Shaw66

I go hoping for miracles. You know, like a Monday night win over the Patriots.

I read somewhere that Bill Belichick's single greatest skill is film study. He's a master at reviewing film, figuring out what a team is doing and figuring out his team has to do to counter it. I think if you're Jekyl and Hyde like the Bills - competitive some days and not others, it says you're bad at film study. By the seventh game of the season, teams have begun to show their tendencies. The films will show which plays they run regularly and why those plays work for them. By this time in the season, your team should be identifying those tendencies and adjusting offensive and defensive schemes to neutralize what the opponent does well and to take advantage of what the opponent does poorly. Getting blown out by a mediocre team like the Bills did Sunday means, I think, that either the coaches (1) aren't learning what they should from film study or (2) aren't designing effective counter measures to attack the opponent or (3) aren't effectively teaching the players those counter measures. So maybe the Bills were surprised by what the Ravens did, and maybe even what the Chargers did, but I doubt it. In any case, they shouldn't have been surprised by what the Colts did. And they shouldn't have been surprised in mid-season last year, when they were blown out three games in a row. One reason the Patriots don't do so well in September is that Belichick doesn't have enough film on the teams to understand and attack their strengths. And film study is why the Patriots, more so than most teams, look different from week to week. If the film says a defense is weak against the run, the Patriots become a running team for the week. If the study says passing is the way to go, that's what the Patriots do. You can have all the character you want; if your aren't teaching your players what they need to do, you aren't going to win.

I think Allen is going to be great. There's not much to watch until he gets back.

The Rockpile Review – by Shaw66 “So Funny I Could Cry” There was a time when The Rockpile Review was funny, or that’s what people told me. I’ve been trying to remember those times. The Rockpile Review began in 2005, under a different title. In those days, it seemed I always could find the humor somewhere in the games. J.P. Losman was pretty funny, I suppose. T.O. was amusing. Marshawn was always entertaining. Eventually, however, the lovable loser thing got old. A few years earlier, Dareus would have been funny, but by his time he was just a symptom. It’s particularly hard to find the humor when the Bills are as bad as they were against the Colts on Sunday. For the third time this season and the seventh time in two years, the Bills found themselves in a game in which they couldn’t compete. They were outplayed from the beginning. They were ineffective from the beginning. It was so bad, it should have been funny, but it was worse than that. Well, watching Tremaine Edmunds tackle is kind of funny. If he manages to actually get his arms around the guy, he slides off like a Looney Tunes character. Failing to score in the final two minutes of the first half while giving up 10 points was amazing, but I wasn’t laughing. That’s about it for humor this week. At least humor about the Bills. Have you seen Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle? Saw it the other night, and it’s surprisingly funny. It’s a clever premise, putting real people into a video game, and the writers took full advantage. It goes a bit overboard on the Indiana-Jones-like action sequences, but that’s okay. It’s worth a watch. Sorry, but it’s kind of painful thinking about that game. Particularly painful is that I believe coaching is more important than talent, and if I’m correct about that, the Bills’ coaches are terrible. Sean McDermott says he hates pre-snap penalties. Well, Sean, you had plenty to hate on Sunday, on both sides of the ball. When’s your team going to clean them up? I get being conservative and all, but at the end of the third quarter, down 21, you run twice and then throw incomplete on third and 12? With McCoy out of the game, Ivory gets injured, and you give the ball to Marcus Murphy four consecutive plays? Guess what, Sean? Kelvin Benjamin has come back from the dead. He can run routes, and he’s catching the ball WITH HIS HANDS! Zay Jones looks like a real receiver, too. Can we PLEASE run some pass patterns to get these guys open? Every team in the league gets guys open on third and 3, third and 5. Just watch some film and copy what the Colts did to you. Oh, and while you’re watching the film, try to figure out why it’s necessary for your entire zone defense to drop so deep that the opponents’ safety valve receiver can catch the ball over the middle with no defender within 15 yards. Once you figure that out, maybe you can work THAT into the offense, too. Want to see a good movie? Bad Times at El Royale. I know, the previews make it look like another six-people-stranded-in-a-motel-on-a-rainy-night movie. Well, yes, it is. But it’s good. Interesting characters. Weird twists. It’s funny and entertaining. The Bills, unfortunately, are not entertaining. Some days they’re good on defense, other days not so much. They’re essentially never good on offense – they’re not on the same planet with the Chiefs.. The special teams are iffy. Things I liked: Kyle Williams. He just always plays. Jerry Hughes, penalties or not, he’s learned to play like Kyle. Tre White – man, he sticks to his man. That pass interference call was bogus; the receiver initiated the contact and then had to back off to try to catch the ball. Tremaine Edmunds, despite his tackling. Kelvin Benjamin, finally doing the things we thought he’d do when he came to Buffalo. And I like Josh Allen. Despite what I might like, this team is in trouble. And I’m not laughing. My wife said “maybe they’ll do better next week.” I told her next week is the Patriots. We both got a good laugh out of that. 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.

RIP, Dick. Good, good player. I love the story about his little brother, Ed. They were big Mo and little Mo. Ed started at fullback for the Browns for two or three years in the 50s, and he was really well liked by his teammates. When a rookie running back showed up in training camp in 1957, Ed's pals on the defense made sure they gave the rookie a few extra, hard shots, because they didn't want some rookie taking Ed's job. After a a couple of days, Ed's pals recognized that it really didn't matter how hard they hit Jim Brown, he wasn't going down. After that, they all were resigned to the fact that Brown would be the starter. Ed died a couple of years ago.

Yeah, that defense was truly great. If I'm recalling correctly, McDole was the guy the Bills had difficulty keeping at his playing weight. He wouldn't stay on any diet. There was a story (again, I THINK it was about McDole) that at training camp they limited his calories and even then he gained weight. Finally, the Bills actually put him under surveillance, and someone caught him sneaking out of camp at night and eating a half dozen burgers at McDonalds!

Here's what would have changed: Derek Anderson would have been the second string quarterback, he would have come into the Texans game when Allen got hurt, and he wouldn't have thrown the interceptions. The Bills likely would have won the game. People were complaining here for weeks that the Bills didn't have a mento for Allen and didn't have a backup. I thought it was just whining, but they were right. Peterman probably shouldn't be on the team at all, but in any case he shouldn't have been the backup. That's bad decision making by McBeane.

And that's the biggest reason I'm disappointed about his injury. He needs time on the field. He has a lot to learn.

Thanks. That's interesting. I know the feeling from playing basketball. You're in the process of shooting and you see something distracts you, and somehow your brain's shooting sequence gets disrupted. I think he has a ton to learn about the game, but that doesn't bother me today. He will learn it or he won't, and we will find that out in the future. Is He Peyton or is he Cutler or somewhere in between? My point is that I don't yet see much that might prevent him from being a success. He looks like he's on his way.

I appreciate that you played D 1. That means that you understand a lot of things about playing QB that I don't. Frankly, I'm not worrying too much about presnap reads. That's a skill that NFL qbs say isn't learned learned in college, at least not anything like whats necessary in the pros. That's a big part of the jump you're talking about. Allen certainly has to work on that. Every rookie does. I see him throw some inaccurate balls. The high ones to the sideline and several deepened into double coverage are, I think, throwaways, not inaccurate. The balls that are bad are the short balls that are consistently at the feet of receivers or at least too low. He absolutely needs to do those better. But that defect doesn't strike as so big that I'm worried about it. Do you see it differently?

That's interesting. I think you're right about how long an elite defense lasts. That's why finding an elite QB is so important. He lasts 10 years, keeps you relevant longer. I'm anxious to see if the Bills front seven can dominate more teams. I mean, the goal line e stand was really impressive. Is that indicative of how good the defense is?

Here's what I said last week: The Bills were outstanding Sunday afternoon, beating the Tennessee Titans 13-12 on Stephen Hauschka’s 46-yard field goal on the last play of the game. “Outstanding?” Yes, outstanding. There is a lot to talk about in the NFL, but there is only one measure of success, and that’s winning. When you make the plays to win, you’re outstanding.  “Really, outstanding?” Yes. When you put together a fourth-quarter drive to win the game, you’re outstanding. I said the Bills were outstanding in the game. I didn't say they were an outstanding team. I said when you come from behind and win in the fourth quarter that's outstanding. I said in a post later in the thread if as a fan, which is what I am and most of us are, when your team wins like that, it's outstanding. Anyone who read my Review last week knew or should have known I wasn't saying the team is a great team, a finished product, or anything like that. I said it was an outstanding game. I didn't say every play was outstanding, I didn't say the Bills dominated. None of that. I just said the game was outstanding. Every game when the Bills come from behind to win is outstanding, as far as I'm concerned.

I just post here. It's up on BillsMafia.com, too. I'm not sure what you're saying. I wouldn't call it a hard-nosed defense, but I like it a lot. It's impressive. I don't think you can have a hard nosed defense with a middle linebacker who attacks running backs like it's two-hand touch. In any case, I agree, it's a good defense. And I agree the offense needs a lot of work. Whether it's a tear down, I don't know, but there's no doubt that it's completely inadequate right now. With a decent offense, Bills would be 4-3 or 5-2 right now.

I think you're seeing now. I watch for it. I couldn't come up with the first-half/second-half splits, but I think you'll find since McDermott got here that the Bills are winning the second half pretty consistently. Which team adjusted better at the half on Sunday? Well, I don't know exactly what adjustments were made, but the Texans took the ball to open the half and the Bills took it away. Adjustments? I don't know, but the result was right. Bills were losing at the half and took the lead. Adjustments? I don't know, but I do know the Bills outplayed the Texans in the second half, until Peterman started passing in the last two minutes.

That's well put. I too thought Allen would be a problem this year, but almost from the get go I've surprised and pleased. Pleased with: Pocket presence compared to the average rookie Ability to shake tacklers in the pocket Escapability Arm Decision making compared to the average rookie Running Ability to throw on the run, going left or right. He isn't throwing for a lot yards be. cause (1) he doesn't have a lot of attempts, (2) he doesn't have receivers who can get deep, (3) until recently he had no time for deep patterns to develop and (4) I'm sure he's missing some opportunities to go deep because he just isn't seeing everything yet. He has some touch and accuracy problems on short balls, but that's easily correctable over the next year. Nothing I've seen looks like a long-term problem, and most of what I've seen is really good for a rookie.

I didn't say the offenses were the same, and I didn't say the defenses were the same. I said the style was the same. Keep the score low, run the clock, try to win the game late. What does "raw" mean? That's this year's favorite criticism of a Bills QB. What does it mean? What's wrong with his game that needs to be corrected?

Well, based on the way roughing the passer was called about 20 years, nothing. But based on how the penalty has evolved, and how it's been called several times this season, both the first guy who hit him, and definitely Mercilus, who hit him on his right arm, should have pulled up. There was absolutely no reason for Mercilus to have hit him. The ball was out well before he got there, he saw the ball was out, and he should have stopped. I think the Mercilus hit is the one that injured Allen's elbow.

Road wins in the NFL are big. The Bills had a road win in their hands on Sunday, leading the Houston Texans by 3 with a couple of minutes left in the game. The Bills let it get away. Good teams win games like that. The Bills aren’t good, not yet. They look like they could be good, but they aren’t. Let’s state the obvious: · Special teams killed the Bills on Sunday. Fumbled punt, blocked punt. Both led to points. · Penalties killed the Bills on Sunday. · Peterman killed the Bills on Sunday. He simply cannot – CANNOT - throw an interception at that place on the field with the score tied. The second interception wasn’t much better. He just doesn’t see the field well enough yet, and I don’t know when he’ll get enough playing time to learn to see it better. He looks like he needs to throw about 75 interceptions before he gets it. And since this is the last I’ll say about Peterman, his touchdown throw was spectacular. · The Bills defense did enough to win the game. The pass rush was great. On to the less obvious. One pattern that’s emerged over the past year and a half is that the Bills are a second-half team. Especially with a limited offense, McDermott plays a conservative game for 30 minutes. His objective is to stay within striking distance, because he expects his team to win the second half. They did that Sunday. He needed his defense to get the stop at the end of the first half against the Texans, and they got it. Then the defense turned the ball over to start the second half, and the Bills were in business. Of course, that pattern looks suspiciously like the style of play we saw when Dick Jauron coached the Bills: solid defense, stay close, run the clock, find a way to win (or lose) in the end. That style is great to get you to .500; unfortunately, it’s also great to keep you at .500. There were signs of life on the offense. Kelvin Benjamin ran some nice routes and made several nice catches, including going high for Allen’s off-balance throw deep down the left sideline that was called back. Zay Jones looked like a real NFL receiver. The Bills ran another wideout screen, and they found Clay over the middle nicely. No one was mistaking the Bills passing game for the Chiefs or the Rams, but they made plays. The Bills need more of it. LeSean McCoy is a player. I say it every week, because the guy comes to play every week. Tre White also is a player, and I haven’t been saying that. Nobody throws at him. Hopkins’ touchdown was what everyone has come to expect from Hopkins – an outstanding football play by an outstanding player. White was right there; Hopkins just won that time. That will happen. I think the Bills win the game, if Allen hadn’t been injured. (Not that it mattered, but wasn’t that roughing the passer? They have those rules to protect the passer, and then they don’t call it.) Why do I think the Bills would have won? One, because Allen understands ball security and won’t throw the INT at the end of the game. Two, because he would have completed the pass on the play after his injury. Three, because he’s a good QB. Yes, he made a couple of poor throws again on Sunday, gimme throws that he needs to complete. But I can live with that. I love his pocket awareness, his escapability. His running ability was on display again this week. His running is an important weapon. Compare Allen’s scramble to the right and completion over the middle to someone – McCoy or Clay – with Watson’s interception to Poyer. More or less the same play, from the QB’s point of view. The rule for young QBs is don’t throw late over the middle. Not because it doesn’t work, but because young QBs don’t see the field well enough and don’t see some defender lurking. Allen knew he had the throw and made it; Watson thought he had the throw, but almost from the moment he let it go you could see that Poyer could make a play. We’ve seen Allen make very few rookie mistakes like Watson's. The Bills have their quarterback. JJ Watt is extraordinary. He made some plays on Sunday that were better than any play most guys make in a season. Amazing quickness, strength and awareness. And still, the Bills offensive line held up nicely, giving Allen time and giving McCoy room to run. Offensive lines are having trouble all over the league. I’ll say again what I’ve been saying all season – the Bills talent on the oline isn’t great, but it isn’t horrible. Coaching makes the difference. What else explains keeping Allen and Peterman upright against Watt and Clowney and Mercilus? Meanwhile, Bills fans are the BEST! Talk about travelling well! Bills’ blue was all over the stadium on Sunday, and Bills fans were making noise. The spontaneous chants were coming from Bills fans, not Texans fans. Bills blue was all over my hotel near the stadium, too. At lunch on Saturday a guy walked into the place wearing a Bills cap and got a few friendly boos. I went over to talk to him. Guy lives in Brooklyn, NY, has season tickets and goes to all the away games! Sixteen games a year. Saturday night was the best. We went to Christians Tailgate, the Houston Bills Backer bar, and we were blown away. The place was packed. The block was closed off, and the street was FULL of Bills fans. There must have been 2000 people there, maybe 3,000. Everyone was having a good time. Just the noise was amazing! (Being an old geezer, it was too loud for me, I’m usually done after one drink, anyway, so we found a place around the corner to have a beer and a burger and went home. Can’t miss that beauty rest, you know.) What now? I like this team. I like their intensity, their discipline. I liked it with Jauron’s teams, too. The Bills need to amp up the offense, and we saw a few signs of that Sunday. I’m worried about Allen. The Bills need him on the field. Right elbow injuries are problematic for throwers. Assuming the Bills can get him back, I’m still expecting the Bills to be a pretty good team during the second half of the season. If Allen can't go, I hope Anderson can. The Colts are another winnable road game, so the Bills have a chance to redeem themselves. Time’s awastin. 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'm not worried about Allen. He is learning. And he has a weak supporting cast. Bulls will help him out with more roll outs and short stuff to Zay and Ray Ray, Croom and Clay.

I'm guessing Daboll wants to make him into one of those little Patriot receivers - a Welker-Amendola-Edelman type. We saw it a little last week, and I'm looking for more of it Sunday.

McBeane believe in growing their own. I'd bet that they're thinking this: 1. They're going to make Ray Ray and Zay into the kind of receivers they want. 2. They're going to draft a receiver in 2019. 3. They're going to pick up a free agent second third year guy who hasn't made it yet (like Ray Ray), and make him into what they want. Not popular, but that's my guess. These guys are sure of themselves, and they're patient. I'm sure they have assurances from assurances from the Pegulas that they will be allowed to stay and do their work. I'd guess they have at least three years, maybe more, and they're confident that by 2020 this team is going to be competing.

You may be correct about the stratification. I doubt it. There is no effective grading system for evaluating raw talent of players, but I know that if the talent levels follow conventional statistical patterns, the difference between the 50th and 51st outside linebackers is relatively small. Regardless, your second and third sentences are what I was getting at. We've watched the Pats do it year after year. No-name guys doing adequate to good jobs and occasionally making big players. Bill B asks them to do almost everything they're capable of, but not more.

If you know me you know what's coming: Coaching trumps talent. With the exception of the 10 or 20 best linebackers, there isn't a huge difference in talent among linebackers. What does make a difference is scheme and absolute dedication of the player to learning and executing. THAT'S why Milano is succeeding, not because he's some previously undiscovered superstar.

Goodness gracious. Did we really need this?

Burgers and beers are a given. Port-a-potties?