Shaw66

Where are you getting this from? I don't think that's the rule. The rule is, as I wrote in my post, that the ball is live until it's declared dead. It's dead when the the ball carrier gives himself up, and the rule is very clear about how he can do that. I don't think there's a rule that says what you claim. If you're correct, the official in the end zone didn't know the rule, because he clearly thought the ball was still in play in the kick returner's hands. When the NFL changed the rule about an untouched ball in the end zone being a dead ball and not recoverable by the kicking team, I don't think they changed anything about how a receiver in the end zone indicates that he wants to take the touchback.

The Bills lost to the Houston Texans Saturday, 22-19 in the AFC Wildcard game. I’m numb, and I’ve already forgotten much of the game. I’d rather be numb than begin studying the game in detail, watching replays and analyzing players and coaches, because I don’t want to subject myself to the pain of reliving a game the Bills could have and probably should have won. So how do I feel? I’m disappointed. Frustrated. Happy. Pleased. Hopeful. Angry. Resigned. How can I not be disappointed, having watched a whole variety of head-scratching calls, plays and officiating decisions that cost the Bills the game? And frustrated, too, with all of the “if only” thoughts that keep running through my head. Happy and pleased? Really? You bet I’m happy. The Bills showed that they belong in the playoffs, that they can compete. Although they won’t say it, the Kansas City coaches are probably happy to be getting the Texans instead of the Bills. The Bills aren’t ready for a run deep into the playoffs, but they are tough to beat. I never expected them to be ready this year, and I don’t think Sean McDermott did, either. Of course, he wanted to go deep into the playoffs, but he also knew that he is building a team and that his building wasn’t going to be complete in 2019. The Bills’ best games are ahead of them. So I’m hopeful. Angry? I’m angry about the officiating decision that opened the second half. I’m sure there are other calls that are worth considering – I simply don’t know the details of the rule on the Cody Ford block that cost the Bills a shot at the winning field goal, but there simply is no excuse for not enforcing the rules on the kickoff the way they are written. That was a fumble, an illegal forward pass, a safety, something. The Texans made a big mistake and the officials just gave them a pass. That’s wrong. So, what about the game? First, the Bills have heart and courage. Emotionally, they are off the charts. Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott built them that way, and we can expect more of the same next season. The game was over after the intentional grounding penalty and the sack killed what looked like Buffalo’s last drive with a minute and a half left in regulation. The Bills had every reason to pack it in and go home. The Bills’ defense had no reason to believe in their offense, but they banished those thoughts and instead gave up five, three, one and zero yards on four consecutive plays, giving the ball back to the offense. Banishing their own thoughts of their previous failures, the Bill’s offense executed a masterful drive, with two shots at the winning touchdown before Stephen Hauschka tied the game with five seconds left. Those defensive, offensive and special teams performances at the end of the game were heroic. Special teams? Yes. They made the field goal, of course, but more impressive was their ability to abandon the field goal and execute a spiked incompletion with Bojorquez under center when the Bills’ first down was confirmed with with 21 seconds remaining and the clock running. That was coaching excellence and player preparedness on display, championship-caliber execution under pressure. Some other points, in no particular order: I’ve said all season that the offensive line is not good enough, and we saw it on Saturday. I have trouble blaming Josh Allen for either the intentional grounding or the sack on what looked like the final drive in regulation, because both times defenders got to him essentially untouched. He probably misread the defensive alignments and needed to be looking for those breakdowns, but they were in some way breakdowns of the offensive line. Allen did a pretty good job most of the day avoiding the rush, but he deserves better protection. Allen was erratic, to be sure. He looks like a superstar, delivering bullets to receivers through the smallest of windows, but the reality is that his judgment in making those throws is questionable. Why? Because those throws don’t look any different than the two or three throws that were equally accurate that landed squarely in the bellies of defenders who just couldn’t hold on for the interception. Allen was lucky. And Allen choked. After Ford’s penalty, the Bills called what looked like a hook and ladder, the plan being for Williams to catch a short ball on the right side, draw the tacklers and pitch to Singletary. It was a creative call, a play that had a good chance of gaining the 20 yards that the Bills needed to give Hauschka a shot. There was a lot of open field, because Houston was in a prevent-style set. It was an easy throw, and Allen missed it. It may have been Allen’s biggest mistake of the game. The truth is, as we’ve seen all season, that it’s hard for the Bills to win when they ask Allen to throw the ball 40 times in a game. His completion percentage drops, and his mistakes increase. Some of that is true for most QBs – when they’re throwing 40 passes, it means their team is losing, and they’re desperate. Part of Allen’s problem is he needs better receivers. And some of it is that he needs better coaching – in the game-tying drive, Brian Daboll called the same deep route to Duke Williams two plays in a row because (a) that was the only deep route he had, or (b) he didn’t trust Allen to throw it over the middle and lose the field goal opportunity, or (c) he didn’t have the courage to call something else. Allen, by the way, did his job on those two plays, throwing the ball away. What about Allen’s attempted lateral to Knox? Well, in the modern NFL, coaches don’t want their players improvising like that, but give Allen credit. He knew he had Knox trailing the play – in fact, when Allen first broke containment, he looked like he wanted to pitch to Knox but Knox was ahead of him at that point. As he was about to get tackled, Allen could see that the sideline was clear and that Knox would have a straight run for the go-ahead touchdown. Allen just waited too long to make the pitch, and when the instantaneous opportunity passed, he was supposed to know to hold on to the ball. It’s the kind of play that he will learn from. My biggest problem with the offense was that Daboll more or less abandoned the run. Singletary was hurting Houston regularly – not as well as Henry gashed the Patriots later on Saturday, but 19 touches was not enough. Give him another five or ten touches because it’s an easy way to take the ball out of Allen’s hands, and let the guy who looks like a consistent playmaker make some plays. McDermott tells his team to be fearless. It takes courage to stick with the running game, because in the heat of battle it’s tempting to go after chunk yardage with receivers who, if not great, still make plays. But the running game was working, and especially when the Houston pass rush kept beating Allen’s protection, giving the ball to Singletary could have changed the outcome. The defense was, if not superb, at least playoff caliber. Houston has a good offense with some big-time playmakers, and the Bills held them in check. The reality is that DeShaun Watson is a premier quarterback – he has a great arm, he’s accurate, he’s a good decision maker, and he is a tough, tough runner. He’s going to make plays against you. The Bills contained him pretty well. Yes, Neal and Milano failed to get the sack on the play that essentially won the game, but Watson may be the only QB in the league who can make that play. He’s just that good. And just like Watson is going to make some plays, Hopkins will, too. The Bills held him to six catches and 90 yards in essentially five quarters. And the one long ball, a completion that admittedly hurt, was well covered by White – it took a perfect throw from Watson and an excellent catch for the completion. What the defense didn’t do was make a signature play. They needed a second-half takeaway, or the sack on Watson on that final drive. They needed one big play from the defense somewhere, and they didn’t get it. Or, if they weren’t going to make a signature play, they needed to make the play on the final drive on third and 18 from the Houston 19. As the television commentators pointed out, the entire defensive shell dropped too deep, leaving Johnson with 10 or 12 free yards. That wasn’t a guy like Watson making a superstar play; that was the Bills giving a good ball carrier too much room to carry the ball. The game was a huge disappointment, but the season was a success. The Bills accomplished about as much as could be expected with an immature and still developing quarterback, and average talent on the offensive line and at wideout. It’s a process, and the process will proceed. 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.

But I think people are correct that it was an illegal forward pass, in which case it probably was a dead ball, so no TD. It's either a touchback with a half the distance to the goal line penalty or a safety. Whatever, it wasn't a touchback. It's the give-every-kid-a-trophy culture. We don't want to punish him for making an innocent mistake, he might feel bad.

Yes, the Officials Took the Game Away from the Bills Yes, you have to win the game on the field, but the game is supposed to be officiated in a way that gives each team a fair chance to win. That did not happen in the Bills 22-19 overtime loss at Houston in the wildcard playoff round of the 2019 season. The Bills were leading 13-0 and kicked off to open the second half. Houston’s kick returner caught the ball in the end zone and made no attempt to run. The official in the end zone continued to watch him, waiting for him either to begin running or to give himself and take the touchback. The returner did neither. Instead, he tossed the ball on the ground in the end zone. The Bills picked up the ball, and the official signaled touchdown. After discussion, the referee ruled that the kick returner “intended” to give himself up and that therefore the Texans were entitled to the touchback. The ruling has no support whatsoever in the rules of football. The “intentions” of a player are not relevant, and the player’s ignorance of the rules are not relevant. If they were, the personal foul called against Cody Ford in overtime that cost the Bills a shot at a game winning field goal should have been overturned. After all, either Ford didn’t know the rule or didn’t intend to violate it, so why should the Bills be penalized for what their player did when Houston wasn’t? Here’s the relevant part of the rule: Dead Ball Article 1: Dead Ball Declared. An official shall declare the ball dead and the down ended: (e) when a runner is out of bounds, or declares himself down by falling to the ground, or kneeling, and making no effort to advance; That’s the rule. Unless and until the runner does what the rule says, the ball is not dead. He didn’t fall to the ground and he didn’t kneel, and the official properly waited for him. The runner chose to drop the ball to the ground. Did the runner intend to take a touchback? Almost certainly he did, but the rule doesn’t say the ball is dead when he drops the ball on the ground, and it doesn’t say the ball is dead when the running back intends for it to be dead. It was a live ball. When the Bills recovered, the official properly signaled touchdown. There’s an obvious and instructive parallel. Until recently, the rule on kickoffs had been that the ball is a free ball after the kick once it traveled ten yards. A ball kicked all the way to the end zone could be recovered by the kicking team for a touchdown. The recent rule change limited the kicking team to recovering the ball in the field of play, but once the ball reaches the end zone a touchback will be declared unless the return man touches it. Before the rule change, every few years we would see a kick returner who didn’t understand the rules simply let the ball come to rest in the end zone, assuming his team would get a touchback. If the kicking team recovered it, it was a touchdown. I do not believe there ever was such a situation in an NFL game when the officials declared no touchdown because the returner didn’t know the rule or “intended” to take the touchback. His knowledge of the rules or his intention were irrelevant. It was an egregious mistake by the kick returner, and it cost his team six points. What did kick returners do before the rule change? They caught the ball and took a knee. Everyone knew that. The situation in the Bills game was identical. If the kick returner wanted to give himself up, he had to take a knee. The official looked at him as if to say “hey, are you going to take a knee?” He didn’t. He dropped the ball. That’s a fumble. The Bills recovered. That’s a touchdown. There was no ambiguity. All that happened is that the officials decided it would be unfortunate to penalize an ignorant player. When did that become a rule? How about a guy wearing number 72 coming into the game and, not knowing the rule, does not tell the officials that he will line up on the end of the line. When he catches the touchdown pass, do the officials award the touchdown because the player didn’t know he was supposed to check in or because he “intended” to? Of course not. Ignorance of the rules does not excuse players’ actions on the field. This wasn’t a case where the official missed something. The play was completely in the open; everyone could see what happened, and everyone could see that the player did not give himself up in accordance with the rules. The official didn’t misunderstand what was happening; he did not whistle the ball dead because the ball wasn’t dead. It was a live ball, lying on the field for anyone to recover. The Bills recovered it. That referee should not be permitted to officiate another NFL game.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I just don't get it. Haven't you been listening? What we saw in the regular season never was the objective. It's only a step in the process. McBeane are slowly and steadily building this team. They never intended that the team would peak in 2019, and it hasn't. There's more to come. What's coming? A new OLB, one or two offensive linemen, one or two receivers, a running back, more DBs. Give it time.

Right. 28 would be great, but somehow it's got to get over 21.

28 points a game is elite offense territory. Of course we would like to have that.

THATS GREAT! THANKS!

Players loved him because he let them do what they wanted away from the team. He did treat them like men. And they loved him for it. I think what he said was that he wasn't responsible for getting them "up" for the game. McDermott knows that his job is to find a way to get him men to love him AND get them up for the game. This Championship Caliber stuff is one example of McDermott doing that job.

Actually, you're wrong about this. When asked about whether he would have handled the run up to Super Bowl XXV in order to motivate his players better and get them more focused, Marv said something like the players are professionals and it's their job to motivate themselves. That is wrong, for any leader, and completely contrary to how Parcels approached coaching. Parcels viewed it as his job to get his players in the right frame of mind for big games. Marv was outcoached all around in that game. His players weren't emotionally ready, and he didn't have an answer to Belichick's defense.

I hate to say it, but I agree that Marv was a problem. McDermott is clearly a better coach. No way he' was going to get fired, but Parcells and Belichick simply outcoached him

One guy, the lot owner, fell in the mud. It was a mess. Thanks to all for the comments. I've been going to games si ce 1960, not just since 67. Love it.

On Sunday I attended the Bills final game of the 2019 regular season, a 13-6 loss to the New York Jets. It marked the first season I have attended every home game since 1967. The Bills opened the season against the Jets in Buffalo in 1967, and they closed the season in 2019 at home against the Jets. The similarity of the two seasons ends there. In 1967, the Bills came into the season having gone to three straight American Football League championship games. They’d won the first two against the Chargers and lost the third to the Chiefs, who went on to lose to the Packers in the first Super Bowl. The Bills had decided after the 1966 season that they needed a revitalized offense to go along with their usually stout defense, and they had made a bold move to do so. They traded the ever popular backup quarterback Daryl Lamonica and wideout Glenn Bass to the Raiders for quarterback Tom Flores and wideout Art Powell. Powell had been a top 10 receiver in the league for a few years, and Flores was well known as a cerebral game manager in an era when being a game manager, like Bart Starr, was a good thing. Through three quarters, the Bills were held scoreless and the Jets scored 17. Then Flores and Powell exploded for two TDs, the Bills got two field goals, and we all went home happy with a 20-17 win. The Bills opened the following game with a first quarter field goal, then went scoreless for seven quarters. Flores was soon benched and Jack Kemp returned to the starting lineup, but the change didn’t help. The once powerful Bills stumbled to a 4-10 season, went 1-12-1 the following season and wouldn’t be a serious force again in the NFL for another 20 years. Two years later, the Jets went to their only Super Bowl and won. Twenty years after that, the Bills went to four consecutive Super Bowls, losing each. Other than those glory years, both teams lost more than they won. Over the years, the Bills have had a 63-55 series advantage over the Jets. Coming into the 2019 season, both teams had high hopes, each with talented young QB, the Jets with LeVeon Bell in the backfield, and the Bills with their stellar defense. The Bills opened the season in New Jersey, where the Jets scored the first 16 points before the Bills rallied for a 17-16 win. That game foretold the season for both teams. The Jets lost eight more times coming into the season finale, and the Bills had surprised the league with nine more wins and had clinched the number five seed in the playoffs. And so it was that they met for the 118th time on Sunday at New Era Field. The game was meaningless in terms of the playoffs. The Jets had been eliminated a few weeks earlier, and the Bills had clinched the 5th seed. It was raining slightly as the game began, and the rain picked up in the second quarter. The Bills played Josh Allen for only two series, and several other regular starters played little or not at all. The Bills offense could do nothing in the first half, the defense was okay, and at the half the Jets led 3-0. It was clear that Sean McDermott had packed it in, trying to save his team for the playoffs. Winning would be nice, but it wasn’t the objective. It looked like a pre-season game. Despite my best efforts, I was getting wet. The game wasn’t entertaining. I’d already seen Levi Wallace injured and I didn’t want to see any other injuries. I left. What did I miss? Well, the offense woke up but still had trouble scoring. As dominant as the Jets had been, statistically, in the first half, the Bills were dominant in the second half. The stat sheet ended pretty even across the board. During pre-game warmups, I looked for and found Duke Williams. I’d assumed that the Bills would activate him for this game, to give him a chance to show what he can do and to give some receiver a day off. In the first half he didn’t do much. He wasn’t getting much separation, but then again, none of the Bills receivers were. He was a ferocious blocker; he took it seriously, delivering blows whenever he could. Apparently in the second half, Duke came alive, finishing with six receptions for 108 yards. There are reasons we haven’t seen Duke on the field more this season. I don’t know what those reasons are. We will see if Duke earned a spot on the game-day roster for the playoffs. Ed Oliver was active in the first half. It appears the NFL light has gone on for him over the past few weeks. At halftime, I walked to my car, got out of some of my wet clothes, started my car and got stuck in the mud. The football gods were punishing me for leaving early, really early. Forty-five minutes later, a few good Samaritans arrived to push me out. People in Buffalo are always ready to help. Thanks, folks! On to the playoffs. GO BIILLS!!! 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.

That's right. It seemed like no one expected it. There was pretty much no crowd reaction. His daughter sang the national anthem, and Lorenzo stood with his whole family on the sideline. It was nice.

I was sitting in the stadium with my wife, surrounded by Giants fans. Our view was straight down the back line of the endzone, so we could see essentially only the left upright. Norwood kicked it, I watched it cross over the back end of the goal line, high enough, but I couldn't tell if it was in or not. So I looked back at the line of scrimmage to see which players were celebrating. Lots of emotions.

Thought I'd find you here. Sorry the real Wheels is gone. When he arrived in Buffalo, he was a speed-only guy, but he developed into a serious receiving threat. A key player in the 64-65 championship runs.

I gotta put it in reverse if I want to approach 70 again. My apologies in advance.: I know absolutely nothing about a fight song. Not a thing. But I had some thoughts about the subject and I wrote them. It's a mix of my memories and the history I do know. Ignore it if you aren't interested. I don't anything about a fight song. I'd guess, though, that all of the speculation here about it being the Bills fight song from the All-America conference team is correct. I recall that when the current Bills came along in 1959, there was some reminiscing about the old Bills, and an occasional comment about how the Bills should have gone into the NFL in 1950. In the late 50s there still was talk about the team Buffalo had in the 40s. about the old Bills, and an occasional comment about how the Bills should have gone into the NFL in 1950. In the late 50s there still was talk about the team Buffalo had in the 40s. But it wasn't a strong tradition that was being passed down. That there was a fight song makes sense, too. You have to remember that in the 40s, college football was still the big game, not the NFL. The NFL was created essentially to showcase the talent of great college players who had no college eligibility left. College football was what it was all about. Then the war came, now it's the late 40s and pro football is still trying to show that it was really viable. College teams were supported by their colleges, so if football wasn't making money, that wasn't the end of the world. The pros actually had to make money by selling tickets. There was no tv and no tv revenue. There were very few player endorsement deals or things like that. It was almost more like what we think of as semi-pro now. The pro teams were trying to figure out how to fill the stadium, because that was how to generate revenue. Who knew how to fill stadiums? Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, etc. What did they do? They had a fight song, for one. They also had a marching band, and when the Bills began in 1960 they used to have visiting marching bands more often than they do now. They did it because the big-time football experience, the college experience, had a marching band, so maybe that would work in the pros, too. I think in the 50s the Colts had their own marching band. So I wouldn't be surprised at all if the first thought in 1959 was "let's use the old fight song." After all, the name was chosen intentionally to tie back to the earlier Bills. I think some people actually thought of 1959 being the resurrection of the earlier Bills. Denver, Oakland, San Diego, Dallas, Boston, Houston all were getting franchises in cities that never had had a major pro football team. The Jets were in a city that already had an active NFL team, and the Bills were the only AFL team that had an actual history of major pro football and lost it. As far as younger fans were concerned, they really weren't interested in that history. They saw football as a fun and exciting thing to go see. They weren't living out the traditions of their forefathers or anything like that. I think I saw it as a more natural extension of the College All-America games from the previous few years. The new Browns did an excellent job of tacking onto the old Browns history, and that history was something of legend. The Mets did a pretty good job of tacking onto Dodger and Giant lore. I never had the sense that this was the continuation of a tradition. I was teenager then. I thought college fight songs were pretty hokey. Old fashioned. Not necessary. I wasn't interested a fight song. And I think it was generally a young crowd that felt the same way. Which is really a long, long way to say if there was an effort to bring back the fight song, it fell on deaf ears.

I have to say that I'm disappointed when Allen misses those throws. I say he's still learning, still growing, but I think there's something about winners that helps them rise to the occasion. I think that Mayfield, Mahomes and Darnold all make that throw by the end of their second season starting. Now, you can argue that they all played in big time programs and have had a lot more experience making big moment throws, but I think for some guys it comes naturally. It's as though he has an inferiority complex and he doesn't naturally believe he can do it. Brees and Rodgers and Favre and Brady all play like they know they can make any throw, and then they do it. Allen has to get himself there.

Your admission that you're overreacting because it's the Patriots is amusing, because I feel the same way. I just want to crush them. I wanted the Bills to be up by 10 with two minutes to go and then have Brady injure something so he couldn't play next week. Saturday gave me confidence. I don't think the Bills will get to Foxboro in the playoffs, and I don't think they'll win if they get there, but they'll have a shot. Mostly, as several of us have been saying, I like the progress, which is significant, and I think we'll see more progress next season. I've been saying all along that 2020 was the season for the Bills to begin playing for the championship, and I think that's been McBeane's target, too. If they turn out to be a year early, great, but I don't expect it.

I hadn't noticed that. That certainly would seem to be a mistake against Brady. He doesn't have great deep threats to begin with, his arm is suspect and he can't always afford to wait in the pocket. This lends credence to the idea that McDermott didn't want to show the Patriots his best stuff in what was pretty much a meaningless game.

I don't agree with this. I don't think McDermott is conservative. I think his offensive approach has been conservative because he doesn't yet have the horses to have a high-powered offense. When you're offense isn't good, it's smart to run the clock and shorten the game, because that keeps the score low and gives your team a chance to win in the end. McDermott has a mediocre offensive line, a young QB who needs to mature (his bad throws against the Pats showed again that he isn't really comfortable and under control all the time), a decent running back and mediocre receivers (Collinsworth commented last night that it's pretty amazing that Sammy Watkins is arguably the fourth best receiver on the Chiefs). I think that you'll see a less conservative approach next season, when the oline is better, Allen is better, the receivers are better and at least Singletary will have a full season under his belt.

Fair enough. I didn't watch replays of the last play, and I believe someone else commented about the tackle failure. If both tackles had made their blocks, Allen might very well have been able to handle one free rusher, and maybe he would have made a play to tie the game. McBeane have gotten a lot of praise this season for improving the oline, and they deserve it, but I think the oline is far from a finished product. I expect one or two new starters on the oline next season. I've never been a big fan of Dawkins. I haven't studied Ford at tackle, but there's been plenty of complaining about him. He will improve, but as many say, maybe his future is at guard.

No sign of a breakthrough? No sign? Are you kidding? The Bills played the Pats really tough in 2018 but didn't have enough firepower to make the game competitive. The Bills were much better against them this season, giving them two really tough games that could easily have gone the other way. This against the team with greatest head coach of all time, by far, and the guy people claim is the greatest quarterback of all time. So what do you recommend? A new head coach for the Bills? I'm satisfied to watch this play out. This head coach and this GM have said since they came here they're building for long-term, sustained excellence, not for a short-term successful run to the Lombardi. That meant, and still means, they intend for this team get better season after season until they are one of the premier teams in the league. It's pretty clear now how they are doing that, and it's pretty clear that at least so far it's worked. They organized their team in the first season and had some unexpected success. They told us the team likely would be worse in the second season. They've met or exceeded expectations in the third season. They have a roster full of young players who haven't peaked yet. They have a lot of draft picks and a lot of cap room, so the talent should improve next season. AND they are competing well against the best teams in the league. Given all of that, I have trouble whining about the fact that they can't dominate the best teams in the league. If they're no better two years from now, I'll be complaining. But not now.

I agree. It may very well be that the Bills' coaches were looking ahead and playing it close to the vest. Everyone on this team is still learning, and they're thinking about all kinds of approaches to the regular- and post-season.