BigDingus

Only said every week, this offense needs to show it's good enough to do it's part when the defense can't carry the entire team on their backs. And due to the Allen turnover, we went into the half down 11-7 instead of up 7-3, so an Eagles TD to start the 2nd half really hurts. Time for the offense to finally have a good 3rd quarter and do their part.

If that's your assessment of the defense, I'd love to hear your opinion on how abysmal the offense is. If not for another Allen turnover, the defense would've held this team to 3 points in the first half. That's pretty stout.

Does everyone just want to be willfully ignorant or what? F Last season, right before Allen was coming back from his injury after the bye, Bills related articles were talking about "The Bills remaining schedule is the WEAKEST IN THE LEAGUE to finish out the season." Funny enough, you nicely started your "since last season" record at the Lions game for whatever reason...when in reality, Josh coming back from injury after a bye week to start all the remaining games should've been your start point...but that would've made us 8-4 instead of 7-2 which just sounds better (but hey, you factored in preseason of all things...as if that is somehow more indicative of real performance). I made a post about it, specifically reminding everyone to take the coming wins with a grain of salt, as no team had an easier slate of games to close out the season. . . . . Then wouldn't you know it, we started winning some games...shocker. Some of those games were still a struggle (winning 24-21 against the 3-7 Jaguars, losing to both the Dolphins & the 3-9 Jets in back to back games...when just 3 games prior we blew them out with Matt Barkley, and barely beating the 5-8 Lions by 1 point 14-13). But now we're going to heap 2 of those wins (arbitrarily starting with the Lions game instead of Josh's return as the starter) from the weakest final stretch in the league last year with the 5 wins from another extremely weak schedule together and use it as some kind of proof that we've arrived? Anyway, the crazy thing is 8-4 doesn't even sound bad, but it just shows an effort to cherry pick only what you want to see! But people here seem to get mad when you ask them to look at the whole picture. And even suggesting we count the preseason towards anything just further illustrates how willfully naive we're being. Being optimistic is one thing, but this is too much.

Lol if only he had thousands of receivers grouped together in all directions, he may be able to complete one of those on the field!

Good points, but at the same time, good organizations can build a strong foundation that keeps that window open for as long as you have that franchise QB. The Pats window hasn't been closed for 20 years, so you really never know. The Seahawks, Saints, Steelers, Chargers, Packers, Vikings, Chiefs, etc. have all been relevant or at least in the conversation for quite a while, even if they have their down years. Hopefully the Bills can become like that and have a strong enough core that we just have to rotate parts & assemble players on rookie contracts that can keep your prospects up. All of that is contingent on having a stable QB though. So it depends on how you view Josh. If he's going to be a guy that can't ever elevate the talent around him & needs to be propped up by skill position players, then no, I don't think you try to push for a big trade now. Yes, the defense is great now, but you have to be the ELITE of the elite to have one of those seasons where the defense dominates everyone on the way to a Super Bowl while the offense just does enough not to lose. The way the offense turns the ball over, this defense won't have the opportunity to do that. Not to mention the defense is relatively young and can still stay here for a while. There's no reason we can't resign guys who's contracts expire while still improving even further. I don't think our defense has hit its full potential yet, and can still get much better, which is a scary & awesome thought.

Now that the Chiefs got Hill back, I'm sure they'll be cool to part ways with Sammy for 5th or something If not, I hear Kelvin Benjamin is a great redzone threat, and he's available! Get it done OBD!

I know people like to point out the media as bad guys, and how they always doubt us, but our own fans doubt the team too, myself included. To be fair, we've seen posts with people complaining about the media & them not giving us respect for the past 20 years, and for the most part, the media has been right to doubt the Bills for the better part of those 2 decades. In fact, the media has been wrong when being high on the Bills more often than when they doubt them. I cant even remember the amount of times before the season they'd predict the Bills to be their sleeper pick of the season, only for us to be awful that year...or when we started off hot & would shoot up the Power Rankings, only to crash back down (I remember one year we were up to #3 in ESPN's Power Rankings, then only won a single game afterwards... But this team is even harder to judge than usual, and it's understandable for people to be hesitant. If we get that 6th win this early in the season beating the Eagles, I'll be more convinced. We've jumped out to 5 early wins several times before, so getting that 6th one this early would go a long way to show we're different this time.

Until they say good things about the Bills, then they're ok.

I guess I still don't get how drafts & things like trades work with the XFL since there's only one owner of all teams... Instead of individual teams functioning independently in their best interests, they're a unified organization kind of like the UFC, where management controls everything. Do they just decide to move players between teams to create parity, or do they stack one team to allow them to become dominant & grow a fanbase before propping up another team after the first one is established? Seems kind of like the WWE drafts between Smackdown & RAW where they just pretend the 2 networks of Fox & USA are fighting over picks, but everything is just part of the script. Is that how the XFL is running?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/vereen-turns-down-xfl-opportunity-says-salary-too-low/ar-AAJitm0?li=BBnb7Kz According to Vereen, the base salary was $27,040 with per game bonuses of $1,685 and weekly win bonuses of $2,222. Even I'd reject that salary...that's rough. Edit: See someone already posted. Move along

Mr. White would like to have a word with you.

No, not all "if this didn't happens" are created equal. There was 1:38 left in the 4th quarter with the score 24-21. That was the actual game up until that point. There'd be no reason to go for an onside kick unless that was their only option. And since 90%+ of onside kicks just result with the receiving team falling on the ball, that'd be indicative of what the game through 58:28 seconds looked like. It's not like you can attribute that last TD to the offense or anything, and it's not something the Dolphins defense did wrong that resulted in the Bills proving how much better they are. An onside kick with 1:38 left in a game only means "last desperate attempt to have a shot at winning after all other options have been exhausted." Tell me, how often an onside kick returned for a TD with a minute plus left in the game has been the deciding factor of any game in history. If the receiving team had fallen on it, what changes? We would've run out the clock, won the game anyway. The points are irrelevant barring the most unlikely, ridiculous possibilities like fumbling a snap while trying to kneel...which again, I haven't seen in ages. And a kicker missing all 4 kicks, and another missing the only 2 kicks he was asked to make all game ARE important to mention. They're the kind of terrible performances that get kickers benched or fired. Missing a kick here & there is one thing. Missing everything, even the "easy" ones when your ONLY JOB is to do that very thing, IS notable. Those matter because they are NOT INDICATIVE of how the Bills played, rather how the opponent hurt themselves. Yes, it happens to other teams too, and that's why it gets brought up when it happens to those other teams. It matters, whether you want to buy it or not. How many times have Bills fans & other analysts said "if only Norwood made that FG?" Because he didn't, the 90's Bills are remembered in a different light than they otherwise would've been. And that was only one kick, not ALL the kicks.

This has been going on all year, and it's really frustrating to see that either the coaching staff or Allen himself haven't figured out how to deal with this. He should be able to recognize the incoming pressure when literally everyone is in the box, everyone right over the line ready to all out blitz, and make proper adjustments at the line. At the very least, he should know he doesn't have 3+ seconds to throw the ball, and realize "if they're all coming at me, there will be nobody covering these guys over here." For some reason though, he always snaps the ball and drops back like he's going to have all the time in the world, doesn't get rid of the ball, and takes the sack. It'll continue to happen every game until he can show teams that he can identify the open man quickly or at least throw the ball away.

This article is spot-on. It touches on everything any non-biased observer would be concerned about, and it's all entirely justified. This isn't "hating" on the Bills, nor is it unfounded pessimism. We could just as easily be 1-5 as 5-1 or even 6-0. If these struggles and close wins came against even mid-tier quality opponents, I think people would feel far more confident in this team. But at similar points in the year, I was more confident in the 2011 Bills than I have been with this team. In 2011, we started off 5-2 with wins against the 7-9 Chiefs, 8-8 Raiders, 13-3 Patriots, 8-8 Eagles, and 5-11 Redskins, and only losing by 3 to the 9-7 Bengals (in Cincy) and losing by only 3 to the eventual Super Bowl Champion Giants (again on the road). Not the most insane schedule, but definitely a true test, and all games we were competitive in. And the ways in which we beat lesser teams like the Chiefs (winning 41 to 7) and the Redskins (23 to 0 where we had 9 sacks) made you look ahead & think the sky is the limit. But just remember how bad the Dolphins have been this year...letting opponents put up 440 yards on average, 36 points on average and only putting up an average of 8.4 points a game themselves. And look how we performed...at home....after a BYE! And if not for that onside kick TD, the score would be 24-21 which reflects how the game actually played out a lot more accurately. And when 2 of our wins can be attributed to missed kickers, you could drop that record to 3-3. Point being, HOW we win does matter when there are still 10 games left in the season.

Absolutely right. This is one of the most frustrating things about Allen. He was only drafted on his potential, not his actual on field play. The only real things he seemed good at was deep ball accuracy & throwing on the run. For whatever reason, he was dead last in the league last year on deep ball accuracy, and that's carried over into this season. But this year it's more noticeable because we see how open some of these guys are, and how the only thing stopping them from an easy TD is ball placement. Last year there were some easy TD's that didn't happen because he was underthrowing the ball & the WR would have to stop & come back for it instead of catching it in stride. This year receivers don't even have a chance to catch the pass more often than not. It's just thrown in their general direction but nowhere near where they could make a play on it.

Wow, that was a thing? Creepy, but hilarious.

John Brown has been open downfield many, many times this year. The passes just haven't been on target. At least twice a game he's got his man well beat, sometimes Allen sees him, sometimes he doesn't. But when he does, you can be sure the pass won't connect. Be open deep isn't the problem, it's timing, touch & accuracy that are the problems. The pass Fitzpatrick made over 2 DBs hitting his WR in stride on the sideline is a pass we rarely see Allen make. And if it's just the WR open with nothing but the endzone in front of them, definitely won't connect. Not saying Allen can't fix this, this is another one of those things (along with his tendency to stare down his receiver) that can be corrected. He just needs to really spend some extra reps with these guys, especially Brown, and figure out his own strength. You can almost always tell the second the ball is released if it'll be on target with Josh. You just see how quick the ball is released + the arc on the ball and know there's no way a WR will be fast enough to make it to where that ball is heading.

Well the stats practically say he doesn't do anything at all until the 4th quarter, so yeah, it's hard not to get better than that... If he's ranked 23rd & 26th in those areas overall, yet #1 overall in the 4th, he'd probably be ranked 35th & 38th overall in those categories if you removed the 4th.

He still played like actual garbage. Do you and your neighbor argue about who's garbage smells worse, or who's turd was nastier? They both sucked.

No, sometimes he goes through them, but very, very often he still just stares down the receiver he wants to throw to from snap to pass. I had 3 friends from work over yesterday to watch the game. They're all Cowboys fans, but told them I'd make wings. All of them kept pointing that out (and giving me crap for possibly losing to the Dolphins all game). It's pretty obvious and a really bad habit. But unlike some of his problems, I feel that one is fixable.

Healthy(ish) and being 5-1 do matter, but the talent is still comparable, and they have the advantage at the most important position, plus they've beaten a good team this year, we haven't. We should still win (thus being the favorite still), but if they can beat the Packers in Green Bay, they can put up a good fight against this Bills team... I mean EVERY team we've faced thus far has put up a good fight, so why wouldn't the Eagles? We just saw what Miami did against us, how could you not think the Eagles could do the same, if not better?

Pretty much. But they don't ever look in danger of losing those games, unlike us who always struggle to win no matter how weak the opponent is.

How did they even get those opportunities to put up the 2 TD's that put them ahead? Oh yeah, turnovers by the defense, including 1 in which the Dolphins were at the goalline about to score another TD which would've had us down 21-9 at that point. Thank god the offense actually capitalized on those turnovers, otherwise the game would've been lost.

Is that all there was to the game? Huh...and here I was told referencing stats don't matter. Because if you want to go that route, things look even worse...especially in comparison to every other actual successful QB in the league.

What have you possibly seen from Allen put him so far above Bortles? Lol A non biased observer would NOT be making that assessment based on what has actually been done on the field. Statistically, they're pretty similar with the exception of Bortles being a better passer and Allen being a better runner. Bortles definitely threw for more TD's while having a similar amount of INT's, and definitely put up way more passing yards. He was also a better deep passer, well pretty much everyone has better deep ball accuracy than Allen the past 2 years. Sure, if we only looked at 4th quarter stats from 2019 alone in a vacuum, Josh would be the favorite. But he only was in a position to lead those comebacks because he didn't do enough the rest of the game in the first place! And against weak, weak teams at that! You're really going to gloat about having to come from behind against awful teams to escape with a victory? I'm sure the 4th quarter performances are all you want anyone to see, because if they had to put everything else in perspective, he'd look like a mediocre/below average QB on a team being propped up by great defensive play. He only had the opportunities to get those comebacks because of the defense playing lights out, or being gifted extra opportunities by the defense in general. But yes, totally not like Bortles...