Shaw66

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?

That's okay. We get in Sat afternoon, leave after the game Sunday. It's my wife, my buddy and me, and all me need is a pub menu, TVs and some activity. Bills fans are a plus. Sounds like Christians will do the trick. We aren't late hitters, so we don't need a list! We just need burgers, beer and bathrooms!

Thanks. That's helpful. We're staying at the Marriott Courtyard near the stadium

That sounds great! I'll be there, and at the game. Which Christians is it? 2000 Bagby?

I agree with most everyone here. It's a fairly standard tactic. And, as others have said, Hughes has the physical tools to do it. He didn't quite make it as a 3-4 OLB, but he was close. On the play where a ball was completed on him, he was in surprisingly good position.

Guys taken in the top 10 tend to work out about 1 in 3 times, I'd say. Guys taken in the top 10 are not considered projects by their teams. A project is someone with a low probability of success, taken late in the first or later. Projects have aspects of their game that need serious work in order for them to succeed. Darnold, Mayfield, Allen and Rosen are not projects. They may be disappointments, but they aren't projects.

Nice, thanks.

I agree, except I doubt he will be out of the league. I agree about accuracy. He's thrown to many good balls to have done it by accident. He does have to be more consistent. I also think he sees the field very well. He's shown that. The problem is that he doesn't always know what he's looking st. That is, when he gets defensive look that he's familiar with, he is fine. Its when he's unfamiliar that he's in trouble. That's study and experience.

I agree. First step, which I really like, is bringing in a vet QB. Allen will learn on field stuff faster.

Logiic - Thanks for coming here to post. I get a lot out of your thoughts. Edmunds - thanks for this stuff. I don't seem to see him in pass coverage, only on runs. This video is fabulous. It's incredible, really, to watch a guy his size run like that. Plugging the deep middle like that in the Tampa 2 is an incredible asset to have. I also agree that there's a lot to learn at his position. It's probably the second most challenging position, mentally, behind QB. Safeties have a lot to think about, but they can see everything in front of them. MLB is right in the middle, and it's a challenge. I worry that he isn't a natural hitter. He's more like an over-sized safety. He'll get bigger and stronger, but he looks more like an arm tackler. For me, then, his ceiling will be determined by what he can do in the run game. He should, and this video shows it, be a real factor in the passing game. (By the way, blitzing is something of an art form, too, and he still has that to learn). What do I see in Allen. First, the arm, and not simply the strength but the accuracy. As I said in one of my earlier posts, I think his throw on the INT is telling. We've seen him throw that deep (15-18 yard) in cut several times, and it's a thing of beauty. His arm strength allows him to throw it into tight windows. He's been very accurate throwing it. It's a pass you see the best QBs throw. It's a natural for him. Also, we saw in pre season but haven't seen much since then of his 7-10 out patterns. Same thing - arm strength and accurate make him deadly on that throw. Those two throws can be his bread and butter for ten years. I like his size. He seems to almost ignore incidental contact in the pocket, much like Big Ben. He doesn't overreact to getting touched. He just stands there, or slides a bit. He also seems to have pretty good pocket awareness. He doesn't have happy feet, he isn't anxious to run, but he seems to know pretty well already when it's time to go. What he still needs to learn is WHERE to go, because sometimes he runs into sacks when he could have escaped. But for a rookie he's comfortable in the pocket and he escapes pretty well. His mobility is critical. Daboll isn't afraid to roll him out, because he moves so effortlessly. He makes decisions and has a quick release. He's not seeing everything yet, but when he sees what he's looking for, he gets the ball out. He anticipates guys being open and throws. Taylor's biggest flaw, in my mind, was waiting until he saw the guy open. All of his non-physical characteristics are there. He's a competitor, he doesn't seem to get upset after a bad play, he's vocal with his teammates, he had a high Wonderlic, he seems to work and want to learn. I think he's the whole package. Obviously, he isn't a finished product, but I expect he'll learn. Some people continue to comment about his footwork and his base and other mechanical things. First, I think there are a lot more self-proclaimed experts on a subject like that than real experts, but even if that's a flaw, it's the kind of thing that's correctable. Practicing and correcting footwork is much easier than correcting torso turn, shoulder turn, release point, etc. Favre had notoriously bad footwork and worked on it his entire career. I think it's kind of amazing for the Bills to have extraordinary rookies, physically, at offensive QB and defensive QB. If they grow to their potential, everyone in the league will look back at this draft and say it was one of the great team-building drafts of all time. And if they grow to their potential and Phillips becomes Kyle II, McBeane will be proclaimed geniuses.