Shaw66

I agree. I didn't say there was anything wrong with people leaving. I wish they wouldn't, because I'd like the stadium to be full to support the team, but it isn't for me to tell people whether they should stay or go.

It's the new NFL. The aggressive play, especially in a game where the opponent is a scoring machine, is to for it after penalty.

Bass going to IR opened a spot, I think.

This is classic! Thanks for your honesty about it. Love it! At a sports bar Sunday afternoon, I sat next to a guy who had flown in from CA just for the game. He was waiting for ticket prices to fall before he bought his. I've been wondering for two days now whether he stayed or left.

This is excellent. Both points. Flowers is a special athlete, as is Henry and Jackson. That's a lot of offensive firepower, probably more than any other team has, except the Eagles. And then they added Hopkins. They can score 40 every time out.

That's Charlie Brown.

I never leave games early. Never. (Well, I left Chiefs-Bills at Arrowhead at halftime during the weather delay a few years ago, but that was only because my wimp friend insisted on it.) I was disappointed that Bills fans started pouring out of the stadium in the fourth quarter after the Bills had fallen behind by the Ravens 40-25 on Sunday night, but different people have different points of view, and everyone’s entitled to theirs. The people who sit beside me at Highmark Stadium leave early most games. I don’t get it, but it makes sense to them, so okay. I always want to see what’s going to happen. I want to see the kneeldowns, if that’s what’s coming. I want to see the desperation passes, the onside kicks. I want to see the players meeting on the field after the game. I attend for the entire experience, whatever it is, so I don’t leave early. I don’t leave movies early, no matter how bad, and I don’t leave the theater early, either. Part of me says I owe it to the players to stay. They work incredibly hard to compete in these games, and they deserve an audience. (I know, they get paid to do it, whether I’m there or not. Still, when someone puts on a show for me, I’m going to watch it.) Did I think about leaving the Ravens game? No, not really, but I can say this: If I weren’t the kind of person who stays to the end, no matter how miserable the performance is, I would have been out the door after the magnificent Derrick Henry did his magic against the Bills again. My impression of the game to that point was that the Bills were fortunate to be only 15 points behind. Up to that, point the game felt like the score should have been 60-25. It seemed the Ravens were dominating. In truth, statistically, the game was pretty even. It was two special quarterbacks running two good offenses, with two pretty good defenses trying to figure out how to survive. The Ravens had had the better of it, throwing haymaker after haymaker. It was exciting, explosive football. Still, it felt like the Bills were being smoked, and although the Bills might score 15 in the last 10 minutes, it didn’t seem likely that the Ravens were done scoring. I knew, of course, that the Bills had a chance. Miracles happen all the time in the NFL. But to tell the truth, sometime in the third quarter I thought it was over. Every time I thought about the Bills mounting a comeback, I thought, “No, it’s over.” Why? Because the Bills just didn’t look very good. They couldn’t convert a two-point conversion. They couldn’t execute a quarterback sneak. They were close only because they got a gift touchdown on a desperation pass that was deflected and then caught by Keon Coleman, diving in the end zone. The Bills were close despite themselves. I tried to talk myself into having some hope. I reminded myself that McDermott stocks his team with players who never quit. I reminded myself that he trains his players to win the second half, and especially to win the fourth quarter. I remined myself that we had 17. Nothing worked. I thought it was over. When did I think they might actually win? Briefly after the touchdown got them to 40-38, but that hope disappeared almost immediately when they didn’t get the two point conversion to tie the game. I thought the chances the Ravens would go three and out were pretty slim. They’d punted only twice in the game. When did I think the Bills might actually win? When the Ravens were 3rd and 9 and there was more than a minute and a half left on the clock. That was literally the first time the possibility of winning came into my head and stayed there. I’d spent the previous hour thinking the game was over. Then Benford made the tackle on Hopkins, the Ravens’ punt bounced out of bounds, and I thought, “The Bills are going to win! THE BILLS ARE GOING TO WIN!” The final drive was magnificent. Josh Allen was masterful. As the commentators always say, the first first down is critical. Josh took an easy six yards over the middle to open the series, and the Bills were rolling. Easy sideline throw to Coleman for the first down. A gorgeous throw to Palmer, perfect, and then back to Coleman, and the Bills were ready to kick the game-winner. What was best moment in the game? The moments after it ended. People clapped and cheered and screamed, and they didn’t stop. The noise just kept coming and coming for three or four or five minutes, maybe ten minutes. Why did that happen? Because for the previous hour, we’d all been sitting there believing it was over, believing there was no hope. People weren’t even standing or singing along with the Shout song after scores. And then, after all of the agony, it was bang, bang, bang, field goal, game over. We couldn’t stop cheering. Who gets game balls? Prater, of course, and Allen, of course, and Oliver, of course. Big Ed made us believe when he bear-hugged Henry for a big tackle-for-loss. And he showed the way to the win when he stripped Henry for the only takeaway in the game that mattered. (Josh’s INT on the conversion attempt wasn’t the kind of takeaway that can change a game.) And a game ball for McDermott. Remember when fans used to complain about McDermott’s game management? Not Sunday night. He knew when to go for two and when to go for one. He managed the timeouts perfectly. His team used every second on the clock to get three points to end the first half, and they used every second on the clock to kick the game winner and deny the Ravens any chance of coming back. His philosophy of stopping the pass even if it means the Bills run defense is gashed proved, again, to be a winning strategy. And his never-say-die attitude carried the Bills to the win. 1-0. 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.

So, who besides Ed Oliver should I be watching? Bernard? Daquan? Bosa?

Yes. Good story. To be fair to Marv, it was a different era. There were a lot of old-school coaches back then, and they all were doing it the way they'd seen their predecessors do it. These days, every coach knows that he needs to access resources of all kinds to improve performance. Still, most old-school coaches understood that motivating their players was part of the job.

Bills melancholy is excellent. I do sort of feel that way. I suspect it will pass once I see some real football Sunday night.

Maybe. I didn't see much passion in Hardknocks.

Pretty simple. I drive 400 miles, each way, to go to games. I'm 78 years old. Prudence suggests that at some point that travel just isn't a good idea. On top of that, I moved up to Club seats a few years ago, and I'm spoiled. Comparable seats in the new stadium come with a $20,000 seat license. Now, if I thought I'd be going to games for the next ten years or more, I'd probably do it, but there's no way I'm driving to Buffalo ten years from now. So, it's a combination of age and price.

No. I didn't say McDermott will have the right thing to say. McDermott plans everything, including planning to set what he believes is the proper tone to get his team to compete as well as he can. He may fail at it, but he does it. Levy said, essentially, that he didn't think that was his responsibility. He dialed up the Xs and Os, but he expected his players to get themselves ready.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the Bills for the past year. A different kind of thinking. It used to be that one season would end, and then the focus was on building the team for the next season. My thinking was season to season. This year I’ve been thinking more about the history of the Bills, the bigger picture. What is this team in the bigger story about a franchise and where it’s been. As a result, I’ve been less invested in who the free agents actually were and what they might or might not turn out to be. Same with the drafted players. In my mind, everyone is wait and see until the real games happen. Yes, I know there are reasons to expect one thing or another from each, but I just have been very interested in studying all that. Maybe I’ve been thinking about the big picture because it’s the end of my era. I’ve been a Bills fan since 1960, I went to the first game ever at the stadium in 1973, and I plan to be at the last one, sometime deep into January. It will be my last season with season tickets. I’ve been thinking, for example, about what how big this season is for one of the most memorable runs in Bills history, as memorable in many ways as the Kelly-Smith era. This is a team that has accomplished so much, more than any team that hasn’t won a Super Bowl, for sure. The Bills have been good so great by so many measures. If the Bills actually go on to win the Super Bowl in the 2025-26 season, as so many observers think is a good bet, it would be both a climax of a great story and the beginning of what could be a period of true dominance, a Chiefs-like dominance. On the other hand, if the Bills don’t win the AFC Championship, the season will be remarkable because a good team was once again unable to get it done. A good team like in the Kelly-Smith era. So, how do I feel about the Bills as the season is about to begin? Honestly, I don’t know what to think. I know that over the course of training camp and preseason I didn’t see much of anything that said, “this is a great team.” On the other hand, we saw so little of the starters, it was hard to develop much of an impression. I’m concerned about the secondary, with the Bills down for a while to Benford and several guys who present questions as well as answers. I’m hopeful about the front four, because there seems to be real depth from which a few quality guys should emerge. I expect Josh to take it to yet another level. I have stuck in my head the images in Hardknocks that showed the evolution of Josh’s throwing motion. I think the same kind of improvement has happened, still is happening, in his mindset, his game management, his decision making. I think this is the first season when we’re going to see Josh Allen fully in command, the way fans came to see Peyton, Brady, Rodgers, and Mahomes. Josh and Shakir already have a solid connection, thrower to receiver, and it was clear to me that Josh and Coleman worked hard and had serious success getting together this summer. The others will eat. The offensive line is ready, with some decent depth, and I expect more out of Davis this year, giving the Bills a truly versatile three-man committee at running back. It’s a team that could be good. I’d love it. 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.

You know, that's really funny! It is such a great point. I guarantee that when they get there, McDermott will have something better to say. Guaranteed.

I hate to speak ill of the living, but I've always put it on Levy. Sometime in the aftermath of XXV, Levy was asked something like, "In hindsight, if you had it to do over again, would you have done more to get the team emotionally prepared for the game." He said something like, "these men are professionals, and they don't need me to get them emotionally prepared." I think the Giants were emotionally prepared, because they had Parcells and Belichick. I think the Bills were not prepared like that, because Levy didn't think it was necessary. In the same situation, McDermott certainly will take an active role, be the leader of the team, and have his players prepared in all manners.

Thanks for posting this. Interesting to see these guy in that setting, talking comfortably. Gives a good sense of what they're like together, how they do their jobs. Interesting.

Needed to change the ball to the other hand and use a stiff arm.

In his press conference, they asked Phillips about coming back with Poyer. Reading between the lines, he implied Poyer came back to teach. He said he will teach, but he came back to play.

This is really good but I don't think it's completely correct. What you are correct about is that sometimes when these guys are called on to play, they can be liabilities. Where you're incorrect is when you say the reason those guys get signed is because McDermott and Beane know them, in the sense that they're bringing their buddies back. That is not why these guys get signed. McDermott has things that he values above everything else. Not in any order, but they are teamwork, competitiveness, continuous improvement, growth mindset. He dislikes above almost everything failure to execute a play as designed. Notice that all these people we're talking about are on the defense. That's because McDermott's defensive philosophy is an integrated team philosophy. The defense has to work as a unit, and when it works as a unit, he believes it can be most effective. It's a human machine. Working as a unit means each player does his job and relies on the other 10 to do theirs. When one guy doesn't do his job, when he makes the wrong read, takes the wrong first step, doesn't drop properly into his zone, whatever, then the machine malfunctions. If a guy does his job but simply isn't quick enough to play the position really well, McDermott is okay with that, because the machine is still functioning properly, just not at peak effectiveness. (Notice that the Bills don't do this on offense, at least not at the skill positions. Gabe Davis came in for a talk, but the Bills didn't sign him. What wideouts have to know to fit into the offense is much easier for a stranger to the system to execute, so the Bills didn't value his experience. Davis was like Hyde, White, Poyer, Phillips - a multi-year starter in this system, but that just isn't as important on offense than defense.) It isn't easy for players to learn their roles in this defense and execute them regularly. That's why we see so few rookies start in this defense. Benford got rookie playing time out of necessity. Bernard barely saw the field. Because it isn't easy to execute the defense, when the Bills need a defender on an emergency basis, the best guy available from the Bills' point of view is a guy who's already done it. That's why White and Jackson and Lewis and Phillips and Poyer and others. On top of that, as others have pointed out McBeane want those guys because they can help the young players get up the learning curve faster, which means that a talented guy may be able to get on the field faster. We've heard, and we saw on Hardknocks, that White was spending a lot of time with Hairston at training camp. White understood that if he could actually play, the Bills would be happy about it, but whether he could play or not, he had an important role getting Hairston up to speed. So, yes, McDermott and Beane know these guys they sign, but they don't sign them because they know them. They sign them because the guys they've had on the team before know how McDermott wants them to play and have shown they can do it.

I wasn't talking about guys on the team. I was talking about players who were free agents around the league, guys who had been starters and were clearly better, athletically, than guys the Bills were playing or had on the practice squad. McDermott doesn't want guys who execute their assignments 95% of the time, even if they're superb athletes. Kair Elam was one on the roster and better physically than guys who were playing.

Yes. Every season, McDermott takes another run at proving this point. I didn't watch Poyer at all last season, but so many people around here say that he simply no longer could compete physically. Assuming that's true, then Poyer is the best example ever. Cam Lewis, Levi Wallace, Dane Jackson, Klein - there's a long list of excellent scheme players with limited athleticism who were on the field ahead of better athletes.

One thing is abundantly clear about McDermott: He will take decision-making over athleticism every time. Every time. McDermott wants the guy who reads and reacts correctly on every play. If he's a half-step late getting to where he needs to be, McDermott will live with it.

My oh my.

Well, yes, it is, but that's football. Almost every season with almost every team, there are injuries or other events that disrupt the lineup. It truly is "next man up" and keep going. Happens every season. Also, we tend to think these things are bigger crises than they are. It's a team game, 11 guys on the field, and if one goes down, yes, the substitute isn't as good, but from a team perspective, life goes on. For one thing, the other team is having its own injury events, so matchup-wise, these things even out. More importantly, other than the QB, any particular guy just isn't that important. I've often told the story about hearing Colin Cowherd talking about JJ Watt. One year in his prime, best defensive player in the league, was injured and questionable for the upcoming game. Cowherd asked a Las Vegas odds maker what impact Watt's absence would have on the spread. The answer: One half point. One half point for the defensive player of the year. Bills will survive this.