SoTier

If the Bills play calling is so bad on first and second down, how did they manage to have 0 third downs on their final drive against the Ravens? It seems to me that poor play calling would manifest itself most notably in pressure-packed situations with the game on the line.

Fair enough. I think that the spending by Ryan was an outlier because the Bills almost always hired first time HCs (Gregg Williams, Mike Mularkey) or retreads (Dick Jauron, Chan Gailey). McDermott seemed to signal a return to the same old-same old mindset. I think that Pegula turning over control of the team over to Beane after firing Brandon enabled McDermott to hire better assistants in 2019 because he could not only offer them more competitive salaries but also signaled to the rest of the league that the new Bills regime put a priority on winning not just making a profit.

Obviously, you don't remember the Josh Allen as a rookie. The only thing he had going for him as a rookie was his wlilingness to do whatever it took to win games. He had a big arm, but he was inaccurate. He personified the undisciplined playing style called "hero ball" that backfires at least as often as it succeeds. Most pundits did figured he was going to be a bust. While most of Allen's success are the result of his own efforts, you cannot discount the guidance he got from McDermott's assistants, most notably, Ken Dorsey and Brian Daboll in improving his mechanics and learning to read defenses but also in mastering his tendency to become overly excited during games. If you look back on Allen's career, you realize that it took him about 2 1/2 seasons to become the Josh Allen who can march his team down the field in the closing minutes of a game to set up the winning FG with double zeroes on the clock. IMO, McDermott's early hiring miscues resulted from his inability to hire top quality offensive assistants with the money allotted to the coaching budgets in 2017 and 2018 rather than offensive cluelessness. When McDermott was hired in 2017, he came into a situation with a GM who was mainly a talent scout because team budgets, including for the coaching staff, were set by the FO bean counters under Russ Brandon, whose priority was maximizing profits not winning football games. McDermott was instrumental in the hiring of Brandon Beane after Doug Whaley was fired after the 2017 draft. Beane had somewhat more power than Whaley, but he didn't gain full GM powers, including the ability to control the budgets for coaching and scouting staffs, until after Russ Brandon was fired in mid-2018. McDermott and Beane hired Brian Daboll in 2018 and then selected Allen in the 2018 draft. After the 2018 season, all of the offensive assistants except for Daboll were fired, and more and better (ie, more expensive) offensive assistants were hired, including Ken Dorsey as QB coach. It was in 2019 under Dorsey's tutelage that Allen began to develop into a competent NFL QB.

I think that she's lost weight since she left, so you probably will be even more disappointed. I saw her on a clothing (I think) commercial and I barely recognized her. Maybe it was makeup but her face looked even more angular than when she was on GMFB. She looked almost skeletal.

What lengths? Miami didn't play well for most of the game, and Baltimore played terribly on both sides of the ball in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter, allowing Miami to come back to win the game. Tua was good enough to take advantage of poor DB play in the second half which gave him spectacular stats but he didn't play particularly well for the entire game. That doesn't prove he'll be a great QB. It does suggest that he's probably at least a decent or better QB. He needs a bigger sample size. Frank Reich played a great half of football in the Comeback Game, but he never regularly put on that kind of performance even when he was a starter. I don't know that he ever had a similar performance in his entire career.

Actually, the only thing that was impressive about Miami's victory was that they outscored Baltimore 28-3 in the fourth quarter. Scoring 28 points in a quarter is impressive for any team, and even more so for a team that played as poorly as the Fins did for the first three quarters of the game. Exactly. After they got up 2 TDs in the second half, the Ravens obviously dismissed the Fins. The defense in the second half sucked but the offense sucked, too. In the first half, the Fins couldn't stop the Ravens, especially on the ground. In the second half, even Lamar got into the spirit of the collapse and threw an errant pass that was almost intercepted for a pick six. If the Ravens had been able to make even a modest sustained drive in the fourth quarter, Miami wouldn't have time to score 21 points much less 28. They couldn't do it. I cannot see a McDermott coached team collapsing the way the Ravens did.

Fitzy was part of the broadcast team ....

I saw that play and the first thing I thought was, "that's gotta be an "Angry Run" candidate"!

Thank you for another awesome write up, Virgil. I understand exactly where you were coming from going into this game. There's been all this buzz in the media about how the Bills were the favorite to win the Super Bowl, not by a handful of "experts" but by a majority. That's scary for a long time Bills fan. People other than Bills fans calling Allen the best QB in the league? Ohhhhh, baby .... All I can say about the game is that the Bills were scary good last night, dominating the defending World Champions. They didn't live up to expectations in this game, they exceeded them. There's still 16 games left plus the playoffs, but this looks like it could be a fairy tale season. This team is that good.

FYI -- Queen Elizabeth II was, I think, the last living world leader who took part in the war effort during World War II. She worked as a mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service beginning in February, 1945 over the objections of her parents. Pope Francis was alive during World War II but was a just a child.

"Technically" I think the last time a British monarch tried to thwart the will of Parliament, he lost his head.

Court's bigotry is not the "norm" for Baby Boomers any more than Payton Gendron's racism is the "norm" for Gen Zs.

YES!!! I have been a Bills fan since 1963 -- 59 years!!! -- and this is exactly my sentiment. Make the playoffs. Win the AFC Championship. Win the Lombardi. I don't give a damn how they do it. Just do it.

We all age every day we live, and if we stick around long enough, we all end up looking pretty decrepit. The only thing that stops aging is dying.

<< shrugs>> She looks like a 66-year-old woman who's spent a lot of her life in the sun, and has chosen not to try to hide her age with heavy makeup on a casual day out. Big deal. What does Arnold look like in his 75th year? BTW, what will you look like at 66 or 75 compared to how you looked at 35?

I think that the goldfinches' food of choice here in WNY is thistle seed, but thistles don't ripen for about a month yet. There are a lot of sunflowers ripening now, so they'll eat those, even settling for oil seed in feeders. I've found that they never come to my feeders in the late summer/fall until my volunteer sunflowers around the feeder pole open and set seed. They do stop by for a day or so during spring migration. Most spend the summer in the nearby rural areas, especially where farming is still active.

The hummingbirds have apparently abandoned my yard since their favorite flowers -- bee balm, trumpet vine, early blooming hostas, crocosmia -- are past their prime, but they've been replaced by some other seasonal visitors, most notably by goldfinches. They come mostly for my sunflowers, but if the sunflowers aren't ripe (they aren't yet) they feast on my tube feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds. This morning I had a dozen crowding the two feeders, including the bright males and the olive colored females. I've also had flocks of young bluejays coming for peanuts and recently fledged song sparrows and wrens.

It looks to be no big deal. I downloaded it to my phone and set up my account. I didn't load photos of my enhanced DL and vaccination card yet.

For what you need to enter Canada from the US: Successfully entering Canada. You will need a valid passport to enter Canada by land but some others might be able to use an enhanced driver's license from Vermont, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Washington State. All these states border Canada except South Dakota (is that a typo in the web site? North Dakota neighbors Canada, South Dakota doesn't). Land Travel to Canada You will also need to put the ArriveCAN app on your phone and upload your documents more than 72 hours before your arrival date in Canada. BEST ATTRACTION IN WNY (Bills games excluded) ... and you can get the ride from both sides of the border. In the distant pass when I was a teacher, I thought that being a Maid of the Mist captain (pilot?) would be the ideal summer gig! I'd recommend either Lewiston or Niagara-on-the-Lake, depending upon which side of the border you're on. If you like typical touristy things, that's Canada. If you are more interested in getting closer to the water, then the American side might be your pick. The Cave of the Winds is awesome. You can walk on the catwalks at the brink of the American Falls there. You can take the steps down into the Devil's Hole downstream from the Falls and hike the Niagara Gorge. Somebody already measured the Power Authority. There's also Artpark in the Lewiston -- and some nice dining choices in the village. Finally, there's Ft Niagara in Youngstown.

I don't think that was the "Wyo" from BBMB. This is the "wyo" from BBMB. Her name was Robyn. Her official screen name was WyoBillzFan or WyoBilzFan, and she was a retired nurse living in Wyoming who grew up in the Southtowns. She was a mod for a while IIRC. I changed my name when BBMB closed down. Nothing suspicious about it. I just decided I liked to identify with my particular part of "God's Country". I used to troll Finheaven and GangGreen, but trolling just doesn't have the same allure any more. While I admit that I still do enjoy seeing the Fish and the Jests get spanked with regularity by most of the NFL's good teams, and especially by the Bills, I don't get much satisfaction dissing obviously inferior teams on their own turf. I guess having a real football team changes your perspective. Now, I'd rather watch the Bills likely rivals to see how/what they're doing than to insult the fans of bottom feeder teams.

Congrats on the new job and the new house. My condolences on your nearly 2600+ mile trip with 2 cats. I moved 2 cats (plus a well-traveled dog) just 300+ miles once, and I guarantee cats are NOT good travelers, especially since most only travel to and from the vet's office. My suggestion: get them microchipped and teach them to walk on leashes with harnesses so you can take them out of the travel crate(s) or so that you can secure them before you open the crate(s) to feed/water/clean. I would also plan the route to travel shorter periods than when traveling without pets. Good luck.

Jason Peters at LT and Marshawn Lynch at RB certainly would have. Both were Pro Bowlers when on the Bills, and went on to be All Pros. Peters had a HOF career. Lynch may become a HOFer, too. The problem with the teams during the drought wasn't that they lacked good/great players (except during the Russ Brandon/Dick Jauron regime). It was that the Bills refused to hire top class HCs and assistants coupled with their disinterest in re-signing the talented young players they developed. Numerous former Bills players from drought teams went on to play in the Super Bowl, and some of them were instrumental in their teams' Super Bowl wins. Virtually none of the Bills former HCs or assistants went on to coach on good teams. Off hand, I can think of only 2 -- Perry Fewell and Anthony Lynn.

This video is cute but Nick's advice is pretty poor. It's worth what we all paid for it.

I voted for the Chiefs. The demise of the Chiefs is a bit premature because they still have the best HC and the best QB not to mention they still have at least as much talent as any of their rivals. They are a talented, experienced team under one of the great coaches in the game that knows how to win important games. The rest of the AFC West teams have added shiny new pieces but it remains to be seen if the new players and new coaches can perform up to the preseason hype.

My guess is that Kyler would probably be a better QB/leader if somebody on the Cards coaching staff (like the HC) had taken him in hand when he during his first three seasons. That's when he should have been introduced to the obviously alien idea that the NFL is a different animal than college football, and talent alone isn't enough for long-term success. Instead of redesigning their entire offense to suit Murray, the Cards should have also included plays that would have forced Murray to work at mastering them. I was a teacher for nearly ten years. Many students who could ace multiple choice tests -- or even fill-in-the-blank tests -- struggled when writing essays because they had to think. There were no crutches to help them out. I don't think that Kingsbury ever demanded that Murray demonstrate that he could do the football equivalent of writing an essay exam, so Kyler now figures that he can continue to slide by without putting in the effort that other starting QBs do. Unfortunately, I don't think Kyler is going to change his attitude toward his game prep unless -- until -- something bad happens.