Shaw66

Logic, I had to resurrect this. I was watching Titans-Jags, and they just LOOKED different from the Bills. Granted, Mariota was in trouble most of the night, because his protection looked like the Bills' pass protection last season. And both teams were playing some quality, attacking defense. But it looked different. Eventually, I realized that the difference is that the Bills EXECUTE, all of them EXECUTE, on every play. The Titans and Jags had too many plays where they just flat out blew their assignments - dropped passes, poorly thrown passes, missed tackles. Often, the success they had was based some really good athlete making a really good play, but then it was followed by a really good athlete missing an ordinary play. The Bills don't miss many ordinary plays. The Jags and Titans often had looks of frustration on their faces, frustration that something didn't work. The Bills rarely look frustrated, just determined. I think the Bills are fundamentally different from a lot of other teams, not just the bottom five or eight. They're working in a culture where everyone executes, and as the talent improves, the quality of the play will improve. It's exciting.

And it's easy to see how a team full of guys like this can accomplish more than a team full of prima donnas. Great story. Della Donne - WNBA player of the year again this year - has a very similar story.

I gotta say these teams look unprepared compared to the Bills. The Bills know how to execute and execute consistently. Each guy does his job. These teams look like it's hit or miss all the time.

I'm expecting a call up tomorrow. Or McKenzie plays running back.

Of course, maybe he's right. Maybe if they get to 3-0 he will still say this. 4-0 would turn heads. All you can do is beat the teams on your schedule.

The offense had just failed in the two minute drill. The special teams had just failed to contain a punt return. In other words two thirds of the team was struggling to do things they practice every week. The defense bailed them out. I wouldn't have bet on my offense and special teams in that situation.

He IS the one. He is still growing, and no one can see exactly what the finished product will look like, but he IS the one.

These are great points. Thanks. Everything is different. It's like we were looking in the mirror and then stepped through it into an alternative universe. Through the looking glass.

Cool. I didn't read it that way. I think of competent and incompetent as more akin to functional and dysfunctional. Bills were dysfunctional for years, because of some ongoing combination of management, coaching and talent. Now they're functional. They are competent in their jobs, top to bottom in the organization. What I think that means is that they get the most you can expect out of each person, including each player. That expectation is based in part on the talent of the players. If the Bills had Odell Beckham, for example, the expectations of the offense would be higher. They don't have him, so I don't expect the passing game to be as explosive as perhaps it needs to be. The guys they have are competent, but to be a big winner I think the Bills need some talent upgrades. That's why I've been saying (and I think Beane was sort of implied it often) that 2020 is the target year for the Bills to be really good. They're competent this season, may or may not turn out to be good, too. Next season they will be competent and good.

I don't agree. Win or lose on Sunday, this team is definitely on the right track. It is exactly what McD said it would be, a team he can build on. How fast the building takes place remains to be seen, but the foundation is there.

Can't say I've really studied him, but I don't think he's been a liability. Last season I thought he was a problem in the run, but this season. The guy had seven tackles on Sunday, so he obviously was around the ball a fair amount. That's 112 on the season, and that's not bad. Plus, most defensive players get occupied by blockers most of the time. It's the nature of the game. No edge rushers beat their man all the time; they don't even do it half the time. Every once in a while they win the battle and make the play. Similarly, MLBs. They don't beat the blocker all the time, anywhere close to the time. Sometimes they just occupy the blocker, and someone else is expected to make the play. The question for Edmunds, like everyone else, is whether he's making the play when it's his turn, when he has an edge, and he seems to be doing that. The other question is he flat out beating his man once in a while, and I think he's doing that, too.

Logic - I saw the title to this thread yesterday and realized it capture how I was feeling. I didn't read your post until just now. I think you're exactly correct. It's amazing how all of a sudden the league looks different. The league is full of two kinds of teams; those that know what they're doing and those that don't. For years, the Bills stumbled around, trying to catch lightning in a bottle, and all they could catch was an occasional lightning bug. I'd look at the successful teams, and think "if only the Bills had ______," or "if only the Bills some other _______." It wasn't clear to me, other than the Pats, what it was that made teams successful. Most fans think it's a franchise QB, and it isn't an accident that the Bills getting better coincided with their getting the franchise QB. Now that it's happening, everything looks different. From where I am as a fan now, I can look at a team like the Jets or the GIants or others and SEE the dysfunctionality. I can see how they're not all on the same page, focused on the same goals, committed to one another in a way that keeps making the team better. And I can see how the good teams all have that. I can see how when a player goes down to injury, the bad teams struggle to maintain quality play with a backup, and how with the good teams it's the opposite - next man up works, because the next man up is prepared. Maybe that's the real difference;: everyone is prepared on a good team. The coaches are prepared, the players are prepared, starters or backups. It's like the NFL is divided into two sections. Conferences and Divisions aren't nearly as important as which section you are in. Are you in the section of competent, well-coached teams, which means you're fighting for a championship. Or are you in the section of teams stumbling around trying to figure out how to get into the other section. I think it's in England where the major league and minor league soccer teams are divided by how good you are. If you want to play the major league teams, you have to win enough to move up to that league. If you're in the major league and you play badly enough, you get moved down to the minor leagues. In the NFL, there isn't a formal division,but the effect is the same. It's really cool now that the Bills have moved up to the upper section. Yes, it is. Love it.

That's funny - I just wrote to a Giants fan friend of mine who was talking about Jones. I told him the best he could hope for is a rookie season like Allen's, and described the path just as you did. It was a perfect way for Allen to grow into the league, grow enough so that he could survive. Now he's on the road. I don't think the Bills can win a lot against the best teams in the league, not yet. We'll see when the Pats come to town. But they can compete with the best, and as you say, it's a process. The open question is how much they will grow this season. If they grow a lot, they're in the playoffs. If they grow some, they will have taken the next step. It's clear they've already taken some big steps.

Read this thread and there's one conclusion: THE WHOLE TEAM IS A PLEASANT SURPRISE. But I gotta say, I wasn't surprised.

I expected his season average to be 10 points better. I didn't think about when it would happen, but I guess to finish there he would pretty much have to start there. I didn't think he'd start slow and grow to 80% in order to average 64. So yeah, from the beginning.

No. That game never gave me any affection for the Bengals or the players. I was grateful, but it could have been anyone. It's a great thing to talk about to Bengals fans, but that's it.

Right. I would have been surprised if that HADN'T happened.

You're right about this. I think I posted earlier about how over the past couple of years, listening and watching, the clues were there. This year on Memorial Day I stuck my neck and said to Bills fans that they should sit back and enjoy it, because we're watching something special happening. Since then we've had training camp, and you could see it. Then preseason, any you could see it. Now two games, you can see it. Allen isn't done improving, by a long shot. Daboll and Frazier and McD aren't done improving. Beane isn't done adding talent. It's really fun to watch. There are going to be some losses, some injuries, some disappointments, but still this team will continue moving forward. I'm loving it.

My impression is that he's always run those routes. That's what's made him always look like a promising receiver - great deep speed that he also uses to outrun the defense on the crossing routes.

eball Thanks for this. Your list is a good one, and other names that people have mentioned are good additions. Which makes what I keep saying is the more fundamental and important point: McDermott's system, his process, works. His system leads to pleasant surprises. Milano, Wallace, Allen, Edmunds - all young guys who contributed almost right away. And what's cool about the system is that when young players have success in the system, they want to STAY in the system, because they understand that the system helps them be successful. It feels good to do your job, and it feels good to win. So, yeah, there are some pleasant surprises, and those guys earned the right to be on your list. McDermott created the environment that allows them to be surprises.

Agreed. We will see it this year. Next year will be his first full season when we will have a good look at what he can become. He's growing up fast, but hea still just a teenager who has had his license for six months. I agree with that, but they aren't getting THAT open on sharp cuts. The Bill's are running much more of a short yardage passing game and defenses are having the same problem stopping it as they have stopping the Patriots.

Oh, yeah. McDermott's vision is that EVERYONE on the team gets better every day. He and Daboll would agree that Daboll isn't close to being the OC they expect him to become.

Cool. I think there'll be a better play maker on the team next year, and then things will really start cooking. I've been reluctant to say this, but I feel about the same. Darnold maybe. Mayfield maybe. Murray, was too early to tell. Whatever, the list is very short.

I gotta say that when McDermott arrived, one part of me believed that he was selling snake oil. He was sincere and all, but come on, what is this stuff he's talking about. But someone last spring I started to see a little bit of what he was doing and how it was working. I kept seeing it more clearly, listening to what he was saying and watching how the players perform. Then against the Jets, when the Bills went down, I realized I got it, that I could see how he was preparing the team for anything, and I thought the Bills not only had a chance, but actually were going to come back. Then I saw it. Then the Giants rolled over the Bills on the first possession, and I wasn't worried. The rest of the half I saw it happening, including the the problems they still have to fix - like end of half execution. Now I'm fully on board. Something special is going in Buffalo. We've all been sitting here waiting for a winner and a championship. I think we're getting something more. I think we're getting a team that will dazzle the league like the Pats do, but with character as well as with consistent winning. I'm really excited. This is not an offense that is going to overpower teams. It needs some more talent worked into the lineup before it can do that. But it's an offense that can perform and be part of a winning team. Last season, the team couldn't win because the offense was so weak. That isn't the case this season.

Why not this season? Well, it could be this season, but my own sense is that they aren't ready yet. I think we'll see Allen make some bad plays out of inexperience. I think receiver by committee works until you run into a good pass defense. Then it's likely the whole committee gets shut down. I think the running game, even when Singletary is back, will be inconsistent, partly because of the backs and partly because of the line. I think McD himself is still learning. Now, having said that, the oline COULD gel and Beasley and Brown COULD be a handful for most teams and Allen COULD learn faster than I expect. Peter King said, as others here have, that the Bills could be 6-2 at the halfway point, and if they are improving, this COULD be the year. I'd love it. I'm expecting a lot of growth this year, some new talent next year, and then it'll be rolling.