Shaw66

I didn't mean that he is fearful. I just meant that before he was running too much and taking too many risks. Now he's not running when he should.

Well, I don't know about night games, but I'd say planning tailgating for a few hours is a good idea. The earlier you get there the better. After a few games it'll get sorted out, but probably not yet.

Yes, after Johnson was injured, but then he came back and was playing regularly. They were going with three lbs for tactical reasons, I think, not to save Johnson. And yes, in plays I noticed Williams more than Dotson. Flies around is right. But Dotson as quick, too. Just less instinctive, I think.

McDermott said he was on a pitch count. He was in a baseball cap on the sideline for the whole second half. I think they just wanted him to have a few live-action reps. He played like it was preseason.

I believe you're correct. Dodson was paired with with Bernard most of the second half. But they seemed to be in 4-3 more often than usual, with Williams in and Taron Johnson on the sideline. I wasn't disappointed in either. Generally seemed to know what they were doing, and the sorry and quickness was impressive. Give them a few weeks on the field and they'll be fine.

Disagree about Davis. But agree that Dorsey abandoned the run. They need effective game planning every week for the run, and they don't do it. And I agree about running offense from under center It looks better to me, and I'm sure running out of it is better.

I agree. Fly on Monday, relax on Tuesday, then get into the regular routine on Wednesday. I'm sure the travel had something to do with the way they played.

No one produced for 85% of the game, so laying that on Davis isn't right. Plus, production never is spread equally through games. I think it's on Allen and Dorsey. Dorsey need schemes that get people open and Allen needs to know where those guys are. Lawrence is leading the league in getting the ball out quickly because he knows where the open man will be when the ball is snapped. We saw it all day yesterday.

I agree. It was ugly, injuries, penalties. I agree with a lot of what's being said. I don't like Josh's decision making. Now he's afraid to run, and he passes up 10 yard runs for first fowns and throws prayers. Two incomplete to Knox and one great catch by Davis, for example. He had easy runs on all three. For me, it was all about Lawrence. He was great. Always knew where to go with the ball, and incredibly accurate. Deep ball up the right sideline on the last drive was incredible. Also, I wouldn't have done the onside kick. You're not going to get the ball there, and the lost field position was going to hurt. It did. It was all round ugly.

Wow. Great stadium. Just copy it for Orchard Paek.

No. I. Sure I would have noticed.

Spotted a Fromm jersey.

We're in a club on the third level. Free food, DJ, sax player, and lots of Bills fans. It's an NFL party. Fans wearing jerseys from all teams. Half Bills, the other 31 are the other half. Lots of excitement.

We're just coming into town from Heathrow. Will crash for a while and be out later.

You're right. All season ticket holders got was a chance to participate in an online sale a couple days before sales began to general public. A limited number of tickets. When I went online, there over 100,000 people ahead of me, so it obviously wasnt just season ticket holders. Somehow, I still got a chance, but they have some weird credit card rules and I timed out without getting anything. It was awful. There were NO tickets reserved strictly for season ticket holders.

We're about to leave for the airport, arrive Heatrow tomorrow morning. Are you and Gunner both meeting us there and taking us to our hotel? Or just one of you? 🤣 Thanks to you both for all your contributions to this thread. BritBill posted this a few days ago. He told it was all he knew but there may other info. Hey guys, a little info for you: Hi everyone! Welcome to both our British and American Bills families as they arrive in London for the game! This is an event for any Bills fans who didn't / couldn't purchase tickets to the Fitzrovia Belle for the Saturday and Sunday Bills parties. Feel free to share this event with family and friends. We're looking forward to turning Tottenham Court Road blue! The plan: Please arrive OUTSIDE of the Fitzerovia Belle Pub in Central London at 6PM on SATURDAY, OCT. 7TH and between 7-9PM SUNDAY, OCT. 8TH. On both dates, the PRIMARY sponsored pub for Bills Stragglers will be TCR BAR (183 Tottenham Ct Rd., W1T 7PE). The OVERFLOW bars will be THE COURT (108a Tottenham Ct Rd., W1T 5AA), and THE CARPENTERS ARMS (SAT ONLY) (68-70 Whitfield St., W1T 4EY). All three bars have outdoor terraces. On SUNDAY, we are setting up a pub for the stragglers to meet up before the game. Please keep your eyes peeled here, in Stragglers WhatsApp, and on FB for updates on this. Speaking of WhatsApp - if you wish to join the Stragglers WhatsApp group, follow: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LsDQkstGpIl8hgm5pafNSV It goes without saying, but please be respectful of London, its local pubs, and of each other. We are a reflection of Bills fans in the UK and abroad, so violence and other forms of mental, physical, or emotional abuse will result in the individual being asked to leave. Keep each other safe and have fun! GO BILLS!

I don't think so. They'll stick to their plan, and I doubt this week was the plan.

Butkus was amazing. The Bears drafted Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers in the first round of the same draft! Hard to imagine any team having a better first round, ever. Butkus was quoted in Sports Illustrated as saying, "If I was smart, I'd be a doctor. But I ain't, so I'm a football player." After football, he had a semi-successful career as a celebrity, doing ads and personal appearances. I think it was another Sports Illustrated story about him that said he did an appearance one time, and the promoter didn't pay him at the appearance. After a little time, Butkus called him, and the guy said, "Yeah, I'll get it to you." Another call, another brush off. One day Butkus walked into the guy's office, unannounced, walked behind his desk, grabbed the guy by the neck, stood him up, and walked him outside. Butkus made him get into a car, and they drove to the guy's bank, where Butkus made the guy take the money out of the bank that Butkus owned. He was his own collection agency, and when Butkus said it was time to get paid, you knew it was time!

Yes. That was a big play. The points were nice, but avoiding the miss was really big.

One thing McBeane said and they've done is improve the roster every year. Impressive.

Of course. But that doesn't mean it isn't meaningful. If there were a perfect way to rate qbs, someone would have invented it. Passer rating is an amalgam of stats. It's better than any one of its constituent stats. Better than yards or TDs or INT ratio pr any of them. .

It wasn't just invented. It's older than QBR, and nobody explains what QBR is, either. Others have given you an explanation, and if you follow the link, you can learn more. Warning: it's complicated. Essentially what they do is compare every teams at every position against every other team at every position, including comparisons for down and distance, and try to figure out which teams are best. Who passes best, second best, etc. Who's best on third and short and who isn't. At this time of year, they're still using a lot of last season's data, so the numbers aren't great. But once we get to November, it's all current season data, and it really seems to be pretty accurate. In other words, the best teams come out on top of the rankings. There are rankings for offense, defense, special teams, oline, dline, passing, running. Having the sixth best DVOA since they started doing this is pretty heady stuff. Bills have been near the top of the DVOA lists for the past few years.

Yes, game managers may rate higher than some would like, but the fact that they may be advantaged somewhat by the formula, it still isn't enough to put them on top of any lists. Career passer rating - top 20, goes like this: 1Patrick Mahomes105.02017-2023kan 2Aaron Rodgers103.62005-20232TM 3Deshaun Watson101.52017-20232TM 4Russell Wilson100.32012-20232TM 5Drew Brees98.72001-20202TM 6Jimmy Garoppolo98.62014-20233TM 7Kirk Cousins98.02012-20232TM 8Dak Prescott97.72016-2023dal 9Joe Burrow97.62020-2023cin 10Tom Brady97.22000-20222TM Lamar Jackson97.22018-2023rav 12Tony Romo97.12004-2016dal 13Justin Herbert96.92020-2023sdg 14Steve Young+96.81985-19992TM 15Peyton Manning+96.51998-20152TM 16Philip Rivers95.22004-20202TM 17Kurt Warner+93.71998-20093TM 18Matt Ryan93.62008-20222TM 19Ben Roethlisberger93.52004-2021pit 20Josh Jimmy G and Kirk G might be accused of being game managers, but that's about it on the list. The list is littered with Hall of Famers, which suggests that the passer rating is a pretty good measure of who's good.

I think the pendulum is definitely swinging. One sign is how the running game is becoming important in many offenses. Why? Because defenses are having more success stopping the pass. Defensive coaches are now doing what McDermott has been doing for years - trying to figure out how to stop the pass, and still have guys on the field who can stand up to the run. And there are so many physically talented defenders, it's becoming doable. Another sign is that defenses are now absolutely blowing up offenses that just aren't that good. Sure, bad offenses always have lost, but the Giants and the Patriots this weekend were embarrassing on offense. They were overwhelmed by the defenses they faced, just crushed. I've said before that I think the NFL probably already is in the process of figuring out what to do to the rules to reinvigorate the offenses. My personal favorite is to loosen up, again, the offensive holding rules in some way, so that there are fewer holding calls. Offensive holding is a known drive-killer, and killing fewer drives should lead to more scoring.

You know, I know that's the rule these days, but I simply never have gotten comfortable with it. The way I do it is perfectly acceptable, according to the style book I refer to. Which style book is that? The one in my head.