Shaw66

It may have been a makeup call, but I think it was one of those cLls about unnecessary roughness away from the ball. The play had gone to the other side of the field, so the official thought Dawk didn't need to give the extra shove. But Dawk had no way of knowing that the play wasn't coming back, because his back was turned. Like I said, things to work on. But he is a keeper. Like, for example, he has more promise than Cutler had. More than Brees in his first year. He has great potential and hasn't shown major flaws.

That's fair. But I think he is closer than you think. I see him having little thi.gs ro work on, not big problems to correct. So true. All close games are fragile. That's part of what makes winning them so great for fans. It feels great to place the 52nd piece on a house of cards.

Thanks. I've seen the run fit problems but have missed the sideline to sideline stuff. I'm glad he's already a problem for teams there. Second half of this season Bills will be giving people fits with Allen and Edmunds.

I don't get fans. I'm all about the games. If someone asks me of all the kinds of Bills games I can go to, out of wins, losses, blowout wins, blowout lossess, last minute wins, last minute losses, etc., last minute wins is way up there. Games where my team doesn't make a lot of mistakes are up there. Games where they get a lot of takeaways are up there. Sunday was one of those games. A lot of fans, like you, are evaluating the quality of the entertainment, or what it says about the future or something else. I went to the game and saw my team do a lot of good things and drive for the winning score. I saw two of my guys, the running backs, grind it out. I loved it. Allen? I'm convinced Allen will be great. I'm happy when I see evidence of it. Like the INT throw. Man, what a throw! Right read, beautiful throw. It was a sign of things to come. I liked how Allen delivered the ball on the last two passes. I liked how composed he was. I don't need Allen to be a finished product this month. Darnold isnt. Mayfield isn't. Sure, I see things that need to get better. That goes without saying. But I'm not seeing any horridle problems. Bottom line, I'm an old-time fan. I love to watch my team win. It was outstanding.

Every few weeks I wonder why I'm driving from New England to Buffalo for a game. Every Sunday night driving home after a win I know why.

Steve Thanks for this. I had several of the same reactions. After the TD in as sure the Bulls were on their way. So WAS the flubbed field goal a fake? When it happened it looked to me like a fake. Something wasn't right about it. I watched the kickers during half time too. BJ was hurting. I kept saying he should go to locker room and get a pain shot. Those guys are tough.

I will be amazed if you don't see at QB and at MLB. No better way to learn. Allen will have some big games this year. May not attempt 40 passes, but he will have some high rating games.

I've been wondering whether his biggest effect is that we aren't seeing him. We saw him all day against the Chargers, because Rivers threw to whoever was being covered by Edmunds. That hasn't been happening the last couple of weeks.

I was going to complain about Edmunds again this week, but I decided I hadn't watched him enough. Every time I saw him he was standing next to the pile. I've seen some comments that he caused one or both fumbles and was good against the pass. What did you see?

As an entertainment, you're right, it wasn't outstanding. But I'm not a movie reviewer, I'm a football fan. When my team wins, I'm happy. When they play relatively mistake-free football and win on the last play, it's outstanding.

Did you watch the McD's locker room speech? You don't think that team thought the win was outstanding? Did you miss Allen's winning field goal drive? Did you miss Allen's TD run? He made the plays he needed to make to win the game.

It's what I realized after the game and said in my write up. Young QBs need playing time. They need to be on the field, calling plays, looking over defenses, making changes at the line, managing the whole game. They need to log hours of playing time. What's better than logging those with a run-oriented offense that wins game? Minimize rookie QB mistakes, get rookie QB experience, win games. Can't win a Super Bowl like that, but you can get your QB ready to win one.

I don't know. Maybe undecided.

His time may be winding down, but his play hasn't. He's as dangerous as he was 5 years ago. He had a half dozen carries yesterday where he ALMOST slipped through - those were plays that went for 3 that were THIS close to going 15 to 50. As quick and shifty as he is, what I like best about him is he REALLY wants it. Like the play you're talking about. He doesn't have Marshawn Lynch's power and balance, but he has Lynch's heart. He's underrated around the league.

One play they had McCoy, Ivory and DiMarco. Defend that!

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.