BigDingus

Until I see him really improve & show he was worth stockpiling all those picks for (including moves like passing on Mahomes), I still think it was a dumb idea for this defensive-minded coaching staff to pick the most raw QB in the draft, all while having no O-linemen, weapons, etc. and go into the 2017 season with no veteran leadership on the entire roster... Just good ol' Nathan Peterman "earning" the starting job & Josh Allen to back him up....for 2 quarters. The guys who thought all these things were good ideas, and not only drafted Peterman, but thought he was so ready they could afford starting him with no other QB's aside from a rookie as depth, are supposed to be the ones who are going to develop the physically gifted, "all the tools but none of the production," QB into a franchise guy? Threads like this are amusing though, acting as if Allen has already solidified his place as a franchise guys after going 3-3 with the weakest remaining schedule to end last season, followed by 3 close struggles against teams with a combined 1-8 record. YEP! Brett Favre 2.0 has arrived! Thank goodness we passed on QB's that already have proven to be GREAT...we have a guy that could POSSIBLY be fairly solid, well as long as the defense can hold on for dear life when he dissapears for half of each game or constantly leaves them against the fence with crap field position either off turnovers or being unable to move the ball! But don't worry, as long as we can keep a top 5 defense, play a weak schedule, and put great talent around him, we can possibly make the playoffs every once in a while, and that's ultimately the goal right?! I don't care if I sound like I hater at this point. I just want to see 4 full quarters of SOLID, just SOLID, QB play against a good team. Win or lose. If that happens a couple times, I'll revel in looking at all the wrong "experts" and draft gurus and eat crow with the rest of them. /rant

On what planet is Russell Wilson not a top 5 QB?! And Big Ben has been a top 5 QB for years now, though his play has regressed as he nears the end of his career. Along with people saying they're fine with not drafting Mahomes even knowing what they know now, I'm convinced Bills fans forgot what a good QB looks like. http://businessinsider.com/nfl-qbs-ranked-tiers-2019-2019-9 *Russell Wilson at #3 https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/top-10-qbs-in-nfl-tom-brady-aaron-rodgers-battle-for-second-behind-unanimous-no-1/ *Russell Wilson at #4 http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001037947/article/2019-nfl-season-tom-brady-drew-brees-still-top-qb-rankings *Russell Wilson at #6 https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/nfl-quarterback-rankings-2019-best-worst-1-32/11p5evm1b6g0v1tbu8lvzo5rzq *Russell Wilson at #5 https://www.complex.com/sports/2019/08/nfl-starting-quarterbacks-ranked/russell-wilson *Russell Wilson at #5 https://thecomeback.com/nfl/ranking-all-32-projected-nfl-starting-quarterbacks-for-2019.html *Russell Wilson at #3 http://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr (Actual QBR) *Russell Wilson at #6 https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2835945-ranking-every-nfl-teams-quarterback-situation-heading-into-2019-season#slide30 *Russell Wilson #3 I mean, this is just people coming into this season, but prior to this he was considered one of the top QB' and now that the 2019 season has began, talk has pushed him into top 3 easy with Brees & Ben going down. He's playing phenomenal football this year, averaging over 300 yards passing a game, 71% completions, 7 TD's & 0 INT's. If Allen can even sniff Wilson's level of play, the Bills will be a fantastic team for the next decade. But Wilson is borderline elite, so that's expecting a lot. Not everyone can be a Patrick Mahomes caliber player and take over the league in their first 2 years as a starter. I'm just hoping Allen can become a reliable, solid starter. Nothing special, but above the mediocre, Tyrod-level QB's. Most years? Roethlisberger has been considered a top 5, or just shy of top 5 every year he's been healthy. Without question. At his absolute WORST he's still in the top 10, but very few people would rank him that low ever.

You make some valid points, but the opposite could be said in a lot of places. Having a non-biased viewpoint takes a lot of effort, but I'm trying to be reasonable & logical here. Aside from what I said in bold, you also have the Pats beating the Jets by 16, scoring 30 points in 3 quarters. It took the Bills until 3:48 left in the 3rd to score 3. On top of that, the Pats offense hasn't disappeared for 2-3 quarters per game and have played competently the entire year. The Bills on the other hand disappear for long stretches, putting all the work on the defense to keep us alive while giving them awful field position to work with. And while Miami is definitely the worst, the Giants aren't much better. In fact, while Miami's defense ranks 32nd overall (in both yards allowed & points), the Giants rank 31st (again, in both yards allowed & points). Every year people say "new year, new team," and try to disregard the Patriots' history & experience. The key guys that make the team year after year and have won 6 freaking Super Bowls (that's still sickening to type out) are battle tested, always prepared, never take an off day, don't underestimate any opponents, and fight until the end (just look at the Falcons blowout Super Bowl, yet the Pats never thought they were done). On top of that, Brady is 30-2 when starting & finishing the game against the Bills, with only one of those games being a dominant win back in 2003. They do not take plays off, they rarely make mistakes, and they're the masters at adjusting to what their opponents are doing. THAT is a KEY thing that could determine the outcome of this game. Think about how the Bills have come out of half time, and how each opponent has adjusted to us better than how we adjusted to them.... And that's people like Adam Gase, Pat Shurmur and Zac Taylor, think of how Belichick will adjust to what we do. When the Pats went 16-0 in the regular season, there were only 4 opponents that finished within 1 score of winning/tying the game. That doesn't mean they were weak because they rarely faced adversity, it just meant they were that dominant. It's like the Chiefs...they'll face good teams, but then Patrick Mahomes will put up nearly 300 yards & 4 TD's (with 2 others being called back due to holding calls) in one quarter & make the game look like a flat blowout. They'll likely win most every game the rest of this season, adversity or not. Doesn't mean they're not great, only that nobody is close to their caliber to put up a fight. I'm not saying the Bills aren't going to be able to put up a fight, only that putting yourself in a hole, then having to fix your own screw ups hardly makes you a better team because you faced self-inflicted adversity. The Pats don't shoot themselves in the foot like the Bills do, and spinning that as a positive for us is pretty generous. The Bills CAN win. But what you laid out can just as easily be laid out in the exact opposite way in favor of the Patriots, and is more likely to come true in their case due to the mountains of evidence showing that's exactly the case. New year, new team, yeah... but they were new teams those new years within that 30-3 stretch of Brady dominance too.

I'm sure they'll just disguise plays and then disguise those too, all to make Josh super confused & likely start scrambling after his first read isn't there. What we need to do is get pressure with just our front line and blitz sparingly. Yes, Tom has been shown to make mistakes when getting hit a lot (like every other QB), but he's got such a quick release & a firm grasp of where everyone should be at all times, that blitzing repeatedly usually ends up with quick 8-12 yard completions over & over & over & over as they march down the field. Gotta disrupt that, and our LB's need to be able to hit their RB's at the point of attack. Too many tackles being made at the next level by DB's. NE passed the ball all over us in game 1 but settled for FG's, then in game 2 ran all over us.

Do they still have bleacher seats, or have they been renovated to individual seats in recent remodels? Those definitely hurt my ass & back after a while lol. Haven't been to a game in Buffalo in a few years, so not up to date on that.

Fortunately our defense played them very well the 2nd game of last year. We were down 24 to 6 with only just over a minute to go before the offense finally scored a TD putting the finally score at Pats 24, Bills 12. We held Brady to 126 passing yards, 1 TD & 2 INT's but got pummeled on the ground, giving up 273 rushing yards & 2 TD's. Still, holding the Pats to only 24 points gives us a shot to win as long as the offense can do ANYTHING before they inevitably come alive on the last drive. They absolutely cannot keep sending the defense out there for long periods of time, especially after failing to get 1st downs repeatedly, or else they'll inevitably become exhausted. The one thing that tends to really get away from us in Pats games is the field position battle, and this year the offense has been really bad about leaving the defense to inherit really crummy field position. That has to change, regardless of if our drives end in punts or not. If & when the defense holds the Pats to a 3 & out, the offense has to execute and pick up some first downs consistently before punting again. I'm hopeful we can at least eliminate some of the dumb mental mistakes and at least play respectably, but they have to come out laser focused, not just amped up & ready to hit someone (that just leads to penalties which will always go the Pats way).

I can't blame Shannon for a single thing he's saying. He's not wrong about anything he said. Does it suck to hear? Yeah, definitely. Can the Bills win? Of course they CAN, but not how we've played so far this season. Learned a long time ago not to get mad at things I don't want to hear as long as they're rooted in logic. It's also why I don't think Skip's wrong either. The Bills defense is legit, the Pats are thin, and the game is in Buffalo. The O-line played exceptionally well... Sometimes I can't understand how people come up with these things. I know it's easier to blame the playcalling or the O-line (or even the freaking defense who are the strength of this team!) than the 1st round pick QB, but the proof is there for all to see, people just think saying it somehow will mean Allen's a bust. He's not, but he needs to improve significantly to take us to the next level. That's ok to admit.

Yep, this was very clear from just watching the game. The line was doing really well, Allen was hanging on for far too long, and it seemed he was rattled that 2nd half. He pulled it together in time, but 2.94 seconds is much higher than average (but still better than being the league worst last season averaging above 3.1 seconds).

Everyone saying Dallas fans are insufferable, but I've lived here for 15 years, and have found the fans not bad all. First off, most of them are very loosely "fans." They say their team is the Cowboys, but they can't name more than 2 or 3 people on the roster. If I ask most of these fans how they enjoyed the game Sunday, most of the time they say they missed it, only saw replays, etc. There's only a small handful of people that I know that care about the Cowboys like Bills fans care about the Bills. Second, the real Cowobys fans that know me almost always root for the Bills out of pity, rarely ever trying to rub it in, be a d-bag, or even pile on a little. I'm used to hearing "man, sorry about the Bills," more than "Haha the Bills suck!" In general, they don't pay attention to the Bills at all, but the ones that do only do so because of knowing me & are nice about it. The most crap I've ever gotten is minor ribbing for the 2 x Super Bowl losses, but that's the extent of it. But yes, I hate the Cowboys TEAM, just not most of the fans. Maybe displaced Cowboys fans who are a little more diehard are pricks, but the ones in DFW are pretty cool, especially in regards to the Bills.

This is one of the worst takes I've ever seen, but man do I hope you're right. I honestly feel it's the exact opposite. Patriots have earned their media praises, anyone who says otherwise is just bitter. The Bills on the other hand have struggled to look competent on offense for 4 straight quarters even once this season, and against poor competition. The Bengals are a more potent offense than the Patriots? I cannot fathom how anyone would think that, and statistically on par with them? I'm just confused...are we predicting yet another year where Brady is supposedly going to fall off a cliff? Outside of the that, the Pats will still be the Pats. They can be beaten, but we CANNOT play like we have the last 3 weeks if we want to be the ones to defeat them.

But they're not alternate facts (as if that's a real thing anyway). Explaining the numbers don't make them lies. Do you really consider our win in NE when the Pats had clinched a playoff spot & were playing for nothing, then had Brady & other starters benched to rest the 2nd half was a true indication of NE's abilities?

That's awesome and all, and ultimately what matters, but digging those holes in the first place is a problem. Anyone that thinks barely beating bad teams is a good sign is just happy to have their head in the sand. A win is ultimately what matters MOST, but it's not all that matters. How you play in those games is telling of what to expect in the future. 95% of fans acted the EXACT same way when we started 3-0, 5-1, 5-2, etc. in the past, only to disappear as we tanked the rest of the season. "A win is a win, who cares about the rest? Everyone whining is a hater!" Yep, sounds familiar. Nobody is saying the Bills suck or that they CAN'T beat good teams, rather they're saying temper your expectations while still being supportive.

It actually dates farther back than that. Any Bills QB since Kelly left. Went through & looked at each season 2 days ago to see if that was really true. Figured maybe Flutie or Fitz could've had him beat, but nope.

So will I. I just wish he wouldn't hang on to the ball so long the rest of the time. He thinks because he can get away from people a lot of the time that he has to extend EVERY play, which sometimes leads to slow decision making. Yes, it's a fine line trying to be able to extend plays and get rid of the ball without getting sacked or forcing a turnover, but it has to be done in order for us to be successful.

That's pretty telling. The 4th quarter actually looks better on paper than in reality though, as the offense remains pretty dead right up until the end. And it's not a great sign that coaches seem to be able to consistently adjust to us better than we adjust to them. Belichick is a master at making the appropriate adjustments needed to get the W, and he'll make life hell for Allen & the offense if they play like they have been the past 3 games.

They're really not that arrogant though (honestly, they deserve to be FAR more arrogant considering their unprecedented success). Look at this post: "I think the Bills have been pretty good and I've liked how they've conducted business in the McDermott regime, generally. Contrast that to the similar timeline of the Jets rebuild/clownshow. At the very least they should give us a good game." Followed by: "True. Until recently a clown show. Now a pretty well run professional organization headed in the right direction. A year or two away." Not exactly "scummy" if you ask me.

This is the one area I really want to give Allen props for. As many times as he makes me want to pull out my hair, he gets the exact opposite reaction from me in the 4th. Instead of resigned to failure the moment we go down by even a single point, I'm glued to the television with belief there's actually a chance we can pull one out. One of the things I used to get bashed for is complaining about Tyrod's inability to play from behind. The Bills used to have something like a 3-23 record if they went down by even ONE SINGLE POINT at any time in the 4th quarter under TT. The memory came up again yesterday when the Bengals went ahead by the 3. I though "if this was Tyrod playing, this cements a loss," but still stayed fixated on the TV knowing Allen's hero ball style can get us out of this jam despite his ineptitude for nearly 2 quarters before then. When Knox caught that pass & proceeded to bulldoze defenders, I jumped so high I nearly hit my head on the ceiling fan. It's easily my favorite part about Allen, and if he can continue to improve in other areas, he will have a long future here.

I haven't gotten any further in this thread, but it's already gold. Did not expect to be laughing this much already ?

Also, I'm shocked even ONE Pats fan said something like this: "Until the Ravens game in Week 9, this is probably the only other game that I think there is a chance we lose. The Bills have been pretty good so far and we are short-handed." That's a major improvement over most years. I don't see much in that thread to get upset about, mostly just them joking about Bills fans shenanigans (which everyone does).

We can only hope they don't pull a Green Bay or San Francisco & follow up one HoF QB with another one immediately afterwards. It just wouldn't be fair to follow up Brady with the next Steve Young or Aaron Rodgers, or even the next Andrew Luck.

I'm genuinely happy you're confident in that, but I don't share that sentiment yet. I'm sorry, I'm still not convinced, and his overall play on the field is what will change that. "What more could anyone ask for?" I guess a full 4 quarters of solid to good QB play would be start. Perfection? No. Not asking for that. Beyond that, showing we can win against GOOD teams will be another huge sign things are different. Last year before Allen was about to return after injury, I posted an article detailing how the Bills were about to go on a final 6 game stretch with the EASIEST schedule remaining in the league (factually, not opinion), and that we have to pay attention to how Allen & the team play in those games, not just be satisfied with a few meaningless wins against awful compeititon. Instead, people were so thrilled just to not see us get stomped anymore, and acted as if wins against the 3-7 Jaguars, 5-8 Lions, and 7-8 Dolphins meant it was proof we found our franchise guy! In that stretch, we also lost to the Dolphins, lost to the 4-8 Jets (who we had just blown out a few weeks early with Barkley), and loss to the Pats (our 1 remaining opponent with a winning record). Carrying over that mindset to this year, fans are further reinforcing their belief that Allen is the franchise's answer because we won against the 0-3 Jets while looking terrible offensively for 3 quarters (combined with the Jets kicker missing an XP and a FG), beat the 1-2 Giants after disappearing offensively for 2 quarters & letting them back in the game, and having to come from behind against the 0-3 Bengals at home, with under 2 mins left, and after AGAIN disappearing offensively for 2 quarters. I'm sorry, but none of this screams "There is no question about that at all" in regards to Allen being "the QB we have been waiting for." I've seen us start off fast with 3 to 5 wins before, and fans were just as convinced as you are now that THIS time the Bills were different. We weren't. When I see 4 quarters of good QB play, sound decision making for a full game, and being able to play well (not even win, simply play well) against good competition, I'll accept we may be a different team & gladly eat crow.

We should all care. The Bills started off 5-1 in 2008, then went 2-8 down the stretch. They also started off 3-0 in 2011, including a win over Tom Brady & the Patriots, going 5-2 to start the year. Then we proceeded to lose every single game except for a meaningless weak 16 blowout over the Broncos. And in 2017, we started off 5-2, then went 4-5 down the stretch, but by good fortune sneaked into the playoffs. Point being, we can (and have) started off strong in the W/L column before, only to falter later on. Even as we were riding high, nonbiased observers could see signs we weren't as good as our record implied. Right now, we've shown we're able to win against low tier competition in non-convincing fashion. That's it. Allen playing one strong game from start to finish would go a long way in proving we're different than those teams, and to do so against the Patriots would mean even more. Even if we lose, I'll consider it an accomplishment and a point of pride if Allen can play well start to finish, and we don't get blown out. A win would be better, but a loss that signaled actual growth means a lot too.

If I remember correctly, the drought would've been even longer if not for Tyrod getting a few extra yards to push us over the line in OT against the Dolphins a few years ago. Observed in a vacuum, I'd agree. However, 36 straight games in an era where passing equals winning, and being able to pass the ball well is easier than ever with the rules set in place, yet we're still not able to do so is troubling. We made the playoffs once. It was nice to get that monkey off our backs. But had it not been for a miracle play outside of our control, the drought would be nearing 2 decades, and being unable to pass the ball well is a HUGE part of that. Just because we made it over that hump once, doesn't mean we're any better off now than we were in those years. We NEED to be able to pass the ball well, and throwing for 300+ yards is something every successful team in this league has been able to do on a relatively consistent basis.

Technically the Bengals win was a comeback victory too (against another winless team). And we let the Giants back in the game by not doing anything on offense from halfway through the 2nd quarter until 5 mins left in the 4th quarter. Even with all the turnovers Allen has had, he could have had a lot more, but we've gotten some lucky breaks with DBs dropping the ball. The Pats will absolutely punish us where these other teams have not. Brady is 30-2 against the Bills when he has started & finished the game, and in those 2 wins, we've played as mistake free as possible against them, and both were played in Buffalo. We can do it again as long as we don't play like we have the last 3 weeks.

Really? If you think the Pats are in the same category as the 0-3 Jets, the 0-3 Bengals or the 1-2 Giants, all teams which we struggled against in a variety of areas, you're insane. I'm not saying we CAN'T win, only that if we play like we did through the first 3 games, we're going to lose without question.