Shaw66

Think is, if Homes had come back for the ball, it would have been on him even quicker. As it was, he wasn't ready to catch it when arrive. He had to be looking earlier. Bottom line, timing was off just a bit. Timing and location were off on the early out pattern to Benjamin. And I agree completely about Benjamin's body language. I said last week he looks like he's afraid to get hit. This week he looked bored. He doesn't seem to be doing anything at full speed, and given that he isn't a speedster to begin with, going at full speed is pretty damn important for him. Something not right with him, and unless something changes fast, I can't see how he will be in Buffalo next year. He might not even be in the league.

It's like last year. Keep penalties down, minimize mistakes, no big plays, get a couple of takeaways, work the offense. In the meantime, Allen keeps getting better. I've been saying it for weeks: The second half of the season, the Bills will look like a good team, because the defense will be good and Allen will know what he's doing.

Right. Zay looked like a real NFL receiver. It took Elway's receivers a while to catch on. You have to run crisp routes and get your head around fast, because the ball is on its way and it's an express, not a local.

This a good article. He disses Allen more than necessary - Allen reads the defense much better than he says. Allen's actually played well. I think he's well prepared for games. His biggest problems are with accuracy on throws that require a little more touch than velocity and with timing with his receivers. He and Benjamin were badly off on an early throw, and the timing was screwed up on the INT. Benoit says Holmes should have come back for the ball, but I'm not so sure about that. It may have been thrown too early, or Holmes should have looked quicker. And the Bills receivers still have not adjusted to Allen's ball velocity. But Benoit's pretty much on about the team - winning despite being limited in talent. As McBeane continue to upgrade talent, this team should go places.

“Outstanding” 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. “But it was only the Titans.” Yes, the Titans were 3-1 but had played like they were 1-3. Statistically, they were indistinguishable from the Bills. Doesn’t matter. It’s the NFL, and nobody gives you anything in the NFL. You have to earn it against your opponent, whoever the opponent is. There were plenty of ways to lose to the Titans, and plenty of Bills teams over the past 15 years would have found them. Not this Bills team, not this Sunday. “But Josh Allen, the Bills’ ‘star’ rookie quarterback, was 10-19 for less than 100 yards and an interception.” Perfect, actually. What more could you ask than to give your rookie more game experience without asking him to win the game? Allen had an excellent game. He made a couple of bad throws (one too low to Benjamin that Kelvin should have gone down for and might have caught, a couple of others not as accurate as you’d like, and one perhaps a split second too early to Holmes that resulted in the interception), but in general Allen’s throws were on target and out of harm’s way. The flea flicker was probably a throwaway. Most importantly, Allen was in control on the winning drive. No panic, no mistakes. He needed to make only two routine throws to win the game, and he made them, on target so that McCoy and McCloud could make the critical runs after the catches. Allen didn’t take sacks, he didn’t turn it over and he had another highlight-reel touchdown run. Allen’s a keeper. “But the Bills passing game is so horrible that they had to play one-dimensional running football.” Actually, there were signs of life in the Bills’ passing game. Zay Jones looked like a quality receiver; running crisp routes and catching the ball. McCloud contributed. And the Bills did some of the overdue innovation their passing game needed. They actually ran a couple quick crossing routes that almost guarantee a receiver will be open for gains worth taking. They ran a couple of rub routes, and Allen had a nice completion to Clay over the middle that should be there all day. The Bills also had Allen on the move more, giving him time to look downfield instead of scrambling to avoid the pass rush. Roll-outs do have the disadvantage of shrinking the available passing lanes, but Allen’s running threat tends to neutralize that problem by opening holes as the defenders cheat toward the line of scrimmage. Look for more roll-outs next week, as Allen tries to outrun Watt and Clowney. A lot of fans complained when the Bills signed Chris Ivory as LeSean McCoy’s backup. They aren’t complaining today. On Sunday, Ivory was the guy who bedeviled the Bills for years with the Jets. He’s one tough dude. And Shady was Shady, almost good enough to carry the team completely on his own. The defense must key on him every down he’s on the field, and when he’s out, Ivory is pounding away. The Bills defense put in another excellent day of work. Hyde’s absence didn’t hurt them, Milano stood out, again, with visible plays all over the field, and the pass rush hurried Mariota, even if the Bills couldn’t catch him. It’s time to get used to it – the Bills play bend-don’t-break defense. More or less every team can move the ball against the Bills between the 20s, because they will give up the short stuff in order to stop anything deep. It was no surprise that the Titans kicked four field goals; the Bills’ TD defense has been stingy for the past three weeks. The Taron Johnson INT was sweet. Perfect position and a great break on the ball to make the play. Preparation plus talent equals success. “But outstanding, really?” Yes, outstanding, because with the game on the line the Bills’ coaches asked the players to execute the plan the coaches had installed during the week – pound the ball, get first downs, run the clock – and the players executed, perfectly. It was McDermott’s process on display. Prepare, practice, execute. Prepare, practice, execute. The process produces wins. We’re all so conditioned to the pass-happy NFL that with four minutes left, Bills fans everywhere were wondering how this rookie QB and those receivers were going to make the plays the Bills needed to win the game. The answer was the Bills didn’t need them. The Bills engineered a masterful four-and-a-half-minute, 11-play drive to win the game. It was more or less perfect – no penalties, no plays for negative yards, no incompletions, one third down conversion, excellent clock management, routine execution on the field goal. In the NFL, the name of the game is winning. In the first six weeks of the season, the name of the game is winning with a team that isn’t yet fully formed, against teams that you don’t know a lot about. With a rookie quarterback, the name of the game is winning while your kid is trying to figure out how to win. Winning with a rookie QB in the first six weeks of the NFL season is OUTSTANDING. On to Houston! 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.

Talent? Yes, patience is required. It will take few years to assemble the right talent, assuming McBeane can do it. Coaching, on the other hand, shouldn't require patience. Already in the second OC. You can have mediocre talent and still be well coached.

Beane could be peddling both for picks. Beane is SERIOUSLY committed to the draft. He wants HIS guys and he wants them young. A third or fourth for Shady and a sixth for Benji.

Well, that's well put, and I agree to some extent. They've said it before - they will take not take a guy with talent who doesn't fit the culture. So that means, I think, that they want to fill the locker room with guys who fit the culture, and they will improve the talent as they can. I get that. However, I don't see why it should mean that you have to do that with coaching. Why can't you have coaches who fit the culture and who ALSO are good at Xs and Os. What some of us have been talking about is that the offense seems remarkably ineffective, and I think that's more about coaching than talent. I mean, this talent on offense isn't going to light up everyone, but it should at least be able to SCORE once in a while. Is McDermott telling us that Daboll isn't so good at strategy, but he's good at culture and that's all the Bills need right now? If so, I think McDermott is wrong. This is his second offensive coordinator in two years, and he shouldn't have swung and missed twice at hiring someone who actually could figure out how to move the ball.

Here's what's bothering me: I believe this game is more about coaching than talent. Most teams have ordinary talent at most positions, and I think that's what the Bils have. It's coaching that makes the difference. I believe ordinary talent properly coached will play competitive football in this league. The Bills offense doesn't look competitive, and I'm beginning to worry that the coaching is substandard. McDermott is now on his second offensive coordinator, and we've seen one a quarter seasons of failing offense. The offensive line had the entire off-season to learn their jobs, and they don't seem to know what they're doing. The receivers are doing very little, and I think that reflects directly on play design and play calling. Improving talent should take a well coached team from average to above average. You shouldn't need to improve talent to play respectable football. I didn't worry about it so much last season - it was the first season for McDermott. But I'm worrying about it now.

It's a fair point. So far this season NFL games are looking like college games, and it's pretty tough to get shut out in college.

Meanie, that's a really good comment. Everything about the game Sunday screamed no energy. No intensity. There never was a moment where you thought "okay, here we go."

The "veteran presence" in the QB room is a train that's already left the station. There isn't one there now, unlikely one will be there for the rest of the season. The value of the veteran presence next season will be substantially less. Next season Allen will already have the playing experience of a lot of journeymen. He's just going to have to stumble along as well as he can for the time being. Looking for a comeback this Sunday. I hope Allen can get back on track.

These all are good points, and I don't think there are many good answers. I agree particularly about no veteran QB in the room. I thought that was the whole point in acquiring McCarron.

Fire the guy who didn't hire Andy Reid.

Wherebibrhink Daboll is falling down is preparing game plans that give a rookie QB better chances of success. Plays where he justbakesnthe snap and throws it based on one simple read. Take the TD to Croom last week. Take snap, fake to the flat and look deep. Throw deep or go back to the outlet in the flat. Simple. Rookies need a regular diet of balls they can complete. I don't think Allen had a lot of wildly inaccurate throws. He had a lot of throwaways. He was doing what he had been told to do of the receiver wasn't as open they wanted. Later in the game he wasn't wild. He was taking more chances.

I don't think Allen was the difference. First, the Vikings may have had a good defense last season, but they're struggling this season. 22nd in yards and 22nd in points. Second, especially early in the season, you get these weird games where teams are mismatched for some reason. Second half of the season, everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and these weird blowout upsets don't happen so often. Allen didn't have anyone to throw to against the Packers. Probably the Packers game planned for the things the Bills had success with against the Vikes, and the Bills didn't do any effective counter-planning. Plus, the Packers figured out where the weaknesses were in the Bills pass protection and exploited them, big time. Allen absolutely was a contributor to the bad day. When things are going badly, rookie QBs have trouble responding effectively. They know how to do only those things they were prepared to do, and not much else. It's like a pitcher whose curve ball isn't working today. A rookie is stuck with throwing a lousy curve ball; a veteran finds other ways to get batters out. So Allen was certainly part of the problem. But that's why I pin the problem mostly on Daboll. He has to know that the Packers will adjust to what the Bills did in Minnesota, he has to figure out what those adjustments are likely to be, and he has to prepare Allen for that. Allen wasn't prepared.

I agree. He wasn't the typical rookie QB in panic mode. He looked like a guy playing hard who made some mistakes. I'm far from giving up on him.

I always like your comments, Hapless. Thanks. I really hadn't thought about what would have happened had Benjamin come back for the ball. Completion, probably, without the hit. Still, among the things a QB must learn is to avoid putting his receivers in that kind of position. Problem is, of course, that Benjamin is very passive receiver. He doesn't fight for the ball well, and he doesn't anticipate and fight off defenders. Landry made a great, great catch in the end zone yesterday, and Antonio Brown had one last night. In both cases they found the ball, reacted to the ball and attacked it to make the catch. Other than the occasional jump ball, Benjamin doesn't outfight any for the ball. I do think, however, that Benjamin has been set back by his series of injuries. I think in some ways he's like a rookie again, learning the pro game. First couple of games he got up slowly from ordinary NFL hits, and he seemed to we wondering if anyone got the license number of the truck that ran him over. I had the feeling yesterday that he's starting to realize that you have to be tough to play this game. I thought it was a very good sign that he came back into the game after he got hit on the interception. A wimp (which is what I've been worrying Benjamin is) would have told the trainers he didn't feel right and wouldn't have returned. So kudos for him. He wants to be out there, and if he wants to be out there, he'll improve.

If h's so obviously done, why would anyone trade for him?

I think that during the week they worked with him on throwing the ball away. Early in the game he had a really quick trigger throwing it away. Not so much as the game progressed. All part of his education, I suppose.

I kept looking for a good replay of it and didn't see one. Picks are legal within a yard of the line scrimmage, but it looked to be like the picker came off the line, maybe actually into the end zone, before he set what looked like a basketball pick. Within a yard, it's legal, outside of yard they should have been penalized. Just look at it on NFL.com. LOS at the 3, pick at the 1. Shoulda been a flag, for sure.

I'm a serious believer in Josh. And I agree about the mistakes. That's why it's good for him to play this season - let him make the mistakes this season, when the team isn't going anywhere anyway, than next season. AND, there's a long way to go. Josh will be much better in the second half of this season. Points per game they aren't horrible, and that's what really matters. Yards per game, they're horrible, more or less. If Edmunds keeps learning, the defense should improve in the second half.

I also think that up and down is what you get with McDermott. We saw it last year, and we're seeing it this year. They're world beaters one week and egg beaters the next.

My wife is always telling me what's wrong with the Bills when we watch, but I can't tell her to go away or I lose my benefits.

I don't think he's coaching scared, but I don't think he's coaching right, either. After the Chargers, he got after them about playing with speed, and they responded. He shouldn't have to be after them to dial up the basics all the time, but that's what seems to be necessary. A lot of blocking is just getting to the right spot and getting in the way without giving ground. His linemen don't seem to do even that consistently. And the same about the receivers, although I think it's more about scheme than the players. They always say the defense is always giving you something - the middle, the sidelines, the short, the deep. This teams should be able to come to the line and see, at least some of the time, what the defense is giving and TAKE IT! Take the five yard slant, the out pattern, the dump off over the middle. All Allen has to do is see it and throw it. I'm sure it isn't that simple, but it sure LOOKS simple when Rodgers and Rivers and Flacco do it. Allen has to be able to do it SOME of the time.