Shaw66

Peter King said McD drives the players nuts about giveaways.

Hartford's an hour from South Hadley.

Yes, the game seemed to turn on Milano's TD. But my friend who was with me for the Bucs game pointed out that that game actually turned pretty early. The Bills were in control early, but they didn't start putting up points for a while. I think that happened yesterday, too. I just think that offense is patient. It waits for things to click. But the defense had already taken over by the end of the first quarter. Long line in the john at halftime.

The Rockpile Review by Shaw66 A Day to Remember Tyrod Taylor took the final knee, and the fans who hadn't left cheered. There weren't many left. It had rained lightly but steadily for the first half, and the temperature had never gotten out of the 40s. Fans were cold and wet, and the excitement was over, so most had begun leaving New Era Field by the middle of the fourth quarter. I cant remember the last time I left a Bills game early. I want to see everything. I believe I owe it to the players to stand with them. So I stay. The Bills had soundly beaten the Oakland Raiders, 34-14. The Bills gave up a touchdown on the first possession of the game, and it was if the defense said to themselves, and to the Raiders, okay, enough of that. Oaklands not scoring again. And, as is usual with this team, the defense delivered. Except for a more or less meaningless fourth quarter drive where the Bills played keep-everything-in-front-of-you defense, the Raiders, the vaunted Raiders of a year ago, didnt score again. Fans were jubilant leaving the Stadium, and there was very little taunting of Raider fans. Thats because the Raider fans had begun leaving when the Bills put together a magnificent seven-minute 12-play drive that consumed the second half of the third quarter. The Raiders were down three touchdowns with 15 minutes to go, and the Raider fans had had enough. There werent a lot of Raider fans there to begin with, compared to Jets or Pats or Steeler games. The few who there made some noise when their team came out of the locker room and after the first score, but after that they were silenced. My cousin and I walked to the car, and all I could think was how great this is. This a real team. No idea how far theyre going, but its a real team, a team that isnt easy to beat because they wont beat themselves. The rain had begun again. We got in the car and I began the drive, first to Cheektowaga to drop him off, then to Hartford. I hoped the rain would stop before night set in. We were listening to WGR radio's post-game show. I usually don't listen to those guys Schopp and the Bulldog, because they're overly critical and often arrogant. I wanted to hear if they had changed their tune, and to their credit, they had. They were somewhat at a loss for words because, as they admitted, there was practically nothing to criticize. They didn't know exactly how to rave about the performance, but they did a good job. During the broadcast they read this list: Marcell Dareus, Aaron Williams, Stephon Gilmore, Cordy Glenn, EJ Manuel, Robert Woods, Sammy Watkins, Cyrus Kouandijo, Ron Darby, Shaq Lawson, Reggie Ragland. Thats the list of all the Bills first and second round draft picks from 2011 through 2016. They all were on the team last season. TWO are on the team today. Their point, and its a good one, is that included on that list are most of the players we thought of as core talent for the Bills, at one time or another. They're all gone, and they have not been replaced with household names. And yet, the Bills look like they're better now than they have been any time since the Bills started acquiring that talent. Its proof that Sean McDermott is the real deal. His TEAM wins, not his players. White and Wright are outperforming anything we saw from Gilmore and Darby. Matthews, pick one and Clay are getting as much done as Watkins, Woods and Clay. The Bills still stuff the run without Dareus. I dropped my cousin and got on I-90 East. Big backup at the Exit 50 toll booth, and its backed up traffic for 15 miles, out past Transit Road. Still raining. Schopp and the Bulldog kept coming back to their belief that the Bills cant expect to continue winning the takeover-giveaway stats, they cant expect their luck to continue. I thought about Sundays takeways. They werent luck; they were created. Leonard Johnson made the hit that forced the Milano pick six, Milano forced the fumbled punt, Brown tipped the pass that Hyde intercepted. And Raider desperation, caused by the Bills dominance, caused the last INT. Its been that way all season the Bills are forcing the play on defense and taking the ball away when they have a chance. Ive picked on Brown for the quality of his drops in pass defense. On Sunday he had a nice pass break on a ball down the middle, followed immediately by his tipped ball that caused an interception. His drops were deeper on Sunday, and he was making plays. On Oaklands last, desperation, play of the first half, he lined up 30 yards behind the line scrimmage, flanked by the two safeties, in the classic Tampa two deep drop. Hes learning. And the Bills are not turning it over because McDermott, apparently daily and maybe even hourly, is demanding that they not turn it over. Thats not luck. I made a quick pit stop. Still raining. The service area was overrun with Bills fans heading east. A lot of happiness in that building. I thought about Taylors performance. It was one of his best. He made just about every play he was asked to make. He misfired on a couple of deeper balls, but he misfired on the safe side of the field no turnovers, baby. He delivered the ball beautifully time and again. The two throws to Holmes were gorgeous. He drilled the throw on Tates big reception. His throw to Matthews on the phantom offensive interference call was pretty. He hung in the pocket and found the right receiver, or he bailed from the pocket just in time to avoid the sack. Once he scrambled to safety, he set up and found the open man. And the scrambles were things of beauty, repeatedly escaping to freedom from defenders trying desperately to contain him. Did he check down a lot? You bet he did, just as he was supposed to do, about a half dozen times. A few throw aways. 20-27. Take it any day, or at least any day the running game is working. The rain didnt stop. I was listening to the Seahawks and Texans. A slugfest, with big play after big play. The Bills rarely allow big plays. They give up yards, but they dont get beat. TreDavious White was changing sides on Sunday, following Amari Cooper most everywhere he went. In single coverage. Oakland couldnt beat him. Who lead the Bills in tackles on Sunday? Trae Elston. Whos Trae Elston? I know one thing: he wasnt drafted in the first two rounds. At least Matt Milano was drafted. Matt Who? Matt Milano, the guy with two takeaways and one fumble caused in the last two weeks. The rain kept coming, but at least beyond Syracuse the traffic thinned out. Passing trucks was tough, with all that spray clouding my vision of the road. I thought about the crowd. I think theres a big difference between the upper deck crowd and the lower. I think theres noise down there that we dont hear in the cheap seats. There was plenty of noise on Sunday, not so much in the first half, but definitely in the second half. Sometimes it would take a while to get started, but on a lot of plays it got pretty loud before the snap. Sometime early in the second half I noticed that more or less everyone in the lower bowl was standing. Not upstairs. I looked later in the half still standing. I think the people in the lower bowl stood for the entire second half. And they made noise. That was impressive. For the second week in a row, McDermott mentioned the crowd in his press conference. Im going to Met Life on Thursday night. I hope I see a lot of blue in the crowd. Lets rock the place like Atlanta. This team deserves it. I got past Albany and was heading east toward the Berkshires. I was listening to the Lions and the Steelers. Go Lions! Then Caldwell went for it on fourth and goal from the one stuffed! Field goal would have given them the lead, but Caldwells manhood was at risk, because the Lions hadnt scored any touchdowns. Steelers get a touchdown, and now the Lions are down 8. They get to fourth and goal again, and this time Caldwell takes the field goals. Then, late in the game, fourth and goal once more, but because he didnt take the field goal earlier, he had to go for the TD. STUFFED. Game over. I think its very simple: take what the game is giving you. If the game is giving you a field goal, take it, say thank you, and move on to the next play. Dont fail to take what the game gives you. I think McDermott plays that way. The offensive mantra certainly is take what the defense gives you. The defense is bend, dont break the defense accepts the fact that its going to give up yards. In that sense, the game gives you a lot of yards Bills are 22nd in defensive yards per game. But by sticking to the plan, the Bills are second in points per game allowed, and thats what counts. I might have kicked the field goal at fourth and goal from the one. That was the conservative thing to do. However, the Bills had a couple of things going for them: one was the energy of the crowd, the other was that theyd already achieved the primary goal: eat seven minutes off the clock. Even if the Bills didnt get the TD, the Raiders were going to have trouble scoring twice and stopping the Bills to win the game. We dont see McDermott gamble much. Going for it was a small gamble, and it more or less ended the game. McDermotts other gamble was the first-half challenge of the spot on fourth down. It was a simple 50-50 bet: if the replay shows something, we get the ball. If its inclusive, we dont. Toss the coin and see how it comes out. Possession is worth a coin toss. I made the last pit stop around 11 pm at the Blandford service area, in the hills in Massachusetts. The wind was blowing and the rain was pelting everything. The mens room was empty except for one kid wearing Raiders gear. I know how it feels to drive through five hours of crap after your team has gotten stomped. Ive done it for years. I didnt feel sorry for him. The Dodgers and Astros were 7-7, then 8-8. Incredible game. Incredible heart in those players; no one quit. Thats what I love about this version of the Bills. They dont quit. They hang together. They take whatever happens, like Jacksonvilles go-ahead touchdown last week, and then they go back to work. The Raiders spanked them early, no problem. Clamp down and wait for the opportunity. Put together a nice drive hit Jones, pop McCoy a couple of times, then scramble and drop the ball into Holmes for the score. Holmes, by the way, seems to live with his toes inside the sideline. Then the Johnson hit and the Bills get a free one. The Bills heart was on display in the fourth quarter. They went ahead by three scores, but the Raiders came right back with a touchdown of their own. Eleven minutes left, Raiders down 13, theres still time for them to make some noise. They need a three and out, but the Bills wouldnt give it to them. The offensive line and McCoy took control. The Bills ran only nine plays, but that killed five minutes and the Raiders were toast. Shadys long touchdown on the next possession was meaningless, but Shady deserved it for another day being the Man in the offense. I was home at midnight, in time to see the last hour of one of the best World Series games of all time. Great day! 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 days hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

My thoughts and prayers are with Logan, his wife and family. There is nothing worse than this. The entire Bills family mourns.

What limits his ceiling? Pro Football Outsiders, which I think assesses play pretty accurately, has Taylor around 18, not 7. Although 18 may be low, I don't see Taylor any higher than 10 or 12, and maybe not even that.

I didn't see that. It's good to know that his throw was on target, and the throw to Shady just barely missed. I'm not in love with Taylor's accuracy - it isn't pinpoint, but I think it's about NFL average. I keep saying it - there's a lot to like about Taylor.

Two comments about this. First, I noticed the same thing about the d line, but I think you misunderstand why it's done that way. The d line works as a team, they make moves off each other. Substituting one guy tends to disrupt the coordination and teamwork. So in essence there's a first unit and a second unit. Substitution is done by unit. I don't think Rex did it that way - he subbed in players. But different coaches have different philosophies. McD knows what he's doing. Second, you can complain all you want about things Tyrod did wrong, but when his passer rating is over 95, it means he's doing more things right than most of the starters in the league. Hard to argue with that kind of performance.

There's a lot here I'm not sure is right. I don't think it's right to say the LBs and safeties struggled in coverage. I think they played the defense they were taught, and the Bucs schemed to attack weaknesses in the defense. I just can't believe that the defenders all of a sudden got five yards worse in their coverage. Pass rush is, I think, okay. Clearly not great, but most teams don't get a lot of quick pressure with a four-man rush. They're disruptive once in a while, which is okay. And their blitzing is pretty effective in creating the additional pressure they need. I'm also not sure Marcel is a problem. I watched a couple of times, and he's getting double teamed. That means he's doing his job - he's not going to beat double teams in the middle of the line and pressure the QB. I think Marcel is McD's personal project, and I'm hoping McD has him on the right track.

Yeah, but the Bucs can say it was THEIR mistakes that kept the game close. If they didn't turn it over so often, they would have had the lead. But you make a good point. You have to be doing a lot right to make the mistakes the Bills made and still win.

true. I think they will get better.

Sure. The QB is always going to make some less than perfect choices. He probably should have run on the throw to Shady. It's not easy. But he made enough good choices to win. For the most part is exactly the point.

I didn't want to talk about Brown because I did that a few weeks ago and I don't want to just beat on the guy. But ... His drops are often too shallow. He's slow to react to the flow, so he often seems to be three steps behind the play. When balls get completed over the middle, it often looks to me like Brown should have been in the vicinity of the ball and he isn't. I think it's a combination of lack of quickness and poor anticipation. McDermott thrived in Carolina with Keuchly in that spot, and I'm guessing the Bills will go after an upgrade at MLB in the off-season. I think letting Gilmore go and then trading Sammy is evidence that McD believes that the most important players play close to the ball. He wants to spend cap dollars on the middle, not the wings.

My greatest fear is that they trade a whole bunch of picks to get to the top of the draft and take a guy who doesn't make it. Exactly. It WAS White, and postgame he was beating himself up it. He wants to be perfect. But you're also right about the coverage, throw and catch. White did a good job - Winston and Evans were perfect. I've been down on Winston, but give him his due - yesterday he was excellent.

Time will tell is right. If you look at the passer ratings by game, Taylor was weak against Carolina and pretty bad against the Bengals. If he could just get his bad games up to an 80 passer rating, the Bills would be in good shape.

Oh, yeah. When the Bucs tied it, I was already a little depressed. Then the fumble and touchdown, and I got down. It's a conditioned response after years of watching the same show over and over. I wasn't quite sure how to react when the Bills turned the game around. It was so un-Bills-like.

The Rockpile Review by Shaw66 Imperfect Wins The Bills didnt capitalize on takeaways. They didnt manage the clock well. They blew coverages. They took unnecessary timeouts. The quarterback missed open receivers. The Bills didnt pressure the quarterback enough. They were lucky. They won. The Bills beat the Buccaneers on Sunday, 30-27. For the critical fans, there was a lot not to like. We want perfection. For the coach, it was great! He wants wins. In his post-game press conference, McDermott was at times emotional, at times giddy, and at times, as usual, true to the process: he said, in so many words, we made mistakes, well watch the film, we have to get better. Its about continuous improvement And its about wins. In the press conference, McDermott kept coming back to the same simple bottom line: we won. We played hard for sixty minutes and we won. Fans see mistakes and they focus on them, fret over them. Teams arent perfect, and games arent perfect. A lot of things happen during a game, and they dont all go as planned. At the end of the day, there is only one question: did we win? On Sunday, the Bills made mistakes, they werent perfect, but they made the plays they needed to win the game. The Bills offense sparkled at times on Sunday. It converted a lot of third downs, and third down conversions lead to a lot of yards gained. Running backs had room to run, something that couldnt be said for most of the season to date. As the coach says, hell have to watch the film, but the return of Cordy Glenn had to have been part of the reason. Having Glenn at tackle also gave the Bills some flexibility: when Incognito went out of the game briefly and the Bills were third and short, they inserted Dawkins at guard for a play to add some muscle up front. The passing game still dinked and dunked a lot, but this time there were some bigger chunk plays sprinkled in. Taylor found Thompson, OLeary and Thomas downfield for big and important gains throughout the game. The defense, on the other hand, looked softer than it had all season, and they seemed to be making uncharacteristic mistakes. Serious confusion forced a timeout on one play. Still, the defense continued to make big plays: the takeaways, for sure, but also plays like Poyers deflection of a sure touchdown pass. Every play, whether it went for no gain or 20 yards, guys were running to the ball, hitting hard, not quitting. Of course, the Bucs have been giving up a lot of yards all season long, so it may be too soon celebrate an offensive Renaissance. And they also have one of the top offenses in the league (Martin is a seriously good back), so it wasnt a complete surprise that they moved up and down the field as easily as they did. Some observations: 1. I really enjoy having LeSean McCoy. He says and does some troubling things from time to time, but the man is a truly special ball carrier and a serious competitor. He gets everything he can on every play, whether its two yards or 22, takes the hits (and avoids a lot of them) gets up and goes back to work. He runs nice pass patterns, he has good hands. He laid out nicely in the end zone when Taylor overthrew him, and it wasnt for show it was a serious effort to catch the ball. Over his career he fumbles one to four times a season, and he has two so far in 2017. Its certainly a problem to turn it over, and it looked like his fumble on Sunday could have cost the Bills the game. Still, his contributions far exceed the pain of an occasional turnover. After the game McDermot said hed keep giving Shady the ball. Im all in on that. 2. I think Sunday we saw the good, the bad and the ugly of Tyrod Taylor, all on display in one game. Theres a lot more good than bad. If Brandon Beane sees a half dozen more games this season like that one, I think hes renegotiating Taylors contract again and using all those draft picks to build talent across the lineup. The good? Heck, 260 yards, 8 yards per attempt, 1 TD and no turnovers is good enough for your starting QB; throw in 50 yards rushing, and you have a real problem for defensive coordinators. He was particularly good at moving in the pocket, or escaping altogether, to get time to make throws. He did it on the biggest throw of the day, the long one to Deonte Thompson to start the game-tying drive. That was good quarterbacking. The bad? A lot of little things. Hes missing, by a little, on a lot of throws. It looked like he surprised Matthews once and McCoy once by delivering short balls over the middle with too much pace (plus the one to McCoy was low). Taylor displayed better touch on short balls a couple of years ago. Hes consistently overthrowing deep balls by just a little, like the one to Shady. The ugly? He had Zay Jones with a lot of separation up the left sideline, looked at him and then turned and through incomplete to the right. He just doesnt seem to make the best decisions as consistently as the really good quarterbacks. Just like Shadys fumbles, I can take the ugly when the good is that good. 3. Deonte Thompson. Who? Ive already mentioned the guy a couple of times, and I have no idea who he is. To be honest, he was getting wide open as much by play design as by personal elusiveness, but play design doesnt have anything to with his hands. This guy can catch the ball. 4. Combine Thompson with Matthews and Jones, who seems to be coming around, bring back Clay to lead the really solid tight-end grew thats been getting the job done while Clay is healing, and theres an effective pass receiving corps on the field. McCoy is no slouch in the passing game, either. Theyre all getting open from time to time, Taylor generally is finding them, and theyre catching the ball. Do the Bills miss Sammy? Youre always going to miss a talent like that, but Beane and McDermott knew what they were doing they knew that success passing the ball comes from an effective system, and they were confident their system would get the job done. Sunday it looked like they were right. 5. Do yourself a favor. Go to the Bills website and watch the video of McDermotts locker room talk after the game. What McDermott has to say is nice, but watch it for what Kyle says next. Its a measure of how screwed up the Bills were that they could have had the leadership of Fred Jackson and Kyle Williams on the team at the same time and play as poorly as they often did. Kyles a quality guy. 6. Every defense has weaknesses, and the Bucs found the Bills weaknesses all day. For the first time this season, receivers were finding wide open zones so that they had plenty of room to run after the catch. Until Sunday, receivers were catching balls in the seams but getting dropped pretty quickly by tacklers. And there were a few obvious blown coverages, like Howards touchdown. Theres work to be done to plug those holes. 7. McDermott manned up and said the blown opportunity at the end of the half was his fault. It was, in a sense, because he decided there was time for one more play and there wasnt. Actually, though, McDermott took the heat for Dennison, because Dennison called the play. The play was pointless that pattern was not going to result in a touchdown, so what was the point? And if there was another option on that play, an option that made more sense, Taylor should know in that situation that he had to either go to that other option or throw the ball away. That was bad football. 8. Do you know how many total tackles TreDavious White had through the Bengals game? 22, in five games. Do you know how many he had against the Buccaneers? 1. Its a measure of how much respect the Bucs had for White that pretty much all day long they through at Gaines, Wright and Johnson. When they finally threw at White, what happened? Takeaway, game over. The guy aint flashy, but he can play. 9. The crowd was good, not great. When the fans got into it, we were really loud, but the Bucs silenced the crowd at times with plenty of big plays the crowd has to will themselves through those plays and keep up the noise. Still, you could see the Bills players responding to the noise. In his press conference McDermott seemed almost tearful talking about how great it is to play and coach in Buffalo. There was a big-time fan celebration leaving the stadium after that win. 10. The final play. Its a shame that Poyer was injured running around out there. Those plays are a lot of fun to watch, but its agonizing when your team is on defense. The Bucs executed quite well, but what impressed me was how well prepared the Bills were. Talk about bend, dont break. The defenders stayed in position, didnt over-commit, and looked for opportunities to end the play. There were a couple of times when the Bucs the field and looked to have created a lane up the sideline, but the Bills were prepared each time. Great game! Even the half-time was great. The Bills brought in the Ohio State marching band. Maybe you have to be old-timer to like that stuff (I probably saw more or less the same show at War Memorial Stadium in 1962), but the half-time show was a great show, a tribute to New York City with all different kinds of formations and good music. And they entertained pregame, too, finishing up with the classic Ohio spelled out in script on both sides of the field. Did I say great game! Hard fought, some big plays, plenty of excitement and tension. And we WON!!! And it doesnt get any easier. Its time to pay the Raiders back for last year, but it will be tough. 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 days hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

It's one game at a time. A good ram wins the games it should win. Shoulda won in Carolina and shoulda won in Cinci. Now Tampa comes to town. We will learn more about this team on Sunday.

No, it doesn't. But it sure seems like those calls go in FAVOR on NE a lot.

I don't believe the conspiracy theories, but I think I'm about to change my mind. As others have said, there was NO conclusive evidence that he didn't have the ball as he went into the end zone. In fact, it seemed much more likely that he regained control before he got to the goal line, in which case the instant he landed on the pylon it was a TD. If what I just said is POSSIBLE, then there's no conclusive evidence that he didn't have possession. That call, and the earlier pass interference call, both looked like the officials were looking for ways to give the game to the Patriots.

CBA guarantees a minimum salary for guys on the roster. Also, if you spread the salary cap over more players the average salary goes down. Players don't want that.

Exactly.

it's SO tough to win in this league. It's a big test every week. We will see what the process gives us.

I'm just trying to process the process. I don't know if I'm supposed to respect it or trust. I guess I'll need to do some research. 3-2 last season? Hmmm. I'll tell you what bothers me: the prospect of holding every opponent to 20 or under and still not making .500.

I can't get too upset about the Green touchdown. The guy is a great player. When Watson beat people long, we didn't sit around here saying the opponent shouldn't have let Watson beat them. We said he was a great player making plays. No team plays perfect defense every play, every game, and you have to give credit to the talents of your opponent. Especially when you have a rookie on him, you have to expect to get whacked a bit. McDermott isn't going to double cover him all day long. He won't skew his regular defense like that. He's going to expect all of his players to make plays, and sometimes they'll fail. White made a mistake on the play. Frankly, I wish they'd turn Tyrod loose as much as they do White. Let Taylor make some mistakes, instead of telling him that under no circumstances is he to throw an interception.