Shaw66

Wow. Second worst in the league on 4th down. I didn't realize that. 13th in attempts and second worst in conversions. And this is supposed to be a team that specializes in running the ball. Given that, I'm with you. Kick it and make it. Pats are going to be ready to stop the run, and the Bills haven't been good in that situation, so kick it. Make it a 4 point game.

This is an Important point. I talked about it after the first Pats. Besides being better prepared and playing mistake free, they are physical every play, all game long. I marvel at Belichick's greatness. His team's are great at every aspect of football.

During the game I thought they got 4th and 1 overturn of the call on the field correct and didn't think much about it. But people are absolutely right about this - breaking the plane is not the rule on a first down. Outside the end zone, the ball is spotted where the ball is when the ball carrier is down by contact. The only exception is when the ball carrier is pushed backward by the defender before going down, then the ball carrier gets his forward progress. On that play it seemed completely clear that the ball carrier thrust the ball forward and then pulled it back. It's the same is if a receiver catches the ball, crosses the line to gain, then cuts back to avoid a tackler and gets dropped behind the line to gain. No first down. So unless it was clear that the runner was down at the exact instant when he thrust the ball out, he doesn't get that spot. And there was no way to tell when his knee actually was down; it could have been down before he thrust the ball out. So the play has to stand as called on the field. The only other argument could be that he thrust the ball out and then the Bills pushed him back, but I didn't see any evidence of that. As for whether it made a difference, we'll never know. But the Bills had just scored to open the second half, and this play meant the Bills had stopped the Pats on their first possession of the half. That's big. And having the lead in the second half is big. Especially when you put it together with the Benjamin call, that's a seven point swing at an important point in the game. Bills should have been up 7 with the ball half-way through the third quarter. Everything could have been different after that.

I don't talk much about play calling because I think there is more or less no way to know what's good play calling and what isn't. If the plays work, they were good calls and if they didn't, they weren't. But they work or don't work mostly because of execution and matchups - catching a team in the wrong defense for the play you have called. Unless you know the Patriots' defensive tendencies down to every last detail, you or I can't know if a play call was good or not. Same with decision making. Coaches make dozens and dozens of decisions during a game, and they get some wrong every game. They have their philosophy about it, and it either works or it doesn't work on a particular play. I think, for example, that in the first three quarters, you take the points the game is giving you. You kick the field goal instead of going for it near the goal line. Bills went for it, didn't make it, and I thought they'd made a mistake. But then Poyer intercepts and having left the Pats deep in their own territory turned the decision into a winner. The 50-yarder, I agree they should have gone for it. Too long a kick in challenging weather. The downside of the missed kicked and a failure on fourth down is about the same. The odds of making the first are better than making the kick. Still, I'm not going to argue with McDermott about it. I'm going to argue about the style and philosophy of their offense. That's what makes them beatable, not whether he decided to go for it on fourth down.

This and what Maineiac said are both accurate. I mean, he threw some nice passes. He missed on some. Brady threw some nice passes and he missed on some. But you just had the feeling that Tyrod was not going to deliver, that he couldn't deliver. I felt that way most of the game, but I exploded at the TV when he took the sack. It was SO amateurish. Everyone gets sacked once in a while, but the good ones don't get sacked at that moment. Everyone watching knew that that was the critical moment in the game. The Bills looked like they could play with the Pats. The Pats had just taken the team. This was the moment of truth - could the Bills answer? Meaning are the Bills up to the test? Taylor answered question in one colossally stupid play, killing the drive on the very first play. Four years on the bench in Baltimore, three years starting in Buffalo and he looks like JP Friggin Losman. Taylor didn't lose the game. The Pats beat the Bills. But the game would have been different with a real QB and a real passing attack.

The Rockpile Review – by Shaw66 No Match for the Patriots It’s a point that’s been made many, many times by many, many Jets, Dolphins and Bills fans: If you’re in the AFC East and you don’t play home games at Foxboro, it’s tough to make the playoffs. You have to go 10-4 against the rest of your schedule, because you aren’t beating the Patriots, not when it matters. Every season, one or two or three mediocre teams, teams with lots of flaws, make the playoffs. They make it by winning a couple of close games that could have gone the other way, hitting a little hot stretch, losing a few ugly games where they look like anything but a playoff team, getting lucky with injuries. And they make it by not playing in the AFC East, by not having those two more or less automatic losses on their schedule. The Bills could have been one of those teams this season, and if a long line of dominoes falls just right next week, they could be. But it’s a long shot, and for the Bills longshot is spelled B-E-L-I-C-H-I-C-K. Belichick’s teams are consistently among the very best in the league, and only the Bills, Jets and Dophins have to play them twice a year. Baltimore and Tennessee didn’t play the Pats at all this season, and Carolina and Atlanta, the other two wild card teams, each played the Pats one. Carolina’s there only because they got a 48-yard field goal as time expired against the Pats. So that’s just crummy, that the Bills have to play the Patriots twice each year. On the other hand, that’s the hand they’re dealt, and it doesn’t do any good to cry about it. It just means that to make the playoffs the Bills have to be better, probably one game better, than one or two of the AFC wildcard teams. So, be better. So, what happened this time? Pretty much the same things that happen whenever you play the Patrlots. Belichick takes away what his opponent does best, and he did it Sunday. Yes, Shady, because he’s Shady, had some highlight reel carries, but in the end Shady wasn’t going to beat the Patriots. Belichick wouldn’t let him. Job one for the Patriots was stop the run, and they did it. Okay, if the Bills knew the Pats would stop the run, the game was in Tyrod Taylor’s hands. Tyrod’s just not that good, especially with a limited receiving corps. If the Pats are selling out to stop the run, the QB’s job is to slice and dice the secondary, and Taylor didn’t do it. Missed some long, missed some short, and looked like a raw rookie getting sacked for a 15-yard loss on what may have been the most important play of the game. The Pats had just scored to take the lead, and if the Bills were going to prove they belonged on the field with the best in the league, this was the time. The offense had to answer; instead, Taylor took the sack that answered any questions anyone might have had about the outcome of the game or Taylor’s future in Buffalo. Ugly. Unbelievably ugly. One characteristic of the Patriots is that they get better as the game progresses. You may look good against them on your first possession, maybe you second, but over the course of the game they find the answer to whatever you’re doing and you’re done scoring. On offense, it’s the same. You stuff them for a possession or two, or a quarter or two, but gradually they figure it out, and by sometime in the second half, they’re moving the ball at will. We saw it Sunday. Another characteristic of the Patriots is that they crush you with whatever part of their offense you DON’T focus on. Yes, they take away what you do best, and then you struggle. But when you take away what THEY do best, they just beat you another way. Brady wasn’t all-pro on Sunday, in part, apparently, because the Bills pass defense is THAT good and because the Bills took Gronk out of the game. So the Patriots ran the ball, and the Bills had no answer. The Bills weren’t ready for another Pats staple, the quick snap to catch the defense with too many men on the field. Way too many. Or for the quick snap before the defense can set, followed by the QB sneak or a simple dive play. Nothing’s new. Of course, a loss to Patriots wouldn’t be complete without the Patriots benefiting from some outrageous officiating, rule interpretations, or whatever. The catch rule is stupid and cost Clay a touchdown (on the ball he should have held when he hit the ground). The replay situation is out of control; after ten minutes of studying the Benjamin TD, it’s probably true that the pass was incomplete. But that’s not how the rule is written. If the call on the field isn’t clearly wrong, the call on the field standards. Not in a Patriots game. Oh, and let’s be sure to give the Pats a generous spot or two – the refs are always good for a couple of those. Maybe the Bills will sneak into the playoffs, and that would be great, but they aren’t a good team. The offense just isn’t good enough. Still, I like where the Bills are going. McDermott preaches all the fundamentals, both technically and emotionally. His team is prepared, executes, and doesn’t quit. As he loads the roster with guys who fit his scheme, they’ll get better. And he needs a QB who can throw, or an offensive coordinator who knows how to throw, or both. Now, let’s beat the Dolphins, just for the fun of 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.

Waves in a light breeze.

That's interesting. Thanks.

So, you don't want the bottom half of his list. And Cousins isn't on it because he's too old. And some of the top half of his list will bust. Shows how few really good QBs there are.

That's a great story. Probably took a little courage for your neighbor to speak up when he thought it was a confederate flag. Good think you're not a Raiders fan - he might have thought you were a nazi.

I'd guess that the Pats play EVERY team better the second time around.

Actually Taylor's 4th quarter stats are just fine. In fact people complain that when the Bills are down two scores he pads his stats. The problem is either Taylor is good but the coaches are stubborn and narrow in their outlook or Taylor isn't good and so the coaches limit his throwing. I trip l it's mostly the former.

Talk to teef about hanging limp.

Sweet!

Well, to defend the OP for a minute: There IS some correlation to the fact that the Bills have had very few (count em on one hand) 300-yard passing games in the last 10 years and the Bills have lost more consistently than they've won. None of us will argue that a good passing attack is a valuable asset in the NFL, much more so than it was 30 years ago. If you have a good passing attack, you're likely to have a shot at winning more games in the 4th quarter than if you don't. If you don't you can win only one way - run the ball, get the lead, hold on. That's tough to do consistently in the NFL. But much like the thread about Murphy and the fans' negativity, I find it difficult to complain about the lack of passing yardage when the team actually is winning.

I've been fascinated for years to understand teef. Just trying to engage him in his world.

Anything on the flagpole?

I'd like to see the Bills pass more, but this rant is a little out of bounds. 300 yards passing is not the be all and end all. In fact, it's usually the case that when your passing totals get up over 300 yards, you're losing. But there's another reason the Bills's totals are low, and that is that the defense is a bend don't break defense that has had more plays run against it than just about any other team in the league. They give up a lot of yards. The result is the Bills are right near the bottom of the league in time of possession. So the offense has the ball less than just any other team in the league. Add to that the fact (that many people don't like) that the Bills want to run (and are pretty good at it), and you get low passing totals. Sorry, but that's the way it is. If the Bills were 5-9, I'd be whining along with you.

My wife is from Spring Valley, and her favorite team is the Cowboys, then the Giants. She thinks Eli is cute. But after 40 years with me, she roots for the Bills every week. She believes they suck and will lose every week, but she roots for them.

There's a difference between having a word that describes the historical experience and letting the word control your perception of the present. 8-6 and competing for the playoffs is where you want your team to be. In isn't Billsy.

I live in Connecticut. Everything is Giants and Patriots here. So it's always fun to see a Bills license plate frame or a someone wearing a Bills cap. I often stop and say hello. Most weekends during the season I put my Bills flag out on my house. Especially if the Bills are playing the Giants or the Pats. Every once in a while I see another flag. A couple years ago, just before Tyrod's first season, I stopped at a house that had a Bills flag flying. The owner and I talked for a few minutes about where we were from, about our history with the Bills, about how we thought Taylor might do. There's another house with a big front lawn and a 20-foot flagpole. I drive past that house once every month or so. They always have the American flag up, and beneath that is another flag. Unless the wind is blowing, you can't tell what the second flag is. About 10 years ago I noticed (or so I thought) that the second flag was a Bills flag. So I always checked out the flag when I went by, but usually it was just hanging limp and I couldn't be sure. Then for a year or two it clearly was a Cowboys flag. Then it went back to what I thought was a Bills flag. One day I decided to stop and say hello. I drove in the driveway, got out of the car, then noticed it actually was a Giants flag. I jumped in the car and drove away. Yesterday I drove by the house. The wind was blowing, and that definitely was a Bills flag. I went back to the house and rang the doorbell. A great woman answered the door, I introduced myself and asked her what the story was with these flags. She said she's a lifelong Bills fan, her husband is a Giants fan. Her two sons played youth football for a couple of years, and the team they played on was called the Cowboys. The deal in the house is that whichever team won last week, or whichever team is winning more recently, gets to fly the flag. Except that when their boys were playing, they flew a Cowboys flag to support them. And she hated Rex, so there was a two-year moratorium on the Bills flag while Rex was the coach. She was really happy that she's been able to keep that damn Giants flag off the pole just about the entire season! Go Bills.

Correct. The Bills aren't playing the best ball in the world, but they're winning, and that's enough to celebrate. They had a horrible mid-season collapse and they picked themselves up and went 3-1. The only loss was to the beat team in the world. That's enough to celebrate. I'm looking forward to the game with excitement. And next weeks game too.

I agree. The GM does deserve credit for getting Cadet; he found a good one. But it's not like finding a bona fide franchise QB in the fifth round. It's just what most good GMs do.

I didn't listen to it, but I suspect I know what they're talking about. I've been noticing it around here for a couple of weeks. Generalizing, of course, but I think a lot of fans assume it's impossible to beat the Patriots. I've felt that way for a while, but I think that's not the way the coaches and players think about it. It goes to the point McD, the Bills players and frankly most other coaches and players make all the time: all they're thinking about is the next game. And it's just a football game. It's the same game we played in high school. The outcome of most games is NOT determined in advance. Sure, in high school and in college there are a few games on your schedule where you're clearly out matched, where you're lambs being led to slaughter. But in the NFL, where the talent is pretty much equal across the board, "on any given Sunday" really is the rule. Most of the teams can win any game on their schedule. That doesn't mean that one team shouldn't be favored over another, because there are better and worse teams. But it does mean that the outcome of most games isn't such a sure thing as a lot of fans assume. Bills-Pats will be a three-hour battle, the same game we played in high school, except better players and better coaches. Pats are favored, but it's foolish to assume that we can mail in the result. Pats are well coached, but so are the Bills. And the Bills are as motivated as any Bills team playing in Foxboro for the past 20 seasons. This is a big game, and the outcome is not pre-determined. I think there's more pessimism about this game than is merited.

The amazing thing isn't that the Bills are 6th in rushing. The amazing thing is that they near the bottom in total yards, in the bottom third in total points, in the bottom third in yards allowed and in the middle in points allowed and they're STILL in contention for a playoff berth. There are a lot of things wrong, but the name of the game is winning, and somehow this team is winning better than it's playing.