Shaw66

Thanks for focusing on that drive. It was one of many sweet things about the game.

I was just rereading your first paragraph, and the point about riding bike is excellent. You have a different kind of confidence once you're up on a bike. It's the difference between true confidence, self-assurance, and just swagger. Swagger is a pose, a behavior that someone adopts to tell the world he's good (whether he's good or not). Someone with confidence might have swagger, too, but someone with confidence no longer has internal doubts about what he can do. And you can be sure that McDermott isn't missing the teaching moment. He knows this was an important step, a hurdle that they had to get over. Now he's teaching them how to land and keep running to the next hurdle.

You think there are 35 million closet Bills fans?

I agree. I want them to celebrate with their teammates.

Part Favre, part Rodgers. If he gets to free agency, will the Bills be bidding against the Packers?

He threw just like that last season. He didn't just learn how to do it. He just didn't throw those passes very often. What the coaches did was get him to focus on getting the high percentage shorter throw.

Foster, thanks. And yes, the throw from the end zone, too. But they all were good. I mean, the guy looked like one of the greats, like Brees or Brady throwing 10 straight completions, including third down completion after third down completion. He's putting it all together, and he's not done, not by a long shot.

One of the very best football games I've ever seen, in terms of entertainment, was the Monday night loss to the Cowboys. Incredible game. And it was going to be a signature win. Finally, when the signature win happens, it's the Cowboys again, on national tv again.

Yes, and I'm not conceding either game, either. The Ravens will have to earn it. And the Patriots are struggling, despite their record.

Yeah, he was wide open, but as Nantz called it on tv, it probably wouldn't have mattered because the Bills were closing in. Plus, Romo noted that the Cowboys expected man to man, maybe the Bills showed it, but when the play started it was zone, which was why they looked like they had Elliott contained on the sideline.

Thanks. Oliver. Brain fart.

Did I say something about hill? Where, I'll fix it. All true. It really was a weak call on Phillips. There is no doubt that the teams with the reputation get the calls. Compare the Phillips call to the hit on Allen when he slid. Ridiculous.

That's a nice description of the season. I agree with it. But you completely miss the point. Every team is trying to figure out who they are and how to win in September and October. That's the reality. For twenty years we've watched the BIlls look the same at the end of November as they looked on October 1. They never grew, they never developed, and as a result they were reliably crappy in December. This is different. This team has grown just as you say - that's what good teams do. They grow. They figure out how to play together. They find ways they can rely on to win games. That is exactly what we saw yesterday. This is a good team. Great? I doubt it. But good, most definitely. Belichick could see it and said it in September. He certainly can see it now. Maybe the Ravens will roll over the Bills next week, but if they do, it will be because they prepared well and played well. Everyone knows now that the Bills won't stop playing.

Wow. I remember seeing that here last spring. Mel saw the guy we saw. A lot of people are seeing it now.

Yeah, my wife read her lips live. It was really funny. I think Dak must have seen the play wasn't going to work and had second thoughts about throwing it.

I agree completely with this. First, this was a BIG game for both teams. It should have had a playoff atmosphere to it, and Nantz and Romo were completely matter of fact. They did nothing to make the broadcast dramatic. If it had been the Patriots getting a field goal and touchdown to open the third quarter, they would have been raving about Brady and the Pats, and they would have making a big deal about how the Cowboys were fighting to come back. All they could say by the end was "I guess the Bills are for real." They completely missed the opportunity to make the broadcast interesting, and almost completely missed the opportunity to showcase the Bills. They didn't know, or didn't care to mention, how great Milano is, for example. They didn't showcase the Bills players at all as the Bills took control of the game. Everyone in my house was groggy from that big dinner, and it sounded like Nantz and Romo were sitting on the sofa with us, half paying attention to the game.

As the 2019 season has progressed, one question has puzzled football fans around the country and Bills fans in particular: Are the Bills actually a good football team, or have they simply been playing a schedule full of cupcake opponents? Okay, I guess that’s two questions. We now know the answer: The Buffalo Bills are a good football team. The Cowboys hosted the Bills in their traditional Thanksgiving Day game. It was a big game for both teams. The Cowboys needed a win to get to 7-5 and to solidify their lead in the NFC East, their only road to the playoffs. They were coming off a discouraging road loss in to the Patriots and with questions swirling again about Jason Garrett’s job security. They needed a win to secure the season and maybe save their coach. The Bills had been plagued all season long by the question. Yes, their defensive numbers were superb, but their opponents were more or less horrible. Yes, Josh Allen had had several good games in recent weeks, but not eye-popping. At 8-3, the Bills were closing in on a wild-card spot in the playoffs, but if they were to go to 8-4, that position would be less secure, with dates against the Ravens and the Patriots in the next three weeks. The game in Dallas was an opportunity to answer the question: on the road against a quality opponent in a meaningful came with the nation watching. The Bills were playing America’s team in America’s game – Thanksgiving football. Question answered. By the time we’d finished Thanksgiving dinner, taken a first pass at cleaning up the wreckage in the kitchen and said goodbye to some guests, the game had begun. When I tuned in, the Cowboys were in the red zone, about to take a 7-0 lead. In the next few minutes I had several distinct feelings: First, I had the usual Bills-fan dread, that I was watching my team at the very beginning of an ugly blow-out loss, one more embarrassment heaped on the franchise after decades of embarrassments. That passed pretty quickly. I’ve gotten used to the fact that the Bills play good football but often come out of the gate slowly, getting a feel for the game before they get into a rhythm. Their fourth quarters are better than their first quarters. Second, everything felt odd about the experience. I was watching the Bills sitting at home instead of in a sports bar, where I usually have to go for road games. Why? Because this game was televised nationally, at least figuratively if not technically in prime time. I’m completely accustomed to watching the Bills on some regional broadcast with no-name announcers and with more or less no one around the country watching. So what where those lovely blue and white uniforms doing on TV on Thanksgiving afternoon? Third, by the second quarter, it occurred to me that I was watching the same team do the same things against the Cowboys that they’d done on Sunday against the Broncos and the Sunday before that against the Dolphins. Dominate? No, not exactly. Just keep playing, making plays, staying in position, making tackles, showing some new looks. The Bills essentially were saying to the Cowboys what they’ve said to every opponent except the Eagles this season: “We’re here, we’re playing football, and we’re not going away. Beat us if you can.” The Cowboys have, statistically speaking, one of the best offenses in the league – first in yards per game and now 8th in points per game. Still, following the Cowboys’ opening touchdown drive, it felt like the Bills were in control. One Cowboy drive after another stalled as the Bills took the ball away, forced the Cowboys to punt or made the stop on fourth down. The Bills made the Cowboys look ineffective, despite the fact that the Cowboys were piling up 426 yards and 32 first downs. The Bills made the Cowboys look not much different than the Broncos or the Dolphins. And the entire country was watching. The Cowboys come at you with two of the best skill players in the league, Ezekiel Elliott and Amari Cooper. By the end of the game, they were after-thoughts. The Cowboys more or less abandoned their running game, so Elliott didn’t have a chance to pound away at the Bills. Cooper had some catches for some yards, but he looked and felt like just another receiver out there. Their number three star, Dak Prescott, was exposed. He was asked to throw a lot, and he put up some numbers, but he, too, was neutralized by the Bills defense. He turned the ball over twice, and time after time or third or fourth down he couldn’t find a way to help his team. Josh Allen, on the other hand, showed the country what excellent quarterbacking is all about. Even more so than against Denver’s solid defense the week before, Allen was in complete control of his team, managing the huddle, calmly directing the team at the line scrimmage, almost always correctly choosing to hang in the pocket or scramble, understanding where his receivers were and delivering beautifully thrown passes for completions. He kept the chains moving, so that five of nine possessions resulted in points and a sixth ended with a missed field goal. As excellent as his passing was, it was Allen’s running game that made his day truly outstanding. His 15-yard touchdown run in the third quarter seemed almost ordinary, we’ve seen it so often, but it’s anything but ordinary. Getting yards in the red zone is always difficult, and Allen’s running adds a dimension that few offenses have. When most teams go five-wide, they have no legitimate rushing option; the Bills do. Allen’s speed and elusiveness demands that defenses account for him as well as all the receivers and other backs on the field, and if they don’t, he regularly takes advantage. His TD was a great play. Even more remarkable, of course, was his three-yard run on fourth and one in the second quarter. It was a critical time in the game. The Bills had gotten a touchdown to tie the game, then took the ball from the Cowboys on the Lotulelei interception but failed to get points on the turnover. Then Oliver forced the Prescott fumble, so the Bills had another chance to take the lead of a turnover. Here they were, 4th and 1 and faced with settling for another field goal attempt, meaning they would have gotten, at best, a total of three points out of two successive takeaways. Sean McDermott left the offense on the field and Brian Daboll decided to attack on the ground again. I’m not proud. I’ll admit it: The instant Allen dropped the snap, I thought “typical Bills’ failure to execute on a critical play.” Then somehow Allen pulled the ball out of the pile and plowed into all that muscle, and I thought “nice hustle, kid, but there’s no saving this play.” Then Allen lunged, stumbled and fell out of the pack for a three-yard gain and the first. It was every bit as good as, maybe better than, his leap over Anthony Barr against the Vikings last year. Talk about putting the team on your back and willing them to victory! It was the play of the game. And then, in a piece of absolutely brilliant play calling, knowing that the Cowboys were reeling from Allen’s fantastic run, Brian Daboll called the perfect play: John Brown’s pass to Singletary off the reverse. The Cowboys were digging deep to make a play, and Daboll offered them, in their eagerness, an opportunity over-commit. They did, and the Bills, these new Bills who execute instead of stumbling when opportunity arises, executed. Hauschka missed the extra point, but somehow it felt like the game was over. The Cowboys put together a nice drive to end the half but missed the field goal. When the Bills scored twice to open the third quarter, it didn’t just feel like the game was over; it was over. A few shout outs: 1. Milano does it week after week. Excellent open field tackles, blanket coverage on backs and tight ends. 2. The new-look defensive scheme utilizing an array of blitz packages is getting the job done in the QB pressure department. The blitz doesn’t always get home, but it generates a lot of pressure and some instantaneous indecision for the offense. 3. Really nice for Beasley to get 100 yards and a TD in Dallas. That wasn’t a team objective going into the game, but how perfect was that? 4. I already talked about Allen, but really, it’s breath-taking how well he throws the ball. He’s consistently accurate now, with really nice touch. The throw for Beasley’s TD was outstanding. I don’t remember when or who caught it, but the throw when Allen scrambled to the right sideline and found his receiver also on the sideline was spectacular. Beautifully thrown footballs, play after play. 5. The entire pass defense was brilliant. White had Cooper most of the time, but not always. I like that strategy, because it means the offense has to assume it’s going to be White and then they have to adjust at the line of scrimmage. Maybe I’m just imagining it, but it seemed to me that Prescott wasn’t throwing over the middle much. I suspect teams have become wary about making plays over the middle because Edmunds, Hyde and Poyer are waiting for the receivers. 6. It takes more than highlight-reel plays, but there’s no denying the impact that Lawson and Oliver are having. 7. The Bills again stayed committed to the running game, and it does keep the defenses honest. Once again, Singletary showed that he can hurt the defense any time he touches the ball, and the Bills don’t let the defense forget it. 8. McDermott preaches “complementary football.” All three phases, etc. Another aspect of complementary football, it seems, is that no one needs to be great, because everyone contributes. Brown’s block on Allen’s TD run, Lotulelei’s finger on the Cowboys’ field goal try, players on the offensive line and in the defensive backfield talking to each other pre-snap. It’s 53 guys doing this together, not a team dependent on a half-dozen guys. Number 9, number 9, number 9. Let’s rock New Era Field and see if the Ravens can handle it. 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.

Huh? He has a pretty good oline but the pocket is engulfing Allen, so it's a problem with his footwork? That doesn't make sense. Maybe you need to reconsider your notion that the Bills have a better line than teams that protect their QB better.

It's actually kind of shocking. We've spent years and years waiting for a competent football team, one that has the talent to make plays and the determination to do the little things right, and here we are, watching it happen. When's the last time we heard about the Bills make a big-time adjustment followed by a big-time play?

Nobody wants to make the drive to Buffalo from here, so I'm looking for someone who wants my ticket. Just pay me face value or something reasonable based on Stub Hub prices. I don't want to sell it on line because I don't want to end up with a Ravens fan. Selling it here guarantees me a Bills fan. PM me if you're interested. Edit: Ticket is sold.

Yeah, I thought of that when I saw this thread. So, putting together what you said and what this report said and what Allen said, Allen and Brown must have practiced just a straight double move during the week. Allen said in his post game interview that he and Brown ran it about 10 times. So during the game, Brown recognized what he recognized and they decided to run the play action with the in-cut look followed by the cut to go deep. Pretty cool that they put it together on the sideline. And Troutdog says Brown said Monday that they have been practicing that play. So who knows?

That's cool. It makes sense. Hard to accomplish, but it makes sense. Think about this: Who has a defense designed to stop Lamar Jackson? No one. So who has the best chance of beating him? Someone whose defense can play any style, because that's the defense that can best play a unique style for one game. And that is, uh, the Patriots. And maybe the Bills.

Now here's something that is a total guess on my part: I'd guess that McD is copying the Belichick philosophy, which is that football is football. What you need as the basis of your team is 53 guys who can block, tackle, catch, run and throw. Effectively, over and over Execute, execute, execute. Now, once you have those guys, you can tell them "this week we're running, next week we're passing, the following week we're blitzing, and the week after that we're playing cover 2 the entire game." Good football players in the Belichick model have excellent fundamentals and understand scheme. I think that's what McD's goal is. And he's said about Allen, and I think it's true for the whole team, that they've given him (and all of them) the whole playbook. So I wouldn't be surprised if Daboll is designing offense to exploit weakness every week, because that's the long-term objective. That is, the long-term objective is "we can play any style." So Daboll and McD are asking the team NOW to play any style. Learn how to do it. Next year Beane will find some guys who are better at it than the Bills are today, and the team will be better at playing any style. The following year Beane will swap out some more players, constantly upgrading players, but always with the same objective. The objective is not to be good at something and force the other team to stop you at it. The objective is to be good at everything and each week do what works best to win. In fact, I saw Belichick in a press conference get really pissed when someone asked him what style the Patriots would like to play. He looked at the guy like he was idiot and finally said "we want to play the style that wins."

I've never liked him. Inconsistent, and I think he has limited skills. Good punters these day can control the ball much better than they used to, and Bojo looks like an old-school boomer to me. Just pound the ball, kick it high, and live with the results. Someone has to be better than that.

I agree with that. Like so many things, I think that's something the Patriots do well. They're going to play the way that will work best to win the game, and that varies from game to game. When you have a particular style, like the Rams a year ago or the Chiefs a year ago, you may be very, very good at playing that style, but once an opponent disrupts that game, you have nothing to fall back on. Best to be able to play multiple styles. I think McDermott is conservative, and I've thought before that he is a little too insistent on running. But as I think about it, I think he's actually more like Belichick. As I said, I think he's conservative because he has a young QB who can't be expected to carry the team with his arm yet. I expect that next season (and maybe as soon as the upcoming games), we will see McDermott take the wraps off Allen a bit more, and that's when you'll see the Bills less dedicated to establishing the running game.