NewEraBills

Looking at that last play I can see why Taylor put the football where he put it. I can't tell but it looks like the Panthers are actually in quarters or quarter halves. Either the CB on Jones' side was supposed to drop to quarters and bit on the underneath route in the case of quarters or he was the cloud player in quarter halves. The safety on that side however showed quarters rather than deep half coverage. So Taylor threw it inside perhaps anticipating that CB being outside. Not for sure. But a lot to process when bullets are flying. Other than that, I hope Dennison and crew find some crafty ways to get guys the football this week because this did not work against the Panthers. At times the safeties for the Panthers showed cover 2 but then dropped down into the hook/curl area and clogged the lanes. The Panthers secondary talent is not great. I expect Denver to go Man to Man this coming week and challenge Taylor and the WR's.

To me it's not Sammy's stats that you compare. I think the question you ask is whether or not the Panthers would have played with 8/9 in the box and left their average corners on an island against Watkins? I think their defensive game plan would have been different and McCoy would have seen less 8/9 man boxes, which could have opened up some running lanes at least. For McCoy to have the minimal impact he had on this game is a disgrace. But there was nothing he could do about that.

Taylor's first 58 minutes were atrocious no doubt. The Panthers front seven is actually good too so let's not lose that in the discussion. That said, the Panthers revealed a weakness to TT and this offense. They stacked the box and took McCoy away and dared TT to make plays to the WR's. It didn't happen. Weaknesses revealed.

The way I'm starting to look at this is that it was good that TT had trust in a rookie WR to make that play in that situation. He had that much faith in Zay. I like that. The flip side is, damn, a great deal of pressure is being placed on a rookie to make clutch potential game winning plays.

Sensible take but this was the same thinking on Dak Prescott last preseason too until it wasn't.

LOL Steelers think it's a good trade too. Anytime a divisional opponent trades a player to another divisional opponent it shows what the trading team thinks about the player. In this case the Steelers are not sweating Coates being on the Browns.

Honestly, I think Jones has had a quiet but really great preseason for a rookie WR. There are some plays I'm sure he wishes he would have made but I think he's a star in the making from what I've seen.

If you look at his last few years, he has not excelled in man coverage at all. If anything he got exposed by AJ Green, Steve Smith Sr, Antonio Brown. Would love him here in a zone scheme though.

To me if there is chemistry, momentum and winning with Peterman you keep that relationship fresh until it cannot overcome adversity. 1 loss is adversity but you give the relationship time to overcome that. So if Peterman looks in command; has chemistry with the players; and momentum is being built, ride until the wheels fall off.

Man I can't believe he's starting. I will say this. He can run block. But pass block oh my lordth

How has he looked? I'm not saying this as a criticism as I understand the circumstances, but honestly, stiff and lost.

I'm not saying you don't get a QB. I just wouldn't use all of our ammo to do it. There's just way too many needs on this team after this year, QB definitely being one of them. Although, I'd want to know what shape we are in with Peterman to see if he can be the guy before committing to the statement that we'll need a franchise QB. But we might not get a chance to see.

But we don't need to be that team. If we were one player away then sure trade all the picks, but we are not one player away. By draft time we will need a QB,a slew of OL talent, CB talent again, another WR, a TE, backup HB, more pass rushers. We will need way to much to spend a bunch of picks on one guy. Hopefully Miliano will turn into something great to eventually replace Lorax and we won't need to look for talent there, but will definitely need depth.

I'm not sold on the run blocking yet either. Too many holding calls on the positive runs we've had. I look at one person, Juan Castillo. This guy man ...

It depends. If the OL does not improve then we're going to be BAD.

Taylor made a couple of good throws and did manage to move the team into FG range. I like Peterman's decision-making and settling for what the defense gives. Peterman's quick decision-making might be better for this type of offense. In either case, the OL is just terrible for whoever is behind Center. Peterman's quick-decision making can alleviate it somewhat but then teams will start sitting in cover 2 to stop the quick stuff and that's when you need the down-field passing. You see some positives but they are enshrouded with the penalties; turnstile offensive tackles. Wood got pushed back into the QB at least twice. Once by Cox and the other time by the backup DT. Juan Castillo should be on the damn hot seat. Way too many damn penalties by the OL AND it makes no sense for Tackles to be this damn bad. But as I said when he was announced things are going to get ugly. I saw this guy make Marshall Yanda, Kelechi Osemele look really bad.

I can't believe people use this language at the beginning of the season. These are moves that the GM and HC feel put them in a better position now and in the future. That's all. I think you are reading way too much into it by using the language "tank". I'm not sure about you but you have to cringe seeing the pressure easily get to Taylor on those few plays last night. The lack of quality depth is a big concern. I wouldn't be surprised if more moves are made.

Just thinking about the Chiefs, I think the Bills could definitely be sitting in a great spot with that draft pick. I mean, I'd expect the Broncos to rebound and the Raiders to win the division, which would actually leave the Chiefs on the outside of the dance. Combine that with them playing a pretty tough AFC Schedule - Pats, Texans, Steelers and then playing the NFC East I like how it's looking.

But it CAN be how you get there so long as you have a passing attack to compliment it and a stout defense.

The sad thing is even with the passing game being average, if we had any defense whatsoever, we win against the Seahawks, the Dolphins x2, Jets on 9/15. But nope we watched again and again that defense become the #1 team at giving up big plays over and over again. It was sad Actually Roman's run game concepts are by far in the last 5 years the most difficult for defenses to deal with. From the 49ers to here with us, his run game concepts have been elite.

I knew he'd sign there. We have great facilities but from what I've read and hear from players that played with Baltimore and who have moved on, their facility and culture around there is hard to beat.

Click Bait

They still have Watson, Gilmore, Boyle and Williams.

Driving up the price.

To be fair though, Our offense was a lot more dangerous than the Ravens in that we had the top rushing game in the league to keep defenses off balance and make them worry about the run and the pass. Flacco's numbers have been bad the last two years primarily because the Ravens running game was absolute TRASH. That's why I worry about Castillo a bit. Their offense was pretty one dimensional making it easier for defenses. I do think Flacco has not lived up to the contract given though. Great SB run, but pretty average after that.