce job, VIrg. Good stuff here. I particularly liked you comment about the replays reviews. I thought the Davis TD was fine - replay showed clear possession, and if the ball touched the ground, it certainly had nothing to do with the catch. Diggs' catch was, as you say, the kind of play that the review team has overthought in the past. You can look at that replay all day trying to figure out if Diggs got possession before the first foot left the ground, I suppose eventually one might conclude that it did and the pass should have been incomplete. But it was so close that the review team needs to stick with the call on the field and go back to the game, which is what they did. Similarly, the deep ball against Tre White on the right sideline just short of the goal line. I didn't hear a discussion of it during the broadcast, but the way that play was being called a couple years ago, that was an incomplete pass. He got two feet in grounds, but the rule apparently says, and the NFL was interpreting strictly, that the receiver had to maintain possession through his collision with the ground. On that play, the receiver had to go down to make the catch - he dragged his second foot, so he couldn't stay on his feet and run out of bounds, and when he hit the ground the ball came out. Incomplete. But as far as I'm concerned, that interpretation has always been wrong. The guy caught the ball, no question, got two feet down, and that should be the end of it. Completion. Even though it was bad for the Bills, that's the way that play should be called. Did I miss the NFL announcement that they've changed the way they're calling it? In any case, I like how the review process seems to be working so far this year.

I've said for a couple of years, it's too early to tell about anyone. Andy Reid retires, Mahomes loses Kelce and Hill, who knows? The interesting questions, however, are these: What would Chiefs-Chargers looked like with Allen at QB for Chiefs? What would Bills-Dolphins have looked like with Mahomes at QB for Bills?

Did you notice the Dolphins defender giving him a little pat or shove as Davis was getting up. It looked like a grudging "nice catch" gesture. It was a great catch, no doubt. Everything about it was text book. And the play by Allen was just as good. I love that he changed hands with the ball - great awareness. Then to see that opening - it was a risky pass, but he knew he could put it in the right place. And (I'm speculating here) he threw because he knew he had a guy with those hands on the receiving end. Beautiful all around.

Did Allen throw any ball away today? I missed a lot of the first half with the power outage, but while I was watching I don't think I saw a throw away.

Interesting. They'll need those bigger rosters and practice squads. I think the shortened training camps have contributed to the injuries, but they could go back to more normal training camps after COVID.

Yeah, that's a different take on what I said. It's tough to win in the league. But what you say is correct, too. Division games always seem to be tough. Still, it would be nice to coast through a win once in a while. McDermott's D gets very passive, and it gives up scores quickly at the end of the game. And end of the half. They have trouble keeping the opponent off the board on their last possession of the half.

One of the most amazing performances I've ever seen!

They don't say that about Kyler Murray. They have him in the HOF already. But I agree - good as Allen was, greatness is defined by sustained excellence. Allen has what it takes - now he has to show it consistently.