Shaw66

I actually have only one old VCR in the house. I never re or anything. I don't thing I subscribe to anything where replays are available. I know that's at least a little weird. I think I think of games as events when they're live and history after that. Anyway, I haven't seen the game and don't expect I will. Not having seen the game, I really can't comment. Sounds right. Thanks. However, regardless of why the game is close at the end, good teams find ways to win close games. Among a variety of things keeping the Bills from being a good team is an inability to finish.

I said something similar in another thread. Yes, he gets another year, but is a team that just doesn't make plays when they need them the fault of the talent? Maybe, I suppose, because a lot of them are young. But I don't get the feeling that McDermott's team is really schooled in how to play. Really, the reason we say he gets another year is that it's just too early to tell about McD. He's learning, his talent is changing. The talent is learning. Lots of moving parts. THe Pegulas knew they were buying a longer-term project with McDermott. He isn't failing, but he hasn't shown that he's succeeding, either.

Virg - Thanks for the write-up. I didn't see the game, and it's nice to be able to get some in depth commentary. Nice job. I don't know if I feel as positive about the team as you do. Allen, Foster, Zay and Milano? I'm thrilled about Allen, Zay's a slot/#2, Foster's a role player. Milano is a mystery. He might be turning into a stud. (I haven't looked at any reports, but I understand he got hurt. I hope he's okay.) I see too many things that look like they aren't right yet. Offensive line, receivers, tight ends, clutch play in the fourth quarter. I'm optimistic, but it's hard to be jumping up and down celebrating the growth in the team. Not saying you were jumping up and down; just saying I see a lot that doesn't look like a winner yet. Next season will be the serious test for McDermott. He'll have some new and better talent, and we will have two full systems to implement his process. In some ways the Bills look like they're close to being a winner instead of a loser, but it's hard to win in the NFL. McDermott needs to do it.

“No Review This Week” I didn’t see the game. I followed a lot of the game on Gamecast. I have one reaction: I have no idea who played well and who didn’t; I have no idea whether there were bad calls. I have no idea what kind of decisions McDermott made on the sideline. What I do know is the Bills have now lost two games in a row by failing to make plays to win the game. Didn’t make the plays against the Dolphins, and didn’t make the plays against the Jets. I can only speculate about it. It’s some combination of player talent and coaching. I’d guess mostly coaching. McDermott talks a good game, but I’m not sure how good he is at getting his team ready for anything that could happen. Whatever the reason, this team needs to learn how to close out games. McDermott and the players have to learn. That’s what good teams do. Or maybe not; maybe it’s just that you win some (Titans, Jags) and you lose some (Texans, Dolphins, Jets). I’ll be at New Era next week, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say. 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 get that, but he's really just a person who didn't fit what McBeane are doing. He doesn't have the intensity and desire to play on this team.

Guy made a lot of plays. That's good.

Fundamentally, I think he's good because he LOOKS good. All of him looks good. He looks good throwing from the pocket. He looks good scrambling. He looks good throwing on the run. He looks good running. He makes plenty of perfect throws. He makes spectacular throws. He isn't stupid. You can't actually look good at all aspects of play and not be good. Not all aspects of his decision making are as good as they need to be, but for me it's simple: Who's the QB you would trade even up for Allen? For me there definitely are fewer than 20, probably fewer than 15.

Nobody's picking him apart. We're talking about things that he could better. Right. It's Brady's genius. He always gets the most out of each play, even if the most is an incompletion.

Well, that may be true in some cases, but I doubt in all. My fundamental point is that he's playing well. Whatever the reason, he's throwing a lot of deeper ball, and those are always going to be lower completion percentage balls. The point is that he doesn't have low percentage because he's missing a lot. He's throwing harder balls to complete. Now, some of that, I believe, is bad judgment. I'd guess the coaches are telling him he should make some different choices. But maybe not. Maybe he's already making the choices they want.

No. Allen isn't the play caller, but he has to decide what to do with the ball. No one does that for him. As Hapless pointed out, Allen wasn't thinking when he threw to Lesean for a six yard loss. He knew where McKenzie was supposed to be, and he has to recognize that settling for zero yards with a chance for more is just better than giving it to your best runner six yards behind the line of scrimmage. Shady has the potential to break a long run, of course, but a lot of choices in the NFL are about cutting your losses. Sean McDermott will differ with you big-time if you want discuss whether a a five yard completion is better than a 12-yard incompletion under almost ANY circumstances.

That's an interesting list. Clearly, he has to learn to throw shorter passes. Seriously. Success in the NFL requires high completion percentage - that's what works. A five-yard completion is better than a 12-yard incompletion, obviously. That's what hapless was demonstrating, in a way, when he talked about Allen throwing to McCoy for a loss. In both that case and downfield passes that fall incomplete, he isn't making all the right choices. That just takes time, practice, coaching.

Here's a list of the 12 QBs with passer ratings just above Allen's, which is 34 best in the league. So it's 21 through 33. I think Allen would be starting ahead of all those guys. Especially when you consider his running, but even without it. 21 Marcus Mariota, QB TEN 206 298 69.1 2,330 7.82 61 11 8 39 93.4 194 22 Baker Mayfield, QB CLE 224 354 63.3 2,639 7.46 71 18 10 22 91.1 264 23 Jameis Winston, QB TB 157 232 67.7 1,941 8.37 60 12 11 18 90.8 277 24 Matthew Stafford, QB DET 292 439 66.5 3,086 7.03 67 18 11 36 90.0 257 25 Andy Dalton, QB CIN 226 365 61.9 2,566 7.03 49 21 11 21 89.6 233 26 Brock Osweiler, QB MIA 113 178 63.5 1,247 7.01 75 6 4 16 86.1 208 27 Alex Smith, QB WSH 205 328 62.5 2,180 6.65 52 10 5 22 85.7 218 28 Case Keenum, QB DEN 256 411 62.3 2,953 7.19 64 14 10 28 85.1 246 29 Joe Flacco, QB BAL 232 379 61.2 2,465 6.50 71 12 6 16 84.2 274 30 Blake Bortles, QB JAX 223 369 60.4 2,572 6.97 80 13 10 27 81.9 234 RK PLAYER TEAM COMP ATT PCT YDS YDS/A LONG TD INT SACK RATE YDS/G 31 C.J. Beathard, QB SF 102 169 60.4 1,252 7.41 82 8 7 18 81.8 209 32 Sam Darnold, QB NYJ 159 289 55.0 1,934 6.69 76 11 14 21 68.3 215 33 Josh Rosen, QB ARI 148 273 54.2 1,670 6.12 75 10 11 26 68.2 167

Oh, I don't do the drive all in a day. I drive Saturday, stay overnight, go the game and drive home. Couldn't do it all in a day.

I think the continued dissing of Allen is evidence of the same press bias that is out there. This guy writes very nicely and he SOUNDS authoritative, but I don't know what he's talking about. It seems clear to me he hasn't been watching the games. I think he looks at highlights and stats. Frankly, as much as I love his running, I don't get too excited about. I loved Taylor running, too, but all that matters was whether he could play QB in the NFL. He demonstrated that he could, but just marginally. He couldn't get significantly better. He looked like the same guy in Cleveland. It isn't about running. It's about passing and running the team. Allen makes an occasional bad throw, but he is NOT an inconsistent thrower. His passing seems to keep getting better, with a lot of passes right where they need to be. I keep thinking about the throw to Jones on the sideline at the end of the Dolphins game, the one overturned on review. That was an outstanding throw. He has a lot of those. What problems I see are minor. He doesn't always get his feet set - every once in a while he throws a bit off balance. I think he isn't seeing all the receivers all the time. I saw something somewhere that said that he should be checking the ball down more than he is - he's always going downfield, even if it's a tight window, when it would be fine for him to take the checkdown, gets some high probability free yards and go on to the next play. He has a lower completion percentage on those tight-window downfield plays. Allen has a lots of little things he needs to learn, lots and lots. He's smart and he's motivated. I don't doubt that he'll learn them. The real point is that he is, today, a bona fide NFL starting quarterback. Right now. I think people who haven't watched enough to see these things just will be late to the party.

I'm late to this thread, I know. I really didn't care that Benjamin got cut, and I really don't care if he succeeds in KC. If he does, it will be good for him, and he doesn't seem like a bad guy. He got a lot of hate around here because of his performance, but he's just guy who couldn't get it done here. He's gone to a great offensive coach with an offense that won't ask him to do a lot, and he may make plays for the Chiefs. I don't care because because whether he might succeed someplace else, McB decided that he wasn't going to succeed in Buffalo. Better to let others have a shot and reload next season. And I don't fault McB for getting him in the first place. There's no question they're figuring a lot out as they go. They both are doing new, much more complicated jobs in Buffalo than they'd ever had before. And even the very best coaches and GMs in the business don't get personnel decisions correct all the time. McB are in a process of learning themselves, just as much as they expect their players to be in a process. Frankly, since they figured out that Allen was the guy to get and then got him to the Bills, they can have half a dozen mistakes like Benjamin and they're still ahead of the game.

I'm 6 and a half hours out, too, and I do it 5 or 6 times each season. And I've gone to games solo. I have a casual relationship with a few folks around me, but certainly pre- and post-game and even much of the game I'm alone. I like it. I actually find conversations during the game are distracting. I like just watching and thinking about the game. And although I'd rather do the drive with company, I don't mind going solo. Sometimes I listen to a book or to music. I make a few phone calls. On the way home I think and rethink aspects of the game.

Thanks. Tickets are gone.

I have two tickets for the Jets game I'm giving away. PM me if you're interested. You need a smart phone with email on it so that I can email the tickets to you.

This comparison to recent Bill's QBs is a good way to look at it. He already certainly is past where Manuel ever was. He's already better than Losman ever was. Losman made more mistakes in his final season than Allen is making in his first. I wouldn't be too quick to say his floor is Taylor and Fitzpatrick is. I tend to agree, but those guys were pretty consistent veterans and Allen still could stumble.

I agree the new guys are taking over. And in the group of new guys, there are a half dozen with the potential to be in the top 10 all time discussion. Goff, Wentz, Mayfield, Darnold, Allen, Mahomes. Guys with arms and moxie. Not saying any or all will be top 10, but those guys and maybe one or two more have the potential.

I'm way up the curve. I'm trying to curb my enthusiasm. I think Allen is a star. I don't even include his running ability in my evaluation. Poise, pocket presence, command of the huddle, scrambling and escapability, and throwing ability are all first rate. He's smart and eager to learn. I think he's the best of his class and actually can be the best of his generation. And I'm back on the McBeane bandwagon. First because they were smart enough to identify Allen and find a way to get him. Next because they've created place where players want to play. Third, because McDermott builds sound defenses. Fourth, because they keep changing until they get it right. And I'm liking Daboll. But.mostly because of Allen. I'm excited.

That's a great perspective. Thanks.

Love your stuff. Thanks. A couple of comments. I said about 6 weeks ago that if Allen had reported to the Chiefs camp in June and Mahomes wasn't there, Allen would be having the success Mahomes is having. Now, I know that's a bit of an overstatement, but really, what is it that Allen isn't doing that we'd like? Not much. Mahomes is scrambling and hitting wide open receivers. Allen can do that. I agree about getting more speed on the field at the receiver position making a difference. But I also think that Daboll is starting to hit his stride in terms of the modern NFL offense. I think he has a QB who can deliver the ball, and he's seeing now how he can use the more modern route techniques if he has speed guys out there. Let's face, the chances are that there isn't an all-pro receiver on the roster right now. All-Pros are nice to have, but what's been needed is route design, quality route running by guys with some speed, and a QB who can deliver the ball. We're starting to see all three. And pass protection. It's important to remember that all of this goes together. When the running game is working (albeit even if it's your QB running) it changes the pass rush. When the pass rush changes, the pass protection gets easier. The offensive line hasn't suddenly gotten good, although I'm sure they're improving as the season progresses. jWhat's happened is the whole offense has gotten better, which tends to keep the defense a bit out of sync. It feeds on itself.

Clay's feet are always in quicksand. He isn't a quick twitch player. That's why the throw needed to be better I'd you want to win. Your qb isn't throwing to a hypothetical player we would like to have. He's throwing to real live player who has limitations.

It's about big picture, not individual decisions.