Shaw66

Ayj - you show up right after Logic. I really enjoy the things you say, both of you. I hadn't really focused on it, but this notion of Allen being the Bills short yardage back is troubling. It's just a bad idea. I mean, I get that he has the size and the speed, I get the extra blocker thing, but I also get the injury thing. He shouldn't be put at risk like that. Plus, it's already become unimaginative. You know where his running skill is valuable? On roll-out pass plays, that's where. Don't stick him into the line on some power running play where he'll get popped from angles. Roll him out and let the back seven deal with the run THREAT and try to cover the receivers at the same time. Allen has good vision out there, which he showed again finding Beasley for the TD. I think he knew Beasley would be there, but he found him nevertheless. As for playing to protect the lead. That IS what they doing, and I generally don't mind that. I know that most people around here are of the go-for-it mentality, but I'm not. I believe what I heard some coach say - the reason you play the first half is to get to the second half. You can't win the game in the first half, but you can lose it. The Dolphins lost the game last night in the first half with that colossal defensive blunder. But if you're going to be conservative, give it to Gore. Conservative means don't give up the ball, so you don't let you QB carry it. McDermott is fundamentally conservative. I'm sure of that. I've hoped he would open up the offense as time goes by. He might still. But he might not be willing to take more risks with the offense until he has a QB who plays like a veteran and until he has offense that is more consistently effective. It isn't such a good bet to take chances with an offense that executes like the Bills offense has been. Thanks for posting.

I'm always saying I don't know anything about football compared to what the coaches know. And I believe that. What you say makes a whole of sense. For the reason just stated, I don't know if you're right, but it sounds right. I've always said this was and 8-8, 9-7 year, and next year is the year they should be good, and they now look like they're falling back into about that spot. We will see. I like what you say about Singletary, particularly, Foster and McKenzie. The Bills need some flash on offense, not to be flashy, but to create problems for the defense. Defenses know Gore will get his yards, but they also know the Bills don't run well enough for Gore to beat anyone with 170-yard games. The threats are Beasley, Singletary, McKenzie, Foster and Roberts, and all of them seem to be after thoughts in the offense. What bothers me most is how easily teams seem to be able to watch the film and implement strategies that are very effective against the Bills. Watching Fitzpatrick last week was horrifying. There's a smart, veteran, journeyman QB whose coaches said to him "this will work," and Fitz did it all day long. Then it happened again against the Eagles. Pro football teams self-scout to figure out where their weaknesses are and to prepare on the assumption other teams will figure it out too. Well, the Bills self-scouting sucks. If the Eagles know they can run like that against the Bills, then the Bills should know too and have an answer. The Eagles also knew Wentz could run scramble against the Bills, but one they did is keep his scrambling under wraps until the second half. Thanks for posting. Always interesting takes on the game.

I usually don't pay attention to the inactives. I agree about McKenzie. I'd expect him to fight for the ball Foster watched. Or Roberts, for that matter. Roberts obviously has ball tracking skills.

So we did. Sorry. Read yours too fast. That's what's so disturbing. For the second week in a row they were poorly prepared. McD and the coaches have to be better.

I'm the opposite. I believe they were doing exactly what they were coached to do. I think the coaches failed - miserably - to prepare them for that game. I agree with some who say that the Eagles were the better team. That may be true. But the Bills were steamrolled, and the Eagles aren't that much better.

Thanks. As for Foster, I was hesitant even to say anything about it, because it isn't easy to put on the breaks going flat out downfield. But I like Zay a few weeks ago, I didn't even see him try. It was weird to me. And I and others complain that Josh needs to get air under the ball to give his receiver a chance, but that one was in the air plenty long enough. What I do know is Foster and the coaches will be talking about what happened and whether he could have caught it.

This is also very good, and I don't really disagree. First, I agree completely about Allen, as is evident from all my posts about him. This is still a growth year for him, to be sure. Still, I think he could have played better. And I think you're probably right - the Eagles are a good team that has underperformed. As I said, I was prepared for the Bills to lose, but not to be outclassed. The Bills shouldn't allow teams to run on them like that, and the Bills offense should be able to put up more than 253 yards. That's 100 less than their average. I've never expected 11-5 or 12-4. I HAVE expected them to be competitive, as they were against the Patriots. They weren't against the Eagles.

his is really cool. thanks. I need to look what Graham wrote. The wind was at Allen's back, so I don't know how that would happen, but wind is tricky and you may be right. The play was right in front of me. When the ball was just past half-way there I could see it was short, and I think Foster should have been able to see it then, too. He never stopped running. As I said, the wind is tricky.

True. And the blowout losses tend to come in the middle of the season.

It's not doom and gloom. You only can write about what you see, and what you saw yesterday wasn't quality football. I'm not discouraged. My view all along has been that 2020 is the first year to expect the Bills to be really good. The Bills need young guys, particularly Allen and Edmunds, to continue to grow into the stars I expect they will be, and the Bills one more infusion of talent through the draft and free agency. Anything better than 9-7 this season would be great, but it won't surprise me if that's all the Bills can do. The Bills need the next three games.

Tell me about it. I drive six and a half hours after the game, and usually by the time I get home I have a good idea about what I want to say. I got home last night and didn't have a clue.

As I said in the Rockpile Review, good teams do two things: They win the games they should, and they win some of the games against quality opponents. Pre-McDermott, the Bills didn't consistently win the games they SHOULD win. Now at least they're doing that. Qualiity wins, as you point out, are the next step.

I don't agree with all of this, but the general point is correct. There's no need to panic. Allen is in the middle of his second season learning to play QB in the NFL. Personally, I think at this point he should be better than he's been playing, but learning and growth doesn't occur in a straight line. Yesterday was another game where he made some mistakes and learned some things. I'm confident he'll get there.

“Uninspired” Apologies to all who read this. I’m uninspired today, and I’m afraid this Rockpile Review is uninspired, too. The Buffalo Bills inspire me. They energize and excite me. Almost everything about the Bills’ 31-13 loss to the Eagles on Sunday was uninspiring. So today I’m uninspired, too. If what follows is as disappointing as the Bills were on Sunday, I apologize. Come to think of it, the Bills should apologize, too. That performance was pretty bad. I don’t mind losing. I went into the game thinking there was a good chance the Bills would lose. I mind not showing up, and that’s all I could think about the Bills’ performance on Sunday. Were there bright spots? Oh, yes, I’m sure there were bright spots, and I’ll probably think of a few to talk about, but the fact that I, a confirmed homer, have to work to think of positives in that game is some evidence of how poorly the Bills performed. Note to Bills: In order to win football games at home, it is not enough to stand on the sideline, waving your arms to get the fans to make more noise. You actually have to play football. I’m working on a theory: Sean McDermott’s teams go flat in the middle of the season. McDermott is 20-19 in his career as a head coach. In games six through ten in his career, he is 4-8. I know, there are too many variables to draw any serious conclusions, and it’s probably too small a sample size, but nearly half of his losses have come in the middle third of the season. Think of it this way: Two-thirds of the season, McDermott has a winning percentage that matches the career winning percentages of guys like Pete Carroll, Mike Holmgren, and Bruce Arians. In the middle third of the season, his winning percentage puts him in a group with Jay Gruden, Eric Mangini, and Mike Mularkey. Recall for a minute these lowlights: In 2017, in the middle third of the season and after not competing in a loss to the Jets, the playoff-bound Bills lose at home to the Saints, 47-10 and follow it up with a loss on the road to the Chargers, 54-24. In 2018 they lose four out of five in the middle of the season, including blow-out losses to the Bears and the Colts, not exactly powerhouse teams. This season they don’t show up against the Eagles after a lackluster win over the winless Dolphins. It seems like McDermott figures out how to win games early, his opponents discover how to stop the Bills in the middle of the season, and McDermott reinvents the team to finish the season strong. Two thirds of that formula is pretty good. One third isn’t. Many people put these losses on the players, but I don’t. I think it’s a coach/QB driven league, and although Allen didn’t play well enough, Allen wasn’t the difference in the game. You can’t blame the Eagles’ 218 rushing yards on Allen. Here are a few examples of why coaching is so important: 1. When a team is well-prepared for a game, they get a lot of easy plays. Fitzpatrick got a lot of easy throws against the Bills last week, and the Eagles got a lot of easy runs this week. I haven’t studied the film, but I noticed on several of the Eagles’ successful runs up the middle of the Bills defense, Edmunds was nowhere to be seen. Often he was stuck in the wrong gap, just watching the ball carrier go by. That happened to Edmunds often last season, but it wasn’t happening very much this season. Now, maybe Edmunds all of sudden reverted to his rookie bad habits, but it’s much more likely he was handling his assignment as coached and that the Eagles figured out how to take advantage of how the Bills defense attacked gaps. It happened too often to be an accident. On Sanders’ 74-yard touchdown, on the other hand, Edmunds just didn’t work hard enough to beat the block. 2. Here’s something the Bills did well. Sometime in the third quarter, the Eagles put Agholor in motion from the left. He was sprinting hard. The instant he went in motion, three Bills defenders shifted quickly and by the time Agholor got the handoff, Milano was sprinting past the line of scrimmage and made the tackle for a loss. The Bills knew exactly what was coming. It wasn’t football instincts; they were prepared. 3. Same thing on Singletary’s touchdown. The Bills knew something. 4. For the second week in a row, the Bills passing attack was not generating many easy throws like the Singletary TD. Allen got some, to be sure, but more often than not he was in the pocket wondering where he could go with the ball. Often, he threw to guys who were tightly covered. That tells me that once again this week, Daboll failed to identify successful ways to attack the Eagles defensive schemes. Sunday, the wind was fierce but the rain held off for most of the game. The ball probably was wet often, but the wind seemed to be the only factor that seriously affected play. There were a lot of Eagles fans in the crowd, and they made a lot of noise, especially as their team got the upper hand, just like Bills fans have performed on the road a few times in the past couple of seasons. It was odd to see green McCoy jerseys in the stadium. A few one-shot comments: 1. I’d be really excited about Josh Allen if he were a rookie and played that game. He isn’t a rookie, and he needs to be better. 2. The Eagles’ offensive line dominated in the run game. The Bills’ offensive line didn’t. In the passing game, it was more or less a standoff – some nice pockets, some pressures and some sacks, both ways. 3. What in the world was Foster doing on the deep throw in the second quarter? Sure, it was underthrown, but Allen’s been overthrowing deep balls all season, and with that wind at his back, I’m sure he took something off it. Foster seemed to make no effort to make a play on the ball. 4. I seriously under-appreciated Milano for two seasons. No more. Dude is a stud. 5. The Bills still are short on offensive playmakers. Beasley and Brown get open when the scheme creates openings, and good as he is, Gore just gets everything that’s there, but not much more. Singletary needs more touches, because he’s the only guy who looks like a true playmaker. 6. And Kroft. Kroft looks like he could be special at TE, one who can exploit defenses. 7. The greatness of the Bills’ defense was a myth. It’s good, but great defenses don’t get outplayed like that. They repeatedly failed to make the stops they needed. Ultimately, though, it was the offense that lost the game. Despite the offensive struggles, the game was more or less even at the half. The Bills trailed at the half because of Allen’s fumble and the missed field goal, but the stats and time of possession all were more or less even. In the second half, after one touchdown drive the Bills offense had nothing and the Bills defense had no answer for the Eagles. Good teams win the games they should win, and they win some of their tough games. The Bills have five wins because they’ve won the games they should win, and they have two losses because they haven’t been able to win tough games. The Bills now have three in a row that they should win, but it’s the middle third of the season, so we’ll see. 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.

I gotta admit, I sort of feel the same you do. But the truth is that if he's going to be the great QB I want him to be, he has to connect on an appropriate percentage of those balls. I actually think we've seen more rookie jitters in Allen this year than last year. He plays like he's thinking too much, and he didn't play that way last year.

About the onside kick: I was hoping someone would explain the Lee Smith thing to me, and you have what I think is a part of the explanation. I think that you are correct that Hyde is the "primary" receiver on the play, but that didn't used to be the case. Teams used to put the equivalent of Hyde on one side and Beasley or the like on the other side, because the onside kick could go either way. Remember how they used to line up with two potential kickers, so the play could go either way? I think that was something in the onside kick rule changes last year (?) that either requires that the kick only go to the right or that makes it practically impossible to kick it the other way. Whatever it is, no one ever seems to kick it to the left any more. I was hoping someone would show who knows why this is.

Wow. Born intense, and able to shape and control that intensity. Amazing.

I think the article is very interesting, but I'd take a different tack in talking about QB development. First, I don't think that coaches have ruined the careers of many, if any QBs. I think QBs may have been in better or worse circumstances, but I think that they succeed based on multiple characteristics of their own. I think it's helpful to start with the end in mind. What does a quality NFL starter - a franchise QB - look like? He has an arm that's good enough, mobility that's good enough, and a whole collection of mental skills - call it field generalship - that make him a winner. He's a competitor and a leader. Much of the field generalship comes from experience. There are NO great QBs in the their first or second year. Well, I'll give you, maybe Marino, but I know the details of his career well enough to talk intelligently. And I know people will say what about Mahomes, but I'm not sold. I think once the league figures him out, he will come back to earth. What makes a great QB is reading defenses and being able to make adjustments, and the only guys who can do that are guys who have accumulated years of experience. Brady, Manning, Brees, Rodgers. They do stuff consistently that none of the young guys do. So how do you develop a QB? First, he has to have the physical tools. Then you have to get him a lot of experience. He can get some of that experience on the bench, in practice, watching film, etc. But some significant part of the experience he needs he has to get on the field. There's no other way. The question becomes how and when do you get him the on-field experience? I don't buy the notion that McVeigh may be limiting Goff by all his radio talk. The object is to get Goff on-field experience. If you get him a couple of seasons of experience by holding his hand on the radio, yes he's not making ALL the on-field judgments you might want, but he's doing something, he learning something, every play, every game. He can'n learn it all at once anyway, so let get lots of playing experience now and work him into the pre-snap read process gradually. Being on the radio a lot for a couple of years is not going to ruin Goff. If Goff is going to make it, he's going to make regardless of whether he made pre-snap reads early in his career. Similarly, a QB who plays with a dumbed-down play book. If he can't ever master the whole playbook, he's not going to make it. But he can start with a dumbed-down playbook, learn to make the reads with those plays, and work his way up. In both cases, you're talking about getting the guy on the field and getting him opportunities to gain experience. That's more important than waiting until some later time. Allen is doing it differently. They've thrown the whole playbook at him, and they're approach is to prep him each week for what he can expect to see. In all three cases, the objective is to get the guy to have some success, somehow, on the field. The objective is to get them experience without their having major failure to deal with. Is Rosen failiing because he's being mishandled? I doubt it. He's failing because he hasn't been able to translate enough of what he's been taught into successful play on the field. If he has what it takes to succeed as a starter, he will show someone in practice in Miami and at his next team, and with added experience from the bench, he'll start to better and eventually emerge. Can I prove any of this? No. I just think that's how it works.

Thurm I haven't had a chance to respond to this thread, but I wanted to thank you for posting the article. It's really interesting.

How can they be unprepared? Lots of ways. Lousy film study. Failure to recognize appropriate keys. Failure to teach appropriate keys. Failure to self scout well enough. Failure to recognize how the Dolphins might choose to attack certain defenses. Failure to recognize defensive adjustments the Dolphins likely would make. Everyone has a job to do, players and coaches. Just like the players, the coaches do a better job some weeks than others. Everything changes from week to week. What the Bills are trying to do is achieve a high level of excellence every week, but that's hard to do. They didn't do a good enough job. How could the Cowboys be unprepared for the Jets? Easy. It's very difficult to be excellently prepared week after week after week. That's why Belichick is a genius and everyone else is changing. The Pats are the only team that's well prepared essentially all of the time.

IJ just love the guy.

Right. I've said throughout that the Bills were not well prepared for the game.

Thanks. Game prep and game planning is a nice distinction. They weren't prepared, and they should have been. Allen should have known what to do with the pass rush, and in the first half it seemed he didn't. However they did it, they controlled it better in the second half, because on the biggest throws (like the pass to Duke and TD pass), Allen was comfortable.

Exactly. The biggest wildcard is Allen. If Allen starts playing some seriously good football, beginning this week, then this season could be special. But if what we get is nice, steady growth out of him, we're going to see inconsistent offense and the Bills will stumble occasionally. Not the end of the world if that happens.

The players may have said that, but what do the players know? Really. Even if they had the thought, they weren't going to say the game plan sucked. Either way, however, the Bills coaching failed. If the players were rusty and out of sorts, they weren't ready to play. That's on the coaches. If they had a lousy game plan, that's on the coaches. As someone said, the players didn't look like they weren't trying.