y2zipper

I think the injuries are just hitting critical mass at the skill positions. Samuel, Kincaid and Palmer are three of the best 4 pass catchers and weren't there most of the game today. Moore and Shavers don't seem to be able to play and Coleman looks like a complete bust.

I totally support going for that and playing for the win. Where you lose is that there shouldn't be a critical, game-deciding play where Stafford doesn't get to try.

On re-watch, i saw what everyone else saw with Miami's defense. They were playing 2 deep and even cover 3 a ton. Buffalo is going to content to run and take what's there against those defenses, and will continue to score at a high rate doing that. In the running back room, Cook is excellent and Johnson is very good. Davis isnt as versatile, and i think that hurts him, but there's really no meaningful sample size for Davis.

So I'm writing this from a hotel as I get ready to head back to California from my first visit to Orchard Park. I had a pretty memorable few days and my visit could not have better. So I'll share some thoughts about my visit and the game. I got in on Wednesday, air b and b was a really beautiful cozy house about 2 miles away from the stadium. After a long day of travel, wanted to go get groceries and have wings. Ended up going to Wegman's, picking up some Josh Allen Cereal, a ton of reusable Bills grocery bags, and oh yeah, a little bit of breakfast stuff for the house. Went to Duffs afterwards and had a Weck and Wings. Even managed to pick the right spice level. Thursday morning I went to the team store and bought a TON of gear. I can't really get it anywhere else, but I probably won't need too much when I come next year to go to new Highmark. Ended up getting Stevie Johnson's autograph before the game. Really nice dude and I couldn't belive he was the one signing. My mom also surprised me with a couple of mystery autographed jerseys, which a were a red James Cook and a Villanova Christian Benford jersey. Good scores there. Overall, crowd rocked and the stadium was loud as hell the entire game. I was in the Pepsi club in 212 and the seats were amazing. I managed to catch a replay of the 4th quarter on NFL Network. Watching the prime vision, the Dolphins were really rotating 2 and 3 deep looks to keep the Bills underneath. The Shakir touchdown on the orbit motion was against a 2 deep man look where they schemed blockers for him and he bear the safety. The most impressive play I saw on rewatch besides the pick was the 2nd and 16 throw to Elijah Moore. Found a hole underneath the cover 3 and picked up a first down. Still looks like teams are prioritizing stopping deep pass, and Buffalo is making them pay. Spent today at Niagra Falls. Really beautiful place, got a chance to do the maid of the mist and the cave of the winds. The hurricane deck was really really cool. I fly back in the morning, but thanks for listening to me ramble...

Hanging out in the lot while I write this. The name of the game here was stone cold efficiency. It isn't the flashiest or most entertaining thing, but it's 5 and half a rush and 7 and a half a pass over and over and over. What we saw out there on offense is the sort of thing that wins titles. Be efficient, be smart, attack and score, and go get when you need. 5/8 scores excluding the end of half, should have been 6/8 if they make the easy fg. I think the game turns into a laugher if they make that FG and go up ten. Bad game for special teams with the muffed punt, big return surrender and missed fg. Nothing terribly costly today, but that unit needs to clean it up. The defense is a work in progress. Miami was trying to go short and quick to get the ball to their athletes, and that worked well for them. Ultimately, better teams make less mistakes. Buffalo made less mistakes and won here.

Because of the run balance. The extra dimension here is they don't need Allen to do everything every time.

I ended up scooping up an Allen jersey, a Bills mafia hoodie and a beanie. Need some gear for TNF

This year's rendition of the team was closer to the coaching is better than the talent then the other way around, at least on defense. The Beane presser for me was basically defending his guys publicly as a recruiting pitch, and I'm not sure I believe his claim of extensions only. On offense, i think they should retain Cooper for another year and run that side of the ball back. Get Cooper, Samuel and Kincaid healthy and that skill position room looks and performs different. Defensively, the talent has gone up and down over the years with the notion of it being a "transition year" pointing to all the moves on defense. This year was a particularly bad year for the defense as a whole and, and this offseason is a chance to cut bait on some of those DL investments that haven't worked and look for defensive talent.

I'd handle receiver by bringing Hollins and Cooper back for next year if I could.

This year's iteration of the Bills was too bad on defense and too mediocre on the road to win this. To illustrate my point, Buffalo's defense gave up 28.5 points a game when they forced 0 or 1 turnover, which is good for 31st in the league. It wasn't a surprise that KC was going to take care of the ball. I was surprised Brady didn't have a good game. The bigger picture is that if it's a transitory sort of year and you're always in, show me the transition on defense in the offseason. There's cap savings to be had cutting non-impact defensive linemen. Cut them and fix the position group.

Yeah they have 7 at a minimum depending on the projected cap. The other one i saw is post June 1, Knox could save another 5. not sure i would cut Milano or Knox, but the rest i would definitely do.

Most of the free agent list is players I'd let go of because i don't pay for intangibles. I'd prioritize Cooper and Anderson, everyone else there depends on money. Morris, Gilliam and Johnson are depth players I want back. Miller, Epenesa and Jones as post June 1 cuts saves 30 million in cap space for next year and all those make sense in conjuction with an Allen restructure to free up money and rebuild the defensive line.

Offensively, they lost the chess match. I don't think it's a roster thing as much as it's the coordinator needing to develop more depth of looks and tendencies. I think Brady can fix this with experience. Today l, KC knew the tendencies, planned for them we'll and outmatched our offensive line. They need a little more than a qb sneak, and need some faster developing plays. On the other side, the current iteration of the Bills defense is the least athetic we've seen in the McDermott/Beane era and they don't focus enough on that. The physicality comes and goes, the safety play is bad, and Groot and Epenesa can't outrun quarterbacks. Kansas City's gameplan was largely that their receivers were more athletic than Buffalo's coverage players, and they were right.

The Bills were not the better team on this day. That is what it is. The smaller picture is situational football and KC put together an excellent plan against Joe Brady's offense. The bigger picture is that Buffalo doesn't have the defense necessary to win these games and I feel like i write that post mortem every year.

The Bills should let him go if he doesn't make a conference title game. I said this at the beginning of the year: McDermott isn't a regular season conversation. We know the culture is good. We know he can manage a locker room, but he doesn't get points for that anymore. Josh Allen is excellent now, and the goal is to win a trophy. Frankly, I would rather see him win so he can just stay forever because he seems to have gotten his offensive coaching right again, but he's the longest tenured coach in the league without a super bowl and in the postseason, he's shown to be a defensive specialist that can't stop anybody.

I'll start here: this a relatively inconsequential game, but a playoff performance like this should get McDermott fired. The defense did not play well at all today. That happens. The Bills are a difficult team to beat because Josh Allen is really really talented. Teams win and lose these competitive games on the margins: the margins in this game were the punt block and 2 instances of bad situational decision-making: taking the hold instead of making the Rams face 4th and 7. And even worse, the bad QB sneak call. McDermott needs to be better than that situationally.

They're much better against the run than stats indicate, which is a product of the Ravens obliterating it. My concern with the defense are these: 19th in pressure rate 13th in sacks 16th in Pass Rush Win Rate Middle of the road sort of pass rush, don't get pressure consistently, and as people have said, light competition. They were impressive today because Seattle basically had to go to 2 minute offense to even move the ball, but I'd like them to trade for a pass rush DE.

It's AFC Title Game or they should fire McDermott.

I think the all-22 will show lots of time to throw and guys not getting open. Outside of Shakir, there's no chemistry with anybody and nobody is getting separation. I also think they should completely scrap the extra offensive lineman formation. The worry is that there doesn't seem to be anything in the playback past the run game and short passes that we've already seen. Every defense is keying in on the middle so Kincaid doesn't beat them and nobody's taking advantage of the one on one's. There's a lot of time to figure this out, but this should be a figure it out or get fired year for the coaching staff.

I think they still have to fix defense end before they fix wide receiver.

The Raven gameplan was that their offense had more athletic dudes than our defense, and they were right. A lot of this game was that 1-3 teams don't make the postseason in the current format, and the Ravens were playing for their season. It's never as good or as bad at it looks and sometimes it's more about when you play someone than who you play, and the last 2 weeks remind us of that. I'll keep my energy here as someone who doesn't think McDermott should coach the team if he doesn't make an AFC title game this year: it's a long season, it's still early, and I still the Bills are a good team at a point where I don't want to have regular season conversation, but there are concerns... Buffalo's defense is VERY unathletic this year, and becomes even more so when Johnson and Bernard and Milano all don't play. Seven years into this thing, the team is still missing a real, disruptive pass rusher on an individual level. Those two things answer your question about Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The good news is there's going to be a lot of game reps for the offense against simulated pressures and sticky man coverage until they can beat it.

Buffalo doesn't have a lot of notable in house free agents this offseason outside of Douglas and Groots 5th year, especially now that they've paid Brown. I don't know that I'd extend Groot now, and Douglas isn't really a must-sign. Overthecap puts us at 12 or so after the draft picks, and Von Miller is the obvious cut candidate with 8m in savings there (or 17 m post June 1). Ed Oliver and Josh Allen restructures are there as well. The necessary big game hunt is still a premiere pass rusher. They don't have one.

Yeah the only negative I would say about Brady is that there were a few times where the plays came in late. The third down late In the game really stood out as one. What stood out is that the offense looked balanced and efficient, Heavy emphasis on successful plays and drives, And putting the ball in the hands of the best player in the crucial moments. In a perfect world I'd like something better than Josh rushing TDs on the goal line, but I won't argue with the point total. The two minute drive followed by the double-dip to start the second half was a game-defining sequence. Snap counts and volume will be interesting because the skill group looks very interchangeable. I wonder how much of who we see is going to depend on matchups.

Exactly. That kick return shouldn't really happen. A lot of the defense was struggling with a highly athletic QB, which continues to be a struggle. DE is the position really missing an impact player. The defense that came out in the 2nd half was totally different than the first half, and they probably put the game away if not for the teturn. I like what Buffalo put out there offensively: run the ball, spread it around, and I think we'll see more downfield in better conditions.

Allen has to get that ball out.