BigDingus

I'm talking about right near the goal line where the ball is definitely going into the endzone, or where he's already in the endzone. If it's coming down at the 5 yard line, I get it. But I'm talking specifically right in the endzone when he could simply kneel. And in situations where field position is key or time left on the clock is crucial, it really is a killer. Maybe it's after the defense was on the field forever, and they finally buckle down to hold the opponent to a FG. Then they kick the ball off & and he returns it to the 17. The offense is already pretty bad, but considering we haven't had a single drive all year (at least as of the last game I believe) where we've driven the ball from inside our own 25 for a TD, that almost guarantees a punt in the future. Or late in the game where we need to conserve time AND have as best field position as possible, why risk both and put even more pressure on the offense to gain more yards and with less time to work with? True, and that's why I'm wondering why something hasn't been said to Tate or the coaches haven't gone with somebody else. Either way, Tate still deserves a huge portion of the blame. When the ball is being kicked to him, and he's going to be the receiver, he makes the choice and the play. He can choose to kneel it, let it go into the endzone, or return it. He opts to return it in bad situations. On top of that, he doesn't return it WELL. That's the other half of the equation. If he was breaking big plays or at least averaging 23-25 yards a return, I could almost understand. If he had a TD since 2010 I could almost see why he'd risk it. But when you haven't had a return for over 29 yards all year, haven't had a TD for 7 straight seasons, are averaging 19 yards a return, AND your BEST returns for the year are 27, 25, 29, 26, 25, that's bad. And like I said, those are his BEST returns. They've directly hurt us in multiple games, and that cannot be understated or ignored imo. We would've been better off if he had kneeled 100% of the time the ball was received in the endzone, especially late in games. That would've taken too much awareness of the situation, something I'm not sure Tate has given how he seems willing to return the ball in desperate situations where we NEED the clock & field position.

Yeah, I've been reading about this the past week or so. Apparently it wouldn't be called the XFL though, rather it'd be the URFL or UFL since the WWE itself owns that name & Vince has been filing trademarks separately from the WWE, and this league would be from Vince's Alpha Entertainment venture. Here's the link to the details - https://sports.yahoo.com/rebooted-xfl-might-direct-response-nfl-anthem-protests-203217339.html

I've been going back & forth on whether this is worth a thread, but every game I get more & more ticked off that this hasn't been addressed by the coaching staff. Can someone at OBD tell Brandon Tate to NOT take the ball out of the endzone? It seems like several times each game he hurts our field position quite a bit, setting back an already weak offense even further. I'd rather see him kneel 100% of the time & start at the 25 yard line than take it out every time HOPING he breaks away for a big return, only to get stuffed at the 15. Just last week he averaged 12 yards a return For the year, he's averaging around 19.8 yards a return, and considering how often he returns it from the endzone (or right outside endzone, instead of letting the ball bounce in), that puts us further back than had he just knelt down. He hasn't had a TD on a kickoff return since 2010, in 8 seasons he's only had less total yards twice, he's averaging his lowest career return average ever (previous low was 22.1), and his longest of the year was 29 yards. In fact, he's only had 5 total returns of 25 yards or more all year. Every game I forget about it until it happens...then it happens again....and again. I keep wondering why the heck someone doesn't tell him this is hurting the team! Does anyone else share similar concerns & frustrations?

This is what I keep pointing to. Both sides of the ball playing well for the full 60 mins hasn't happened this season. The defense has had complete games, the offense has had good some good halves, but both performing at top performance for the full game? Hasn't happened.

Letting talented players get away from us for nothing (or close to nothing) is the only part I'm concerned about with McBeane & Co. No spot on this roster for Ragland? Nothing for Lee? Dareus for a 6th? It's just amazing how apparent defensive-minded people like McDermott & Frazier don't see the talent & importance of these guys. At least we got a good draft pick for Darby, but the others? Man it's weird.

LOL and on cue, here I am. Just because you say "Cue the____" doesn't mean it's suddenly less valid. I can say "giving birth is fun & feels good!" followed by "Cue the people mad I said giving birth was fun & feels good!" and it doesn't make what you said any less dumb. All that did was show how worthless those metrics are. If you are trying to argue that Tyrod is somehow better than Rivers, an actual HoF QB, you are out of your damn mind & then some. Please, throw out more of those worthless stats so we can continue laughing!

But Woods isn't somehow taking away 400/500 yards off of Watkins. He only has 49 yards more this year than his best season with the Bills, so that doesn't explain why Watkins dropped off the map so much. Also, they should all benefit from a QB that throws downfield more, an offense that passes more (although they do run the ball well too), and the fact that one another take pressure off each other. Cooper Kupp is their #1 target with Woods #2 and even Todd Gurley has 54 receptions & 630 yards compared to Watkins 36 & 563 yards. Think about the other receivers drafted after him in that class... You think if you threw Mike Evans or Odell Beckham, or Brandin Cooks on that team that Cooper Kupp or Robert Woods would take away receptions from them? Heck no. Usually if you pair 2 great receiving threats together they all get their share because they take pressure away from each other. Heck, before this season playing with Tyrod Jordan Matthews never had a season below 800 yards. I just don't think Watkins is really ever going to approach what people thought he'd be, regardless of who he's playing with or who's throwing him the ball.

Look at how bad the Bengals loss looks now. They're 5-9 with their only other wins being: 2 x Browns, Colts & Broncos..... Seriously?! We are in the same category as teams with a combined 8-34 record between them? The Bengals beat an 0-14 team twice, a 3-11 team, and a 5-9 team. That's it. Yet somehow they beat the Bills? Definitely the most embarrassing loss, as the offense just acted like they didn't want to be a part of that game (kind of like a few other games this season). Other than that, the Jets game was atrocious too. That final score doesn't even get close to reflecting how bad it actually was. We were down 34-7 with about 4 mins left in the game before we scored again! So 2 garbage time TD's made it look a bit closer, but in reality we got smoked on National Television. They also had a short week. That's no excuse to get hammered 34-7 until late in the 4th Qtr. Even if they're "better than most think," we are supposed to be better than them. That's the reason we're 8-6 & they're 5-9.

Hahaha! Then he followed up the guy trying to elaborate by saying: "There was a lot of pronouns in there, I don't really know who was talking about what..." Such a smart *** You can see he was trying his hardest to hold back laughter. He has this half grin going on where you can tell he's laughing on the inside but knows he has to keep up that stern image.

Woods is doing better, as is Goodwin, but Watkins is performing far below even his averages (which was already disappointing considering where he was picked in the draft). For a former high 1st round pick, 36 receptions for 563 yards & 7 TD's isn't really that good by any means. He's being blown away by a 3rd round rookie...Cooper Kupp, who has 58 receptions for 804 yards & 4 TDs.

They still weren't playing hard at all, that was apparent. They might as well have been going half speed, just trying to tune up before playoffs. They had absolutely NOTHING to play for. Not seeding, not homefield advantage, nothing. They were not going all out. And even so, we scored 17 in the first half and didn't score again the rest of the game! We've scored 21 in the first quarter against the Pats when they had ZERO & they still blew us out afterwards! I went to a game against them & we were up 28 to 7 at halftime, then they proceeded to beat us by several TD's after that, scoring over 40 points in the 2nd half alone! Acting like we would've won that game had the Patriots had something to play for AND with Brady & Co. playing the whole way through is just arrogant. You seriously think 17 points that day would've been enough to stop Brady when we've been up on them by 20+ points multiple times just for them to blow us out afterwards? I don't think so.

The real problem is teams find a way to make him do that during the regular season too, and that's why we fall apart against competent teams. If our defense isn't gifting us tons of turnovers, Taylor does nothing. Even worse, if we every fall behind (which inevitably happens in may games, especially playoff games) by even a point late in the game, Taylor has shown he CANNOT respond accordingly & win. In fact, he's probably the absolute last QB I'd ever want if we need a score in the 4th Qtr to come from behind. His record in that area is abysmal. Nursing a lead and hoping the defense doesn't give up any points for most of the game is not a good formula for success. In games where our defense has been outright dominant (like in the Chiefs game), we should be up by multiple scores & just putting people away. Unfortunately, our offense can't do that which leads to people hanging around the entire game.

I'm just going to follow up & elaborate a bit on these games: 2009 - We were up 17-10 going into the 4th. Of course we let them score 15 points that quarter. If Leodis didn't fumble a KO return with under 2 mins left, would've won. Lost 25-24 2010 - We started 0-8 that year, so we were really bad. It was 31 to 23 Pats going into the 4th, so we had a decent chance. Had the ball with 3 mins left on our own 35 & Fitz threw an interception on 1st down to lose the game. Lost 38-30 2011 - The year we started off 5-2, then collapsed. We scored all 21 points in the FIRST QUARTER, finishing the period 21-0. The Pats then scored 14 in the 2nd, 14 in the 3rd & 21 in the 4th to just show us how good they really were. Lost 49-21 2012 - Got down early, as the Pats outscored us 10-0 in the first quarter. We tried to catchup but never could get there. Lost 37-31 2013 - Never really in it. Were down 16-3 at Halftime. Scored a TD at the very end of the 3rd to get within a TD of them, but they quickly put that to rest. We kicked a FG with 3 mins left to get our score to 20, but they followed up with another TD, scoring 18 in the 4th quarter. Lost 34-20 2014 - Tom Brady and half the starters only played the 1st half. Patriots were 12-3 going into that game & had nothing to play for. Still only Won 17-9 2015 - We were down 3 to 10 at half, then 10 to 20 going into the 4th. Still obtainable if it weren't for a certain QB not being a "come from behind guy" with 3-20 record in games we go down by even a single point in the 4th quarter. We got the ball back down by 1 TD with 2 mins left, but couldn't drive downfield. Lost 20-13 2016 - We played their 3rd string rookie QB, Jacoby Brissett....He only threw a combined 2 passes to Gronk, Edelman, Amendola, and Hogan. The rest of his passes went 10 to RBs, and 5 to Martellus Bennett. That's it. All checkdowns and the TE. Obviously we win that game. Still, our offense only put up 16 points. Won 16-0 So in the Tyrod Taylor era, we average 14.5 points there. When Brady plays a full game, they average 34 points. In those games he played, we were competitive in half of them (which is pretty good I guess). However, we can't just discount the games played in Buffalo either. Also, Tom Brady now owns the record for most wins against a single team by a QB in all of history against the Bills. He's beaten us more times than any other QB has EVER beaten another team....Think about how bad that is. And that 14.5 points we average against them with Tyrod? That's about par for the course this year, as we average 19.25 with him overall this year and 16.5 in away games (that's including points from the defense). Do you think 16 points (or even 19) will be good enough to beat the Patriots in Gillette when they still are playing for something, and Brady & Gronk will be active the entire game?

That video is pretty funny though at the end. "Could Buffalo beat NE in NE?" responses: "No." "No." And "No." "They've never given us any reason to think that they could do that." All 3 of them were quick to answer that one. There wasn't even the cliche "Any given Sunday!" line dropped by anyone like usual.

Yep, and there's another one! Pennington would probably be 3rd or 4th best. I say 4th if Tannehill comes back playing like he did in 2016.

Exactly. Watson is a completely different QB & put up numbers in an entirely unique way. Completely different than Hoyer & Fitzpatrick by a long shot.

You really think there was any chance of that? The Bills 1) beating the Pats in Foxboro, 2) the Pats going on a 3 game losing streak and 3) a chance the Pats on top of all that lose their last game of the season to close out on an 0-4 win streak, leading to 4) the Bills winning the division? The drugs in your area must be awesome.

His numbers have regressed but he's still a workhorse. People levied complaints about Dareus's numbers too, and look what happened when he left... Doesn't always show up on the stat sheet, but he does work on the field. Without Dareus on the line, he's really the only threat at breaking through to the QB or RB so he gets focused a lot. If we get a good DT in the draft or FA and some other pieces to share the load on defense, Hughes will emerge again on paper. Until then, stop campaigning to get rid of all the talent just because their numbers aren't the same as in the past.

Not true. The Jets had Brett Favre for a year! lol

A lot more would change than what you're saying. It's not total yards and that's it. Here's what would change: 1. The Bills wouldn't have half the rushing game they had. Marino CHOSE to ignore the run game and wanted to pass nearly every play. 2. The Dolphins would have a run game. Kelly wanted to win by whatever means possible. Did he like to pass? Yes. But he knew how to manage a game & have a balanced attack. 3. Kelly called all his own plays, Marino didn't. The Bills offense wouldn't be the same if it relied on Marv & Marchibroda calling all the plays with Marino only being able to audible. 4. Shula & Kelly would've worked well together, and Shula was without a doubt a better coach than Marv. He likely could've made the swap work in his best interest far more than Marv could've. 5. Marino would've been playing in Buffalo. No QB would be throwing for 60k yards in Buffalo. So again, entire offenses would change and the approach would've been totally different. We don't suddenly win a SB because Marino is the QB, considering Thurman was the workhorse that we rode to victory more than anything. You think Marino would've used Thurman nearly as much if he was calling the shots? Also throw 6 more years worth of NFL stats onto Kelly's resume & then compare the numbers. It'd be closer to 54,000 yards at his regular rate.

Kelly was actually slightly MORE accurate than Marino. He just doesn't get the credit he deserves because of the things I mentioned above. When watching them play against each other, I never once thought "Man, if only Kelly was as good as Marino we'd be unstoppable!" They were much closer in the "great QB" discussion than people like to think.

The Bills defense usually keeps it close for a half before they get tired from being on the field for 80% of the game while the offense does nothing. So it's likely we will be close at half.

Considering we actually have a decent fullback on the roster that has played the position on field this year, it makes even less sense they picked Tolbert. DiMarco must be ticked.

If he does play until he's 45, it's the Bills worst nightmare. Hopefully he'll hang it up earlier. Thinking of him being out there for 4-5 more years gives me a headache. The other telltale indicator in baseball is people's body's exploding in size and them getting huge heads (literally). Brady is neither blowing up or getting a deformed head. He also doesn't have the same arm strength or zip on the ball as he used to, although a couple times a game he throws a dart that looks reminiscent of old. The offense is tailored towards his strengths. I remember last year they put up a chart for his passes on the season, and nearly all of them were short routes to the outside or 15 yards over the middle to Gronk. The amount of passes beyond that are extremely slim. He throws a lot slants, underneath passes, curls, and sideline routes. He carves you up in tiny but quick chunks more often than anything.